Commercials - prep details
 

I just got the specs for a commercial I am producing, but would like some help:

:30 seconds of bars and tone
:10 seconds of slate
:2 seconds of black
commercial
:5 seconds of black at the end

I understand all of that but:

1. How can I generate tone? What level do I set it at, relative to the audio in the commercial?

2. What bars should I use? The ones that the NLE (Vegas) generates, or the ones I captured from the camera?

3. Can someone point me at a ten second slate I can use (thats a countdown timer, right??)

Did a little dogpile search... sort through "test tone .wav" for the tone ;)

For $50
http://www.itworks.com/products/ntsc-ref.htm

1. How can I generate tone? What level do I set it at, relative to the audio in the commercial?

Vegas generates the proper tone at the proper level.

2. What bars should I use? The ones that the NLE (Vegas) generates, or the ones I captured from the camera?

Use the SMPTE bars in Vegas.

3. Can someone point me at a ten second slate I can use (thats a countdown timer, right??)

The "slate" is the color bars with the tone. Then there is a visual countdown, usually of 10 seconds total (make your own in Vegas). Following the countdown there is usually 2 seconds of black, followed by the commercial.

Bob, what version of Vegas are you using?

Jay

Yes and no.

Pro digital formats (i.e. digibeta): Tone at -20dBFS
Consumer digital formats (i.e. miniDV): Tone at -12dBFS
PAL: -18dBFS
Analog: 0VU

Your peaks should not exceed 8dBFS of tone, or ?4? VU of analog tone. In Vegas, the numbers indicate peak level (doesn't do analog VU though).

dBFS refers to decibels full scale, or really just digital dB (ie the dBs you see in Vegas). This is to differentiate from analog dB (which are voltages instead of 1s and 0s).

2- Timecode: Typically the commercial should start at exactly 01:00:00;00 (if using drop-frame timecode) or 10:00:00;00. One station I know of wanted non-drop-frame timecode when delivering 3 spots on digibeta.
The convention is to start on exactly the hour or the tenth.

3- The -I and Q bars in Vegas are different from other programs, but no one may care.

If you render the bars out in Vegas, I think you may get generation loss (which probably doesn't matter).

4- Depending on the level of the broadcaster, they may have someone there just fix all the videos that come in.
There was a Sony on the sony forum about this.

At other places, quality control may be very strict.

You're the only person who is claiming this. (I read the post you put up on the Vegas forum.)

Jay

Well I put Vegas' and Adam Wilt's color bars onto miniDV tape, and captured that into Final Cut Pro.

THe -I and Q bars from Vegas, Adam Wilt's, and Final Cut Pro's are all different.

On a vectorscope, I'm pretty sure the -I and Q bars from Vegas will be off.

It may be that the -I and Q bars aren't that useful anymore because no one uses YIQ???

Thanks all, hopefully that is enough to get me thru.

Jay, I am using Vegas 5.0b, 6.0 is here but not loaded yet, waiting for a lull in case my whole system craps out when I go to SP2.

And all the I & Q stuff is above my IQ, so I hope I don't have to worry about it. :)

"The "slate" is the color bars with the tone."

Wrong wrong wrong. Color bars are color bars, and tone is tone. The color bars and reference tone are usually run simultaniously, thus the term "bars and tone."

The SLATE is the term used for text on screen to tell you what is on the tape. It usually has the show name, what version of the cut it is (rough cut, fine cut, final locked picture) the date and the total running time (or TRT). Many BBC productions used a slate and countdown clock at the same time. But on productions I worked on, we had the slate, then a 10 second countdown to 2 (or no countdown) then the program start.

ANd the program start MUST hit at 1;00;00;00 on the tape.

[QUOTE=Shane Ross]The SLATE is the term used for text on screen to tell you what is on the tape.[QUOTE]

"The "slate" is the color bars with the tone."

Right, right, right... "with the text on screen to tell you what is on the tape" supered over the color bars. I've done/seen enough of these for enough years to know what I'm talking about.

Jay

Text OVER the bars? No...I have never seen, nor would I ever want that. I want...and so do networks...clean bars to adjust levels on scopes. Text would really mess that up.

Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean jack. If you know what you're doing... since you are so sure of everything, I won't waste any more time or band width on the issue.

Jay

Commercials Prep
 

Bars and Tone are Bars and Tone. Your Slate should include name of your Director, Name of the production and the date of the production.

Text over Bars and Tone
 

Hi Jay, just becouse you have seen text over bars many times does not make it right,it is not, text over bars and tone would render the bars and tone useless.

SIgh..... Getting away from pissing match, how do I generate Tone in Vegas ? I can't seem to find where it is. And for color bars, should I use standard NTSC or SMTPE bars???

Bob:

A- Download Audacity. It's free, and I'm fairly sure it can generate 1khz tone.
B- Print to tape, and Vegas can add tone. Capture that and use it.

2- SMPTE bars are for the NTSC television standard? So in other words, more or less the same thing.

Doesn't Vegas have a tone generator?

As I said, I can't find it if there is one.