Video & Audio Post Finishing & QC Fixing Services
At L.A. Post we offer film and television video and audio finishing services; to get your project complete and delivered. After the Quality Control Report is complete a program will often need additional work done a.k.a. "fixes," in order for the report to be free of any issues that will cause the movie or show to be rejected. The director, or editor has the option to fix all items noted as rejected or on hold, and resubmit for a follow up fix QC, or if such issues exist we can take care of those notes, fix the problems & attain report approval. We will then output a Master file that will be turned in to the client. This file will be the one that is used for any subseqent post work or output. Here is a breakdown of things we can help with.
L.A. Post's Video Finishing Features Include:
Color Correction:
Often non-big studio movies are not fully Color Corrected. Ways in which this is occurs are numerous and include: Elevated Black Levels, in program which cause the black to look less dark, this can make the entire picture lose definition, and cause it to look washed out. We can optimize black levels to make picture "Pop." Other Color correction issues include colors not matching between shots & scenes, colors and levels should match in all like shots throughout show. Undersaturated colors, colors are muted. We measure color on a vectorscope so can adjust all colors to be full and consistent.
Incorrect Video Levels:
A program can be rejected for high or low black levels, or high luminance (white) or chroma (color) levels. These are specific measurments that must be met for specs to be considered "legal." The SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) have specifications that were set long ago for the purpose of broadcasting. In high definition and UHD these levels are:
Luminance: level must not exceed 700mV (millivolts) this is also refered to as the white level, this is meausred using a wavefrom monitor.
Black Level: Also measured with a waveform monitor, the black level must not go below 0mV. Black levels may go above 0mV but should stay close to zero as high black levels will cause a washed out look to the picture.
Chrominance Levels: High Chrominance (or Chroma) levels will also cause a show to be rejected, Chroma is the color levels, and are measued on a Vectorscope. There are 6 colors that are measured Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.
Bad Edits:
Bad edits can happen when a program or film is being editing in a non-linear form. Films and TV shows are not usually editied in the order that they take place, this can result in bad edits such as:
Black Frames: Black frames are gaps left in the final edit between shots If it is a one frame black frame that will be a 1/24th of a second duration which will cause the picture to "blink" between shots.
Repeat frames: Sometimes after and edit the action will jump back a few frames and the same movement will be seen twice.
Freeze frames: The picture will "freeze" for one frame (or longer) meaning that the same exact picture is on 2 (or more) consecutive frames with no movement.
Jump cuts: Where a shot will jump forward amid missing movement. Example: Someone starts to open a door, then the picture jumps to the door already fully open.
Incorrect fade ups or fade downs.
and many other editing problems.
Incorrect Head Format:
The Head format occurs at the start of the file (or tape) before program begins. TV networks and some film distributors & sales agents have specific requriements. The Head Format consists of:
Color Bars: These are the multi colored horizontal bars that TV stations use as test signals. These bars are used as a refrence point to make sure that the color levels on the machines are set correctly, they are measured on a waveform monitor. At one time a video operator would have to "dial in" the machine to make sure that the bars matched the correct specs. The program level (actual show) should match the bars. Bars are incorrect if they are not at 0mV for Blac, and 700mV for Luminance.(whites)
The Bars also measure Chroma (or Chrominance) which is measured on a vectorscope which will show if chroma levels are correct.
Tones: Along with Bars comes audio tones, these are also a reference point to make sure equipment is set up correctly. Audio tones should be at -20dbfs in The US, -18dbfs in Europe.
Slate: This is a text card that comes up after the bars and tones which gives revelant information about the upcoming program. It consists of Name of Show, format, standard, codec, timecode type, audio configuration and date program was made.
Countdown: This is the piece of film we've all seen before that is directly before the movie starts usually staring at 8 (8 seconds before start of program) with a line that goes around in a circle counting down the seconds. When the countdown gets to 2 you will here the...
2-Pop: Is a one frame beep that occurs exactly 2 seconds before the start of program, this is used to for the purposes of synching video to audio. This will be followed by 2 seconds of black then the start of the show which is the first frame of video or audio whichever comes first.
Text out of Safe Text or Safe Action Area: In video QC there are 2 rectangular boxes inside the screen that are used to make sure that text is within a safe area. Due to different aspect ratios and possible conversions, text that is too close to the edge of the screen may go off the screen on some TVs or other screens The safe text box is consists of 80% of the entire screen (with 20% outside the box along the edges) All text should be within this box. Some distrubutors or networks will make allowances for text that is within safe picture area which a box that contains 90% of the picture. If text is outside of these boxes we can fix it by moving the text (whether over black, or picture) to within the safe area.
We can fix also fix video problems including issues with horizontal or vertical blanking, video hits, and many other problems that could pop up on a QC Report.
L.A. Post's Audio Finishing Features Include:
Incorrect Audio & Loudness Levels:
According to the Calm Act which is a law passed by the US Government. All programs (and commercials) should have a Loudness level of -24LKFS (or LUFS) +/-2 This means between -22 and -26 LKFS, these measurments are made across the entire show to keep all programming around the same level. We often QC programs that do meet these levels. "Clipping" Audio Peaks is when audio levels peak above 0 dbfs, which is the highest acceptable level, any higher will induce static. we can adjust these levels to legal Spec.
Audio Tick, pops, & glitches
These can be caused by any number of reasons including the use of "Lav" mics. We can remove the anomalies.
Out of sync dialogue & effects
Lip movement does not match dialogue, effects are not in sync. These can happen randomly, or thoughout entire sections of program. We can get the entire feature in sync.
Missing Effects in M&E
Effects that are present in stereo mix tracks or other audio tracks must also be included in Stereo M&E track. Often M&E tracks that we do quality control reports on, are not fully filled, usually because foley mixing was not done, and effects were taken through the mics during shooting. As M&E tracks cannot have dialogue, effects that happened while dialogue was happening simultaneously cannot be used in M&E tracks. We can fill them or create a full one.
Incorrect Channel Assignments
Audio tracks that are not correctly set up or in the right order.
If L.A. Post does the QC and we do the fixes we can immediately ammend the report moving line items that no longer exist and changing the overall dispostion of the report to approved. We can also do fix checks, for clients that prefer to do their own fixes. In a fix check we view the fixed areas and sign off if corrected. We are also available for consulting on any and QC and finishing related matters.