Web Video

Over the last few weeks, Mullet and I have been spending a lot of time discussing web video, and I realized haven’t written about it here very much.

When I started buying video gear seven years ago, the 3 major players in web video were QuickTime, Real Player, and Windows Media Player. All three played a range of codecs, but there weren’t easy ways of moving between the three formats. Being a Mac user, I used QuickTime by default, but I did have the other two players on my computer.

The players were all clunky and finicky. It wasn’t uncommon to see reduced frame-rates, lowered resolution, and even minimal action to make things look better.

Back then, I didn’t have a website or even an internet connection. The main means of delivering video was by running the signal from my capture card to my VCR. VHS was king—everyone, amateur or professional, used tape.

When I upgraded and got my G4, I suddenly had a DVD-R burner, and that led me to supplement Final Cut Pro with DVD Studio Pro (a couple months later, the Final Cut Studio bundle came out at a lower price than what it cost me to buy FCP and DVD-SP separately—thanks, Apple!).

Thus equipped, in 2003 I made history at the late, great Second Ciné video show by being the first to submit a video on DVD. But it was still a VHS world, and I backed up that DVD by exporting my clips to my VCR.

When I traded in my G4 for my G5, the new PCI expansion slot arrangement rendered my capture card useless, so I dropped the VHS option completely. By then, DVD burners were cheap enough that the indie world had shifted away from VHS.

DVD seemed to be the new king, unbeatable with its portability and flexibility. You could play it on your TV with a regular DVD player, or you could put it in a DVD-equipped computer. DVD sprouted in rental stores and retailers, offering special features and all the things impossible on VHS (subtitles and audio tracks in different languages, commentary tracks, alternate endings, etc, etc). The disks didn’t wear out like all tape-based technologies do—with care and handling, you would see the same image quality on the 1000th play as you would on the first play.

For an indie producer, you could easily crank out a DVD (maybe not the DVD-9 dual-layer format, but something that worked in most players and nearly all computers) that looked and played the same as the big boys’ disks.

I bought the 3rd edition of Chris Gore’s excellent film festival book in 2005, and we started to base our video efforts on the advice given. Film festivals were still king, and most of the ones that encouraged indie contributions readily accepted all the digital formats.

I bought Gore’s follow-up book on producing indie DVDs and used it as the main guide for our first appearance at the San Diego Comicon in 2006.

But it was at San Diego that I saw the future, and its name was not DVD but web video.

The big 3 players were still in the game, but Apple had introduced a new wrinkle—the iPod and iTunes. With incredible ease, you could download podcasts and listen to them on your Mac or iPod. The arrival of video-capable iPods sparked video podcasting. Flash video had arrived in force, with the help of some serious web video sites like YouTube. The big three media players changed membership, with Real player becoming a distant fourth. In fact, by 2006, I didn’t even have Real installed on my G5 as nobody was putting out video that QuickTime or WMP wouldn’t handle.

Gore and Mark Bell from Film Threat hosted a couple of panels at the con’s film festival (where my costumed appearance got some nasty looks from the black-clad filmistas—clearly a line is drawn in some people’s minds between the film fest and the convention itself!), and I attended a couple of them.

In one panel, Gore and Bell introduced the two guys behind Ask a Ninja as well as a couple of people from Hope is Emo, two of the most popular podcasts. I was still sans-internet at home, so I wasn’t aware of how big podcasting and web video had become. More people were watching these online videos than hundreds of film festivals put together.

But the indie aspect of these productions—Ninja was shot in the star’s apartment (painted up for green-screen production)—made it clear that you didn’t need a lot of money, just enough technology and, of course, a good idea well executed, to build an audience.

DVD suddenly looked less essential, just like VHS. Apple introduced its TV interface, and with flatscreen TVs and computer monitors becoming essentially the same, the average consumer realized they didn’t need a disk or tape to watch movies, TV shows, and indie video. The messy blue laser fight didn’t help, with the traditional market split into 3 different camps—DVD loyalists, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD. Even with HD-DVD losing the fight, most people I know aren’t rushing into the blue laser world. After seeing CDs largely replaced by web music, most people are expecting the same of video.

So… in the 9 years I have been dabbling with indie video, I have seen it change completely. A physical product is no longer the primary goal since you can find a larger audience thorugh the magic of internet pixels.

