Next Episode Jody Eldred
 

We are so pleased at the responses we are getting on the website from almost 4,000 viewers from as far away as Japan and alot from the UK. More than 4,000 downloads of the episodes thusfar from 2nd-Unit.tv. That's alot!

This week we come to you from the California Yacht Club (www.calyachtclub.com) as Jody Eldred does the first of a 2-part series that you really shouldn't miss on lighting as only Jody can do it. JAG, NCIS, Barbara Walters, they're all there as Jody recalls some of the best times shooting memorable series and illustrating his techniques, all in the beautiful setting of Marina del Rey. Thanks to Eric, the GM at the club for rolling the red carpet out to us and putting up with a complete location shoot on a Saturday, one of the busiest days of the week for them.

The episode goes live at 8:00pm thanks again to Paolo who is holding everyting down while I'm pulling the business end together. If you get a chance, please drop a line to Paolo and thank him for his outstanding work.

So that's it 8:00 tonight www.2nd-Unit.tv. We hope you enjoy it from the Cal Yacht Club.

Jonathan:

Another great episode! In fact, they're getting better each time. Jody passed on some great tips and techniques that helped me figure out some problem lighting situations.

By the way, my Z1U is smiling right now! If you ever need some footage of something out in the midwest, let me know and my Z1U and I will go to work.

Paolo:

Keep up the good work. I, and I'm sure others, appreciate your dedication and hard work!

Thank you Jeff.
I'm working on solvibg some technical issues on the export of the videos. Episode 5 will have much better video quality and I'll re-export all the episodes with th enew settings.
Glad you liked this week's video.

Just watched the Jody Eldred episode. It's good to have a voice with this much clout singing the praises of camera like the Z1 and my beloved F350.

I became an NCIS fan this year and watched it regularly. Sad to say, I got pulled in during a channel surf when I saw Pablo de Cote on screen and said to myself, "Who is this lovely young lady?"

But now me and my other half watch it for all the show's elements, especially the tension between the characters. Good writing and acting.

Please pass along my thanks to Jody for a very informative discussion if and when you get the opportunity.

-gb-

It's definitely a "when". Jody has become a good friend of ours and, more importantly, of the show; a better person you'll never meet...except for George that is ;-) Also, we're looking at a relationship with Sony because their cameras, and their people, are that good.

Glad you enjoyed the show. Part 2 is in editing right now so we're ahead of the game and not always playing catch-up.

Thanks, Jeff. We just completed a show on make-up and if the information isn't important enough, the two girls, the model and the artist, are more than enough to tune in for. Makeup is an important part of producton that's often overlooked and I wanted to address the artistry that goes into making actors look, well, normal. Next up is David Tatersol and his team from Con Air and Star Wars. We're shoting that show this coming Wednesday at 2. We're looking for assistants so anyone interested in working the shoot, please PM me and we'll work you in. I mean, hiow often do you get to work with a legend so let me know who wants to shoot this and I'll make arrangements. Again, it's set for Wednesday at 2 in Hollywood.

Loved the Jody Eldred show!!! Paolo, great job on the editing! That scrim suggestion was priceless. Also, good comments about the 350 and the Z1.

Looks like you guys are now using a windows media streaming server :-) Good choice - we support that here at work for corporate streaming. The geek in me noticed that first!

I'm going to have to wait for the quicktime version...WMV on the mac is lacking...I have it...it just sux.

Thank you George, much appreciated. About the streaming server, we are working on supporting both Windows and QuickTime, it's just that we had some technical issues in exporting the footage and we run out of time. I'm actually a Mac person so I rather have Quicktime H.264 than Wmv. Starting with next episode we will be able to simultaneously release both formats. As soon as I can I'll go back and re-compress Episode 1,3 and 4. I have both issues on the format (only wmv) and the quality of the image but time constraints where tight and we wanted to release as promised.

Thanks again!

I feel your pain, see my comment above. We will get to it asap :)

I have it also, but it didn't prevent me from watching the episode. I was looking for the informational value more than aesthetic value (with all due respect to Paolo). There's no need to 'wait' for the Quicktime version.

-gb-

Not having issues with the blacks or compression artifacts or anything...The stream (on my network) gets an initial keyframe and I get to stare at just the interviewer while listening to the audio. If I pause, I can get a different keyframe when I start back up. If you would use an HTTP link rather than an MMS link, I could download it and the latency wouldn't be an issue (which is what I'm assuming the issue is).

I'll second Cole's comments. A direct HTTP link would be my preference.

