Technology How To

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Adobe OnLocation is the program used in the ZSR Mini TV Studio to capture video footage. When using the program, you may notice the screen blinking green. This will not appear in the footage collected or your final movie product, just the on screen preview.

Getting Started

To begin capturing your movie footage, double click the OnLocation shortcut located on the desktop of the TV Studio Thinkpad. After a short load, a screen should appear giving you the option to start a new project, open an existing project, or access help resources. If you have already begun filming at an earlier date and want to collect more footage, you may open an existing project by clicking the appropriate button or locating it in the short list of resent projects, if applicable.

If you are starting a new project, click on the New project button. You should be prompted to save the project by giving it a name and a location to be saved in. The program defaults to a folder in Userdata specifically for OnLocation, which has a shortcut on the desktop for easy access, but feel free to save your project elsewhere, such as in a personal folder created by you in the My Videos folder of Userdata. (Note: Please backup all data before leaving the Mini TV Studio. ITC is not responsible for any data left on the machine, and any data is subject to deletion at anytime.)

Once your project is created, you should notice two important parts of your screen. The first is the input preview window, which should show whatever the camera is currently recording. If there is a problem with this, please refer to setup instructions or find an ITC Student Assistant or ITC Staff member for assistance. This window also contains the recording controls, located underneath the black bar used to show audio recording levels. The red circle icon represents record, setting both the computer and camera to record footage. The blue square represents stop, which stops both the camera and the program and compiles the footage captured into a file saved in your project folder under clips.

The other main window of the screen is the Shot List, showing the clips that OnLocation has created from your recording.

Recording

Before recording, you should make sure the camera in the proper location, level, zoom, etc. to capture your movie properly. You should also test the audio by looking at the vertical bars located next to the preview window. If there are no color bars moving in the audio window, make sure microphones are properly plugged in, turned on, and on the correct channel. If any of these settings are unacceptable, please refer to the setup guide or an ITC Student Assistant/Staff member for assistance in getting everything setup properly.

Once these settings are acceptable, hit the red circle icon to begin recording. Proceed with recording your movie. If you feel you make a mistake during filming, you can just start over and edit out the bad part later. It is typically easier to simply cut out parts of a long piece of footage than to try and keep up with numerous similar clips on the computer.

Once you have reached the end of the filming material, return to the computer and press the blue square stop icon. You will notice that your footage will appear as a clip in the short list. This make take several minutes depending on the length of the recording. If nothing appears, give the computer several minutes to compile the footage into clips.

Exporting to Editing Software

While Adobe Premiere Pro recognizes the .m2t file type OnLocation records in, other editing software does not. If you prefer to edit in Windows Media Player, an easier but less functional editing software, use the Adobe Encoder software located on the desktop to convert your .m2t files to a format such as .wmv or .avi. Double click on the Adobe Encoder icon on the desktop, and after a short loading screen you should see a window open. To begin, click the add button in the upper right hand corner. This opens up a window that will allow you to explore your folders to find your footage, most likely located in the OnLocation file or in My Videos if you chose to save the footage there. (You can also drag files from open windows into the large grey space in the middle of the program.)

Once you have the files in the encoder list, use the pull down arrow under the Format heading to choose your desired format. Once you have selected the format for all your footage, click the Start Queue button and your footage will be encoded in that file format and saved to the same file as the original, to be used in any program you choose.