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Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 05 Mar 2019, 19:56
by sgtwisky
This discussion was brought up in the 0.45.0 thread, and was suggested it get its own discussion thread. SO, I figured I would make one.

Discussion So Far:
jusastronomer wrote:Sorry for interrupting the thread (specially if this is not the right place to post this), but is Atahualpa going through all the stages of the release commentary video production alone? If so, I would like to suggest delegating "footage capturing" to other users, so that he can have all the clips faster for the final voice over, editing and rendering.

Making video production easier might sound unnecessary considering new release commentaries don't come out all the time (and Atahualpa does an astronomically fantastic job without any help), however having a system of "I need footage for this, this and this" might even open way to new types of video content for the Youtube Channel. Video production is tough, and I am sure it took a toll on both Star-Demon and WeirdSexy... so before it takes a toll on Atahualpa...

I wish I could provide the help I describe, but with my graphics card I can't capture useful footage... however, I am sure there are many forum readers who could provide this kind of help.
sgtwisky wrote:Like jusastronomer, donno if I should post here, but it seems relevant to the topic of videos atm.

If there is a need for someone to help with recording video of things in OpenMW, I wouldn't mind pitching in. At one point I had considered making some videos about OpenMW and Morrowind anyway. Hope I'm not derailing the dev, convo too much :).
fraang wrote:
jusastronomer wrote:Sorry for interrupting the thread (specially if this is not the right place to post this), but is Atahualpa going through all the stages of the release commentary video production alone? If so, I would like to suggest delegating "footage capturing" to other users, so that he can have all the clips faster for the final voice over, editing and rendering.

Making video production easier might sound unnecessary considering new release commentaries don't come out all the time (and Atahualpa does an astronomically fantastic job without any help), however having a system of "I need footage for this, this and this" might even open way to new types of video content for the Youtube Channel. Video production is tough, and I am sure it took a toll on both Star-Demon and WeirdSexy... so before it takes a toll on Atahualpa...

I wish I could provide the help I describe, but with my graphics card I can't capture useful footage... however, I am sure there are many forum readers who could provide this kind of help.
I think this is a good idea. Footage could be uploaded on a mediagoblin instance like this one where there is a convenient download button even for the original file. Just put a link to the video into the issue which can be found via the issue number in the changelog.
raevol wrote:We really should move this discussion to another thread, but just to chime in, in my experience, it's the non-crowdsource-able aspects of video production that are the most time consuming: writing and editing.

I do think we should continue this discussion though, can someone start another thread?


SO... Thoughts?

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 05 Mar 2019, 20:09
by lysol
It took a while for me to realize you had quoted people here, so I edited the post to use quote-tags instead. It was more clear to me that way. Hope you're fine with that. No offense meant.

Good initiative anyway.

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 05 Mar 2019, 21:12
by Ferk
Is writing really not possible to crowdsource? The dialog could be written in a wiki page.
Just an idea, though. I honestly have no experience with that. But I have watched videos that claimed to have been done by a group of writters/editors. I expect each taking care of a part of the video.

The most non-crowsource-able part is most likely doing the actual speaking, I expect, since it would be a bit awkward to switch the narrator in different sections.

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 05 Mar 2019, 21:50
by jusastronomer
Ferk wrote: 05 Mar 2019, 21:12 Is writing really not possible to crowdsource? The dialog could be written in a wiki page.
Just an idea, though. I honestly have no experience with that. But I have watched videos that claimed to have been done by a group of writters/editors. I expect each taking care of a part of the video.
I believe that is possible and would work quite well! The changelog writer could enumerate topics for the Release Commentary and each video writer could work in a topic (listing the footage to capture). The video script would get done very fast! (I have no experience myself... just stating what I think would happen).

HOWEVER, that would take away a lot of the charm of the video, imho. Things like the "Spears" (from 0.26) and the rat opening the door (from 0.44) are very personal... and would only flourish if a single person has the freedom to write the entire script. Should Atahualpa say that writing is not a problem, I would strongly advise letting him write everything.