Right this second I can't even access the MMS stream. Windows Media Player just reports "cannot perform the requested action at this time". I'm presuming your server is down as es-win.com is loosing packets when pinged.

OK, now I'm worried. I'm accessing the stream on three different computers from my home right now; the family room, the office and my laptop. Actually 4, my daughter's is streaming it as well, all simultaneously so we're having trouble recreating the problem but that doesn't help you all. We'll dig into it tomorrow unless Paolo's on it right now. I hesitate to call him now at 10:30 Sunday evening but then again Jody's segment is so good and so important............

I tried again just now, it still doesn't work - same error. Is anyone in Australia having similar problems?

The streaming worked fine for me.

My question would be for the users trying to view the stream. Are you behind a firewall? Is your codecs up to date on the player?

Firewall is most likely the issue as it might bar you from viewing content that is blocked.

As for codecs, if it's a windows media, and you have your settings for automatic update, it should be up to date and you should have the latest codecs unless it's some codec not used by Windows Media, in which case you'll have to search for the right codec and download it before you can view the stream.

I had a slightly different issue watching Episode 4 via WMV. The stream started fine then the video would freeze frame but the audio kept playing just fine.

This continued throughout the 30 minute program. The video would freeze frame for anywhere form 30 seconds to several minutes, frozen on one particular frame that whole time. Then it would catch up to the audio for a short while and freeze frame again.

However, the audio track played perfectly. It was what Jody said that I was most interested in anyway. I plan on watching the QT version when it comes out so I can see as well as hear the entire episode.

Jonathan, have you tried viewing 2nd Unit TV on your new MacBook Pro? If so, did you have any issues viewing? This would be an important piece of information to have in order to figure out if something else may be going on.

I believe, however, that the issue is most likely do to Mac users not having any options at this time to upgrade to a newer WMV codec. This is why offering a download version of each episode in WMV format and not just the WMV stream is important. See below for more information.

A couple of points about WMV on the Mac:

1.) Microsoft has not offered an update to WMV Player on the Mac since November of 2003. Go check out the WMV update site and you'll see this date.

You also will notice this on the copyright page when you check the version number of WMV for OSX. While running WMV, go to Windows Media Player>About Windows Media Player. The most up-to-date version is Version 9.0.0 (3307). The copyright date range is 1997-2003.

2.) WMV for OSX often installs with its network connection speed defaulted to 56 Kbps Modem. Assuming you're not using a modem anymore, you will need to change this to a higher connect speed. To do so, go to Windows Media Player>Preferences then select the "Connection" tab. Once there, select your connection parameters and then hit "OK". You will need to restart the WMV stream to take advantage of the higher connection speed.

Setting the connection speed to a higher rate may not affect how the WMV streaming server communicates with your version on WMV Player. It depends on how the streaming server in configured. However, it looks like 2nd Unit TV is sending the WMV stream at 304 Kbps, sufficiently fast enough for decent quality viewing on a DSL or higher connection.

Hey Jeff.

Jonathan and I had a few discussions about the delivery of "2nd Unit". If you see my CruiserCast podcast you see that I only offer QT H.264, so you know my point of view :)
As you mentioned, MS does not support WMV (Flip4Mac is not an "official" implementation) on anything but Windows. On the other hand Apple develops QuickTime on both Mac and Windows and QuickTime is a de-facto standard in this industry. Artbeats, for example, delivers the stock footage in QT etc.etc. If you work in video/film you have QT on your machine. If I had only one choice I would use QT, especially because iTunes is now installed on so many machines because of the iPod.
The reality is that the schedule for the release of "2nd Unit" and the platform selected at the beginning, Premiere on a PC, pretty much forced the use of WMV. 30-40 minutes (episode 5 is 42 minute long) of HDV cause Premiere to crash or slow down to a crawl when it comes to exporting. In one case I tried an export in QuickTime Targa codec (to try to import in Apple's Compressor) and it took 16 hours only to crash at the very end and leave me without file.
Pressed for time I had to launch an export using WMV at 15fps. That was performed in about 2 hours without crash and that's the result that we see now. We are working with Adobe's tech support to solve this issue. As soon as we find a way of getting the timeline exported in full resolution (720p) I'll import the footage for all the episodes into Compressor and generate beautiful QT H.264 versions of the episodes. Episode 2 is already available in H.264 with less compression artifacts. See the "Archives" section of the website.
Thanks to all for your patience while we iron the wrinkles oout.

Specifically the problem I'm having. I've tried it on 3 different computers on 2 different networks...one of which is a full open for internally established traffic DS3...I don't have bandwidth concerns on that one. The other is a 5Mb/s cable.

