In a Dilema, Could use some advice in rescueing Final Cut Express Project.

[Deuxmasta]

Hi, thanks for giving this a read.

So i filmed a Short film in a school in Europe. Edited the video and made it into a quick time format for Youtube, so the video is meant for a small screen, I had help from a professor so i'm not 100% on what exactly the setting are. After I watched the video there were some Errors so when went to go re edit the video file was wiped from the computer.

So now i'm back in the U.S. and was going to re edit the whole video from the raw files but i don't have camera to capture the video so i decided to simply work on the video that was already made for the youtube. Now when i try to make the new project into a youtube format and a regular tv screen format the quality is even worse than before and i guess i realized it was because the original video file was already on a youtube format, so then when i re edited the video i think i made it worse, i'm still a little new with final cut so maybe i'm doing something wrong. Can you guys tell me what settings I should use for both youtube and like a regular format

I watched a video segment on what the best way to format a final cut project on youtube so my current settings are

File format - MP4 (isma)
Video format - MPEG- 4 improved
Data Rate - 580
Optimized for - Download
Image Size 352 x 288 CIF
Letter Box
Frame Rate - Current
Kay Frame - Every
frame - 24

This movie is a very big deal for me and I would just like to know what i'm doing wrong and if its even possible to fix. thanks

 

[matteusclement]

try this:
take an empty pop can.
place it on the floor.
smash it flat.
now try to pull it back to how it was.
see how it looks like crap? that's call compression.

No, I'm not being a jerk, just giving an idea of what you are dealing with.

going back to a larger viewing area and a recompression is going to be crap.
you're going to have to go back to the original files to fix it.
can you rent or borrow a camcorder?

 

[Sonicjay]

try this:
take an empty pop can.
place it on the floor.
smash it flat.
now try to pull it back to how it was.
see how it looks like crap? that's call compression.

hahahaha, LOVE the analogy

Seriously Duexmasta, you're going to have nothing but very bad results unless you recapture your footage (or have somebody else capture it onto an external drive for you or something) and recreate it

 

[matteusclement]

i thought of that one on the spot, but man does it hit the nail on the head eh?

 

[Flynnstone]

That is the best analogy I've seen of compression!

 

[treehorn]

try this:
take an empty pop can.
place it on the floor.
smash it flat.
now try to pull it back to how it was.
see how it looks like crap? that's call compression.

No, I'm not being a jerk, just giving an idea of what you are dealing with.

going back to a larger viewing area and a recompression is going to be crap.
you're going to have to go back to the original files to fix it.
can you rent or borrow a camcorder?

Can we make this a sticky? Or at least a T-shirt?

 

[Deuxmasta]

haha and damn. so there is no other way i can make the short film even slightly better? i put over 40 hours of editing time into this and i would really not want to go through that again.

 

[matteusclement]

I will not even ask for copyrights!
Make as many T-shirts as you want!
Sticky away!
LOL

As far as editting, if it means that much to you... you have to do it again.
Lesson learned... always make a HI REZ back up of your "important" videos.

 

[RedTomato]

try this:
take an empty pop can.
place it on the floor.
smash it flat.
now try to pull it back to how it was.
see how it looks like crap? that's called compression.

Brilliant! And yup, you're right. Once YouTube's compressed it, there's no point in doing any further work with it. Except maybe if you wanted to make a postage stamp sized video for 1990s computers.

Sorry dude, I agree with the rest, you'll have to reimport it from the tapes. Count yourself VERY LUCKY that you still have the tapes. I've worked on projects where we didn't have the tapes, and had to reimport it from the DVD that we originally sold of it. Pain in the neck.

Your 40 hours of edit work are not lost at all. When you've reimported the footage, it should be quite quick to re-cut the new footage to match the old footage. All the big decisions and the trial-and-error stuff's already been done. For a first run, don't try to match it exactly, and don't try to 'improve' the editing. Just focus on getting it pretty much the same. A couple of hours should do it.

Also you don't need an expensive camcorder to do the import. Any old cheap $100 DV camcorder with firewire will be able to read the tape for you.

Expensive cameras put their money into the lens / imaging circuitry, the tape section is pretty standard. Borrow it or buy then take it back to the shop afterwards.

(if you shot in DVCAM then a DV camcorder won't play it back for you)

good luck.

x T