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 10 Mar 2019, 13:00
by darkbasic
There are several steps to accomplish:
1) Finding which changes (fixes/features) should be documented in the video
2) Writing scripts for each change
3) Recording pre/post footage for each script
4) Recording the voice
5) Editing the video

If someone manages to accomplish steps from 1 to 3 I'm pretty sure that it would be way easier to get the video commentary done.

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 11 Mar 2019, 00:45
by raevol
quoting darkbasic:

1) Finding which changes (fixes/features) should be documented in the video
This is something developers could help with. Instead of non-developers having to comb through the changelog to figure out what happened, the people who wrote the high-profile features could call them out and save non-devs a lot of time.

2) Writing scripts for each change
If this was crowdsourced, I think it would take more work to compile and reconcile all of the individual scripts, than to have one experienced person write it all out in one go. The real work here is #1 anyway.

3) Recording pre/post footage for each script
Storyboarding (in this case, planning for how the video is going to come together into a cohesive whole), ensuring consistent quality, and transferring raw-quality files across the internet makes this a really difficult thing to crowdsource. This is something that is better done by one person.

4) Recording the voice
Same as #2 and #3.

5) Editing the video
And this has to be done by one person, it's not even possible to crowdsource this. And during the editing process is where you catch the bits that need to be re-recorded or re-captured, so then the editor has to hunt down the person responsible for the original material, and get them to re-do it.

Long story short, I don't think this is feasible. I think all of your hearts are in a good place, but I don't see it as being realistic. Sorry to be a downer.

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 11 Mar 2019, 03:24
by jusastronomer
raevol, what if the consistency in quality you pointed in darkbasic's #3 is sacrificed?

Having a compilation of inconsistent pre-footage might give the video a more "tested by many" feel. Instead of what might look like a carefully prepared demo, with everything looking good just for this one video (I can picture some E3 gameplay presentations, hahaha), viewers might feel that they are getting to witness the actual game, through the eyes of many players... through the eyes of a community! :mrgreen:

About moving raw files through the web, I am assuming the mediagoblin solution fraang proposed would be enough... and the storyboard would be made by the video producer himself.

About the post-footage, which you explained becomes important in #5, during the edit... the one person in charge of #2, #4 and #5, after using the inconsistent footage provided by others, could do recapture and additional footage by himself. The idea, in the situation hypothesized now, wouldn't be crowdsourcing the video production... but just making it easier for the video producer.

You already said that what really makes things time consuming is writing and editing, not recording video... and assuming inconsistent footage is out of question, you have me convinced that it's not feasible to provide any meaningful help...

...B-but, should that "tested by many" vs "E3 demo" argument be valid, do you think this new #3 approach would make the Atahualpa's life a little bit easier? :mrgreen:

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 11 Mar 2019, 04:25
by raevol
Sure, not worrying about having consistent settings/framerate/resolution/compression would simplify things, but that's one small part of a bigger problem.

How about this: I do really think this won't work. BUT. If it did, that would be great. I think Atahualpa should keep working in his preferred style for now, but if people want to step up and give a crowdsourced method a chance, why not try it? I'm not going to laugh and say "I told you so" if it doesn't work, you will have my respect and admiration for giving it a try. And who knows, I may be wrong! And even if it doesn't work, we may learn so much from the process that we can incorporate some of it into our existing workflow and make things easier as is.

What do you guys think? Step one is going to have to be someone stepping up and saying they'll oversee the whole thing, even if they don't commit to doing any one other part (though if they did take on some of it that would be preferable...).

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 11 Mar 2019, 09:22
by darkbasic
raevol wrote: 11 Mar 2019, 00:45 The real work here is #1 anyway.
Don't you write an human readable changelog prior to releases anyway?
If so that's basically step 1: you just need to pick which changes are worth showing in the video.

Re: Video Capture/Editing Help?

Posted: 11 Mar 2019, 09:25
by darkbasic
raevol wrote: 11 Mar 2019, 00:45ensuring consistent quality
While I agree with you, I also think that a less professional video done right at the scheduled release date is still way better than a perfect video which delayed the release by 3 months.