Comic 834 – “Woes of the Videos”
Errol: Poor Debs and Adam. Video editing can have so many hiccups. We need to put out more of them, but it can be such a pain. ^_^
Debs: It’s 3:41AM. I think we’re done. Blargh! We stopped messing around with brightness and contrast when I googled and found out that YouTube lets you futz with that stuff after the fact. Debs is tired. I hope I annotated the dings properly! Man, that was a long week.
But yes! We have not one but TWO new music videos today! 😀 The first is an awesomized “TIE After TIE” video using the version of the song that’s on the EP! The second is an entirely new song that both Errol and I have been freakishly obsessing over. Yes, it’s the Frozen parody. 😀 Yes, we Star Trek-ized it.
OOOOOOOOOO! As soon as mom and dad leave for the doctor, I am going to watch!!!!
Honestly, after doing the Doctor Who marathon I’ve been doing, the word ‘doctor’ only makes me think of that.
Perfect! Welcome to the flock, Whovian Errol.
Although “Whovian” makes me think of Grinch. ^_^
btw- I LOATHE rendering. I used to have all kinds of problems until I found out a way to convert the video so that it rendered more quickly…but it doesn’t change the fact that if you notice something after the fact you have to re-render it. Ugh!
Feel your pains. #renderingsucks
I totally concur. ^_^
Agreed! The only good thing about rendering is the teacher’s don’t give you the fish-eye for playing a game in class if you show them it’s rendering… Not like you can do ANYTHING productive while you wait.
Rendering is awesome! It lets me get paid to sit there and do nothing. 😉
Good tip for overcoming the guessing game of rendering: Render a test snippet first. If you aren’t sure of your settings and how good the video will turn out, render a few seconds of test video and see if you are happy with the results. It will save you time having to redo the whole thing.
Another thing that’s been super helpful is setting up rendering presets. When you are happy with the results, save those settings. I have a bunch both at home and at work for a variety of needs and outputs.
Another option is a different program for rendering like Adobe Media Encoder, Apple’s Compressor and Sorrenson Squeeze. I am not sure what the equivelant in other editing software might be, but in Avid we export a Quicktime Reference file, which is a small encoded file that access the Avid media, so the file doesn’t need to be compressed. You can just drop that into a different compressor program and make the vid you want, and free up your editor to keep working (though it may kill your memory resources as you are working and slow the system down).
And I feel awful about laughing at Debs and Adam’s woes but having been there too many times, I find it strangely amusing. Like a trial by fire (for Debs, not Adam….Adam has far more experience than I do).
I don’t feel awful laughing at Debs woes. *laugh*
I’m glad she understands how hard it is to edit video now!
Watching Tie after Tie now. LOVE it.
I’m glad you guys are bros with Disney and George Lucas.
So many Ties. 🙂
I haven’t seen Frozen yet either, but great job repurposing Star Trek footage to your tune. 🙂
How long ago did you record this song?!
We wrote it and Debs sung it last week! ^_^ It took longer to edit the video. 😀
Oh wow. Saw the trek one so far. Wow. Just… wow. Burst out laughing in the middle and at the end. Now I REALLY need to see Frozen. But… wow. Guess we weren’t the only ones who just rewatched that Trek movie when it aired recently.
Okay, just saw Tie after Tie. It will be replacing the live version (though I still love that one!!!) In my YT writing playlist. Fantastic, very well done guys!
Um, is that how you write Artoo? ::Hides:::
But seriously, loved it, and the sound was nice and crisp compared to some of your earlier videos.
I love that both have subtitles. Seriously seriously love that.
You guys rocked these out!
Huzzah! Thanks! And that’s how I spell Artoo. It’s crisp because we used the EP version. ^_^
Artoo is how its written when referring to R2-D2 by his nickname anywhere in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. After all, if you use R2, it could be ambiguous in the presence of other astromech droids.
Good to know, thanks!
Adam , the editor, here.
The aspect ratio issue was that the film was shot at 2.35:1 and youtube displays at 16×9. So, the debate (and my long winded history of tv/film aspect ratios + formatting them to different tv ratios and formats -see long winded!)was whether to export at 2.35:1 (YouTube would add letterbox bars automatically) or 16×9 with embedded black bars. Went with 16×9 to maintain aspect ratio of debs and Errol logo.
The video darkness issue was that in NLE video level was fine. Exported QT was fine but once uploaded to Youtube was really REALLY dark. Started exporting/uploading 10sec. Test files to try different settings and then asking a half dozens people with uncalibrated monitors what they thought (appreciate the help though!) Then Debs used her Genius Mind only to find that Youtube can adjust after upload >:S grrr. Argh.
And that is more info then you wanted to know about the issues plaguing us from 11pm to 4:30am. But now that I’ve posted here I might be able to “Let It Go” <—- see Debs, double quotes around a song title! 😛
And now Debs understands how frustrating it is to edit and upload videos! ^_^
I feel your pain! This drove me NUTS during VEDA last year! I wanted to combine video from multiple sources and Camtasia would play it correctly on preview but it would bomb after the full render. BAH!
Dude…I FEEL YOUR PAIN on the aspect ratio thing. And the rendering thing. And the darkness thing. And then that’s not even taking into account the AUDIO thing. 🙂
I used to have so many problems, but I’ve been working exclusively with a particular camera and program set up, so now I don’t have as MANY problems…but there are always some.
Video can get pretty complex. It’s like magic. And wizarding. And nerdery. All wrapped up into a shiny burrito of technology.
Wasn’t actually more than I wanted to know. I’m always fascinated by the editing process and eager to learn.
I will watch the vids later. For some reason, they won’t play on my phone (youtube says they’re not available for mobile). It makes me very sad.
It matches 3rd party content, sadly. Won’t play on mobile.
Yep. Other parodies (not all of them) of the song have gotten through, but YouTube thinks this one is the original song, sadly.
Is it because you’re in tune?
It might be the video footage that it was taking exception to, not the audio.
Love both songs but man I think the Star Trek song will be a mouthful to sing live lol
on a side note, does Comic Errol have lightsabers or bat’leths , something tells me they’d make great stress relievers while recording songs or videos…just wondered which one would get which lol
Lightsabers. ^_^
Yeah…..no. This will not be done live any time soon. Or maybe ever 😛 It’s that hard.
I could take it down! Do it live! ^_^
I just listened! You guys are so awesome!
You did an incredible job on this video you three! it’s looks and sounds great!
OH! I didn’t do anything on “Make It So!” ^_^ It was all them.
I’m surprised you put both videos up on the same day- I’d have been tempted to hold one of them back so as to cover the inevitable gaps while you’re busy creating other things… that could just be me trying to game the system though.
I knew the Frozen one would be more popular though, so we wanted to add link annotations back to each other. ^_^
Both strategies make sense. 🙂
A little more than 12 hours after posting, one video has 222 views, and the other has nearly 700. VERY NICE!
Very nice! I loved both videos! Great work! ^.^
Now I’m waiting for a parody of the Frozen album.
*laugh* Ask Debs. 😀