Latest Edit - The Wounded

Episode 86 The Wounded.

Hello Inter-web-land.
I have been feeling well enough to site at the computer for short periods and over the last week I have managed to create a few edits of this episode.

Final Cut, which took forever.

 This is probably one of my leased favorite episodes of the series and I found it very difficult to make the edit and try and keep the duration down to a reasonable size. The first attempt was 29 minuets long as there is so much in the episode. It is a very wordy story not to much action as it is more about O'Brien's struggle to put aside his old prepuces against the Cardassians and to help his old captain to do the same. I hated the ending to this episode on first viewing and it has only slightly grown upon me over the years, (It's that Song, oh dear). I have tried to put over the main story as best as I can, but as I've have already said the episode has so many long conversational pieces to it that they are hard to cut down without losing the meaning that's there.

First Edit was 29 mins long.

So anyway it's done and up on YouTube here at the DarMok Channel, just see for yourselves and please let me know what you think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmbAfqwjvsk

Where this post has never gone before.

Hello Inter-web-land.

I have been updating the links on STMoments for the last few days, telling viewers of the extra's that they can see on this blog. So thought I'd better link in some more of the offline edits that were created before the blog was started. The way I work while creating the edits for STMoments is to make a edit of the episode with all of the relevant moments of that edition that I want it to contain. And then cut them down to a size that I imagine most viewers would want to see or stay with the whole way through the edit. So here are some of the previous off-line's with a little explanation as to why the finished edits ended up shorter.
 

This was when I hadn't long started making the series of Star Trek Moments on YouTube, at that time I was trying to reproduce a video project that I made back in the 90's. Which was produced on videotape with a running time of four and a half  hours, showing very short edits , but mostly moments or clips that were my favorites. After having decided to recreate the project on DVD and as I was in the process of making it, I thought that maybe other people would be interested in what i was doing, so uploaded them to YouTube. So as this was one of my first few edits I was trying to keep the

duration of the edit down to a minimum, because they were meant to be going onto DVD. As I uploaded more and more edits of the series, it began to appear that the viewers wanted to see more of the individual episodes, so in turn they became longer.


Here are some of them.

Datalore (Longer edit)
One of my particular favourites, this edit show a little more of Lore's arrival and his interaction with Data.


Encounter At Farpoint Parts 1 & 2

I have include this episode in the blog because it was the first and its always worth a watch again as it is a longer two-parter.

 

I did so many edits of The Best Of Both Worlds that I sometimes forget myself, but here are the best of the rest.

BOBW Part 1 Long Version

Part 1  Presented in it's longer form, I tried to put in all of the storyline as concisely as possible and still have all of the main scenes that people would want.

BOBW Part 2 Long Version

Part 2  This concluding part of the story
has quite a bit of action in the storyline,
more so than part one. The trick was to
kept the action that everyone expected
but still not show the whole episode.

BOBW Parts 1 & 2 Combined Longest Version

This was the one i wanted to make, to bring both
edits together so viewers could enjoy the whole
story, without the break. You may have notice
that this edit also has the battle at Wolf 359 which was taken from the DS9 pilot Emissary.

There are also a few little bits of video compositing going on in this edit but no one has found them yet, see if you can.

BOBW Parts 1 & 2 Combined Short Version 01

These are the two shorter versions put together, it starts from the scene where Picard first encounters the Borg. And is a much more concise version of the story.

BOBW Parts 1 & 2 Combined Short Version 02

 I love this edit for some reason, mainly because of the way the two episodes are combined. I used the whole of the music score from episode one
with the dramatic build-up and reactions of the
crew, straight into the firing of the main deflector

dish. So Cool.

NOT COMPLETE YET, I WILL BE BACK TO FINNISH IT SOON.

Upload problems in HD

Hello Inter-Web-Land.

Feeling very frustrated this morning after trying to encode the most suitable format for YouTube and hitting a brick wall every-time. The final edit for episode 85 Data's Day was completed yesterday (Sunday), and because I want these new edits to be HD or as near as dam it. I have fixed the info banner and re-sized it, incorporated it into the latest edit and rendered the lot. Then tried to upload the render to YouTube and the upload time was going crazy, it started off at 6 hours then ended up at 8, so I canceled it and looked at the info help pages.

