Creating a Screener Tape - How Do Ya Do It?

[Mark Farnik]

Hey gang,

I'm very pleased to inform everyone that for the very first time, I am licensing some of my tornado footage from this spring to a very large international media outlet.

But there is only one slight caveat - they need a screener tape to view and select my footage, but I honestly don't have any idea about how to go about it. I know that you need to overlay a timecode so they can pick out the specific parts of the footage they want to use, but I have no clue how to do that, or how to convert the footage back to a MiniDV tape.

The video editor I am using is Sony Vegas Platinum 9.0, if that helps.

I need to get this footage in the mail by the middle of the week, and know that many of you have done this before, some of you numerous times, so if you could give me a quick and dirty how-to ASAP, I would be most eternally grateful to you.

Thanks!

 

[Dan Robinson]

I'm not familiar with how Vegas does timecode overlays. Unfortnunately some NLEs don't have it. Before I upgraded my Premiere copy to CS3, I had to use a software package called Timecode Frame Generator (free download):

http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9204

This software creates a bitmap frame sequence that you import onto a video layer, then use chroma keying to remove the background color. As long as your NLE has multiple video layers, ability to import a still frame sequence, and a keying function, this would work.

If worse comes to worst, you should be able to get by without a TCBI (timecode burn in). Production companies prefer it, and it is the more professional method, but I wouldn't worry too much about it if it means having to buy software or spend too much time on it.