Getting our HD and SD vids onto a DVD

You know that saying, "if I knew then what I know now"? Well I am wishing someone had schooled me on outputting HD videos before we decided to use HD for our four-day documentary filmmaking challenge project. You may say that's neither here nor there, especially since we won the whole darned competition, but we almost didn't even get it turned in on time due to the outputting problems we had!!

ANYWAYS I wanted to share the story of how we got around these issues when it came time to put together the final timeline and DVD for this year's Reel Grrls Spring Showcase. I was pretty worried about the headaches we were in store for, since the spring showcase this year included five SD (Standard Definition) projects and two HD (High Definition) projects. I wondered if we would be able to burn one DVD that would show the HD pieces in their true def without messing up the SD pieces, or if we would have to down convert the HD pieces to SD.


In researching all this I came across a number of hugely useful resources. Here are some of my faves:

On burning HD videos to an HD DVD

On burning HD videos to an SD DVD


On exporting HD for the internet
And this one


After reading up and asking advice from everyone I knew (HD is such a new technology that I think most people are still figuring out things like this), I concluded that:
• There are some pretty simple steps you can take to burn HD DVDs in either DVD Studio Pro or iDVD, BUT we couldn't burn an HD DVD that would include SD projects AND
• We could not burn an HD DVD if we wanted it to be able to play on most commercial DVD players.

So. No HD DVD. That left
• Down-converting the HD projects to SD so that we could put all seven final projects in one timeline and then compress them using our usual methods.


Which is what I ended up doing. Here's how I did it:

1. First I exported each HD project from their respective Final Cut Pro timelines as Quicktime files with full resolution (using the same settings as the HDV preset sequences in which they were edited).
2. Then I imported the HD Quicktime Files back into a new Final Cut Pro project and dropped them into a timeline with Standard Definition settings.
3. After this step I was forced to render the timeline, which took FOREVER (so leave yourself time for it)! What's nice is that Final Cut does all the work of interpreting the HD files as SD (including letterboxing the video and squishing it down to the right size), but the side effect is the long wait for rendering.
4. At this point if you want to export your video as a Standard Def Quicktime, print it to regular SD miniDV tape, or export it for the internet, you're all set to go from your new down-converted SD timeline. I exported the finished product using Compressor's standard settings for a DVD of the length of our final productions, then imported the compressed files into DVD Studio Pro.


Voila! I hope this is helpful for you in your HD adventures. Please comment if you have thoughts on how to improve the process.

STORY TIME: Reel Grrls Spring Showcase

After months of study, and work, and fun, and the inevitable crazy last-minute tech issues, we are so excited to debut 2007-2008 Reel Grrls work for the world to see! So please come to

STORY TIME: Reel Grrls Spring Showcase

A celebration and screening of the latest short films produced by Reel Grrls, the nation's first after-school media and technology training program exclusively for girls.


Sunday, June 1st 5:00 p.m.
Market Theater
1428 Post Alley, Seattle 98101

Tickets:
$10 for adults
FREE for youth age 19 and under
To purchase tickets online, visit www.reelgrrls.org/purchase.html

Youth must reserve tickets by contacting Nazgul:
(206) 393-2085
nazgul@reelgrrls.org

This event will sell out, so purchase and reserve tickets now!

Check out a trailer of one of the films here:

Teen Arts Night at the Seattle Public Library!

Check this out, y'all:

Please excuse any cross postings.

Please invite your friends, students, and colleagues! Post, pass, or blog the word.

You are invited to The Seattle Public Library's 3rd annual All Ages Arts Night on Friday May 2nd, 4-9:30 PM. Next Friday!

Over 50 teens from all over King County will perform or show their art and fashions. There will be poetry, hip hop, a fashion show, dance, spoken word, 2 all teen bands, bookmaking, and pizza all for FREE! While all this is going on, we also host a large information fair of community organizations who work with teens in the arts (including Reel Grrls!). Everyone and their grandams are invited. Come see what the teens in our community are creating, and expressing!


