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Switching between formats
I am a newbie to Final Cut and have a question about working with HD footage. I am getting a bunch of digital footage that was shot in HD (720P I believe) on an external hard drive. What do I need to do to in Final Cut Pro before I import these files into Final Cut and start editing? Do I need to make sure my Easy Setup is set to something before working with the files? Is there a way to change my clips to SD without effecting the original media files? I guess, mainly I want to know how to set up final cut for working with this HD footage and then how to change the format from HD to SD and even to a format suitable for the web. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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10 Replies
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Why do you need to go to SD, and what flavor of SD? the web is not SD only. We shoot in HD all tyhe time for web.
What format of HD are you getting?
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Thanks for responding so quickly! I am getting footage from a production company that shot footage with Panasonic’s AG-HVX200A P2HD…he shot in 720p. AND I am getting footage from another company that shot in HDCam and gave me beta tapes that I am having digitized so I can edit the files in Final Cut Pro.
Here are my questions…
1. What format setting should I use in the Easy Setup Menu when I am working with HD footage that was shot with the Panasonic Camera (720p) AND HD footage that was shot with a Sony HD Camera? Is there a specific format I should choose when working on the same timeline with two different forms of HD or does that even matter? Can I just import all of these files and just edit away? (I think they are converting the beta tapes to QuickTime files)
2. I am going to be creating various promotional videos that I want to export to DVD in HD. I will also be using these promo videos on the web. I just thought putting HD on the web would take up way too much space, but it sounds like it can be done. How do I export my movie if I just want to create an HD DVD lets say? How do I export my movie if I want to post it online?
AND finally….
3. The size of the files I will be working with will obviously be huge because I am working with HD footage. When I edit should I edit in “offline mode”?Thanks again for your help!
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What frame rate is your HD material going to be?
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I am not sure….I think that the 720p stuff was shot in 24fps….not sure about other footage. Is this something I can set for both in FCP?
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[Sage DuBois] “Is this something I can set for both in FCP?”
WEll, yes and no. first you have to figure out what the frame rates for all the footage shot. Sd is of course going to b3 60i, but that would be 24p with 3:2 pulldown. 720p can be 720p24, 30 or 60 and HDCam is either 24psf or 60i. There’s lots of options and in order to choose the right settings, you have to know before hand what types of footage you have.
Jeremy
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I actually just received the external drives with our digitized footage on it (which are now QuickTime files) as well as our original HDCam tapes. I just went and looked at the tape itself and it says 24psf (with the number 50 on top) and 60i (with the number 40 on top). I am not sure how to find the frame rate on these HDCam tapes. Any ideas?
The other guy shot in 720P…I am checking on the frame rate he used.So what would be the next step if I find out that both frame rates are the same? What format should I use in my easy setup? Can I just import all of those QuickTime files in once I have specified my format? If I do specify a format, will the format of the orginal QuickTime media files be forever changed….or just the clips in my timeline will have that specified format? I hope this makes sense….thanks for baring through this with me! I am just used to importing my mini-dvs from my camera via firewire…I haven’t ever worked with HD footage like this. (I don’t even know what b3 or the 3:2 pulldown means).
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Ok Jeremy….so here is what I found out…. Some of the footage was shot in 720p30 (which he said was effectively 29.97fps). The other footage I am still not so sure about…all I know is it was shot on an HDCam tape (again on the tape is says 24psf and 60i). When I bring this HDCam footage (that has been digitized and given to me as a QuickTime file) into Final Cut it gives me a message when I drag the media file into my time line that says something like “do you want your sequence settings to match the settings of your clip?” I said yes which I hope is right. The attached image shows what my sequence settings are. So now what Easy Setup format should I choose for importing the Panasonic 720p30 footage and the HDCam footage? Is there one format I can use for both?
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Image please?
The HDCam I bet is 1080i and 720p30 is, well, 720p30. You can try to put your 720p30 clips in a 1080i sequence, but I bet it will look funny. You might haveto get a proper cross convert done come online time.
Jeremy
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Thanks Jeremy. I attached the image of my sequence settings for the HDCam footage again. So if I have footage that is 720p30 and footage that is 1080i and 29.97 fps, then what should I choose for my Easy Setup format? I am just in a crunch and need to start working with this footage and I just want to make sure I choose the right easy setup format to start working with all this footage.
Here is the image……sorry about that!
Let me try this again….So if I have footage that is 720p30 and footage that is 1080i and 29.97 fps, then what should I choose for my Easy Setup format? I am just in a crunch and need to start working with this footage and I just want to make sure I choose the right easy setup format to start working with all this footage.
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