anyone editing P2

[Shane Ross]

I will be in January…and have successfully using 5.0.4 and 5.1.1. But 5.1.2 is a new beast I hear…and many people are having issues.

Why not post this question in the P2 forum…and search it for the issues people are having:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_view_posts.cgi?forumid=193

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Jeremy Garchow]

Yes. Input tips? Keep your cards organized on set and import by selecting import > P2.

Jeremy

[Izoneguy]

I have been since March. If your not running 5.1.2…
then upgrade before Dec 20th.
I usually copy cards in the field.
Use P2 log to have a quick look.
You could see them in FCP but the screen size
is to small.

[Dave Jenkins]

[izoneguy] “Use P2 log to have a quick look.”
What is P2 Log?

[Jeremy Garchow]

https://www.imagineproducts.com/P2log.htm

P2 Log was a good thing before the P2 import functionality of FCP 5.1.2.

Jeremy

[Jerry Hofmann]

BACK UP THE DATA FROM THE CARDS ON SET.

With a dual layer DVD burner, you can put one card per DVD in a storage that might save your patootie…

Have a student who just copied to a FW drive, then the drive failed later… cost her 1k to have a drive recovery service get it back… Data rescue wouldn’t get but about half of it back, so she sent off to a recovery service that got it all… NOT CHEAP. don’t trust HD’s for a backup… just isn’t very smart.

Posts skew towards problems don’t forget. At the school I teach at part time, we shot at least 20 shorts with this camera, and a couple of long form docs… nary a problem so far in post…. use 5.1.2, it rocks with P2.

Jerry

P.S. I’m flabergasted with the look you can achieve with this camera if lit properly. It’s really wonderful.

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Izoneguy]

I purchased it before 5.1.2….
I think it is still very useful for $100.
5.1.2 import is good but you can not get
a full-screen preview unless you
import and make a QT….
Many times I just want to check
something and if we don’t
have a monitor connected
to camera than viewing
from my G4 laptop on the 17″
monitor can spot many problems
and saves time on-set.

[Bret Williams]

I just finished a project. Once I figured out 5.1.2’s import system it was a breeze. We used DV format and loaded in about 100gigs. Took a couple hours for the import. Once it was in, we discovered that the default for import was lose the pulldown on the 24p footage, making it native 24p, not 29.97. Considering we had already organized our bins and such, AND edited one short sequence, it was nice that I was able to make all the clips in the bins “offline” (and deleting them) and then re-dig them and it all linked back up automatically. The sequence no longer needed to be rendered. So, make sure the check box for pulldown is the way you want it in the import prefs for p2. Don’t remove pulldown if you need it to be 29.97 and you’ll save yourself another import session.

The import dialog isn’t really an import dialog. It actually opens a whole log and capture type interface. It took me a few minutes to get the idea. On the upper left quadrant, you mount your “tapes” which are actualy the folders from the P2 cards. These folders should actually be on a separate hard drive, as others have mentioned. (Normally you shoot with a couple cards, swapping them out when they’re full to copy one to a drive while you shoot on the other.)
Once a folder of clips is mounted, you can double click on them and “log” them like a tape. Set mark in/out, make comments, enter descriptions, etc. Once logged they go into the lower left quadrant which is what is going to get imported (copied) to your regular media drive(s). Don’t copy them back to the same hard drive. Remember, you don’t have any tapes. The hard drive with your original P2 data IS your tape. If it has everything and dies, well, you’re up the creek then. Best to make a copy of that drive as well. P2 starts to look like it’s not all it’s cracked up to be? Read on.

Do not for any reason change the name of the P2 clips. If you must change the name in some way, leave the original P2 alphanumeric name and add something after it. Why? Because you don’t have any tapes. All the TC info in the world won’t help you relink a clip if you don’t have a tape. Instead, you have a hard drive of clips. How to find the right clip with the right tc to relink to? You’d have to open every clip up and look at the TC yourself. In P2 the alphanumeric name given to the clips IS your lifeline, not TC and tape numbers. So if you like Scene names and other data to be the name of your clip, P2 may not be for you. And yeah, it does affect your workflow when trying to find clips in bins. You’ll want to use other fields like comments and description to sort clips in bins and such.

So, my take on P2 was that for a big project like we did, was that little time was saved at all if any. In fact, by the time the week was out, continual searching in bins for poorly labeled clips slowed us down a bit, and hunting for spots IN the timeline was slower as well because the scene number wasn’t the clip name.

Strangely, editng and working with P2 was almost completely akin to working in a LINEAR suite. Since we just copied the files over to the drive we had very long takes. Shots were only marked as good or bad on paper log notes if at all. So it reminded me of working with a producer in a linear suite. With no clip names it was contunually… “let’s look at the take at 2:20:15:02” and we’d pull up the shot, watch it, decide it was good or bad, etc.

The whole process would’ve been better had I or the producer actually mounted the folders and logged all the clips and made descriptions and such in the appropriate fields. Only loading and logging the required media. But, the cool thing of P2 is just copying the media and beginning the edit. Logigng would’ve been no faster than logging on tapes for the most part.

So I’m torn on P2. It sounds neat, but you end up copying and backing up so much media that it is often quicker to just load good takes off a tape, and then have the clips labeled they way you like. Having all takes available without descriptive names and info is completely akin to editing linear with a paper log. I can take it or leave it. Short form stuff is probably more beneficial.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[izoneguy] “I think it is still very useful for $100.”

It’s not $100 anymore. That was a promo deal. It now costs $200. 🙁

Jeremy

[Dave Jenkins]

Thanks for all the great info.

Dave