Done21

A lot of people have been asking us about our process for our show Doctype. Here it is, in a nutshell:

Preproduction (about 4 hours)
We start by writing a script in Google Docs. We also use Google Docs for production spreadsheets (keeping track of takes, making notes, etc). Nothing fancy here. We script episodes so that they stay short and to the point (this cuts down on “uhs” and “ums” as well). Occasionally we’ll say exactly what’s written, but most of the time we just use it as a guideline, and we’ll riff on our own. The banter at the beginning is just made up on the spot.

Production (about 2 hours)

1. Record audio into Pro Tools using an Mbox2. This allows us to use phantom powered condenser microphones.
2. Record video using two Canon Vixia HG20 cameras at 24mbps, 24fps@1080p.

For lighting, we use 3 tungsten lamps (plus a florescent light behind us to cut down on shadows). It’s about 2,000 watts total.

Postproduction (about 15 hours)

1. Capture all the good takes into Final Cut Pro (FCP).
2. Back up all the raw video and audio to 2 redundant 7200RPM 1.5 TB HDDs. For this, we use an eSata II ExpressCard, which provides transfer rates of about 3Gbps.
3. Put all the video onto the timeline in FCP and export the audio.
4. Run noise reduction on all voice tracks using Amadeus Pro (a cheaper app than equivalent Pro Tools plugins).
5. Run compression and parametric equalization on all voice tracks.
6. Sync audio to picture in Pro Tools, using the audio file exported from FCP (this is tedious, but camera audio on consumer camcorders is almost always bad and timecode systems are overkill for our needs).
7. Bounce audio from Pro Tools to disc and import into FCP.
8. Export the FCP sequence to Color (the Apple app) and color grade the episode.
9. Trim the edit, add in fades and transitions, lower thirds, and intro (all the motion graphics were created by us, in Motion, another Apple app).
10. Add episode specific graphics, like screencasts, screenshots, diagrams, lists, etc.
11. Add any music or sound FX, while staying conscious of audio levels and the overall saturation of the audio spectrum.
12. Back up everything again to the 2 hard drives.

Distribution (about 3 hours)

1. Export to MPEG-4 H.264 at 720p. (1 hour)
2. Upload to Viddler (because we like their player) and Blip (so that we can host the original files and convert to iPod format for iTunes). (1 hour)
3. Wait for Viddler and Blip to encode the videos. (1 hour)
4. While Viddler and Blip are encoding, write the show notes and episode description.

Wrap up (less than 1 hour)

1. Tweet out the link on @DoctypeTV.
2. Post the link to our Facebook fan page.
3. Ping the Doctype iTunes feed.
4. Back up final export to the 2 drives.

…And that’s what goes into every episode. As you can see, it’s a lot of hard work, but that’s OK because we have tons of fun doing it!

If you have any questions, or if you’re an audio/video expert and can tell us a better way to do things, let us know in the comments.