In general, dialogue is all recorded mono and is also played back mono out of the center speaker. The dialogue does not bounce around the speakers.

I should know this...but what are L and J cuts?

That makes things easier then! It's just that I noticed in one of the scenes the dialogue appeared out of one side (Left on headphone - early kitchen scene) whilst the music was in full glorious techno-stereo?!?! Could've perhaps been my playback device.

The picture and the sound are cut in different places, thus creating on the timeline the look of the letter "L" or the letter "J."

A common use of this kind of cut is when the audio from the next scene comes in before the picture cuts to that scene.

In dialog scenes, there is often so much editing, and often the sound is recorded separate from the picture, that the dialog is just a separate track cut together with whatever is needed.

Yes, that was a mistake on my part. The one mic on input 1 was also routed to input 2, but the levels were set differently by mistake (one got bumped). That's another item that will need to be fixed for next year. :)

I probably only noticed because I was listening through headphones!
Confused me a little that - I set up a seperate mic on input 1 but the levels seem to appear on both channels...I thought this wasn't possible using a mono mic (sennheiser ME66) and that you'd create a 'stereo' effect in post?!?!?

Not sure if this was a question or comment. :) The HD100 has two inputs, which can be used either as a stereo pair or two different mono tracks. I was treating them as stereo even though I only had one mic. For that situation, you can patch Input 1 into Input 2 with a switch so both channels share the same microphone. However, the levels on each channel can still be adjusted separately. So, in my case, with one level set differently, my mono source got recorded into stereo off to one side.

Earl,

I wanted to let you know that I finally downloaded the HD WMV version and played it through the SR-DVD100 to a JVC 17" HD monitor (CRT.) It looked great.
The puppets caught the attention of my 4-year-old son and he watched the whole thing with me. He helps me sort the recyclables every week so he was really interested in what happens after the truck takes them away. (We've never had the 5cent deposit program in Ontario.)

Anyway, good job. You've created a piece that entertains and educates at the same time.

I'm curious as to how this sort of thing makes it through the editing process, since it's very obvious when you listen to it and an easy fix. Are there editing suites out there that don't monitor in stereo?

That's great to hear! I'm anxiously awaiting the verdict from our local school kids too, so getting good early reviews from your son and others is very encouraging.

Thanks Tim, I really appreciate that. :)

Heh heh... I was wondering if someone would ask that.

It's all a simple matter of circumstance. That final edit was worked on all night until 6:00am the day it was due. I got so zonked I just had to call it "done" and get some sleep (which ended up only being 2 hours). I just simply didn't get to it.

It's sort of like how Fellini (I believe) said, "A film is never done, it's abandoned." There's always something that can be changed or fixed. So, when deadlines press, you simply do your best to get the most important things finished. Since most of the schools will be watching this through TV speakers, it was at the bottom of the priority list.

And afterwards, I had forgotten all about it before exporting the WMV files for the Web site. It took David's message to remind me, then I knew exactly what he meant.

By the way, what is the SR-DVD100 like? Is it worth the investment? (I'm not holding my breath for HD-DVD or BluRay to get their issues sorted out soon, so this player may be a good interim alternative.)

Earl - another thumbs up from my 7 year old daughter earlier this evening...and she's not shy of dishing out constructive criticism!

Earl, I showed your video to my kids (9 and 11) and they loved it! They say we need to recycle more carefully at our house now :)

I told them you made the video with the cameras that "daddy brought home" and they were really excited. Now they want me to make a movie with them in it :) I have the HD110 for work - and it's a bit too hefty to use for home movies.

Bravo on your project. Very nice puppetry/roto work. I'm impressed with not only the sharpness of the HD100 (and your chosen scene settings) but also how good your project looks when transcoded to HD WMV. Very nice presentation of the educational material as well. I'm sure your clients are well pleased.

Best,

David

That sounds like very high praise! She said nothing negative? (I'd figure there'd be something by now -- everyone's being so nice. :) )

Encorp will be happy to hear that.

I sometimes get quizzed as to why I don't make more home movies. The GL1 was harder to explain as a "work" camera, but the HD100 is certainly more logical. Though, I have been seen at the park with it.

Thanks, David!

The HD100 really came through. Any criticisms with the picture quality can all be attributed to my relative inexperience with the camera. It's got so much flexibility and there are so many ways to manipulate the image one has to take a healthy amount of time to work with it. But as I say, there are no "mistakes", only learning experiences. :)

And I too was impressed with the HD WMV. Never used Windows Media Encoder or WMV HD before but couldn't believe they got such a great HD image in a 650 MB file.