For more information:
http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=audience_teens

Questions? Please contact:


Jennifer Bisson
Teen Services Librarian
Seattle Public Library
Central
206-615-1410

High Definition Video

Hello Reel Grrls,

It's an exciting era for us as we are all learning about High Definition Video for the first time here. I'm beginning to pull together some info that we can all share and am going to start posting it up right here on our Reel Grrls blog. I'd love to invite all of you to do the same. Post to our blog with info you find or glean, questions or thoughts or observances about using the new HD format. This is a big technology jump and I for one am confused and a bit intimidated by all the new stuff we have to learn about it. So let's figure it out together. Here's my first crack at it (a lot of this is taken from various internet sites and a lot of it is reworded by me because rewording helps me understand):

What is High Definition Video?
HD is more than just "better quality than SD (standard definition)" or "wider than SD." SD records in interlaced frames in 720x480 pixels at 29.97 frames per second in NTSC video countries like ours. One abbreviation for this that you may have seen is 480i, which means 480 scan lines with interlaced frames. When SD shoots in "widescreen" it's actually not changing the resolution at all but simply uses a "wide pixel" mode for 16:9 recording. The overal resolution in SD is fixed and universal.

On the other hand, High Definition Video can be defined by three different characteristics:
1. The number of lines in the vertical display resolution. In HD it's generally 1080 lines (versus SD's 480)
2. The scanning system: progressive vs. interlaced. Progressive scanning redraws an image frame (the lines of the image) each time it refreshes that image. Interlaced scanning draws the image FIELD (every other line or "odd numbered" lines) during the first image refresh, then draws the remaining "even numbered" lines during the second refreshing. Interlaced scanning gives us greater image resolution if the subject isn't moving BUT can lose a lot of resolution and can gain digital artifacts when filming fast moving subjects/images.
3. The number of frames per second or fields per second. The 720p60 format is 1280x720 pixels, progressive encoding with 60 frames per second.

So what does all this mean for us and our new Canon XH-A1? Well now we can interpret some of the settings we've been figuring out:
24f means 24 frames per second and 24p means 24 progressive scan frames per second (and 24 is what we want to be shooting in because it's closest to film)
1080i mean 1080 lines of horizontal resolution, shot in interlaced frames
60i means 30 interlaced frames per second, consisting of 60 interlaced fields per second

Is all of this starting to make some sense? Or are you more confused than when you started reading this post?? Personally I haven't decided yet. Let's keep on workin on it.

Also, I found these great forums where you can read and post about HDV (high definition video). They even have a thread just for our very own Canon camera! Check it out grrls:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=61

Sundance - Adobe Youth Luncheon

Sundance was awsome, the hardest of core. Wednesday morning there was a luncheon held by Adobe at the New Frontier club/gallery where all youth programs/classes were welcome to come and eat really good food--i was expecting pastries and coffee, but it was a full on eggs-fruit-oatmeal-juice-coffee-otherstuff yumminess.
Then everyone gathered to watch shorts from the programs that were representing Adobe, such as Reel Works in NY, Spyhop, Real Ideas Studio, us, and some other programs. There were a couple short documentaries, one was about a kid struggling to grow up partly homeless, and another was about two friends who struggled to maintain their friendship in NY because one was Jewish and the other was Muslim. There was a spoken word piece that was kinda experamental, and they also screened Disorder. At the end, all the filmmakers went up in front of the audience to sit in these really freaky folding director chairs (their alot scarier to sit in than they look) and talk about our films. We were asked questions about how we came up with our ideas, what did we struggle with, and what future films might we be planning. It sounded like alot of the other filmmakers struggle with the same thing we do--patience, editing, etc. But Disorder was the only piece that had animation which made us cool. fa' sho'. I told them about the vampire doc we're making, and they all thought that was interesting, i got some good reactions from the audience.

Afterward, it was major mingle time. I met some students from some university in Dallas that really liked Disorder, and the cool cats from NY. Ballard High wasnt there though (suckuuuuus!).

