[GeneA]

I am looking into producing videos for corporate clients--have some clients who are interested. Has anyone info regarding the success of producing and saving these to CD or DVD? I was just wondering if anyone knows someone who is doing it, and what the drawbacks there are? It looks as if these videos can be compressed and used on the internet as well. This is where I would have a real selling point for those who already have a web site but no supplier to produce a video. My main question, I guess, is do I *have to* get a new G4/733 with super drive in order to do what I want? I'm currently running a graphics business with a G3.

[Treebeard]

I have no direct knowledge of this stuff. But someone in my department at work produces videos for major corporate clients, so some of that info has filtered second- and sometimes third-hand down to lil' ol' me. So with that in mind, take everything I say with a grain or four of salt.

Not a lot of corporations have massive numbers of DVD players. Many have no DVD players. We still produce VHS and will continue for some time. DVD isn't expected to catch on and become a standard for another year or two at least in Corporate America. (They really don't care about visual quality for one-time showings to their employees.) Smaller-scale projects--those produced for those elite few who have access to DVD players--may very well gain an advantage if presented on DVD, but that's just speculation.

If you were going the DVD route, I would highly suggest getting the 733 w/ superdrive. Even if you were only doing high volumes, where you brought a master DLT to a shop to mass produce the disks, you'd still probably want to be able to burn demos and samples at will.

iDVD by all accounts works like a charm, but there are some caveats. You're limited to an hour (usually no problem since corporate vids and presentations are usually much shorter). iDVD also leaves a transparent Apple logo in the corner of your video. It's pretty easy to hack out by finding the picture and changing it in photoshop to one very transparent pixel. But it's something to be aware of (and even then, you'll always have this one transparent pixel, but only those in the know would ever see it). Also, I'm pretty sure you can't master a DLT to take to a shop with iDVD.

DVD Studio Pro gets rid of all these problems. As well as letting you customize DVD much more. (You can hack more buttons in iDVD than the ones they give you, but that takes time and can be dangerous, as with any hacks.)

If you don't go the DVD route, Final Cut Pro will by all accounts be all you need. (If it's very very basic stuff you're doing, you might even be able to get away with doing it in iMovie--a surprisingly powerful little app.) Get a Sony Media Converter to export sample VHSes. And you're golden.

In sum, only get the G4 if you're going the DVD route.

But even if you'd only get a few extra jobs by offering DVD, I'd recommend it. The few jobs will likely pay for the machine in relatively short order. You can charge a premium while home DVD authoring is still relatively rare and complicated (on PCs at least). And you can use the machine to help your graphics work as well. Additionally, you'll have experience and contacts to leverage when DVD does move into mainstream corporate life. Also, you'll have the ability to market yourself as offering the whole gamut of video solutions from tiny web-distributed email vids to larger server-based streaming movies to VHS to DVD. Corporate types love all-in-one solutions, even if they don't use all the solutions.

Cheers.

[jeffrone]

Ok

I do digital video production for the University of Arizona as well as private contract work on the side. What I would do in your case is get a G4 DP 450 or 500, a Sony media converter DVMC-DA2, a Sony TRV 900, a IBM 75gig ATA 100 HD, or 2 and a VST ATA 100 raid card, a good VTR like Sony's GV-D300 or GV-D900, and a S VHS tape deck. Use FCP to do all the editing the from there you can export to the S VHS deck via the media converter. Most large companies still have VCR's as the primary media player but if your client request that the content be on DVD you can burn a master to DVD RAM and send it off to a production house where they can do the transfer and DVD mastering. If you feel that your client will be using mostly DVD's then go with the same setup and buy a external Pioneer DVD-R drive for $900 or so and stick it in a external firewire enclosure. Then benefits to that would be use of the drive remotely or on other machines. A good place to go for equipment is www.bhphotovideo.com. If I could answer any other questions let me know.

jeff

[opallaser]

Stay digital. If you can afford it buy digital cameras and use them with Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

You need to know up front that the DV revolution has hit and there are multitudes of people who now offer desktop video services. What you also need to know is that for truly high end work (although you're not targeting that level) DV isn't good enough. By DV i mean 25mbps second DV. If you choose to stay at this level then all you realy need is a mac with Firewire and Final Cut Pro. It will do almost everyhing you want it to and can excpet plug-ins from After Effects also. If you're going to have to convert from VHS then a Sony Analogue to Digital converter is a good choice.

To produce DVD's and CD's is relatively easy. iDVD will work albeit with limited control over the final output. DVD Studio Pro is fantastic and at it's price point can't be beaten. If you're looking to compress your video for the web then i would recommend Cleaner 5 from Media 100. It will give you tremendous control over the way your files are compressed.

A typical work flow might be :

1. Shoot/acquire video on either DV or VHS
2. Digitise video through firewire for DV or through Sony Converter directly into Final Cut Pro.
3. Edit, design produce etc your video inside FCP, you can also bring in Photoshop Files with layers intact and images etc. It's an outstanding NLE.
4. Depending on your final output you can do the following :
DVD - Export an MPEG 2 file directly from inside of FCP using the MPEG 2 encoder included in DVD studio pro
CD-ROM and Web - Use cleaner 5 to do multiple compressions of the same clip at the same time to do one low res version for the web and one higher res version for CD-Rom.
VIDEO - Output directly to tape from inside FCP to either VHS or back out to DV.

It's not a difficult thing to set-up and if you need some more answers just ask.

[ndpatel]

also, a good book to look for is "digital guerilla video" by avi hoffman. it's a great book with a lot of tips for 'faking' an expensive look for not too much cash. it's a little outdated (unless it's been updated at all), but the principles still apply. anyway, it got me started, and i still flip through it every now and again for inspiration.

[GeneA]

Thanks for all the input thus far. Replies have been useful and their specific-ness has been great. Let me throw one more specific question your way--do you agree or disagree with the following advice I've just been given. I've just been told that "in order to be able to charge the dollars I will need, it will require a shoulder-mounted camera for *professional appearance*, even though no one would be able to see the difference in the quality".