Project 1:
A 60 minute documentary for PBS and DVD distribution

The Deliverables:
HDCam SR master tape and MPEG-2 video and audio for DVD

The Complication:
The director of the piece has a basic understanding of Final Cut Pro and wants to edit the piece him/herself

The director of this piece shot the project in a mixture of 1080i, 1080p and 720p in both HDV and DVCPro HD. In an effort to create a "lowest common denomination" offline format, the director ends up with a mix of offline ProRes 422, ProRes 422 (HQ) and DVCPro HD footage with no timecode correlation to the source tapes. In addition, the director's limited knowledge of Final Cut Pro produces a project file that is overly large and complicated.

The Consequences:
Though the director manages to cut together a well thought out story, the Final Cut project file is significantly larger than it needs and overly complicated as well. The result is that many online hours must be spent reorganizing the project just to get it to fit into the post house's production pipeline.

The Solution:
There are two solutions to this quandary. The first is to consult with the director immediately after production to help set up an offline workflow that will maximize his/her time working without stifling creativity. The second is to intercept the project before it goes to the post house. This would allow Nimble Productions to clean up and prep the file so that only the essential files are in the project ensuring it is neat, tidy and easily understandable by the post production house.

Both of these solutions would free up portions of your budget to be spent on additional master tapes, encoding time, titling, effects and motion graphics. Money spent on online services would be maximized and not wasted on basic file maintenance and project housekeeping.

Project 2:
A 90 minute independent feature film for digital projection, DVD and broadcast

The Deliverables:
HDCam and HDCam SR master tapes as well as MPEG-2 video and audio for DVD

The Complication:
A very modest budget. The director has a great story on his/her hands, but the footage itself could use a fair amount of work in a color grading suite like Apple Color. The film was shot on a Panasonic AG DVX-100b in 480p, so in addition to color grading, the project needs to be up-res'd to 1080p.

Since Color is a new program, there are a great many potential pitfalls to avoid that may seem counterintuitive or not obvious. These pitfalls could cost a great many hours spent in cleanup just to get the file ready for use in Color.

The Solution:
There are two solutions. First, working with the director/editor at the onset of the project, to go over, point by point, the correct way to deliver a Final Cut Pro file for easy use with Color. That involves creating a very tightly organized Final Cut Pro project file that contains only video footage that is actually utilized by the project and arranged into reels that are small enough that Color doesn't choke on them. The second solution is to simply hand the project hard drive off to Nimble Productions and we will prepare the Final Cut project file for delivery.

Since the ultimate goal of this process is to maximize time in color grading and get as many master tapes as the budget allows, it is imperative to make sure that all online hours are spent on online services. A savings of two to three hours of offline services charged at online rates will easily add up to an one or two additional HDCam master tapes for delivery to film festivals.