There was alot of computers and software set up for people to try out, i ended up talking to one of the Avid editing software representatives, we had a really long conversation about the difference between mac and pc, FCP and avid, college programs, and hollywood vs indie. Well i guess he thought i knew what i was talking about, he told me to fill out a sign up sheet for something but wouldnt tell be what it was for. I was alittle suspicious, but i thought it would just be more info and stuff about avid. after filling it all out, he told me i was one out of five youth he was supposed to find that stood out, and he sent me the avid editing software for free in mail. It can be downloaded on to a pc or a mac. ooooober coolness.


--kubo, over and out

RG on the RADIO!!!

Guess what girlies??

Stacy, Malory and are going to be on the radio talking about Reel Grrls this Thursday.

Thursday the 20th. 1150 AM KKNW 8:30am. Listen. Or else.

With my love,
m

WOW.

This 20-minute video called "The Story of Stuff" is F-ing amazing! I never realized that the American system of over-consumption was consciously PLANNED in the 1950s!! Here is the scariest quote I have EVER heard:

"Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."
-Victor Lebow, 1955

Creepy Washington & NAMAC Youth MAFIA

Hellooooowwwww. How was everybody's four day weekend? I went to Idaho, and on the way i found some super awsome locations for shooting a spooky horror movie, or an eatheral dream sequence. It looked like literally the middle of no where, it was just endless mild hills completely covered in a smooth layer of snow, and fog everywhere so it looked like there was no end to it, no civilization, very creepy. it was near WSU, very eastern washington.

ANYway, the videos that were made at the Austin NAMAC youth MAFIA (Make A Film In A (day)) event are posted on youtube, so check them out. Me, a kid from austin, a kid from baltimore, and another kool kat from i-dont-know-where made the short Sebastian & His Picture:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ooRRFybSjOw

Each group was picked at random, and given a prop and movie genre also at random. Each group was required to utilize the prop as much as possible and stick to the movie genre. We all had 24 hours to do it all. It was fun. mostly. i fell asleep at the computer. but totally worth it.


over and out,

kubo

Tell Me about YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

This is a call for your HELP. I am writing big papers for both my Philosophy and CHID classes about Reel Grrls. This is because we are awesome, of course. For my Philosophy class I am writing about the continual struggle and movement of, and need for women's rights. For my CHID class I'll be bring in various ideas from the Englightenment and the desire for information etc.

I would like your input to use as quotes for my paper. Tell me anything, really ANYTHING! I would like to hear from anyone and everyone. The grrls, mentors and staff. Post here. Email me. Call me.

Tell me about:

1. Why RG is important to you? Why is media literacy important?
2. What have you learned? Why do you study media and film?
3. What is it like for you to be a female in today's society?
4. What have you learned about yourself at RG? Talents, Identity, Questions, Ideas etc.?
5. How has working with other women mentors and grrls your age affected you? How do you observe multi-generational collaboration at RG? How does RG work to reverse hierarchy within our program?

Thanks for your input.

Soon,
m

Assia Djebar

Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (born June 30, 1936), an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with the obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's most famous and influential writers, and was elected to the Académie française on June 16, 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition.

She was the first Algerian woman to be accepted at the École Normale Supérieure, an elite college in Paris.

In 1957, she published her first novel, La Soif (The Thirst). (Fearing her father's disapproval, she had it published under the pen name Assia Djebar.) Another, Les Impatients, followed the next year

In 1996 she won the prestigious Neustadt Prize for Contribution to World Literature, and the next year, the Yourcenar Prize.

Cinema
1. La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, 1977
This film combines narrative with documentary to tell the varying stories of different women in Algeria. “Returning to her native region 15 years after the end of the Algerian war, Lila is obsessed by memories of the war for independence that defined her childhood. In dialogue with other Algerian women, she reflects on the differences between her life and theirs.”
2. La Zerda ou les chants de l'oubli, 1979