On the Mac, we can't upgrade WMP anymore as they've stopped making in for the Mac. I've got flip4mac installed (the recommend replacement for WMP per microsoft)...but it doesn't seem to handle streaming. The MMS won't allow me to save it to my desktop, so I can't watch until the QT version comes out.

I've had good success with cross platform compatability using MPEG4 compression within quicktime. Feel free to contact me if you'd like specifics.

Paolo-

Even with this technical issue 2nd Unit TV is still off to a great start! The issues your are experiencing is exactly why Internet TV, a.k.a video podcasting, has not yet realized its full potential.

It takes a lot of hard work and messing around with encoding schemas to get everything just right. When you do, something else comes along to foul it up. Whereas there are many video podcastsers out there, most of the stuff is poor quality from a technical standpoint.

But 2nd Unit TV is on the cutting edge--not only in terms of your program content but also the fact that you are broadcasting exclusively via the Internet.

As you and Cole have pointed out, Flip4Mac just does not cut it on the Mac. But, any self-respecting Internet TV channel has to offer a QT and WMV version. There are still enough viewers out there who do not yet have QT installed on their Windows-based machines. So, it is imperative for the foreseeable future that you offer two encodes--QT and WMV.

Now, as a small operation it is very time consuming, not to mention often frustrating, to encode a QT and WMV version. Your post details the hoops you must go through to accomplish that task.

Have you considered exporting your finished PPro edit into FCP and then running your encodes at the same time but on two different machines? This is an extra step but would allow for both encodes to be posted to the website at the same time. If you need another FCP workstation to help out, give me a call.


P.S. CriuserCast is a favorite of mine! When's your next cast coming out?

Hey Jeff.

Thank you! This is what keeps us going, feedback like yours.

I have a different take on this. "2nd Unit" is not targeted to eveybody. Our audience is the future film-maker/cinematographer/film-video artist. In this crowd QuickTime is a given. And because the Mac is so popular with the creative professionals, I might say that QuickTime, and not WMV, is most popular in our industry.
Having said so, I bought the Flip4Mac professional version that includes the encoder for WVM on the Mac. A first test yelded excellent results, higher quality that I could get from Premiere.
At this point we have 2 Macs in the house and I just configured Compressor for distributed compression. This means that we will be able to run a compression batch with load distributed among both machines. I love this!
And this also means that we will be in good shape to provide QuickTime and WMV files simultaneously. BTW, I already have an iPod-compatible of Episode 5. We tried it on Jonathan's video iPod and works just fine.
As soon as we get the first episodes converted to QT I will submit "2nd Unit" to the iTunes Store.

BTW, thank you very much for your offer and for your appreciation for CruiserCast. Currently I'm 24/7 involved with 2nd Unit. As soon as I get a break I'll work on the next episode of CruiserCast.

Take care.

I guess I should have thought of that point! That makes a lot of sense.

Great! I did not realize you had 2 Macs. Your distributed Compressor network is definitely the way to go. I have 4 macs and I distribute all possible processing activities with any application that supports it. It is indeed a fantastic tool!

I use my "old" Powerbook G4 all the time and last week Jonathan got a new MacBookPro 17". An amazing machine!

I'd also like to point out that's not exactly hard to get Quicktime!

If you're going to be downloading 2nd Unit episodes you either have a fast internet connection, or are used to waiting. Downloading QT won't take you long! It's also a very well designed piece of software, so if you want to remove it, the uninstall program actually removes it. So it's safe. No ads, no spyware, plenty of support.

I see no problem "forcing" users to download QT in order to watch the episode. It's just like anyone with a Flash-only website, if you want to view it, get the plug-in. It's basically a "part of life" when using the Internet (ie. you download a document, but its a RAR file, so you need to download some software to open it).

However, with all that said, I do understand why you want to support Windows Media Player users as well. But personally, on my Windows machines, I'd much prefer to run Quicktime over WMP. Even though its designed by Apple on a Microsoft system, its a lot faster and friendlier.

Also, have you concidered Flash? I've seen a lot of websites start to use it. I've never had any problems from a users point of view.

Finally, just a thought, but when you're doing compression tests, etc. do you export the WHOLE episode or just a section of it? For doing tests, you're better off to export a minute or two to check the quality before you spend hours rendering the whole thing only to find it looks very poor quality.

My 2c.

Hi Chris.

