First post, first video and question...
 

Hey everybody,

I recently shot and edited my first music video, I had the help of an experienced director on a lot of the shoot, but I am a newbie as far as this stuff goes. It's almost done, I've done a bit of color correction and some minor shot changes in FCP since I uploaded it to Vimeo, but I wanted to post it here and see if I could get some input or suggestions for the next one...

One question I have that I would really appreciate your expertise on is in the output. The video was shot with a 5D Mark II, with a couple of shots done by a Sony 1080i camera, but I rendered those shots up and edited the whole thing in a prores hq22 1080p 30 timeline.

I want to output to iTunes music store and need to render it out to a DV25 file. I used the NTSC DV setting and set resolution at anamorphic at 854x480 to keep my aspect ratio correct, but the quality (aliasing) seems way worse than the videos I see on the store now. Is there anyway to do this and keep the quality up? Any recommendations from someone that's been down this path already?

Here is a vimeo link of the higher quality render if anyone's interested in checking it out.
This is a password protected video on Vimeo
password protected... password is:
forreview


Thanks!!

Ed

Found an answer...
 

Well, to answer myself, since no one here had anything to say, in case anyone else has the same issue in putting their music video onto the iTunes Music Store. FCP (QT Pro, compressor, and even visual hub (I was desperate)) will not render out decent quality in any setting from the 5d mark II that I found. The output was terrible... I noticed that I had Adobe Media Encoder and it did a great job!

Have you tried exporting via Quicktime Pro using the Iphone presets? I've used it on multiple videos and the quality has been really good, especially compared to stuff I download of my Iphone. You might want to use a Iphone or Itouch for playback reference.

BTW I checked out the video, some of it looks really good, not really found of the song itself though. Some of the shots looks really great and top notch, how ever there were a few that I really didn't like at all and I feel that they really took away from the over all video and really should have been left out. Also most of the editing was ok, but there were a few points where it just didn't work and again took away from the overall look of the video.

Overall though it was an impressive first attempt. So do you live in Vegas? I am there too we should hook up and do stuff if you are interested. I am looking to do some project while I am between shows.

Yes! I did use the iphone preset, and carry it with me to show people.

I am glad that you felt it was overall ok! I never thought of editing a video until this project, so I only have a few weeks of learning a skill that I know will take years to perfect...

The video shoot left us with less footage than we needed to fill the song timeline, Dance troupe was not in sync and was supposed to be a larger part of the song. So we had no choice but to use some shots we would have preferred to leave on the cutting floor.

Can I ask which shots in general didn't work for you?

I shot the vegas scene when I was out there in december, but I live in florida... I will message you next time we head out there!