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College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Department of Cinematic Arts & Technology

Capstone Guidelines and Submission

The Capstone instructor may use these guidelines as a starting point for a discussion. The instructor may alter these guidelines.

Capstone guidelines

Capstone submission checklist

Capstone Project Number Form

  • VideoFormat_Title with Spaces_LastName_SemesterYear

    a. Ex: ProRes_Awesome Capstone Title_Dinh_SP15

    b. Ex: HDV_Another Awesome Title_Rodriguez_Norbom_Cambell_FA15

    DO NOT use colons, semicolons, forward slash, quotations

  • Native format: the format the camera recorded

    Cine Arts Blackmagic cameras shoot in Apple ProRes

    Non digital shoots (film, VHS) should be digitized to ProRes 422/4444

    Nikon, Panasonic, Canon Rebel series (T4i/T5i) and 5D Mark II/III & 7D/Mark II, DSLRs shoot H.264 (very compressed format)

    Canon (Magic Lantern) can shoot RAW

    External Recorders (ex. Atomos Ninja Blade) record via HDMI as ProRes

    Ever in doubt, please test your footage format prior to actual production

  • H.264 footage should be transcoded: Apple ProRes 422 (Fast and Uncompressed) with the native frame rate, frame size, and pixel aspect ratio

    If you have black bars on top and bottom of your 16:9 project, you are most likely editing with the wrong sequence settings

    If your editing format is different from native format, we want the info of your EDITING FORMAT

  • Set your timeline setting to start at 00:59:00:00 (Hour:Minute:Seconds:Frame)

    The first minute in your timeline should start with the following.

    Thirty seconds of Bars and Tone

    Ten seconds of Black (leave space on timeline blank or add slug)

    Ten seconds of Slate, all text should be Title Safe

    a. Project Title

    b. Total Running Time - TRT

    c. Date of Completion/Semester

    d. Audio Info (Stereo/Mono/Surround)

    e. Capstone Project Number

    f. Client (Capstone Student(s)

    g. Editor

    Eight seconds of Black (leave space on timeline blank or add slug)

    One frame of slate with 1 frame of tone (occurs at the 58 second mark of your 1-min. intro)

    Two seconds of black

    Steps 1 - 6 should make up 1 minute.

    Your film will start exactly at 01:00:00:00 mark. If it doesn't, it will be at risk of being cut off.

    There should be a fade-in to introduce your film. No abrupt starts.

  • Consistent audio levels (-12db)

    a. Highest level should peak at -6db (car explosion, slamming door, scream, etc)

    b. If it goes over, your project will be adjusted based on your highest audio point

    Play your audio TONE through speakers and adjust speaker level. Once it's set, do not touch speaker volume for the rest of the project, only tweak volume of the audio track in your NLE interface

    a. Look at the audio monitors in your NLE system, if it hits red, your audio is too hot

    Full screen your video to look out for Black Frames

    Color correct your image within the 0 - 100 IRE scale

    a. You can apply Broadcast Safe Color Filter to meet that requirement

    Make sure your texts and subtitles are Title Safe

    Individual projects max time is 5 mins. And 30 seconds. Collaborative project is the sum of 5 mins. per collaborator. Max time for a collaborative project is 15 minutes and 30 secs (usually 3 collaborators and more).

  • Your thesis film should have an end slate with the following texts:

    Produced at the Department of Cinématic Arts and Technology

    California State University, Monterey Bay (the year produced)

    The slate should be 3 seconds followed by a fade out with two seconds of black slug at the end.

  • Before your submission appointment, preview your project on a larger screen.

    a. It can be view through the AJA in edit suites 102 - 105 or

    b. With the computer system mirrored to the 60" TV in the control room

    Export the final cut as a Quicktime:

    a. Format: ProRess 422 or DNxHD

    b. Framerate: 23.976 fps or 23.98 fps

    c. Frame dimension: 1920 x 1080 HD

    d. Must have exported file ready to go

    If you're using a Windows OS, consult with a media technician about export format

    Bring the hard drive that contains your project file as well as your exported file

    Be prepared to make any necessary revisions and re-export

    You will only have 1-hour for your submission (view, make changes, re-export, submit)