Video production tips

• Save time and money on a video shoot by planning ahead and not leaving anything to post-production. For example, before spending a lot of money on an out-of-house shoot, arrange in-house test shoots to make sure your ideas work technically. This way you can work out problem areas before shooting source material.

• Archiving saves wear and tear on original source tapes. Take advantage of efficient archiving strategies. Create an archive plan that builds in flexibility and eliminates the need to go back and shoot additional source material:

• Archive on CD-ROM.

• Archive whole segments of a production to return to later. The nature and scope of the production determine the length of the individual pieces for archiving purposes.

• Consider archiving the entire production for greater security.

• Archiving PICT files instead of QuickTime movies saves space and allows for frame-by-frame editing work, if necessary.

• When shooting video, take a VHS deck and record a window dub with time code. Use this tape for viewing and selecting footage; it's cheaper, saves processing time, and saves wear on your Beta tape.

• Prepare for later compression by testing colors and motion ranges in advance to see how well they compress.

• Keep in mind that dissolves must be fast to compress well.

• Use transition effects cautiously with Cinepak.

• Frame your shots: If characters or objects go off the sides the screen, they cannot be compressed. Characters and objects that are shot too large can't be efficiently resized.

• The video crew filming source material should be aware of the requirements of digital compression before shooting.

• Keep in mind the following guidelines when capturing audio:

• Capture on a digital medium to start.

• Always record more that you think you'll need.

• The 3DO platform plays back CD-quality stereo sound, so start out recording at 44 kHz stereo, and adjust down only as necessary.