Transforming Video: Non-destructively!

Video is far more than a publishing or entertainment medium. It can also be a powerful tool to record expert knowledge. Unfortunately, the video that emerges from a typical knowledge capture session is too fragmented, error-filled and poorly structured to be used directly in professional presentations or documentation. A video producer will have to make extensive (and expensive) edits to render the video clips presentable. Typically, the producer will use sophisticated software (e.g., Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut) to slice, dice and dramatically transform the raw material. However, conventional tools create two problems that complicate later revisions:

• The edits are destructive - Most editing operations actually change video source. As the producer makes one edit after another, they create a complex trail of changes that is hard to reverse. If, for example, they complete the editing of a video clip and someone spots a flaw, the producer may have to go back to the beginning and repeat all of their work.
• Edits are made early in the development cycle - Since the edits are destructive, there is strong pressure to make them up front, get the video right, then proceed from there. Unfortunately, this means that if later work requires a change in the video, the work has to be repeated almost from scratch.

iPOV's approach is totally different. iPOV can, of course, apply any of the familiar destructive editing technologies. If you want special effects on your video, we can add them. However, iPOV has developed a unique set of standard transformations that are inherently non-destructive. Applied in combination, our transformations can totally alter the appearance and content of the source video. As a bonus, our work is easily reversible up to the end of the development process and beyond. This makes maintenance easier and less costly. iPOV's standard transformations fall into two main categories: visual transformations and content transformations that can be combined to create an amazing range of finished effects. The content transformations will be the subject of another blog entry. This one focuses on the challenge of visual transformation.

Visual Transformations

iPOV's visual transformations are designed to alter the visual structure and appearance of a video source. They do some of the operations that are normally associated with high-quality commercial software. However, iPOV's approach is totally different. iPOV has developed a powerful Flash Virtual Playlist Controller (FVPC) that does two transformations that, together, can virtually slice, merge, reorder, overlay, insert, hide, zoom, slow, accelerate or freeze action - without altering the original video clips. The FVPC runs in the Adobe Flash Player that is in the end-user's web browser. In other words, the FVPC applies the transformations as the movie is being downloaded to the web page. That's as late in the development cycle as we could manage.

Transformation	iPOV Technology	iPOV Service	Goals
Construction	The FVPC is a Flash application that assembles, orders, and plays a set of Flash movie clips in any sequence or timing on a virtual timeline. All of the action is driven from external XML specification files.	iPOV staff craft the XML spec files to client preferences for: Choice of sub-movies Order of components Component timings Inserted animations	The goal is to take all of the good bits and pieces from a set of raw movies and Flash raw materials and dynamically assemble them into a pleasing, seamless movie.
Enhancement	The FVPC listens for commands from the XML spec files. The commands can tell it to add subtitles, turn on a layer to mask a flaw, add symbols, or hide and reveal Flash animations and controls.	iPOV staff craft the source Flash files and XML spec files to: Add overlays Mask problems Add dynamic controls Highlight features	Apply the power of Flash layers to non-destructively change the appearance of the underlying constructed movie.

To be fair, a video producer, instructional designer or documentation author has lots of choices. There are excellent software and hardware products that do far more than iPOV's transformations. However, commercial tools seldom consider overall project efficiency. To be efficient, you need to manage the visual changes from end to end:

• iPOV has defined formal procedures and guidelines for applying these visual transformations. With its procedures, iPOV can enforce consistency across long video clips or across all of the clips in a large collection.
• The spec files for the FVPC can be revised throughout the content development life cycle and iPOV's formal procedures enforce consistency across updates and revisions long after the initial authoring project is finished.

iPOV is very excited about the long-term potential for non-destructive transformations. Our FVPC is just beginning its journey. There are many potential applications that we haven't had time to explore and we are very eager to speak with potential clients that might be want to explore them with us. For example, we know that we could program a server to rewrite the XML spec files dynamically to reflect viewer profiles. That means that two website visitors might see totally different 'mashups' that are tailored precisely to their personal needs. The resulting mashups will each appear to play as a seamless movie. How many potential applications are there for that capability? If you have one, please contact us so we can discuss it.