TV Commercial Production?

[swanpie]

Has anyone here used PE4 to produce a professional television commercial?

We are looking to do basic cable TV spots, with a Flash (maybe?) intro, a title overlay, still photos (pan and zoom with motion effects) and a voiceover...

Are we crazy to try this with PE4? Can it be done to look great on TV?

I have not yet tried to burn a DVD to see what the quality would look like as my laptop doesn't have a built-in DVD burner so I'll need to get an external burner to really try it out, I suppose.

My question is, has it been done by anyone here and if so, what tips/tricks/issues should I keep an eye out for?

Thanks in advance for your help!

SP

[Ken Jarstad]

Elements has the same basic "engine" of the Pro version. In fact, I remember reading some posts from professional types using Elements for knocking out some quick, basic video - they said it was faster and easier.

I have been using Elements v2 for over two years to edit a community access TV show. That's the secret about DV-AVI - you get the same quality as the pros do for standard-definition TV. The only variables are how good the camera/lens is and other production qualities such as lighting.

[Steve Grisetti]

I second what Ken says. With DV source files, you'll get exactly the same quality out of Premiere Elements that you'll get out of Avid, Premiere CS3 or Apple Final Cut Pro.

In other words, if you don't tell, no one will know...

[Chuck Engels]

Many of us use Elements to do professional work, whether it is wedding videos, promo videos, public service announcements, commercials or whatever.
I will be doing a promo video for a large organization this year and it will be shown at churches and on cable stations across the country, I will be using Premiere Elements 3.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

And don't forget that some of us are still on the best version Adobe ever released - PrElv2!!

PrElv2 still does all that I want but my planned upgrade to Vista SP1 will see me switch fully to PPro CS3 only because PrElv2 is not supported under Vista. Ah well, never mind.

[demalibu]

The only thing that is not really up to commercial speed is audio.
When you capture I find you can't seperate the audiotracks. So if you have recorded interviews on Channel 1 and atmos on 2, it comes in mixed. There are some presets in audio so you can swing to the left and right channels, but it doesn't really do the job. But for what you're paying it is an overall very good program and the pics that come out are excellent.
Chris

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Chris, There are various ways to deal with the audio.

You can duplicate the audio onto another track and then add the Swap Channels effect, that will give you all sound out of both speakers.
There is also the Fill Right and Fill Left effects that can be used to manipulate the audio, not always easy but things can be done.

[Ken Jarstad]

This is, after all, the Elements version. What is does is the basics (and them some) and it does them very well. For those so inclined, there are well-known work arounds to give us greater flexibility without springing for the much pricier versions.

And don't forget that some of us are still on the best version Adobe ever released - PrElv2!!

PrElv2 still does all that I want but my planned upgrade to Vista SP1 will see me switch fully to PPro CS3 only because PrElv2 is not supported under Vista. Ah well, never mind.

I was thinking that I might finally upgrade to Vista after SP1 was out for about six months, but this is one more reason to avoid that. Nothing since WinXP plus PrEl v2 has been really compelling for upgrades. The stability and performance for me tend to outweigh the newer features (bugs?!).

[swanpie]

Hello all and thank you so much for the responses! The audio should be fine - it will be a voice over and some easy music... Two separate tracks.

For making commercials for TV, what should my basic specs be? As in, what frame size should I start with and what should I export to for the best quality?

We are going to use still photos in the commercials (they will be high resolution to start with) and I want to make sure they look great.

As stated before, I'll need to get a DVD burner to truly test it out, I just wanted to get some basic opinions on how to make the pieces look as crisp as possible.

Thanks again for everything!

Deidra

[Chuck Engels]

TV resolution is 720 x 480 NTSC so you don't need to go any higher than 1000 x 750 for the images, don't use High Resolution Images in Premiere Elements, it will blow up

You can export as DV-AVI (File/Export/Movie) that will work for any TV or Cable production company.

[swanpie]

Many thanks to all of you for your help!!

Deidra

[demalibu]

Just to go back to the subject of capturing seperate audio tracks again. Swapping and filling is not the same.
Lets say it's a busy street and I'm doing an interview. I only have an interview on channel 1 directional mike. On my camera mike Channel 2 I am recording street atmos mixed with poor interview sound.
Now, I only want to import Channel 1 - clear sound from the interview. I can't find anything that will let me seperate 1 from 2 on the capture. It is just audio, so I get a mix of 1 and 2. If I swap and fill, it becomes better but it's not seperate.
Am I missing something??

[Chuck Engels]

Do you want any of the background audio from channel 2 or not? I guess it isn't clear to me.
If you only want the one channel then you use a Fill Right or Fill Left, no swap.