Critical Skills for Final Cut Studio Streaming Producers
by Jan Ozer

Deliver Top Quality Video With Maximum Efficiency in Final Cut Studio!

Delivered on DVD
$99 (USD) plus $6.95 S&H

Final Cut Studio and Compressor are fabulous tools, but the workflow can be confusing. For example, which de-interlacing option triggers Compressor’s vaunted Optical Flow technology (and which don’t)? How does editing in a custom Final Cut Pro setting or encoding with a Quick Time Export Component impact your options in Compressor’s Geometry Pane?

The Mixed-Media Tutorial
Critical Skills for Final Cut Studio Streaming Producers is a mixed-media tutorial on DVD that details how to use Final Cut Studio to efficiently produce high quality Flash (VP6 and H.264), QuickTime and Windows Media video. The primary interface is a 312 page PDF file with over 132 linked video files, including over an hour of screencams detailing Final Cut Pro-specific functions like producing H.264 video or converting 16:9 footage to 4:3 in Compressor.

Chapter 3: The mixed-media approach lets you read about a procedure, and then click a video to see the procedure in action (click this figure to view and download an iPod compatible video).

Other videos help illustrate technology alternatives like the quality difference between de-interlacing using Compressor’s Best (Optical Flow) and Better Modes, using H.264’s Main or Baseline profiles or encoding using variable bit rate (VBR) as opposed to constant bit rate (CBR) encoding. The DVD includes printable PDF checklists for common operations like setting up three point lighting, color correcting in Final Cut Pro or for creating an on-location set for testimonials and training videos.

 “Jan Ozer uses streaming media technology to teach streaming media. It’s one of the most thorough and up-to-date resources I’ve ever seen. The content goes many layers deep to explain fundamentals, and still explores brand new developments. It is a great training tool that allows users to tailor their “just in time” learning, and to fill in any gaps in their knowledge”.  

Jeff Hanley, Manager, Multimedia
Corporate Learning Center
KLA-Tencor

 The PDF contains extensive bookmarks and is fully searchable and printable within the Adobe Acrobat Player so you can quickly find the information that you need and print it for later use or reuse. This is a key difference between Critical Skills and video only resources, where information is harder to find and impossible to reuse without a computer.

Contents

 After an introductory chapter discussion streaming-related concepts, the DVD is divided into three major areas, Optimizing Production for Streaming, Making Optimum Technology Decisions and Streamlining Workflow and Maximizing Streaming Quality. Here’s an overview of the chapters in each section.

Optimizing Production for Streaming

Video compression is a garbage in/garbage out medium, and unless you use a compression-friendly set and appropriate lighting, you’ll compromise quality before you start encoding. To determine what is “compression-friendly, Chapter 2: Designing Your Set, examines dozens of corporate and broadcast sites, and details the results of extensive in-house testing. You’ll learn:

• How to create an inexpensive, effective set for in-house streaming
• How to create a set for on-location shooting
• How to dress for streaming success.

This chapter includes checklists on these topics as well as iPod-formatted videos that you can take with you to the shoot. If you’re creating an in-house set or frequently shoot on-location, you’ll find this chapter invaluable.

Lighting is the single most important contributor to video quality, especially when shooting with prosumer camcorders. Chapter 3: Lighting the Set starts by examining over 40 corporate and broadcast streaming videos to determine the predominant lighting style, finding, for example, that most corporate videos use three-point rather than flat lighting (though by a small margin).

Then, the chapter details how to set up both flat and three point-lighting, and provides checklists and iPod-formatted videos to take with you to the set. The final tutorial, Checking Lighting on the Set, describes how to use your camera’s exposure controls and zebra stripes to ensure proper exposure for your video.

Next is Chapter 4: Streaming-Related Shooting Skills, which starts with basics like rule of thirds positioning and rules for shot framing, again using examples from CNN, HP and other corporate and broadcast sites, and then details the optimum camera settings for streaming, and how to produce a soft background, a classy effect that looks great and improves compressed quality. All of these are detailed in a PDF worksheet you can download by clicking the Figure.

Chapter 4: The soft background is a classy look that improves compressed quality. Click the figure to download a worksheet that details this and other shooting skills discussed in this chapter.

