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Cross Platform Setup Woes
We’re starting a new cross platform (MAC and PC) that has really went astray from the get go… I have not been involved until this point (clip handover).
Now please understand I am a Premiere Pro user… so some of my terms are referring to PP.
The guys logging footage use Mac and have imported the media cards (SxS, P2, AVCHD and miniDV) using FCP. I believe they have simply created a new project with settings of XDCAM EX 720p 24fps (their highest end footage from an Ex-1) and brought all the footage in. They have edited some clips and I have seen the end product witch resulted in some major jerky footage, squished clips etc. It’s messy. Seems there was no regard in the project for the various media formats being used. This ‘project file’ is not of a concern and will be redone properly.
I have been given the external drive to copy the ‘so called’ RAW footage to begin editing in PP. Using macDrive I can see the drive… From the drive structure it seems during capture they created ‘bins’ in their project and the clips imported into FCP are stored in folders on the drive with the same name as the bins. Ie. a bin in the project named “may 21” would have a folder on the harddrive called “may 21” with the clips in it. I also found another folder called “Capture Scratch”. I was hoping these would be RAW files from the Cards in their native format but not so. Again they are all .mov files. This folder has 1528 video files in it. All in .mov format. Some I can view on my PC most I cannot. These are the files I need to continue with our project.
Now I have not checked all the clips, there are too many. But some random ones I tried are; (information from movie inspector in Quicktime)
I can view…
Apple ProRes 422 1920 x 1080, 29.97fpsI cannot see…
DVCPRO HD 720p60 1248 x 702, 59.94fps
HDV 1080i60 1888 x 1080, 29.97fpsI understand the SxS media and P2 cards etc shoud have been backed up in their native format. But this did not happen. The RAW clips are long gone.
I do have access to a Mac with Final Cut. And of course I have the external drive with the original project and files.
I have been editing in premiere for 9 years and am not about to switch to Final Cut for this project.
So my questions are…
Should I export all the clips from FCP using AvidxHD codec? I would need to mass convert. Exporting one clip at a time would take days. Or do I buy RayLight or similar to make my PC view the files? Or some easrier ideas?
Also, I have only edited in the past DV NTSC from MiniDV from our GL2’s. Now that we are running a magnitude of various cameras (HD, SD, 24p, 30p, 60i etc.) I really need a crash course in project settings when bringing in various types of footage. The different frame rates, aspect ratios etc. will result in a poor production if done improperly I’m sure. Anyone have any tutorials on this?
Thank you so much!
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1 Reply
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I’ll try and give you a few bits here.
It sounds like a typical FCP editor that thinks this is ‘native’ media when in fact everything ends up as a quicktime. Chalk one up for Apple marketing. In CS4 you really can edit of the SxS but that’s another whole story.
To set up between FCP and Adobe, you might check out this blog and video: https://blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable/2007/06/adobe_production_premium_cs3_a.html
If you have to convert files, I would convert them to a more hospitable quicktime codec or to an AVI codec depending on what platform you end up editing on. If you’re using CS4, the Adobe Media Encoder will allow you to batch convert. Then for editing, Premiere Pro CS4 should be able to mix and match any of the codecs without much difficulty. If you’re using CS3 and earlier, then I would probably have to decide based on the what the bulk of the material was captured as. If it’s this QT ProRes, the above link should show you how to build a custom preset.
Hope this helps.
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