Working on a Movie File. . . Please Help !

[GtrDude]

Hi,
1. I'm working on a 60 minute movie file for a friend and the recording level is all up and down.
Sometimes the volumume is barely there at others it's fine.

What is the best way of handling this?
Run a Normalize on the whole file where needed then work with the gain?
Run a compressor on the whole file, then try to normalize in the low volume areas?
Vice Versa?

2. Also when importing the movie I get a big blank white screen and that's it. Nothing more.
I can only import the audio not the movie it self.
The file size is 13.5 G's. It's in a .mov format.

Thanks for any help

GtrDude

[wolfskin]

For the video on PC, you'll need external hardware (like Avid Express package) to convert the transcoding.

As for your audio, you can try using a compressor / limiter combo. A multimaximizer like the Waves L2 would probably work well for this...

Good luck...

[Chris Cavell]

Use QuickTime pro to create a "hinted" movie from the original. Pro Tools should have no problem working with it, and you should not have any problems synching the audio to the video afterwards.

As for the volume issues...try riding the faders (automation...i.e. mixing) to get things at their proper levels. If you have transients that clip when the perceived volume is spot on, try a limiter set to just barely capture those peaks and prevent distortion. Generally speaking, audio for video isn't nearly as compressed or squashed as a commercially mastered CD.

[GtrDude]

[QUOTE]
For the video on PC, you'll need external hardware (like Avid Express package) to convert the transcoding. quote]

The file has already been exported from Avid Xpress Pro to a QuickTime movie file.
I just got the external hard drive on which the file was exported. And the movie is there.
Perhaps there were some mistakes done during the exporting process.

Thanks for the tip on the Waves.

GtrDude

[KingFish]

as far as the "white movie window" you may need to close all applications, and set quicktime viewing / movie preferences to "Safe mode" I've had to do this.

yes... there is no FW output on PC, you have to view the movie ON screen, if you've dual monitors, you can move the movie to your other screen.

as for your volume... the "BEST" way, is time consuming...

Zoom out on the selected track so that it's the length of your whole screen.

click the arrow buttons abobe the "2" in 12345 screen set zoom buttons, to "thicken your waveform's"

draw volume automation.... rough at first.... where you see the waveform Big, turn it down, where it's small, turn it up... then zoom in, on each of your points, to Fine tune them to where the volume drops off.

this is the "Best" way.

peak limiters, L1, L2, Maxim etc.... will get you closer to your objective, I'd combine a little of both.

Create a duplicate playlist of your audio to process, AS L1. L2, Or Maxim, the file, and edit back to the original playlist where the audio has had all the peaks cut off, and has become too squashed.

I'd volumegraph the end result of that said "Comp" process.