How to handle a client unfamiliar with GH1 avchd footage?

Blackout

Blackout

Veteran
Hi all,

I have a small 2 hour job tomorrow covering fashion week in NYC for a private client who is front row at some of the runway events.

It was not a high paying gig, I only took it because I wasn't booked for valentines day so I don't want to get into a big hassle, but it's a couple hundred in my pocket.

She just wants footage of her with all the who-ha hot celebs that she can edit into another web show she does, yet apparently she was big on wanting hd.

I explained to her as best I could the different modes to try and find her needs. She really liked the 1080p footage but this is going to be a pump and dump, meaning I am just going to dump the footage to her mac laptop, get paid, and get out, and I'm worried she'll be totally lost as to how to remove the pulldown and all that, and I don't want to have to do it unles she's willing to pay me to which it sounds like she isn't.

So.. what to do?

She says she has a macbook pro with final cut (I'm a PC guy and use neoscene to do the 1080p 24p pulldown). If I just connect the GH1 up to her mac and dump the files will she be ok if I shoot all 1080p.. or am I playing with fire and should I convince her to take 720p?

I myself hate the lack of resolution in 720p (as all my monitors and TVs are high def 1080) but so many of you gh1 users use it....

What do you think is the best option on delivering footage to a mostly novice person to avoid headaches?

Thanks!

- Blackout
 
Rabot said:
I say you give her Neoscened files. (pulldown removed .mov files)
Click to expand...

Indeed.

Conversely you could get her to download the trial version of Neoscene for the Mac and she could do the conversion herself or walk her through it while you are there and make sure it all works. You don't want to give her something that she may not be able to work with well, despite the fact that she may not been listening to your concerns that well, the client is still king and if you do a great job, who knows if that may turn into more work for you down the line, if she can't use the files as you give them to her straight off the camera you could end up with a dissatisfied client and that's never a good thing if you can reasonably help it.
 
I agree, give her the 1080p24 files after you've removed pulldown and deinterlaced. Giving her the original AVCHD files cannot possibly end well for her or your reputation.

When I tried neoscene, it did not correctly convert the first few seconds of the AVCHD clip. So you may want to start shooting earlier so there's plenty of frames to trim out if necessary.
 
This is the thing. She wants these files immediately after the shoot tomorrow. I will only have my camera, mics, and lights and I won't have any way to convert with neoscene unless I went back to my studio in Queens and did it and then dumped it to what? 2 hours of neoscened footage is pretty insane space wise.

she wants me to dump to her laptop right after the shoot....


She will be editing in final cut pro.. which I only toy with.. I'm a premiere cs4 / sony vegas dude.

Should I just shoot in 720p? Will that be safe and import into her final cut for an edit or does she still need to do conversion work?

Now I"m getting worried.
 
Hey, remember the old adage, "good, fast, cheap - pick two."

If she wants the files immediately, send her an e-mail now outlining the procedure for working with them (step 1, buy Cineform Neo Scene. Step 2, import/export all files with these settings...) Then just give her the AVCHD files and walk away.

If she balks at that, then say "okay, here's your other option: I process the files and send them to you. But you'll still need Neo Scene."

Should I just shoot in 720p?
Click to expand...
Does she want the "film look"? If there's no requirement for the film look, just shoot 720p.
 
For 720p she won't need any conversion. For 1080p, you could tell her to download the neoscene trial tonight or first thing tomorrow, before the shoot. Then you could give her the original MTS files after the shoot, and walk her through the conversion on her laptop immediately after you give her the MTS files.
 
But for 720p she could just dump that into her Final Cut pro timeline without any need for codec conversion right? i think that's they way to go as I dontt think this chic is going to get downloading extra plugins...

Final Cut pro support's the GH1's avchd 720p 60p right? If she wants film look, she just puts it in a 24p timline?

This seems the best way to go on this small paying gig to avoid hassle.. am I correct?
 
Also does native GH1 720 60p footage play on a mac directly or do you need some avchd player like VLC or something? Will quicktime handle it right?
 
This might help you out - attached to this post is the Final Cut compressors settings to remove pulldown for GH1 1080p24, you can give her this zip and tell her to unzip it and drag it onto her compressor presets window. If she knows FCP whe should know what to do.

BTW - this is the main problem with the GH1 and doing paid gigs. I argued this point in another thread with a dude who just didn't get it. IMO the GH1 is the better camera but pulldown removal makes the 7D more practical for paying jobs.

Good luck and remember - never burn a client!


edit: just noticed you are a fellow New Yorker ... werd!
 

Attachments

I can normally just connect my camera right up to final cut with a usb and dump everything like that through log and transfer. No problem and it's all 1080.
 
In your case, I would try to convince her that it's better to shoot in 720 60p because it's far easier to work with. Just tell her the motion is much better and the codec doesn't break up as much.

This is why I really don't like it when companies adds pull-down to 24p like what Sony did to the AX2000 which costs $3,500.

I also had a bad situation once because of the pull-down issue.
 
Blackout said:
Also does native GH1 720 60p footage play on a mac directly or do you need some avchd player like VLC or something? Will quicktime handle it right?
Click to expand...

GH1 720 60p will NOT import into FCP. She would need to log and transfer to ProRes.

VLC sucks for AVCHD, in my opinion.

QT will not play AVCHD files.
 
... and stress that 1080p24 is a two part ingestion process.

first you do log & transfer avchd to prores

then use compressor and the setting I attached to my earlier post (on page one) to remove pulldown
 
Oh good christ. Now I'm really nervous. I have to go shoot this thing in about an hour and from what I'm reading here both settings require weird steps that a novice is going to flip out on. I don't know what setting to use! 720p or 1080.. ack!
 
screw it I'm going 720p, just dumping it to her laptop... then I'll figure out how to explain it to her later. I told her there are some conversion steps and she seems to be fine.. and since this is a run and gun thing with models running around being silly, it will probably be best to be 720p to avoid the dreaded mud and jello.

Crossing my fingers.
 
Setting up a batch reverse telecine in either compressor or cinema tools is super quick and easy
 
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