Mullet and I are prepping our old feature, Babysitters, for web in small chapters. Our long-in-development DVD project is now a web video project with a DVD version also available. We’ll follow the footsteps of successful web video people like Rob Schrab or the guys behind Chad Vader and put the videos online and make a full-quality DVD available for sale.

More on web video to come. After all, it’s Tuesday. There’ll probably be some new development on Wednesday….

It's a RAID

I’m still playing with the software tests, so here’s an exciting article on hard drives and hard drive maintenance. I spend a few hours each month taking care of the drives, and I believe it’s helped me avoid problems ranging from dropped frames to corrupted files.

Last week, my G5 was equipped with 575 gigabytes of hard drive turf. For an average computer owner, this is a lot of space, but video editing really eats up the bytes. I needed to add more hard drives, so I opted to buy a RAID, which adds an additional 1000 GB (or 1 TB, but I wanted to spell out the 3 zeroes—cheap geek thrills!) of capacity to my Mac.

I have a 1.6 MHz G5, which came with an 80 GB boot drive. Back in 2003, that was a pretty generous boot drive. I took the two 120-GB ATA drives that had been mounted internally in my G4 and put them into Firewire enclosures for 320 GB in total. OS X is not a space hog like that Windoze crap, so less than 4 GB of real estate is occupied by the operating system, leaving well over 300 GB in free space for apps, docs, and media files.

I used my G5 for everything: preproduction, post-production, grocery lists, money management stuff, and games. I kept the media files (clips, audio, graphics, rendering files, etc.) on the external drives, and I put everything else on the boot drive.

But my iTunes library kept growing as I ripped more of my CDs, so I added a 250 GB SATA drive in the empty bay and moved all the docs off the boot drive. I partitioned the SATA drive into an 80-GB partition (for backing up the boot drive) and the rest for docs.

I added Final Cut Studio 1 to the mix, plus a bunch of other apps, and I also added Internet access. The available space on all the drives began to shrink.

I added a couple of apps to help keep things clean by removing temp files, etc., which can clog up space. The first was a freeware program called MacJanitor which runs built-in Unix maintenance programs that normally run overnight, but with people like me who don’t keep computers on constantly, this program helps. I eventually replaced MacJanitor with a bigger app, Onyx, which does everything MacJanitor does plus a whole pile of things, especially cleaning up temp files. For safety, I bought Micromat’s excellent TechTool Pro, which has a suite of tests, diagnostics, and optimization tools.

I used a shareware program, Carbon Copy Cloner, to back up the boot drive about once a month. Since I set up a subscription with Mac.com, I use the Backup app included with the deal, I haven’t used the Cloner, but it’s a great tool.

The DV Shop recommended against defragmenting media drives—they recommended reformatting once the project is done. But with our projects still ongoing, I’ve had some of the clips on the external drives for a few years, so I periodically use Techtool to defrag the hard drives.

Every time I ran software updates, I’d lose more space. Eventually, I had just 9 GB free on the boot drive, which means I was using 89% of the drive. I’ve read in a few places that you shouldn’t exceed 80%, so it was time to change the boot drive. I hadn’t experienced any slowdowns with the nearly full drive, but I didn’t want to have anything go wrong during post-production on the DVD.

So… my first thought was to swap the 2 internal drives, using the larger partition (170 GB) on the 250 GB drive as the new boot drive and the original boot drive for media.

My external drives were filling up, too, with the DVD projects taking up space as we shot them, and I was keeping the olde stuff on there in case we needed it for the DVD as well. Out of the 250 GB or so of media drive real estate, I had about 60 GB left open. This is probably enough space to get through the DVD production next summer.

Then I saw an ad for Carbon Computing, who carries Elephant Storage disk drives and— boom!—another option appeared. With Serial ATA drives coming down in price, the Elephant 1 terabyte RAID (two 500 GB SATA drives in a case) was just $400 CAD. I couldn’t find 1 TB RAIDS as cheap anywhere else.

Weighing the two options, I decided to put the money down and expand the media drives and take care of my current and future hard drive problems with one device. I bought the RAID.

The RAID is not large at all—it’s not much bigger than the 2 cases the ATA drives are mounted in. It has a Firewire 800, a Firewire 400, and a USB 2, and it comes pre-formatted for OS X. The default configuration is as a striped RAID, the drives alternating, but can be reformatted to mirrored status. I opted to keep the striped RAID going—this was going to be my new media capture drive.

