HELP: small video job for a friend

[urumita]

copied from another forum post, I've searched here for iMovie but haven't come up with much except that now I know that it's Quick Time compatible

I have a G5 with 10.3.8 and quicktime 6.4, PT 6.9.1
A friend of mine who is producing a TV show in NY is here and has done an interview with someone and has made a mess of the audio and has already edited the video with its correlated audio. She wants to know if I can "sweeten" in a forensic way (save) the audio from her interview (LO level). between eq comp gates and inflator I can probably deal with the audio problem.
She has recorded this on a non pro DV camera, edited it in iMovie and she's bringing me a copy in DVD on monday at 10.

1.how do I convert the iMovie format to Quicktime?

2. If I save this work for her, how do I lay it back onto the original video?

I've RTFM and although I understand all the concepts, I've never had anyone bring me this type of work and though I have a G5, I've never opened these programs untill today because I've never had the need.

Is this how to do it? I import the movie to PT, do the deed, import the bounced audio files back into the iMovie project, how do I re sync them? and burn a CD or DVD with the iMovie project and the new audio , is this right?

sorry for such a stupid question but it's an emergency.
I'm actually quite excited because it's the first time I'm doing something with video since 10 years, I'm used to an Adams Smith syncronizer and wagon wheels, chase and lockup. if it works out I'll do more.
ciao
rojo

[minister]

She has recorded this on a non pro DV camera, edited it in iMovie and she's bringing me a copy in DVD on monday at 10.

1.how do I convert the iMovie format to Quicktime?

2. If I save this work for her, how do I lay it back onto the original video?
...
Is this how to do it? I import the movie to PT, do the deed, import the bounced audio files back into the iMovie project, how do I re sync them? and burn a CD or DVD with the iMovie project and the new audio , is this right?

i think i am right in that iMovie employs DV files. you should be able to simply import the iMovie media (quicktime movies) directly into PT. or, perhaps, out put one movie, then import into PT. be careful to note if she is working at 29.97 or 25. probably easiest to just use your computer monitor if you work in PAL and she delivers NTSC. then be sure to setup your session window properly so your timeline matches a NTSC rate.

you pretty much outlined what to do. work in PT, do the deed, output a file and simple line it up in the iMovie timeline. the beginning of your timeline should line up with hers.

a few things to bear in mind, iMovie use to have TERRRIBLE sync and drift problems. as do consumer mini DV cameras! *WATCH THE SYNC.* i once did a job such as this where a choreographer friend of mine edited her show in iMovie and things kept drifting and drifting and re-drifting. it was a nightmare (incubo?). i ended up putting everything in FCP for her. i don't know if this is still true.

if she brings it on DVD (like made with iDVD) you have another issue. you have to convert this form the muxed mpeg stream to something PT will read. never fear, one of your contryman came up with a nifty solution:

mpeg streamclip put the DVD into your computer, open the video clips in this utility *repair timecode breaks*, then output to whatever you want. instructions come with the software. it rocks!!

[urumita]

Thanks, this help rocks
Actually my fear is exactly that, that she brings an iDVD and not a DVD ROM with the iMovie file, but now it seems cool.
She's bringing her computer so she can burn me the iMovie file if she hasn't already done so.
It's the sync that's worrying me, i don't have a SYNC I/O but I understand that you wouldn't need it for thhis type of thing.
There's always a first time.
Thanks, I've worked a lot with dance myself, as a composer and director.
going to check out that software now, I'm american though, but I've been hangin in europe for about 10 years
thanks again

[MusoPro]

I hoped I reached you in time.
The easiet way to do it is to ask from her for a Quick Time in DV format. Then burn that onto a DVD-R. Not as a DVD Video!!!!!
She should save her soundtrack as 16 bit 48 kHz stereo
Then just import that into Pro Tools. After you've done that "Import Audio from Movie"
You'll have the sound in perfect sync with picture.

Note: The is some kind of bug when importing QT to the Pro Tools movie timeline. When you click on somewhere in the timeline it does not reflect where you are in the movie.

When finished use the bounce to QuickTime Movie to make a new QuickTime DV with your soundtrack. Also save as Stereo 16 bit 48 kHz.
Then just burn it to a CD-R or DVD-R. She can then do whatever she wants with it.

Since she filmed it on a consumer Mini-DV the video and sound quality will not be on a professional level to begin with.

It is of utmost importance to check what time code she is using PAL 25 fps or NTSC 29.97. being based in Europe it should be
PAL. You can change this in the Session Setup


Good Luck
Mitch

[minister]

It's the sync that's worrying me, i don't have a SYNC I/O but I understand that you wouldn't need it for thhis type of thing.
There's always a first time.

i don't think you will need one in this case. you'll be fine. and as for sync and iMovie, it used to be that way, and i do not know if it still is. it could be fixed, or it could have been OS related... so, just be sure to double-check it.

if she is bringing her laptop, or whatever, you'll be fine. yeah, for sure, the DVD-R is easier, but so many editors say, i'll send it over on DVD, and i say DVD-R (data) and they say yeah. which means they pull a DVD-R off the shelf and and make a PLayable DVD. the mpeg streamclip is a good thing to have anyway.

[urumita]

Well it turned out OK.
We tried a lot of different ways to get the info into my domain.
I don't think these systems are quite perfected yet.
A lot of different attempts failed.
Finally, from her laptop: iMovie File> Share (is this term for real) radio button Quicktime (if you choose to "share" a multitrack version you'll be there untll Valentine's day waiting for the "share" to be processed, no mention about DV, (but she had iMovieHD and Tiger, me no) > burn to CD > My setup: open PT > import Movie from CD (is it normal that the video and audio show up w/o TC, because I worked w/o, didn't want to waste time, but 2 failed attempts were because of after importing the movie and importing audio from currrent movie and importing audio to track there was no timecode data to spot the tracks, import audio to track pasted all audio from 00:00:00) > import audio from current movie > import audio to track (only stereo at this point, luckily she hadn't really mixed the audio for her video and I had 2 mics from the camera and various audio only takes for 6 tracks seperated discretely on the 2 tracks that I could import) > DO THE DEED (I seperated the various portions of audio over 5 tracks and gave them different treatments based on the quality of the audio and then mixed them to mono, I was able to use the camera mic [it turns out it's a sony PD170, not bad] as a room tone/background noise track, the lavalier as a dialog track and seperated the well recorded audio from the poorly recorded audio > mix) McDSP and SONY plugs for NR and GAIN > bounce to disk (at the end I only used the audio summed to mono converted into an iTunes document in the finder) > burn a cd > her laptop: iMovie audio radio button choose file from the iTunes popup > return the playhead to zero > paste selection at playhead > PLAY > SAVE...
I'll be looking for a better way to do this since i am running a commercial studio and I should be able to sweeten audio for video with my google of euros worth of gear! I find the iMovie lacking for reasons I can't begin to explain but I have home movie tapes from my PD
100 that I'll probably make a bunch of iDVDs from now, Spielberg watch out.
All in all enlightening for the most part, I've never looked at these programs before and it seems in a limited way that they work just fine with one another,
I had that thumbnail doesn't equal tiimeline bug, thanks for the tip.
No sync issues.
The program was 9 minutes long and the iTunes file was spot on from beginning to end with the video.
It bugs me that time code didn't arrive with the QT movie.
Thanks for your help and I hope that this report can help someone else
urumita
rojo