A solid article on encoding H.264 for the Web

This can be baffling when just starting out, but this article is one of the best I've seen giving a quick rundown of how to apply the encoding settings for export to H.264.  As it says, some degree of trial and error will eventually help dial in your own work, but these settings are a great place to start!



Cinetic Studios: My workflow for exporting to Web for best quality

http://www.cineticstudios.com/blog/2015/7/optimized-export-settings-for-youtube-vimeo.html

Post...http://www.cineticstudios.com/blog/2015/7/optimized-export-settings-for-youtube-vimeo.html
Posted by All My Base Belong To You on Sunday, November 1, 2015

Shorts as Proof of Concept & Surrounding Yourself with Support - Stage 32

Shorts as Proof of Concept & Surrounding Yourself with Support - Stage 32: "He then brought actor Omar Leyva (from Disney's McFarland, USA) on for an inspirational and tear-jerking interview about the support you need as a creative. It is not to be missed. Following Omar was Manager & Producer Jairo Alvarado from Circle of Confusion, who's in the middle of a studio bidding war for Sundays, a short film he's developed as a proof of concept from a filmmaker from Amsterdam."

Below is the link directly to the Stage 32 Video...

On Stage with RB - March 2015 - media file added by Stage 32 Staff - Julie - Stage 32: "Omar, who has over 50 credits between film and television, joins RB to talk about what it’s like being an actor. He talks about how he got started in the business, and how having mentors, surrounding yourself with people who are like-minded, and being a self-motivator are keys to being a successful creative. They also talk about how creatives always need support, especially when your family or community doesn’t necessarily support your chosen craft. How do you take rejection from others, and then turn it into a positive? Finally, Omar discusses how being who you are is the most important thing.

Some quotes from Omar:
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
“You’re never a failure until you blame someone else.”

Jairo Alvarado joins RB and talks about how he found a new filmmaker from Amsterdam on VIMEO named Mischa Rozema. As his manager, he developed a Kickstarter campaign to help Mischa develop a short film as proof of concept. Jairo discusses how the film industry is much less of a “trust me” business and has transitioned into a “show me” business. He talks about the evolution of DRIVE: how the film at its first pass had a higher budget and different actors, but at the second pass had a smaller budget & had Ryan Gosling attached. Jairo also explains how you rise above the noise as a writer, composer, editor, cinematographer and how aiming smaller can actually be of great benefit to you.

Some quotes from Jairo:
“If you’re a creative you can do it anywhere you want. You don’t have to be in LA anymore”
“The smartest person in the room is the one that admits that they know what they don’t know”"

Notes on D5100 Video Shooting

Nikon D5100 Review: Full Review - Video:


 All quotes here from link above.

FOCUS:

"...four AF-area modes for use during movie capture: Face-priority AF, Wide-area AF, Normal-area AF, and the aforementioned Subject-Tracking AF."

"As we've noted in other SLR reviews, the good news with focusing for video is that you can get surprisingly good depth of field in video mode by stopping the lens down, thanks to the relatively low resolution of the video image. With a pixel resolution of only 2.1 megapixels in the Nikon D5100's highest-resolution 1,080p "Full HD" mode, 0.9 megapixels in 720p HD mode, and just 0.3 megapixels in the standard-definition mode, images that would be unacceptably blurred as 16 megapixel still shots look perfectly fine as video frames. This not only provides greater depth of field at any given aperture, but is also more forgiving of diffraction limiting at very small lens apertures. Diffraction at small apertures means you'd usually want to avoid f/16 or f/22 for still images, but again, the results generally look perfectly fine at video resolutions. Bottom line, with the Nikon D5100's lens set to f/16 or f/22 (assuming you're shooting under fairly bright conditions), you'll be surprised by how little focus adjustment is needed during a typical video recording."

EXPOSURE:

• "With the Mode dial set to any position except A or M, the main exposure variables -- shutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity -- all remain under automatic control when recording movies with the Nikon D5100. "
  
• "in the A or M positions, however, you can shoot movies in Aperture-priority mode, with the proviso that you must dial in your desired aperture prior to entering Live View mode, unless you're shooting with a PC-E lens. "
  
• "Regardless of the metering mode selected, movies will always be recorded using Matrix metering, with the Center-weighted and Spot options available only for still image capture."
  
• "You can, however, adjust exposure compensation, and use the Autoexposure Lock button to lock the metered exposure, even after movie capture has already started. "
  
• "You can apply Nikon's Picture Controls as well as specify the color space for movies, as long as they are selected before recording begins. This is useful if you'd like to for instance record in monochrome, or with more saturated colors, etc."

EXTERNAL MIC:

• "Like most interchangeable lens cameras capable of AF during video, the D5100 has a tendency to pick up autofocus drive noise quite clearly in the audio track of its movie clips. This can at least be mitigated somewhat by use of an external microphone, and by adjusting the D5100's three-step manual gain control, however. "
  
• "...three sensitivity levels to choose from (Low, Medium and High), along with Auto gain, and Off settings. The settings apply to the built-in microphone as well as to an external mic. "

Redefining Micro-Budget Filmmaking: The $6,000 'Layover' (Guest Blog) - TheWrap

Redefining Micro-Budget Filmmaking: The $6,000 'Layover' (Guest Blog) - TheWrap:




"On “Layover,” I used the only camera available to me at the time that would allow me to be light and compact, without drawing attention to myself (since we were shooting guerilla style) and didn't require a ton of light to get an acceptable image (since were shooting the whole film at night). I used the Canon 5D mk II, and we lit the whole movie using a 1×1 LED panel light, china balls, some Home Depot can lights, and 250 watt practical bulbs. That's it. One of the great things about the Canon 5D mk II and mk III is its light sensitivity. You can shoot using much less light than would be required on an Alexa or a RED. It's also small and compact. It's easy to move, to hold for long periods of time, and delivers a beautiful image if used correctly. For the World Premiere of “Layover,” we had the final film blown up to 2K for a DCP and projected onto a 50 foot screen, and it looked really good.

...

Did we have a professional production sound mixer with thousands of dollars in equipment on set? We did. For one day. And then we realized we couldn't afford it throughout production. So, one of my producers, Vertel Scott, came to me with a solution: an H4N Zoom recorder, wireless lavs, a boom mic and pole. That's it. Our post sound mixer asked us what we had recorded on. I told him and he responded that our rough tracks sounded better than 90 percent of the professional raw audio he gets in."

'via Blog this'