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What’s My Workflow?
Hello Masters of Editorial!
I have a project coming up that was shot in the Ukraine with a PAL Canon XL H1 at 25p HDV. Due to some lens they were using, the images are upside-down. (yeah, I know!) Anyway, this is a project for PBS and there is also a small chance that it may be transferred to film for theatrical release.
So, my question is…what’s the best way to tackle this mama?
Any preference or advantage for Avid vs FCP? (I would rather not have to do the on-line finishing on FCP so maybe Avid would be better because it would make for a cleaner transfer to audio and video finish?)
Should the 20-25 PAL tapes be captured straight to hard drive (and work in a PAL project, and wait until after editing to xfer to NTSC) or be transferred to NTSC in 24p DV or HDV and then captured? Is it worth the extra hard drives to capture in HDV? And if I use FCP, should I work in ProRes422 or HDV?
Now, what’s the best way to flip the picture right-side up? Can that be done in the PAL to NTSC transfer? If I do it in the edit with a flip fx, I would have to apply it to the raw clips (thereby creating subclips from which I would edit) which makes me concerned about matching back to the actual original clips and also would be an added layer of fx to render.
Lastly, I need to lay off CDs or DVDs of the interviews (which are not in English) to go to a translator. Is there a way to slave the TC onto a CD or DVD when you burn it? Or do we need to rely on just a window burn fx? (I know Avid has that, I’m don’t know if FCP does)
I need the master-mind group to help me to avoid a mine-field of problems that are possible to step on in this project.
Thanks in advance,
C=-Chaz Shukat
Author of “EDITING REALITY”
http://www.chazmoedit.com -
6 Replies
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[Chaz Shukat] Any preference or advantage for Avid vs FCP?
Here is an article that you might like called, Avid vs Final Cut Pro.
I personally go with the one your most familiar with.Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2
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I’m guessing they used a 35mm adapter unit between the lens and the image sensor of the camera to get more of a “film look”. A feature that would be nice would be if you can just tell the NLE to flip the presentation in your canvas window, without actually treating the footage. I think an editing plug0in to do that, if it hasn’t been thought of yet, could be handy. You wouldn’t then have to apply the flip to every stinking frame, even if it was never going to be used, just so you can see your footage.
But since I don’t think such a monitor plug-in exists in FCP, I would just do a lossless SDI transfer into a huge RAID array, apply the invert to the entire drive, and go home for the weekend. Come back Monday and start logging clips. If they logged time codes in the field, it would be important to regenerate identical code in the flopped clone for accuracy in the finished cut.
A less high tech method might be to work from lesser rez footage; take the master footage and play it live analog or dv, with a window burn, thru a switcher with DVE to do the flip, and onto another deck or into a digitizer, and then that is your low rez proxy for a rough cut.
Or, just forget that the editing canvas is upside down and edit using a TV monitor with the CRT’s deflection coils switched, as your main monitor/interface. Some LCD’s made for prompting have a similar switch but are not as cheap or easy as a CRT for that.
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Or you could always do the editing standing on your head. 🙂
Charlie
ProductionKing Video Services
Las Vegas, Nevada
Charlie@proking.net -
Charlie, you are a genious! Why didn’t I think of that? Now go back to retirement and don’t come out again! 🙂
Chaz Shukat
Author of “EDITING REALITY”
http://www.chazmoedit.com -
[Chaz Shukat] “Now go back to retirement and don’t come out again! :)”
But I get bored. I have to come out ocassionally, and spout out words of wisdom gained from my many years of experience.
Charlie
ProductionKing Video Services
Las Vegas, Nevada
Charlie@proking.net -
Hi Chaz,
Guess I’m probably a little late on this… If you’re working in FCP,
Get this to flip the clips:
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/rotateClips/index.html
As for when to do the PAL/NTSC transfer, it depends whether you are going to use NTSC footage in the edit. If you are mixing a lot of footage, it’s best to convert everything to NTSC before the edit. If everything is PAL, then you edit in a PAL timeline.
>And if I use FCP, should I work in ProRes422 or HDV?
I’ll go with ProRes.
cheers,
G
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