Speaker 1: Codecs are something you're going to use a lot as a filmmaker. You're going to deal with them a lot, especially in post-production. So what is it? What is this about? Well, codec stands for coder, decoder. For example, every cinema camera uses a codec to encode the footage that it's capturing. The pocket cinema camera allows you to record in Blackmagic RAW or ProRes. Those are both codecs. And the thing to know about a codec is that you have to have that codec on your computer to work with that footage. For example, if I shot in Blackmagic RAW and I gave the file to someone and said, hey, look at this on your computer, well, if they don't have DaVinci Resolve installed or any software from Blackmagic Design, they might not be able to view that footage because they don't have the codec to decode the file. It's kind of like a language. If someone is speaking to you in Spanish, but you don't know Spanish, you can't understand what they're saying. You need to know Spanish in order to view what they're saying. Now, with that, we have a lot of codecs in cinema cameras. For example, the RED camera has RED code, ARRI Alexa has ARRI code, Sony Venice cameras are XAVC, and the list goes on and on. Audio is the same way. You can have AC3, PCM, AAC, et cetera. In addition to codecs, we also have what's called a container. A container is a file type that's used to contain the audio and video or just one or the other that was created with a certain codec. For example, we all know what QuickTime movies are, right? And they're a .mov extension. Well, a QuickTime movie can be encoded using ProRes H.264, H.265. The container is independent of the codecs. It's like two jars from a grocery store. They could be identical jars, but one could be salsa and the other one could be full of blackberry jam. So just because it's a QuickTime file doesn't necessarily mean it's ProRes or H.265. It could be any of those. So why all the codecs? What's the point of this? Wouldn't it be easier to just have one? Well, the codecs exist for different purposes. Camera codecs are all about image fidelity. They want to preserve the image quality that was captured on the camera sensor, whereas other codecs are more about delivery. So for example, take Top Gun Maverick. One of the cameras they use in that movie, if not the whole movie, I'm not sure, but they use Sony Venice cameras. And the footage coming off those cameras would be massive. If you cut the film together and tried to put that whole movie on an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc using the camera's codec, it wouldn't fit. You need a delivery codec that compresses it down a little bit. The films we see are never the image quality that they were captured. That's kind of impossible. Continuing on with Top Gun Maverick, the delivery codec used for that movie is going to be H.265. H.265 is used for streaming and it's also used for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. Now you might be thinking, well, wait a minute. A Blu-ray disc is going to be a lot better quality than streaming, right? And that's true. And the thing that affects that is bitrate. When you encode footage, you can set a bitrate, which is sort of the data flow to the device that you're viewing on. And when you take the bitrate down, you're compressing the movie. And the more you compress the movie, the more you affect the quality of the image. If you've seen a streamed movie where there's some blotchy stuff going on, especially in a night scene, well, that's what you're seeing. The bitrate's been taken down, it's been compressed, and you've lost some of that data. But if you watch that same movie off of a Blu-ray disc, it's going to be better. So to recap, we've got a codec that's used for video and audio to encode and decode the footage. And then we have a container that contains this encoded footage. And then we have bitrate that's used during encoding that affects the quality of the image. And that's typically only applying to delivery codecs. You're not adjusting bitrate, for example. Actually, not true. You know, in your pocket cinema camera, you can say, hey, Blackmagic RAW, but I want to be at Q0 or a different setting. That's affecting, in a sense, the bitrate of your footage. It's all kind of the same. So hopefully this makes sense. Codecs are something you're going to use all the time. And it doesn't have to be confusing if you just keep in mind that a container is separate from a codec and know the purpose of the codecs, etc. One other note on that, some codecs are easier on your computer when you're editing. Blackmagic RAW files are fine on a newer Mac. I can edit those no problem. A delivery codec like H.265, in the past especially, is tough on computers. They've made that better. But there's a lot of math that goes into a delivery codec to save space without completely trashing the image quality. And the math required to undo all that to make a cut in your editing system is pretty intensive. So when you're cutting footage, sometimes a delivery codec isn't always the best thing to use. But again, that's much better than it used to be. Hopefully this helps. Hopefully that makes sense. Clears some fog about codecs. We're going to talk about codecs more in the next lesson when we're talking about creating proxies for high-resolution footage. If you have any questions, please post in the community. And I'll see you in the next lesson very soon. If you like this training and you're an aspiring filmmaker, I highly recommend you check out Write & Direct, writedirect.co. It trains you to be a director, a filmmaker, from development through post-production. We cover all the information so that you can move forward in your career. That way, when you can't afford crew, you know how to set up the lights, you know how to run camera, you know how to set up sound, etc. Trust me, I've seen directors held back because of a lack of knowledge. Write & Direct addresses that issue and also sidesteps the typical expense of traditional film schools. Writedirect.co. Hope to see you there. And if not there, I'll see you soon on another channel video.