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Many different video formats for large documentary. Final file 1080p
Hi all,
I have a very serious question.
Myself and other have been working on a documentary for about 2 years now, we got buckets and buckets of footage all in different formats from different cameras. Some HD some SD.
The final product will be 1080p for theatrical release.My question is, what is the best editing workflow? I’m using FCP 7 on an i7 machine, with raid drives.
Before I start laying down the sequences in the timeline, I’d like your expert opinions on what sequence settings I should use / best option in my situation.
It would be ridiculous to upres all our 400 hours of footage, instead I was thinking of upresing any SD in the final 90 minute final product once I’ve got that.Anyway, any tried and proven answers very welcome!
I’ll be editing full time for the next 6 months so I want to be sure this is the best solution!
Thank you! -
10 Replies
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How much tape based SD do you have?
How well is it logged?
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For your own ease and sanity I would edit in the native format of the majority of footage (dv ntsc?), export in this format, then convert the final quicktime. Hopefully its all anamorphic dv so you have no aspect issues.
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Sounds like a traditional offline/online situation. Formats isn’t as much of a prob as frame rate. Do you have all sorts of frame rates to work with, 29.97, 24N, 60p, etc?
If it’s just a matter of formats but all rates are the same, then that’s not a huge deal.
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Television Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com -
Its all same framerates.
Footage is mix of handcam stuff, panasonic HVX200 mini DV and 720p.
Final file should be 1080p.Please let me know best solution.
Thanks
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I dont think that would be smart because then assuming that the majority is SD, I’d be down-converting the 720 footage, only to upres it back up to 1080 later…..?
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Got a few hundred hours of SD I think.
Its all logged perfectly into nice bins and themes. -
Is there any reason you would want to ingest all of those hours?
My initial instinct would be to ‘paper edit’ from the logs and get the number of hours down first. Unless there’s some specific reason for capturing all of it, there’s just no way you need to ingest all of that footage.
I’d work in the format you intent to deliver on. So in your case a 1080p ProRes sequence.
If you have the diskspace and a capable i/o (mxo2 etc), I would uprez on ingest.
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[julian stewart] “It would be ridiculous to upres all our 400 hours of footage, instead I was thinking of upresing any SD in the final 90 minute final product once I’ve got that.”
I agree in part. If you have HD footage that doesn’t conform to the specs of your final timeline, I would convert all of that footage to match your final sequence settings so you can edit that footage without having to render. For the SD footage, unless the majority of your cut is going to be drawn from the SD footage, I would leave it in its native format, accepting that you’ll have to deal with some degree of rendering with those clips in the 1080p timeline. As you get closer to a rough cut and have made more definitive decisions regarding the usage of those SD clips, then you could start adjusting and converting them to match your 1080p timeline.
Cameron Clendaniel | http://www.camclendaniel.com
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Edit all in their native formats. Then when you have locked picture, separate all the footage onto different video tracks…each video track containing a certain footage type. Then convert what needs to be converted. I’d opt for a Terranex myself…output the SD to a tape, or a file, and have that upscaled, then drop it back in. Did this for a few shows. Or, media manage the separated SD footage as “CREATE OFFLINE” and choose the recapture codec as DVCPRO HD 720p. Then recapture only the footage used in the show via a capture card that has hardware upconvert capabilities. Kona 3, Kona LHi, Mxo2…
if you main footage is DVCPRO HD 720p…then upscale to that. Upscale to the main format. Then you can cross-convert to 1080p as you output…or…better yet…talk to the company that will be doing the theatrical output. They know what they need to get from you.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
AWESOME.
Thanks Shane!Just the answer I was looking for.
Greatly appreciate your help!
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