In the final section, the chapter reveals side-by-side quality tests performed while shooting in progressive and interlaced mode. In both videos and screenshots you can see for yourself if shooting in progressive mode produces better quality than interlaced (hint: it does, but only on some types of videos). If you’re buying a new camcorder for streaming in the near future, these videos can really direct your decision.

The last chapter in this section, Chapter 5: Correcting Audio and Video Problems, details how to fix common video problems like backlighting, under-exposure and improper white balancing. If you’re an experienced Final Cut Pro editor, you’ll find this old hat. But if you’re just starting out, you’ll learn how to use Final Cut Pro’s Color Correction Mode to improve the contrast, brightness and color accuracy of your videos, like the improvement shown in the Figure, which is from one of the sample files included on the DVD.

Chapter 5: Learning how to use Final Cut Pro’s Color Correction Mode is a “critical skill” that will improve the quality of your compressed video.

The chapter also describes how to remove random pops and clicks and background noise from your audio and to normalize and apply audio compression in Apple Soundtrack Pro. This is critical because while streaming viewers often expect and accept degraded video quality, they expect near-perfect audio quality. With screencam-based tutorials and worksheets for common corrective actions in Final Cut Pro and SoundTrack Pro, you’ll be in a great position to exceed your viewer’s expectations on both fronts.

Making the Best Technology Decisions

You’ve probably already chosen a codec, and if you have, you can skip Chapter 6: Choosing a Codec. On the other hand, if you’re interested to see what percentage of broadcast and corporate sites are using the big three codecs (and how that has changed in the last year), or to understand all the ado about Microsoft Silverlight, they’re both described in this chapter. You also get a fresh look at how VP6 (and the new VP6 announced by On2 in May, 2008), H.264 and WMV compare in quality at both SD and HD resolutions, with comparative screens like that shown below, along with the actual compressed files to compare yourself.

Chapter 6: H.264 looks good compared to both VC-1 and VP6-S (but can your target viewers play back H.264 video?)

As you can see, H.264 looks great, but the rap against H.264 has always been that it’s hard to decode on low powered computers. True? False? To find out, we compared the CPU resources required to play back all these files on multiple low powered Mac and Windows computers with some results you’ll definitely want to see before deploying H.264 video.

Whatever codec you use, Chapter 7: Choosing Target Output Parameters is a definite must read. Most of the supplied data is research-based (as with most chapters), and who would have guessed that the average data rate for broadcast sites has increased from 448 kbps in April 2007 to 623 kbps in May, 2008)? That’s over 40%! Has your site kept pace?

You can also learn how video resolutions have increased during the same time period, how many sites produce at 15 vs. 30 fps (and how much bandwidth they save), and how the average corporate and broadcast web site allocates the total data rate between audio and video. Beyond these statistical factors, the chapter also delineates subjective factors to consider when choosing your target output parameters, including one research-proven technique for determining when your investment in additional bandwidth starts to produce diminishing returns in terms of viewer satisfaction.

Streamline Workflow and Maximize Quality

You’ve shot and edited your video, and selected the codec and output parameters. Now it’s time to put theory into action and to start the encoding workflow.

If you’re shooting in interlaced mode, how and where you deinterlace in Final Cut Studio can have a huge impact on compressed quality, and this is the initial focus of Chapter 8: Production Workflows. You can see the difference in the figure, where you see that Compressor – Best, which is Optical Flow, is superior to Compressor – Better, which uses a different technique, and the deinterlacing automatically applied by Final Cut Pro when you edit in a progressive setting. Still, a third party filter produces even better results.

Chapter 8: Dan Brown (the DaVinci Code) could have designed the complexities of Final Cut Studio’s myriad deinterlacing filters and their respective workflows.

Of course, Optical Flow has some serious shortcomings, including glacial processing speed, and that it’s inaccessible when you edit in Final Cut Pro using a progressive preset or encode in Compressor with a QuickTime Export Component. There are workarounds like Job Chaining, which is described in Chapter 10, but is it worth the trouble with footage that doesn’t contain guitar strings, or similar content. And which third party filter produced the video on the lower right?

