Who checks your work?

johnmeyer wrote on 7/29/2006, 8:34 PM

I just finished a six month project. A three-DVD set shipped out to several dozen people. I sent my wife out with the first three packages, and continued assembling everything. Suddenly, as I looked at the name on the envelope I was about to stuff, I realized that in the closing credits, I had put that person's name rather than the similar sounding, correct name.

I called my wife, told her not to put the envelopes in the mail (thank goodness for cell phones). I went through all three DVDs and found I had only made the mistake on one DVD. Unfortunately, since Vegas cannot re-render and stitch just one section of an MPEG-2 render, I have to render the whole darn thing (and then re-author).

But here's the question: Do you have any person or any method that reduces the likelihood of this sort of problem? Things like: Wrong credits, misspellings, footage from another shoot that doesn't belong, etc.

Ultimately, we have to be competent (obviously, I fail), but surely there are some standard ways that "pros" use to reduce the likelihood of this sort of thing.

Comments

MichaelS wrote on 7/29/2006, 9:00 PM

My wife is my quality control expert. She's just enough OC to not let anything slip by...plus she doesn't mind telling me when something looks like crap.

Saved my rear on several occassions.

johnmeyer wrote on 7/29/2006, 9:43 PM

My wife is my quality control expert.

Same here, at least on some projects. This one consists of 4.5 hours of high school football. A little much to ask her to sit through all that.

Chanimal wrote on 7/29/2006, 10:13 PM

For all professional work, video and otherwise, in my departments we always have a routing process for proofing and approval--especially when I worked in publishing. I cannot edit my own work, I'm too close to it, neither can most folks.

I usually run it through my close associates (including one lady that I respectfully (and gratefully) call "The Shredder"--she catches almost everything). Then, once it has passes this "alpha" routing, I take it through the regular routing. Works well.

ushere wrote on 7/30/2006, 3:17 AM

what happens if you're single?

my wife checks my sound mixes since years of working in recording studios has stuffed my hearing up. she also does the first check of all titling - under duress.

i leave the final proofing to the client - pointing out that if he lets any typo etc., slip by it's no problem fixing it, at HIS expense.

leslie

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/30/2006, 5:43 AM

i have a few people i know take a look at it.

FYI, if you change the credts & re-render & the mpeg is the same lengh, you just need to have it the same name & DVDA will auto-update with the new file. I've done this a dozen times. :)

JJKizak wrote on 7/30/2006, 7:41 AM

Unfortunately I have to, and it usually requires about 4 to 5 complete renders before I get it respectable, and I don't do any professional work.
JJK

johnmeyer wrote on 7/30/2006, 7:42 AM

DVDA will auto-update with the new file. I've done this a dozen times. :)

Yup. After the overnight render, I opened DVDA, and nothing needed to be changed. The "smart reprepare" told me that 60% could be re-used, but that is a crock, as are almost all DVDA estimates. It's true that this one asset was only about 40% of all the assets, but it represents 99% of the length of the DVD, so the prepare time will be 99% of the original prepare. Not a big deal, since no rendering needs to be done.

Thanks everyone for all the ideas.

Paul_Holmes wrote on 7/30/2006, 10:04 AM

The last "important" thing I did was a high-school photo movie set to music for my niece's graduating class. One of the girls last name was Bogan, but I spelled it Bogen (like the tripods). My sister gave me a basic script for the show and provided the photos and music. Not only did I mispell the young lady's name but I put my sister's maiden, not married, name into the credits. In this case I was able to correct both errors after submitting it to her for final approval.

Just yesterday I was watching a family DVD and realized I had a beginning quotation mark in a title that didn't belong there.

Two heads are definitely better than one when it comes to little details.

Lili wrote on 7/30/2006, 10:37 AM

Since there's usually just myself, I make sure I never finalize and render/burn at the end of a long day when I'm tired, no matter how tempting it may be to get the project finished. A fresh eye in the morning does wonders to catch errors that were all too glaringly obvious the night before.

Also, I've heard that many people tend to become dyslexic after a certain point in proof reading the same piece over and over, and that it's a good idea to spell the word, address, phone numbers, etc., BACKWARDS, when proofing. I tried it and it works for me!

johnmeyer wrote on 7/30/2006, 11:08 AM

it's a good idea to spell the word, address, phone numbers, etc., BACKWARDS, when proofing. I tried it and it works for me!

In all the years of proofing sales brochures, I never heard that hint. I'll try it.

Former user wrote on 7/30/2006, 2:29 PM

A good proofreader really isn't reading for content. You just see the words. Once you get trapped in content, you see what you expect to see. If you just look at individual words, you are more likely to catch spelling errors. Reading a sentence backwards is one trick for doing that.

Dave T2

vitalforce wrote on 7/30/2006, 2:37 PM

From my editing/publishing experience in the early computer age, I read over what's been prepared multiple times. If I'm tired I read it out loud to myself.

And there's always my wife--she doesn't proofread as well as I do, she just challenges the fundamental concept of my entire project.

johnmeyer wrote on 7/30/2006, 2:48 PM

And there's always my wife--she doesn't proofread as well as I do, she just challenges the fundamental concept of my entire project.

I think you just defined the essence of the classic husband-wife relationship.

vicmilt wrote on 7/30/2006, 4:10 PM

John -
It ain't easy.
And even with legions of people checking your stuff, crap still sneaks through - believe me.

