Safety zone: don't make the mistake I did

Tanjy wrote on 6/3/2002, 9:49 PM
I recently did a complex editing project for someone who wanted VCR/TV as the final output. Fine. This project consisted of lots of edits, photos, superimposing stills over video, etc. No problem.

I got it done in record time, but to cut corners I superimposed stills and illustrations over the video rather loosely and decided not to worry about the sloppy borders and edges beyond the safety zone. They wouldn't show up on TV anyway. Right?

Well, the client liked the video a lot and decided he wanted good quality DVD dubs (i.e, off the DV tape, not the VCR tape) which would be displayed in different ways: computer screen, presentation projector in a conference room off of a laptop, and standard DVD player onto TV. That meant that the sloppy edges beyond the safety zone would now stick out like a sore thumb in many cases. Sooo... I had to go back and re-edit portions of the video, re-render, etc. in order to make a good impression.

What a pain!

In the future, when I slap those stills over the video I'll make sure those edges are perfect beyond the safety zone no matter what the client says. You never know where that video will end up.

Comments

FuTz wrote on 6/3/2002, 10:00 PM
Shouldn't have you it rendered, then open it in VV then, considered "as is" as a video track, have applied a border frame or just keytracked everything (ctrl+a) and zooming just to avoid these "nasty, sloppy borders" ?
I ask and in fact what I'm asking now is: blowing up to get rid of these borders: would it damage so much the image quality?
It would be useful to know cause if it ever happens to me, I'll try this option for sure.
MMmmm... probably this would "scrappouille" everything....
Then, if we just slightly "sharpen" the whole thing? I mean, ,001..?
seeker wrote on 6/5/2002, 12:00 AM
Tan,

Thanks for your "cautionary tale". It seems like good advice.

-- Burton --