A few issues on my first music video, an acoustic guitar:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1863987334/widening-circles-a-solo-guitar-album-by-benjamin-b

1- I couldn’t remember how to shift the audio track (is it 1/100?) for more precise syncing. All the cameras were being turned on and off manually in the recording studio long before the playing began, so the first note is always early or late within the fame. What is the keystroke to slide the audio track forward or back within the frame.

2-The musician wanted a pause before the first and second pieces of music. I think the pause is dangerously too long, and will loose viewers. What do you think? (If you say what second piece we lost you too).

3- I would have liked more light, light levels were too low for higher shutter speeds that would have sharpened up the fingers a bit. I was using ISO 1600. Is the finger blurring too annoying?

4-There are (single frame) flashes/banding in the YouTube playback that are not in the original file is it some transcoding issue? ( 1:20 to 1:40 seem to be the most noticeable)

I was out of the US when I read your response, so I couldn’t read the Compressor settings off my computer. How I’m back and I’m looked but I can’t recall which I used. Too much work is done, too late at night. I know the biggest factor in the YouTube Guitar video was dropping the “quality” setting for the H.264 setting to medium then low. The file size show dramatic decline but the resolution particularly on YouTube wasn’t bad, frame rate was auto. I’m not getting good conformity between camera, timeline and compression codec, it’s an ongoing battle. Something small somewhere is causing huge problems. Nothing is sharp from camera to final output. Thanks by the way for all the help as moderator. your help on hundreds of topics is terrific.

I’m not seeing the flashing/banding, so maybe something glitchy with YouTube?

On the lighting, I think it looks fine. It looks to me like the camera’s focus was mainly on the strings anyway, so the hands are slightly out of focus (depth of field adjustment.) So I don’t think sharpening them up with more light would be good. To me the lighting seems pretty consistent between all of the shots, so I think brightening it up might make those shots stand out too much. Besides, it’s a classical guitar, so somewhat softer, warmer light would be more fitting.

The pauses: I think those are fine as well. When the music pauses, the screen does not immediately go to black. That helps. Just before it does fade out, there is motion (hands moving the guitar.) As soon as the video does fade out, there is text. I understand where you are coming from, but I think there is enough going on that it should be OK.