Using QuickTime in a Production Environment

QuickTime is far and away the most flexible, versatile and powerful tool available to the video, film, animation and music industries. In a modern production house, where most work is already done on computers, there is no reason why QuickTime can't be used for pre-production, as well as production and postproduction work. Using QuickTime as a workflow tool will help your company quickly share ideas, test footage, and sample graphics across the office -- or across the globe.

Why Buy QuickTime Pro?

I cannot stress enough the importance of using QuickTime Pro as opposed to the regular QuickTime player.

In its basic installation on any computer, QuickTime is a fully functional player, able to play any .mov or .mpg file locally or through an Internet connection. This is what all free (and occasionally, paid) video players, such as the Windows Media Player, or Real Player, offer consumers. QuickTime even offers consumers some appealing extras for no additional cost, such as an absence of advertising.

However, Apple also produces what they term a "professional" version of QuickTime. It is, in fact, the exact same QuickTime software that's installed on every Macintosh and available as a free download for both Mac and Windows, but with a bevy of functionality that users unlock with the purchase of a serial number.

"Oh dear," you're thinking. "I have to buy something!" Yes you do, but believe me when I say that at $29.99, QuickTime Pro is the least expensive and most robust tool that any digital professional can have in their toolbox. Note that QuickTime Pro license keys are also provided free with some non-linear editing applications, such as Apple's own Final Cut Pro.

The Functionality

Registering QuickTime allows any user to:

• export files to any supported codec or architecture (including MPEG-1 and MPEG-4),
• open an image sequence,
• add audio and video layers, and extract the same,
• enable or disable any track from playing, a functionality that becomes more important when you're creating multimedia projects.

There is an additional purchase needed to export MPEG-2, but if you work with DVD, it's an asset worth having.

But this isn't all. An "in" and "out" marker is placed on every file you use in QuickTime Pro, allowing you to select a particular area to copy, cut, add or otherwise affect. One of the most simple, yet pleasant options available is that of playing back videos in full screen mode. By selecting "Full Screen?" from the Movie menu or using Command-F, you have the ability to play back a movie on either a black background, or by completely filling the screen--a valuable asset for presentations and any televisual experience that's required.

Where QuickTime Pro Fits In

As I mentioned, this software is valuable not just in the production and post-production stages of development, but also in pre-production. Let's consider each stage, and see what QuickTime Pro delivers.

Pre-production

All digital projects start analog -- that is, they all start with the imagination of writers, directors and the other creative talent involved. Yet most of us work digitally, and, what's more, most of us deliver digitally, so why not move our ideas to the digital realm as quickly as possible?

Concepts

Before creating, try research. If you're working on a commercial spot, for example, where a style and editing consistent with a 1930s Hollywood musical is required, what better reference than a couple of Fred Astaire clips? Similar to designers in the print world who collect photographs, magazine pages and old ads in books to provide direction, those in the digital realm would be well advised to create collections of QuickTime video clips that will help keep your creative bearings on track.

But before you run out to convert the local video shop into a random access resource, there are two important things to keep in mind:

1. Your QuickTime video clip library should be for personal reference use only
   Handing out even short clips of someone else's work isn't being creative, it's just stealing.
2. Staying organized is key
   Don't try to load up a laptop or even a desktop with a ton of clips that you'll only look at for a short time while you're beginning a project. If you're planning to build up a resource of clips for future reference, export them in a lower resolution than broadcast quality (see "Encoding video" below), then burn all the clips to CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. Then just keep them on the shelf right next to the dictionary and encyclopedia where they belong.

Pre-visualizing

Pre-visualization is not a new concept, yet surprisingly few people outside special effects companies seem to use it. Storyboards, while providing insight compositionally, do not fully explore how a scene will edit together.

By digitizing storyboards in the QuickTime format and trying out simple moves and edits in NLEs or motion graphics packages -- many of which are built around QuickTime technologies -- we can quickly begin to see which shots will be needed on set ...before a camera is even picked up! For filmmakers, pre-viz has typically been a mental exercise of running through a given shoot before committing it to film, but by borrowing some of the most relevant pre-production exercises from the animation and special effects world, your production can really benefit.