This chapter details the Final Cut Pro to Compressor handoff, and how the setting used in Final Cut Pro determines your deinterlacing options. If you’re shooting in progressive mode, deinterlacing isn’t an issue, but you can simplify and streamline your editing by working in a custom setting that matches your target output parameters. This chapter shows you why and teaches you how to create a custom setting in Final Cut Pro as well as a custom compression preset in Compressor.

Chapter 9: Encoding Basics starts with a look at generic encoding parameters like variable vs. constant bit rate encoding, and what you need to know about I, B and P frames. Then it takes a deep dive into the three primary codecs, VP6, WMV-9/VC-1 and H.264.

VP6 related topics include the difference between VP6-E and VP6-S, when you especially need to use VP6-S and which tools provide access to both codecs. Regarding WMV-9/VC-1, the chapter details the buffer requirements for producing CBR video for streaming, when and how to produce multiple bitrate video and the potential benefits from “tweaking” your VC-1 encoding parameters, which will require you to encode on a Windows-computer.

The chapter devotes 20 pages to H.264 production, starting with basics like profiles and levels, and extending to advanced parameters like pyramid B-frame encoding and CABAC vs. CAVLC entropy encoding. Also detailed are the H.264 encoding parameters provided in Compressor, and how to produce H.264 video for both Flash and QuickTime. If you’ve been struggling to get your arms around when and how to use H.264, you’ll really benefit from this content.

Enough preliminaries, it’s time to encode, which is the sole focus of Chapter 10: Encoding with Apple Compressor. The text and screencam tutorials illustrate how to produce H.264 video with Compressor, and also how to use third party QuickTime Export Components to product VP6 video for Flash (both the Adobe and On2 Export Components) and the Flip4Mac Export Component for Windows Media Video files.

The descriptions go beyond the simple narrative to describe how working with a QuickTime Export Component limits your deinterlacing options and access to the Geometry Pane, impacting your ability to produce aspect ratio correct 4:3 video from 16:9 source. However, this chapter also details Job Chaining, which is a technique that lets you work around these limitations.

Chapter 10: Converting 16:9 video to 4:3 output. Meet Compressor’s Geometry Pane.

If you’re producing Flash files with an alpha channel, you need to know how to apply Final Cut Pro’s Chroma Keyer effect, which is also covered, as is converting 16:9 source video to 4:3 output.

As much as you love Final Cut Studio and Compressor, you have to wonder if it produces the top quality H.264, VP6 and Windows Media Video. This is the sole focus of Chapter 11: Mac Encoding Tools, which compares Compressor’s output quality with other (primarily) Macintosh encoding tools. It turns out that while Compressor is a very good choice for one format, it’s typically the worst in both other formats (as you can see in the Figure).

Chapter 11: Compressor placed last in this quality shootout, so you may want to consider encoding elsewhere.

This is a problem, because even if you do everything right from start to finish, you still might not produce the best quality streaming file. This chapter shows you which format Compressor handles well, and the two that it doesn’t. If you decide that you need to use a third party encoder like Squeeze or Episode, Chapter 8 describes how to create intermediate files in Final Cut Pro to simplify the workflow.

One of the greatest strengths of this mixed media tutorial is that it can accommodate different learning styles. Whether you are more visually orientated and find it helpful to watch the video tutorials, or if you learn better by reading along with the PDF, you will benefit from the information included on this DVD.

 Critical Skills for Streaming Producers should be the ultimate resource for any producer who is working with video and/or streaming. Not only does this DVD teach critical skills for streaming producers, as the title promises, it teaches skills that all content producers need to know, including videographers of every stripe who either promote or distribute their work online. This DVD will quickly find a home as one of the most referred-to reference materials you have.

Todd Gillespie
Producer – UC-Santa Barbara
Review in Event DV Magazine

View Chapter Details

Playback Requirements: The interface for this tutorial is a PDF file located in the root of the DVD. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the file and play back the linked multi-media, which is in WMV (Windows Media Player required), FLV (an FLV player required) and MOV/MP4 format (QuickTime Player required). Note that the media links to the content on the DVD will only work if the PDF file is opened from the DVD. If you copy the DVD to your hard disk, the links will not work.

See Also:

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