Do you lose if you import?

I plan on importing footage (filmed in 16:9 with Strobe-like effect) with iMovie (after having failed to do so in Adobe Premiere 6.5- which I find very weird because of the jerky movie displaying, even when running on real time.

So anyway, if I import with iMovie and save it as a High Quality QuickTime .mov will I lose the 16:9 information and if I then click the 16:9- as soon as I burn it on DVD, would it look like crap? Or does the information stay intact after the import?

My "masterplan" is to import and cut it with iMovie and then export it to After Effects 6.5, redo the colors, render it and then burn it on DVD (with that 16:9 Letterbox auto-function).
Any complications or errors hidden in there? I want the footage to stay at 100% with the final product.

I would import as DV.  Whenever you compress, you lose information.

Thank the maker! Finally a reply. And as for the export? You see, I have three options:

Export to....

Camera
as QuickTime Movie
to iDVD

Thing is I still need to do color correction in After Effects after finishing cutting.

If I choose Export as QuickTime Movie I get the following format options:
E-Mail (?)
Web
Web-Stream
CD-ROM
DV-Movie (high quality)

or Own Settings:
Then I get these choices:

Export Film to.....


The Compression Menu:

And the choices of Compression:

QT export, custom settings, DV NTSC codec, full qual, audio full qual wav at 48khz, save.

OR... import all of the clips from the media folder into AE, prem, whatever. OR.... import that .mov that has the same name as your project file... that will be just fine. That is the same edit as your project at full qual.

Funnily enough, the iDVD settings usually wind up being full quality DV do they not?

He's using PAL, I believe, so if he chooses DV compression, he should use DV - PAL.

Justin

Oh. well... yeah

iDVD settings may be full, but it creates a project file with chapters, or at least iDVD's version thereof.... so its more than you want to deal with.

1) So I export it as a DV PAL film. Though, what about this option:

Use QuickTime Movie or something else??

2) Also, 24fps since I'm using the Strobe-like Effect- which adds another frame, doesn't it?? :huh:

3) I just had to rethink my plans. Originally I wanted to record the audio with a mic in iMovie. Didn't work out since I'm using an iBook... therefor no plug. After doing the sound I planned on reworking the colors and contrast in AE 6.5. Now, I'm doing that before adding the sound.

4) All that's important is that the 16:9 ratio information isn't getting lost when exporting it to AE or get lost when exporting it from AE to DVD.

5) And a DVD program, like iDVD will enable me to click a auto-ratio option that will tell any DVD player/ TV to display the movie correctly, right?

6) Since I work with stretched 16:9 footage, do I need to use DV-PAL Widescreen images (clickable in Photoshop)? Or just use the regular displaying way and tell AE to interpret footage?

7) What should be rendered first lower caps or higher caps? Errr......half pictures?

So many questions.... :blush:  :nerd:  

JustinZ, djr33, anyone? :unsure:

Sorry I'm acting annoying- it's just that I'm slightly.......behind schedule. :blink:
And I don't know anyone that carries such great knowledge as you guys. :blush:  :misch:  :batting:
 

I don't use Macs, so I've been hesistant to give you specific answers, but I'll give it a shot.

1. It should be ok to use QuickTime film.  On PC's, I'd choose AVI, but since QuickTime is the native Mac format, that should work fine for you.

2. I don't know what the Strobe-like effect is, but if you want your project to be 24fps, then choose 24fps.

3. I don't see a question here, so I'll skip it.

4. As long as you create a 16:9 project in AE and interpret the footage as 16:9, you should be ok when you render your final film from AE.

5. I don't know iDVD, but if the DVD is encoded in widescreen mode, then, yes, the DVD player will expand and letterbox it when you view it on a TV.

6. If you're talking about putting still images into your AE project, then it's best if they are also DV-PAL Widescreen because there will be no resizing/resampling.  If your image program doesn't support that (it sounds like yours does, though), you can use square pixels and "Interpret Footage..." in AE.

7.  If you're talking about the field order in interlaced video, DV video is always lower field first (PAL and NTSC are the same in this regard).

Justin

Amazing!
Thanks for your help once again, wise JustinZ.

Makes me wonder, how did you (and others) find all this out? One man research or was the wisdom passed onto you by other experts. I usually end up with a headache when trying to find answers to "unsolveable" movie editing problems....

 :blush:  

It's sort of cliche, but you can really can learn a surprising amount from reading the manuals and/or the help files.  Also, I've found the best things to focus on are documents/manual chapters/webpages that focus on concepts.  If you focus on the "which button do I click" parts, you won't learn any general knowledge that will help you later, but if you focus on understanding the concepts, then often it becomes obvious which buttons you need to click.  For the questions, you've asked in this thread, the key concepts are "aspect ratio" are "pixel aspect ratio".  If you look up these terms in manuals or do web searches, you should be able to find out enough to understand the concepts better, which will help you in everything else.

Justin

I'm stuck. Again. :rolleyes:

It might end up being a major problem due to a possible loss of quality. As said above, I filmed three movies in 16:9 and edited them in iMovie (most likely the 2002 edition). I somehow have the feeling the program threw away the square pixel information of the stretched footage once I saved it. Meaning exporting it to a DV-PAL 16:9 QuickTime movie after having finished the editing would be pointless.
I just got iMovie HD and noticed that you can set a 16:9 DV-Pal composition   before even importing any footage. Can anyone confirm that the 2002-03 iMovie throws away 16:9 information/ keeps it after having imported it??

It would be horrible if the information truly got lost. Afterall, I finished two of them and already have half of the third one. Starting all over again would not work out since the deadline is this upcomming Friday. :rolleyes:  :blink:  :doh: