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Can FCPX easily do this kind of conforming work?
Okay, I created a temporary trailer-length promo from locked, but unfinished picture–DVCproHD–to be shown at MIPCOM. Now, I need to conform this work to finished picture–ProResHQ–and audio stems for purposes of both broadcast and ancillary sales. There are numerous filters–some of which I will retain and adjust, some of which had to do with temp picture quality and will need to be tossed–and a DIA/SOT track that has about 66% enhanced audio that I wish to keep, and about 34% that I wish to replace. The master I’m working from has a stereo mix, an M&E mix and a 5.1 mix over 10 tracks. The audio stems I have are from a different version of the master that was constructed for a different market, with some additional scenes and some scenes cut. I will retain all my added SFX and MU tracks.
In FCS, this process is an easy: A) I make an EDL of the video track and Stereo mix, and than import it in the proper ProResHQ timeline. I do this to strip out all filters, CODEC metadata, and levels metadata. B) I then paste the entire contents of the temp DVCproHD timeline into a new ProResHQ timeline, and then C) paste the video track from the EDL timeline directly above. I then go shot by shot, replacing the footage–discarding the filters I don’t want, keeping those I do, making adjustments for speed, etc. I then repeat the process with the Stereo mix, though with side by side timelines instead of track over track. I then use the timecode overlays to line up any remaining audio I wish to replace–say, four or five bits–from the DIA/SOT stems. I do this, in this case, because the stems are actually from a different version of the movie, and do not line up, but can be figured out by an offset from each commercial break. Then, I mix and I’m done.
It is a fast and efficient process, but very granular, in that I have direct contact with every element I am replacing.
Is this something that is easy to do with FCP X? I’n genuinely asking, since I don’t know the deeper recesses of FCPX. So, how do you conform easily?
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24 Replies
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Just to clarify, did the footage originate in DVCProHD or ProResHQ?
Where do you have the current edit in FCP 7 or FCP X, or just an EDL?
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
You don’t. In FCPX you would basically have to rebuild the project from scratch by hand. I’ve done it, but it took two machines, one for the FCP7 project and one for the FCPX project, manually taking input from one machine and loading it into the other.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
What’s your source? P2? Tape? What’s your master? Just an HQ file?
Jeremy
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[Timothy Payton] “Just to clarify, did the footage originate in DVCProHD or ProResHQ?
Where do you have the current edit in FCP 7 or FCP X, or just an EDL?
“I don’t think the original format is germane to my question. I have no idea what the feature originated on, though probably 2K. The DVCProHD locked-picture was undoubtedly just a dump from an Avid. The ProResHQ master is the property of my client (a very large International television conglomerate).
I’m already done with the conform. I’m not asking how to do it. I’ve been doing it for years. I was laying bare my process in FCS. I want to know how someone would theoretically tackle such a problem in FCP X. For a theoretical answer, you can assume that the original temp trailer was cut using FCP X from an Avid dump and than has to be conformed to a new FCP X master.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “What’s your source? P2? Tape? What’s your master? Just an HQ file?
“My source is a single file–probably an Avid dump with locked picture–on DVCproHD. The master I have to conform to is a ProResHQ file with separate audio stems that do not completely match picture.
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First of all, thanks, Chris. There’s nothing like talking about reality. This is a great case study.
[Chris Harlan] “I don’t think the original format is germane to my question. “
It kind of is. If using cam masters, then going from proxy to high quality is literally a preference change provided that you made proxies and high quality versions on ingest. If you didn’t, then you’d have to transcode to the HQ media, which is also a fairly easy process in X.
In your case, where you are conforming two separate sources, you’d have to do a lot of hand matching.
This job probably isn’t totally suitable for X as there’s no EDL, but since it seems to do a lot of hand matching anyway, you could just simply replace the elements that you need in the X timeline from the HQ master. I’d assign Roles to the orig edit as “original audio/original video” for the stuff that you will no longer need. You could throw the video from the original edit up above as connected clips to gaps and then add the HQ media to the primary, until you needed it to be a secondary, then you’d throw it in a secondary. Once complete, you could mute the “Original” roles and check it out.
As far as the filters, FCPX allows copying and pasting the filters you need, so you’d select what you want to keep, turn off the ones you don’t, then Copy > Paste Effects. Works for audio keyframes, too.
Then you can assign Roles to the stems, you will then have your mutlitrack export however you need it.
Basically, it’s the same process, just no EDL guide track, unless I’m missing something.
Jeremy
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Basically, it’s the same process, just no EDL guide track, unless I’m missing something.
“I think you ARE missing something. The EDL pulls all my cuts for me (in order and to the frame), and syncs up DIA/SOT from all sources other than the stems. If it weren’t complicated by a mixture of filters I could just do the whole thing automatically. It only took me 15 minutes using the EDL import, whereas fitting by hand would probably take half a day. Syncing the bites from the mismatched stem is also very easy using the timecode window.
I have to do this kind of stuff all the time. From all sorts of sources. From all sorts of people. At all different levels of completion. My guess is that FCP X is an absolute FAIL at this kind of work, but since I haven’t gotten in as deep as some here I’m asking if there is something I’m missing. See–though it is seldom mentioned here–its stuff like this that will keep it out of Hollywood.
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[Chris Harlan] “It only took me 15 minutes using the EDL import, whereas fitting by hand would probably take half a day.”
Yeah, there’s no EDL in FCPX. I thought we all knew that. That’s why we said it’s not suitable.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “[Chris Harlan] “It only took me 15 minutes using the EDL import, whereas fitting by hand would probably take half a day.”
Yeah, there’s no EDL in FCPX. I thought we all knew that. That’s why we said it’s not suitable.
“Certainly, I know that. What I’m asking is HOW do you do a conform from disparate sources in FCP X?
Can you? Forget about the EDL. Let’s say that my project was nowhere near as complicated. Let’s say my project was very straight forward–which it is often not–and all I have to do is conform the temp trailer to a finished version with video and audio from the new master, which has matching timecode to my temp source. Can I do something that simple and essential in FCP X or do I have to conform all by hand, one shot at a time?
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[Chris Harlan] “Forget about the EDL. “
I explained (as did Tom) how it’s done. There’s no EDL, there’s no reconnect.
You can do the edit in FCPx, then translate it out back to FCP7 if you want for further interchange.
You must take pleasure in hearing me say this, but hear it is for the fourth time this thread, FCPX is not suitable for this job at this time.
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