There is no instruction manual in the box, or on the drive itself, but there is a downloadable PDF at the Elephant website. The Elephant website is somewhat vague about the company’s particulars, so given that Carbon is the only retailer listed I think it’s probably part of the Carbon Computing company. I have no complaints about the product so far—everything’s assembled, you get USB, Firewire400 and Firewire800 cables, and the powerpack. The case is similar to the Mac tower’s metal case, and the front grill glows blue when it’s on.

Setup was painless. I plugged in the power supply, connected it to my Firewire800 port, and fired up the RAID. It appeared on the desktop without any problem. I turned on the other 2 external drives (one in a Firewire 400 case and the other connected via Firewire 800) and copied both to the RAID as the first test. I didn’t time them, but the Firewire 800 drive transferred files faster than the Firewire 400 did.

Next, I copied the contents of the two internal SATA drives to the RAID. I used Carbon Cloner to copy the boot drive, but I just dragged the other drive to the RAID and it copied. Overall, the internal drives copied much faster than I expected, but as expected the boot drive cloning was the slowest part of the process.

After I’d copied all the drives, I tested random files on the RAID to make sure everything opened and worked normally. I also ran Tech Tool to make sure the RAID was okay, and all the tests came back good.

One quirk, probably a bug from the depths of Firewire 800, is that I can only disconnect the drive to shut it down if the other Firewire 800 drive is also on and connected. Not a major problem, but I have to wait until the G5 shuts down before I can power off the RAID.

Next came the scary part. I deleted the contents of the partitioned drive and reformatted it as a single 250 GB drive. I considered using the install DVDs to create the new OS, but I opted to use Carbon Copy to duplicate the boot drive to preserve my settings. The boot disk now fills 71 gigabytes, so there’s plenty of space for more stuff!

I then went into the OS X Control Panel and picked the 250 GB drive as the startup disk. Then I rebooted while holding my breath, and when it restarted, everything worked fine. I spent quite a while making sure that all the apps worked, the external drives connected properly, and that all the docs opened properly. I ran Tech Tool’s tests a few times to make sure all the drives were working.

Once satisfied, I reformatted the 80 GB boot drive and copied the documents from the RAID over to it.

Next, I reformatted the two external drives to free them up. This wasn’t as stressful as all the contents worked fine on the RAID. I then set up Backup to backup the boot drive to the Firewire 400 drive.

The Firewire 800 drive is now my floater—extra space for post-production on my G5 and to move big files between my G5 and my iBook. I’ll probably backup the iPhoto and iTunes libraries as well.

The speed of the RAID is noticeable. I don’t have the software to time things out (nor do I really care to do so), but Norton whipped through an antivirus scan that would have taken hours, not minutes, on the external drives. And file transfers are faster. Clearly, the SATA interface and the striped drives are much quicker than a single ATA drive with an Oxford 911 enclosure.

Well, that’s all the excitement for this week. I hope to get one of my evaluations posted next week—honest!

To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade—that is the question.

…Whether 'tis nobler to stand pat with what I’ve got….

As next spring’s post on our DVD draws nearer, I’ve been contemplating the post-production aspect of it: do I have the tools to do a really good job by current standards?

I could produce a functioning DVD with basic tools, even freeware apps, but the goal with this project is to produce a demo reel to put into the hands of the mighty. If we sell a few of them, all the better, but I wouldn’t want to sell anyone something that wasn’t the result of Mullet and I playing at the top of our game. Mullet takes the same approach with the comic, as does our artist, Kameron Gates.

At the moment, I have a G5 (single 1.6 GHz processor, the original low-end G5 model) and Final Cut Studio 1 as my software. I have a pair of 250 GB external hard drives for video capture, and I listen to the whole thing via a 10-watt Radio Shack amp and $30 Radio Shack speakers. This is probably as no-budget as you can get! I won’t be replacing the G5, so my focus will be on the software.

I’m running OS X Tiger, and I haven’t decided whether I’ll upgrade to the new Mac OS, Leopard, yet. I usually wait some time before upgrading, but I’m happy with how fast and stable Tiger is—Leopard’s new features haven’t prompted me to run down to Riverdale Mac just yet. I’ll revisit the OS after the DVD’s done, but I don’t anticipate, at this point, upgrading based on some of the negative experiences people have had. If the consensus on the various forums that focus on all things Final Cut and Mac come back with reports of speed increases or can’t-work-without features, I might take the plunge.