I did an infomercial for Arista Records (that had Two Hour waiting times to order) with the word "advertisement" incorrectly spelled in that little disclaimer that they used to use before the show begins - [ THE FOLLOWING IS A PAID ADVERTISMENT (sp) FOR ARISTA RECORDS
Yikes! Did the crap hit the fan in that one! Wow. Motorcycle couriers racing to airplanes on runways to couriers in other cities to make the airplay - thousands of dollars wasted for one tiny "e" - and if the show hadn't been the huge success that it became, I would never have worked at Arista again.
Or another infomercial I did for an independent music producer where it was discovered at the last second that Eddie Rabitt's name had TWO "T"'s - not one. This was in the days of reel to reel editing and we had to rebuild about five different versions of the show. A full day's worth of editing at $500 an hour.

My solution - leave PLENTY of time at the "back end" of production for "testing, revisions and additions", BEFORE it has to dupe and ship. The time to establish this is the SECOND the job is awarded - IN WRITING.
At that moment of eleation (everybody's happy that the choosing part of the job is finally over) - at that moment, an email that sez, "We will need seven working days for testing, revisions and additions after the approved final cut is completed, before we can air or duplicate", will be accepted.
Once it's in writing - it ain't your fault. If they push you to the last second (and they will), you just keep sending dupes of that warning email.
It's a tough business, and sometimes you've got to be tough, too.

best,
v

Serena wrote on 7/30/2006, 8:23 PM

Reading through all these checking options I note that I've got a variation: my husband does it, and as a retired lawyer he really has an eye for detail. But otherwise Vic provides the key: leave time to take a fresh look. I find that in those last stages of post-production (when I'm checking that identified things that need to be fixed are fixed) I can be blind to things not previously noted, or thought insignificant at the time and got slotted into the OK basket.

johnmeyer wrote on 7/30/2006, 8:48 PM

vicmilt,

I assume this was done in Vegas. Did you ever click on the button at the top of this screen, and ask Sony to include spell checking -- or at least a way to link to a spell checker -- within both Vegas and DVDA? You really should. Include your short story (just copy and paste from your last post). Ask them to pay for the courier service next time.

I too have had spelling errors get through because there is no way to spell check anything in Vegas (well, actually, you can spell check the markers by cutting/pasting from the Edit Details window).

I asked this the other day, but does anyone know of any program that sells for over $100 that DOESN'T provide any facility for spell checking??

TeeJay wrote on 7/30/2006, 10:28 PM

Whilst a spell checker would be of some benefit John, I find the things that usually sneak through are mis-spelt names, and i'm not sure that a spell checker would help there......

I'm a 'one man band' when it comes to my work in that i write, light direct/shoot, edit and author all of my own work. I usually find that after i watch the final edit/render a few times, is when i'll pick up the small things. I'll usually get my wife to watch it with me a couple of times, and whilst she is not very good at the spelling side of things, she's great at picking other little details that aren't quite right (sometimes a bit too nit-picky :) but that's what wives are for LOL)

riredale wrote on 7/30/2006, 10:45 PM

I'm trying to rack my brain about where I saw a cute little program that had the ability to go into a vob on a finished DVD and make a change without having to reauthor the whole project again. Maybe someone else knows the utility I'm thinking of...

johnmeyer wrote on 7/31/2006, 7:53 AM

I find the things that usually sneak through are mis-spelt names, and i'm not sure that a spell checker would help there......

Actually, it's surprising how many proper names are now included in Word's spelling program. Not too useful for people's names, especially children who seldom have familiar names (or spellings), but lots of cities, places, etc. are included.

kentwolf wrote on 7/31/2006, 1:47 PM

>>Maybe someone else knows the utility I'm thinking of...

I thought this was a function of something called "Open DVD."

I also thought this was a feature in a DVD program made by ULead.

Dan Sherman wrote on 7/31/2006, 1:52 PM

Cayman Graphics has spell check capability.
That helps.
My wife audits everything we do.
Our last project was a run of 2 thousand DVDs.
You don't want any glaring error in a case like that.
Current project has a segment that needs to be updated.
A man in a safety meeting, asleep in the background.
Yes it happens.
This segment linked from a text menu page updated when I did the edits and re-rendered.
But the update didn't take in the "play all" verson.
This is a long render.
Do I have to do it again?
Thought Vegas 6.0 had the ability to update in a case like this.
Guess not?

winrockpost wrote on 7/31/2006, 2:27 PM

The client, passes their final viewing and all is great.

richard-courtney wrote on 7/31/2006, 3:25 PM

Since my heart problems surfaced my wife is doing everything.

She was always a good assistant (and partner!) and logged all scenes.
Later she would verify the requested scenes were included or a notation
made for callbacks.

craftech wrote on 8/1/2006, 5:36 AM

My wife does this sometimes and other times I have to do it myself. She is not crazy about sitting through hours of video (often several times) to look for anomalies, blunders, etc. That is what used to drive me crazy about flash frames. With each rerender one had to sit glued to hours of video to look for them.

This is the reason that longer render times don't bother me at all. I can do something else or sleep through those. It is the time spent looking for the glitches or mistakes that drive me crazy. But I guess it goes along with the nature of the business.

John

One of my favorites is where the person who produced the Playbill spelled someone's name wrong and you copy it as written then get blamed for the spelling error.