|
|
| Review
-Artbeats
Mayhem HD Collection |
June, 2007
Artbeats
Mayhem HD Collection
http://www.artbeats.com
$899.00
Review by Steve
Douglas
Having reviewed two of the Artbeats HD Water Collections I was
given the opportunity to take a solid look at one of their new
releases, the Artbeats Mayhem HD portfolio.
Originally shot with 35mm film,
the majority of the high definition clips were telecined to a
Pinnacle Systems CineWave HD uncompressed editing system with
the remaining clips transferred to the Pinnacle system during
the production cycle. Any color correction was done on Macintosh
workstations in Adobe After Effects and was then mildly compressed
using PhotoJPEG. No interlacing was infused into the footage,
thus one frame of film corresponds to one video frame. All clips
match to the high definition standard of 1080p. The Mayhem HD
collection arrives with 13 individual clips ranging from 1.03
seconds up to 24 seconds in the QuickTime format at 29.97fps
at 1920x1080. Since the small amount of compression was used
for storage purposes only, most users will need to compress them
further in their own NLE.
As with previous Artbeats collections,
low-resolution clips are included with DVD for reference. These
are sized at 320x180 pixels for easy viewing before copying the
considerably larger full HD uncompressed 1920x 1080 clips to
your hard drive. And large they are which is to be expected when
working with any HD clip. The thirteen clips in this collection
range from 1.2 MB up to 500 MB with an average somewhere in the
173 MB range. A glossy poster is also included in the package
and identifies each clip via its' clip number and length rather
than a specific name. Importing any clip is as easy as copying
it onto your desktop and importing into Final Cut Pro or the
NLE of your choice; rendering, of course, will be necessary.
Other than for search purposes, I would not recommend playing
the clips directly off the disc. I had no problems doing so but
enhanced playback would be the benefit of having the clips you
chose in a file on your own hard drive.
The Mayhem HD collection is considerably
smaller in the number of clips than is their SD collection but
they have chosen some of the better ones to feature on this DVD.
The clips are separated into a few different mayhem genres, paint
splatters, rain and mist, leaves, broken glass and a unique explosion.
Only two of these clips come supplied with an alpha matte but
experimenting with any of these clips in the composite mode can
produce some interesting results.
Leaves blowing from right
to left
for a unique transition between clips. |
Not sure what kind of explosion
this is,
but it looks very cool when played back. |
The paint splatter clips
would make Jackson Pollock proud. |
Used with the overlay composite
mode, underwater turbulence is created. |
 
Breaking glass, a
creeping fog and a gentle mist can be utilized to create your
own brand of mayhem.
There is no question that the quality
of any of these clips is completely pristine and, applied to
the right project, can make a positive contribution. Using any
one of the Mayhem HD clips will also save you a bundle of time
and expense from filming and creating the same images on your
own. The Artbeats Mayhem Standard Definition disc comes with
44 separate clips, these 13 plus 31 additional clips. My only
real beef is that the Mayhem HD disc weighs in at 2.79 gigs and
I question whether Artbeats couldn't have been a touch more magnanimous
by increasing the size and number of clips within the HD collection.
Never the less, many editors will be
happy to note that any clips, HD or SD, may be purchased individually
via the Artbeats website.
My bottom line is easy, they are not
inexpensive, but you'll be hard pressed to find footage of equal
quality as the HD collections supplied from Artbeats.
 Steve
Douglas is a certified Apple Pro for Final Cut Pro and underwater
videographer. A winner of the 1999 Pacific Coast Underwater Film
Competition, 2003 IVIE competition, 2004 Los Angeles Underwater
Photographic competition, and the prestigious 2005 International
Beneath the Sea Film Competition, where he also won the Stan
Waterman Award for Excellence in Underwater Videography and 'Diver
of the Year', Steve was a safety diver on the feature film "The
Deep Blue Sea", contributed footage to the Seaworld Park's
Atlantis production, and a recent History channel MegaDisaster
show. Steve is one of the founding organizers of the San Diego
UnderSea Film Exhibition and leads both underwater filming expeditions
and African safaris with upcoming excursions to Kenya, Bali &
Komodo, & Lembeh Straits in Indonesia in 2007, the Coco Islands,
Costa Rica & Vietnam in 2008 and safari in Africa for 2009.
Feel free to contact him if you are interested in joining Steve
on any of these exciting trips. www.worldfilmsandtravel.com
copyright © Steve
Douglas 2007
This article first appeared
on www.kenstone.net and
is reprinted here with permission.
All screen captures and textual references are the property and
trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.
|