I am, however, evaluating 4 options for upgrading my current apps:

• Stand pat with what I’ve got ($0)
• Upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2 ($545 CAD),
• Buy Magic Bullet Suite ($799 USD) or just one of the Magic Bullet apps
• Buy Adobe AfterEffects ($1149 CAD for CS3, $1969 CAD for the Production Premium version, which adds PhotoShop, Illustrator, etc.).
  
  Taking Magic Bullet for a ride is step one in my evaluation. Magic Bullet was created by Stu Maschwitz of The Orphanage, and it’s been a well-known plug-in and stand-alone app for years. Last spring, I bought Stu’s book, The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap, which I’d recommend to anyone making no-budget movies (even if you’re not shooting action flicks, there’s plenty of good information there), and found his blog and forum there quite interesting.
  
  Magic Bullet Suite is priced at $799 USD, and you get Magic Bullet Looks (applies preset or user-created “looks” to video), Magic Bullet Frames (converts 60i to 24p, also deinterlaces video), Magic Bullet Colorista (3-way colour correction), and Instant HD (converts SD video to HD video). These programs are either stand-alone or plug-ins for FCP and Motion, but the demos seem to be plug-ins only. I’ve read a few reviews for Colorista, plus various forum comments, and all have been positive. I can’t recall any negative comments, actually. I downloaded the demos for Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista, and in a future post I’ll let you know how they’ve worked out.
  
  Upgrading to Final Cut Studio 2 would give me the latest versions of that bundle: Final Cut Pro 6, DVD Studio Pro 4, Motion 3, Compressor 3, and Soundtrack Pro 2, plus the new app, Color. At the moment, this would be a $545 CAD investment. The learning curve is the lowest here given that I’m familiar with the previous versions of all these apps, with the exception of Color. There are no demos available for FCS 2, so I’ll have to rely upon reviews and the Apple website for evaluation. The reviews of FCS 2 have been positive overall, although some people don’t like Color.
  
  Whether I upgrade or not, I’ll be using FCP, Soundtrack Pro, Compressor, and DVD SP for the DVD. These are good, stable programs that meet most of my needs for no-budget post-production. The only needs I find wanting are in the areas of mastering and onlining.
  
  Stu’s book goes into onlining quite a bit—getting the video from your non-linear editing program to the final version enjoyed by millions. Colour correction and mastering are the two main areas. In the book, Stu has reservations about using FCP for onlining and recommends using AfterEffects since FCP renders at 8-bits and AE can render 8-, 16-, or 24-bits. The higher the bit rate, the better the filters and transitions look. With Stu’s workflow, you don’t do any rendering at all in FCP—you export everything sans transitions and filters, and apply them inside AfterEffects instead.
  
  In FCP 5, you’re limited to 8-bit rendering, but Apple promises that FCP 6 does 16- and 24-bit rendering, as does Color, but I haven’t seen anyone come out with a clear statement on whether it works as well as AE does, even on Stu’s blog and forum.
  
  I’ll download the AfterEffects CS3 demo and try it out once I’ve played with Magic Bullet. I had AfterEffects 3 way back when OS9 ruled the Mac world, so I’m somewhat familiar with the program, but I suspect that CS3 is probably a lot more sophisticated than 3 is!
  
  To evaluate the 2 demos, I’ll take the same sequence from a Final Cut project, export it as a DV QuickTime file, and import it into each program (bearing in mind that the Magic Bullet demo is plug-in only, I’ll presumably be using FCP’s rendering engine when I test Magic Bullet, so I’m testing the interface more than I am the output).
  
  I’ll come up with 3 or 4 different things I want to test, and use Magic Bullet, AfterEffects, and Final Cut Studio 1 to independently come up with 3 different versions. Once I’ve done all 9 or 12 tests, I’ll export them as QuickTime files and bring them into Compressor to convert into H.264 and DVD files. I’ll run the DVD files through DVD Studio Pro to create DVDs to look at on various TVs, and I’ll test the H.264 files on a mix of computers, mostly Windows.
  
  I’ll post results for these evaluations in the coming weeks.