A cautionary tale for the FCP switcher

[John Heagy]

[Lance Bachelder] “I for one still believe it’s just easier to transcode all the footage coming in to one workable codec.

I understand most NLE’s can now work with varied codecs and frame rates, but that doesn’t mean you should.”

Agreed… A paint job is only as good as the prep work prior to spraying.

In this case the prep work gives one an optimized codec and required metadata.

Time and reliability is critical as the project approaches deadline. Time spent at the beginning to prep all the files will reap rewards as the deadline approaches. This is especially important considering a project’s complexity increases the closer it is to completion.

In a fast shared environment, and a good sized Episode Engine cluster, one can transcode files far far faster than one can backup the originals. I’m currently at 1/10th realtime for AVC-I to ProRes. At the end I have a homogenous frame rate, frame size, codec and embedded Reel/Tape ID that facilitates workflows down the line.

John Heagy

[Lance Bachelder]

Exactly! On my last CG series we received footage from overseas and internally – I created a Compressor Droplet and put it on every Editors desktop so everyone could transcode to the exact same ProRES file at any time – all the files went to the SAN – super fast and easy and we never had codec issues finishing shows.

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California

[Kevin Johnson]

I can’t imagine having to tell my client “hey, we gotta stop down soon. I know we are a day away from our deadline, but the last 24 hours will be spent transcoding.”

“But we still have changes to make.”

Kevin Johnson

Autodesk Smoke Artist
FCP Editor
Washington, DC