2008General Discussion forum
Getting footage from productions for demo reels before official release
18 years old. Gear and prices may have changed since.
What the thread found
- Directors and producers often restrict footage access before festival submissions or official releases to protect their chances of acceptance at film festivals.
- Including footage acquisition rights in a deal memo helps clarify expectations about format and who pays for providing the footage to the operator.
- Using video tap recordings from an Archos device to capture footage for reels without permission is unethical and potentially career damaging.
- Feature and television work typically requires waiting until after official release to obtain footage, while commercials offer faster opportunities to add new material to reels.
- DVD rips lose quality through compression and should ideally be recorded at higher bitrates around 4000kbps to minimize compression artifacts.
- Handbrake can convert DVD footage to H.264 format but tends to darken the image, particularly affecting darker footage details.
Depends on
- The discussion involves specific software recommendations that may be outdated.
- DVD source material is limited to 720x480 resolution which requires recompression for different formats.
- Recommendations about Archos and specific ripping tools reflect 2008 technology and practices.
- The ethics discussion assumes traditional film and television production models.
- Some technical advice about video bitrates and compression is not fully tested or validated across different scenarios.