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5D workflow in FCP
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[Jason Brown] “I like the look with the 5D and I’ve never been able to have the capabilities with the lens options that I’ll have with a 5D and the lenses we’re taking.”
Have you ever used a lens adaptor such as a letus, redrock or p+s? You can stick those exact same lenses on the front of an HVX.
Jeremy
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My biggest recommendation is to bring a hood or an external monitor with HDMI to be able to pull focus. Trying to look at the back of the camera in daylight is really difficult. You cannot look through the lens when you are shooting! Also make sure to check out prolost.com to back off the sharpening and contrast as well as to turn on the highlight smoothing features to get a good exposure to grade. I am in love with everything the 5D represents thus far and it is only going to get better. You will need ND filters to keep the right shutter angle in bright daylight.
One of our local documentary crews have been using 5d’s abroad for their next film. Thanks Canon! (Please feel free to make it 10bit raw or turn on the HDMI so we can all buy Kipros)
good luck,
James
Also if you have not seen synth eyes product for syncing your dual system you will be very happy as you life will be much easier.
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No, never have.
Where do I find those lens adapters?
-Jason
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[Jason Brown] “Where do I find those lens adapters?”
When I said depth of field adaptor, that’s what I was saying. In essence, a lens apaptor.
Letus:
redrock:
P+S technik:
https://www.pstechnik.de/en/index.php
Jeremy
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Hi Jason,
I use a Canon 5D mkII sometimes and what you suggest is feasible, but you definitely will want set up your rigs weeks ahead of time, do some simple tests and work out your preferred workflow.
The 5D mkII shoots at 30fps so you will want “conform” to 29.97 using Cinema Tools. This doesn’t really change the video file, it simply changes the clip header information from 30fps to 29.97 and there is no rendering at all. It is an almost instant process and an entire folder of 40 or so clips will take only seconds to complete, no matter how big the media file. The clips now will play at 29.97fps in Final Cut Pro and QT Player (depending on host CPU), which of course means they are playing with a .1% slowdown and any audio clip recorded double system to be synced later will have to be slowed .1% also. As I said, it doesn’t process the video itself, but if this makes you nervous you can backup the camera original files before doing it. Only after conforming the clips do you do any transcoding to your favorite codec for editing in FCP. I prefer ProRes. Here is the conforming workflow:
Start Cinema tools > Get past the opening dialogs about making a new database, etc. (not needed) > select “Batch Conform” from the “File” menu > in the resulting dialog, navigate to the folder with your media in it and select the first clip listed and click “open” > in the resulting dialog select from the menu the speed you want to conform your footage to (29.97) and click “Conform.”
In a matter of a few seconds your clips will be conformed to playback at 29.97 and placed with a new folder labelled “conformed 29.97” within the folder they started in. If the original THM files (camera metadata files not usable by FCP at this time) were in the initial folder then they remain there, separated from the matching camera media files now moved into the new folder I just noted.
You can now transcode these files to whatever available codec in MPEG Streamclip or Compressor to facilitate editing. Incidentally, you can shoot 60p on the 7D and conform using this method to 30, 24, 25 (what ever the editing timebase) for true slow motion.
FWIW, using the Canon 5D mkII or 7D involves some workarounds, which you seem to be aware of, but if you want a markedly limited depth of field, it gets my vote over using a camcorder with a 35mm lens/depth of field converter which are clunky, expensive devices which require a lot of tweaking and futzing. The stuff Bouke links to above looks like it deserves a serious look.
Good luck,
-Russ
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Great…thanks for the info on the workflow.
That’s almost the exact same process I did use, with the exception that I conformed to 29.97 AND transcoded to ProRes in one step in Compressor.
I recorded a 6 minute clip…with audio recorded to the Zoom H4n audio recorder…and I had NO sync issues. I had read that I’d have to slow audio down 99.9%, BUT at the beginning of my clip and at the END of my 6 minute clip…the audio was still in sync.
I don’t know why the sync didn’t drop out like I’ve read, but in my testing…I haven’t experienced audio sync issues with the conversion from 30 to 29.97.
Any thoughts?
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Bouke –
I have a few tests I’ve ran…just sitting at a desk.
The tests I did were with the 7D at all 3 frame rate options. 23.98 – 29.97 at 1080 – and 59.94 recorded at 720.
I can post them somewhere if you want them:
-Jason
*they aren’t very scientific…no lighting…no specific framing or focusing…just simply a technical workflow test with on camera talking for sync*
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Even though I probably won’t be using this 2 camera option anymore…I did get this working…once I collapse, it changes back to real time…sequence codec…full playback. I don’t know why it didn’t the other day. I restarted and it’s all working as you described Jeremy. Thanks!
-Jason
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[Russ Johnson] “Only after conforming the clips do you do any transcoding to your favorite codec for editing in FCP. I prefer ProRes. Here is the conforming workflow: “
Are you really able to conform H264 in CinemaTools?
Here with standard H264 is impossible.
If you are able to conform the H264 from the Canon, that means that the camera is making a kind of “Intraframe H264”.
rafael -
Hi Rafael,
All that is changed is the fps spec in the clip header. It doesn’t mean that it is intraframe media.
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