Yes, we considered Flash and it is attractive but... we want to delver for the iPod and that basically means creaing a Qt file. At that point Flash becomes a 3rd format that I rather not spport at this point.
Regarding the tests, yes, I tried on a short clip and then on the whole timeline. Short clip good, timeline => crash :(

link for those who haven't seen it:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime

any updates on a quicktime version of part 1 of the Mr. Eldred piece? I don't want to watch part 2 before seeing part 1...unless I have no choice.

You folks certainly have the QT delivery nailed. It looked beautiful, and played smoothly, without pauses. Only beef I had with it, was the way it loaded at the extreme left of my screen. It seems as though some of it was cut off, including the volume control. When will part one be available in QT?

Paolo:

Keith is correct. Looking at the HTML, it appears that you have not added the requisite 16 pixels of extra height to account for the QT controller.

Currently, you have width="600" and height="400". I assume you encoded the QT file with these dimensions. However, for properly displaying the controller, the QT viewing frame requires that you add an extra 16 pixels to the height. Therefore, your values should be width="600" and height="416".

Also, if you want to center the viewer, you can place your HTML for the QT codebase in a table cell with align equal to center.

I have not yet watched episode 5. I'm fully loading it first then I will watch.

I thought Eps 5 (part 2) with Jody totally rocked! He's a very interesting guy and well spoken. The cut aways to Jamie were well timed and the "creative choice" section where you wiped to the different "Film Looks" were slick and impressive. Hell of a job guys! You've raised the bar again. Keep it up. My only complaint is that Jamie may want to rethink his wardrobe..LOL. How long did the doctor tell him he had to wear that shirt?

Thanks.

I'm working on it. We need to export it from Premiere and that is not easy because there is a bug in Premiere that crashes the program every time we try .I found a solution but it take about 35 hours to do it :(
As soon as it's export it I will generate the QT file for all episodes and new, cleaner WMV file as well.

Hey Jeff.
Actually the files are at 1/2 the 720p resolution so it's 640x360. So the 400 pixels include a generous area for the controller, actually too much but I didn't have the time to look up exactly how much it was so I just padded it a bit. The 600 width was a typo, thank you for catching it, it's now fixed.
And yes, I made a centered table, good suggestion.

Thank you Scott, glad you liked it.

I've been on him about that but jamies...well...unique! As are all the folks in the industry. Jaime's argument is that this is the way gaffers and grips, the real backbone of the industry dress on shoots. Perhaps with some m ore of your comments...all of you...we can change his wardrobe. Actually Jaime just sort of fell into the gig. He's actually being replaced with Isabells for Season 2. How's that striuke ya?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Paolo and I are discussing this issue though. I have a meeting with Adobe's Director of Marketing tomorrow to see how we want to approach this issue. We're moving to Macromedia Dreamweaver for content creation (yes, we're employing most if not all of your recommendations on the site's look and feel as I said we would!) and we'll see what happens with Flash. Personally I really like it.

Paolo, will you please respond to this issue?

I learned something new about filters, does Tiffen make a mayonnaise filter? I prefer Vaseline or just plain old finger prints smudged on my lens. Sometimes, I just keep the lens cap on. Shooting in Indiana, it helps make everything look better!

But seriously, Episode 5 was very good. Jody seems like a great guy--extremely knowledgeable, easy going, and friendly. So far, this is my favorite episode. I learned some important tips. The outdoor segment was especially informative to me. It helped refresh in my mind techniques that I know but sometimes just get sloppy about doing (or rather, not doing).

I have one comment about the audio. When inside, it seemed to me that Jody's audio was lower than Jaimes. In fact, Jaime's audio seemed to be riding a little high. I assume that was due to mixing in production and not post. It is probably not noticeable to most people, but I thought I would bring it up just in case. However, when the shooting moved outside, the audio level jumped very noticeably--this was more of a post issue, I assume.

Paolo, great job on editing and the QT encode was very good!

I was posting a reply to another thread on this forum, regarding fx1 and 35mm adapters, and than I realized that a member of this forum that I was recommending has descriptions on his compression methods for quicktime.

Basically, he uses Sorenson 3.

Still worth checking out the quality by checking it out.

Link: http://www.pixelloft.com/

I also notice that he's now got windows media available for the clips as well. He uses Windows Media Encoder 9 at 600 kbits.

I think the quality of the WM9 is pretty good or comparable to quicktime.

I'd like to have a one of Jody's points clarified- the Dibi net goes behind the lens? Won't this interfere with contacts, or create pressure on the mount?

I'd like one of Jody's points clarified- the Dibi net goes behind the lens? Won't this interfere with contacts, or create pressure on the mount?