They recommend re encoding as QuickTime files like this

• Using Quicktime Conversion
• In QuickTime Pro, select File > Export > Export: Movie to QuickTime Movie

Step 2: Next, verify your settings by clicking Options

Video settings

• Compression Type: H.264
• Frame Rate: 30 is preferred. 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 are also acceptable.
• Data Rate: Automatic
• Key Frames: Automatic
• Frame Reordering: Unchecked

Audio/Sound settings

• Format: AAC
• Click Show advanced settings and choose Constant Bit Rate as encoding strategy

Other settings

• Size: Choose the original size of the video
• “Prepare for Internet Streaming”: Fast Start

So I did this and uploaded the episode and the quality to me looks poor, also the text on the banner which looked OK when I re-encoded it, now look choppy and pixelated once uploaded.
So for now this is it, but I will be working on a better way of converting the originals for editing and finding the best way to upload 4x3 aspect ratio HD files to YouTube.
        If anyone knows how I might do this, any ideas please let me know.
All the Best DarMok

Data's Day Re-edit The Wedding Story Blog Exclusive

Hello Inter-Web Land.

So I have completed this 18min version which is just the wedding storyline, cut out the Romulans completely. I have made a 12min final version for broadcast on YouTube but I have to recreate the series banner in HD otherwise the higher detailed larger  screen will make it look silly.

Hope you like this exclusive look at the decisions that have to be made in the editing process, I think it's interesting I hope you do too.

All the Best. DarMok.

Exclusive look for my blog readers of episode 85. before the final edits public upload.

Hello Inter-Web-Land

This is my first offline edit of Data's Day but it is much to long and I will have to cut it down to a more reasonable size. The Romulan storyline will just have to go I think if we are to keep all of the other good stuff. Anyway if you have the time see what you think and any constructive comments would be welcome.

Not sure if YouTube has finished processing it yet but it's up if you want to take a look.
ST Moments 85. Data's Day Offline Edit

All the Best. DarMok.

Data's Day Edit Started

Hello Inter-Web-Land.


Well I have finally started the Data's Day edit, the evidence is below, I'm up to the scene where O'Brien asks Data to speak to Keiko again and try to convince her that the wedding should go ahead. I have decided to create an edit based around Data's narration of the episode, which will also touch upon the secondary storyline of the Vulcan Ambassador. As usual the hardest part of creating these edits is what to cut out while keeping the essence of the storyline. What I find it easier to do is to create the edit trying not to think to much about who long it will be and then when it's finished, treat it like an offline edit, which can be reduced as needed.
But it's that process which can be very difficult when there are so many scenes that fans remember as their own personal favorites. I don't know whether to eventually cut the secondary storyline out completely and just have the wedding and the dancing scene which will be quite long when I get to it. Decisions, decisions, this is why I started this blog to try and get some input of the other fans of the series to help me make these ST Moments (NextGen Edition) as good as possible, which is what I am trying to do. I am also having a few problems with my choice of codex for the HD edits, I am trying to keep the quality good but the file size down, currently using, any suggestions would be welcome.

Codec: H264-MPEG-4 AVC(part 10)(avc1)
Resolution : 960x720
Frame Rate : 23.976023 
Decoded format : Planer 4:2:0
Audio
MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a)
Sample Rate : 48000 Hz
I will keep at it and see if I can get it right, people seem to like the longer edits anyway so we could end up with a 10-15 min version.

 All the Best DarMok

Screen grab of Premiere episode 85 Data's Day HD edit

Data's Dancing Day

Hello  Inter-Web-Land.


This sequence has been created as a experiment to see what would be the best format to upload HD to YouTube. I needed something to try out as a HD version of a ST Moments edit and to be honest I got a little distracted with the process of creating this edit.
            As happens a lot with the compositing I create in Adobe After Effects, because there are so many possibilities of what can be created. I started with a simple idea when watching the Sick Bay scene between Data & Beverley Crusher. An extra walks passed them and hears a little of what they are talking about, Data's wish to learn how to dance. I created a double take of the extra at what he had heard and then thought this needs some music and it continued from there.
       

             In the holodeck scene I wanted to throw a surprise in for the choice of the music, so started with Scott Joplin's "Solace". But as Beverley begins to teach Data his first few tap steps, it tunes into  Disco time with "The Hustle" by Van McCoy,  in the J. J. Abrams tradition, the lights come on and its time to get down. The idea just stroke me as funny, that this would be on the show, Data's Disco Dancing Day.

          This process has helped me in a round about way to work out what format I will be using from now on for producing the series of ST Moments. Now all I need is to reproduce a banner in the new HD size and my mean worry that I have hardly any room left on my hard drives for these large files. But by Huck or by Crock, I will find a way to get them done, so for now all the best and I hope you all enjoy this bit of fun I have created, when I should be hard at work continuing the series, soon very soon.

DarMok.