A Man For All Seasons...

Ian in Northampton · #1 (**permalink**) 04-10-2006, 09:48 AM

Forty years ago, my father appeared as an extra in A Man For All Seasons (which won 6 Oscars, but that's by the by). He appeared on screen for all of twenty-three nanoseconds, but has continually referred since to his brief flirtation with stardom.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, for his birthday this year, I've decided to make a special edition DVD of the movie. I've bought the original DVD and am proposing to rip it to .avi, then, using Premiere Pro, insert an additional credit at the beginning saying "And featuring a special guest appearance by...". I'll then author the resulting edited .avi back to DVD.

Questions:

1. Does that sound feasible?
2. Any recommendations as to what to use to rip the DVD to .avi (needs to be freeware)
3. Any recommendations/observations about how to set about the process in Premiere Pro?

Depending on my time and inclination, I may do some editing of the scene in which he appears - possibly identifying the sequence of frames where he's visible and looping them a few times, and possibly annotating the screen with subtitles such as "Look out - I'm on soon" and "Here comes the best bit" and perhaps even some 'jabbing' arrows pointing at him on the screen. Again, anyone have any thoughts?

Mark W · #2 (**permalink**) 04-10-2006, 10:26 AM

Ha, excellent idea. Most dvds can be ripped using dvd decrypter. Try that.

Ian in Northampton · #3 (**permalink**) 04-10-2006, 11:44 AM

Thanks Mark.

Ian in Northampton · #4 (**permalink**) 04-10-2006, 05:48 PM

OK, I have DVD Decrypter - but it is far from intuitive to me how I convert the DVD to .avi. Can anyone out there guide me through the process?

Marc Peters · #5 (**permalink**) 04-10-2006, 06:00 PM

I believe all it will do is decrpyt the VOB files and copy to your HDD. Read section 10 of the FAQ for the rest...

Ian in Northampton · #6 (**permalink**) 04-10-2006, 07:43 PM

Many thanks Marc. I've now downloaded VirtualDub Mod and the Panasonic DV codec, so I'm looking forward to my next 'window of opportunity'...

Ian in Northampton · #7 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006, 07:48 PM

OK... I think I've followed the instructions in the FAQ. I've created an .avi file and tried to import it into Premiere Pro - but the 'Importing Files' dialogue box just sits there. It doesn't give me an error - there's initially some disk activity, but then nothing. Where might I have gone wrong? I've tried various project settings, including both widescreen and normal (the DVD is in widescreen) but nothing... Help!

Ian in Northampton · #8 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006, 07:55 PM

Addendum: trying to import the .avi file into Windows Movie Maker - I get a codec error. Opening the .avi file in Media Player gives me a codec error - but the clip still plays, but without sound.

Also, it looks like I've screwed up the settings in VirtualDub. The DVD movie is in widescreen, but it looks as if I've ripped it as 4:3. What setting did I miss - and what should I use?

Mark W · #9 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006, 09:55 PM

wibble

Mark W · #10 (**permalink**) 04-12-2006, 09:56 PM

Have you treid changing the .vob file extensions to .avi or .mpg and importing to premier? Dont do any trasnscoding. That sometimes works.

Also have you tried importing the .vob into premier, vegas edits vobs...