Cutting/Finishing MC8 Project on MC5…

[Shane Ross]

[Nina Lucia] “I am taking over a project that was started in Media Composer 8 and am wondering if there are any issues that will come up if I use MC5.5.5 to continue with it.”

Yes, there are many many features that MC8 employs that MC5 cannot see…for example…

[Nina Lucia] “I have copied all the bins into a newly made project in MC5 and everything seems fine except for one thing. All the sequences have a blank effect icon on the video clips. “

You can mix footage of many types in MC8…and they will come in with either a T (temporal, different frame rate) or an S for SPATIAL, meaning that the frame size of the clip is different that then project, so the FRAME FLEX effect comes into play, or C meaning that a color adapter is on the clip (LUT). None of these will be seen by MC5.

[Nina Lucia] “Does this have to do with the new Color Management in later versions? Based on a QT output made in MC8, the color I’m seeing in the Avid is washed out so perhaps there’s a LUT that’s not applied in MC5 because it doesn’t have the Color Management?”

Correct. There’s color management on the clip that MC5 can’t see.

[Nina Lucia] “If so, why does it not show up if I’m cutting in dailies now in MC5 but the sequences from MC8 have the effect icon on them? Wouldn’t that be something that’s in the clips not the sequence?”

Because when you cut the footage into a sequence in MC 8…it adds those markers to the clip. And it stays there…it has been applied. But when you use MC5 and cut the clip into a sequence, nothing is added, so you don’t see those markers. They only appear when footage is added to a sequence.

[Nina Lucia] “Is there any reason I should be concerned about this?”

Well, footage shot 4K and used in 1080 in MC8 allows for re-framing without loss of quality, as MC 8 allows the full resolution to be maintained. MC5 can’t do that, so if any footage was shot with that intention, you can’t address it properly. You can’t apply any LUTs to the footage, you’ll have to grade it manually. So it’ll appear very grey and washd out until you correct it. Some bins might not open, as bins in later versions have new features that prevent previous versions from opening them.

[Nina Lucia] “Also, just for fun I tried opening the MC8 project in MC5.5.5 and it opened fine and I could open bins and see the edit. I’m going to use the project I made in MC5 with the bins copied into it, but is the project supposed to be backwards compatible like that?”

Not quite THAT far back. Every version adds new features, and often those features won’t work in previous versions. Sounds like you haven’t hit those roadblocks yet.

Shane
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[Nina Lucia]

Thanks Shane!

We’re using DNxHD36 Avid media so it will have to be onlined later. So as long as I can open all the bins and manually color I should be fine? I added color correction on an empty video track above and it seems fine for the whole thing so that was easy.

The Dailies bins all have “kem rolls” in them of all the clips so I can cut into the sequence from those to retain the LUT from MC8 so if it goes back to an MC8 project for anything in the future it will be there. Does that sound right?

[Nina Lucia]

Hm… can’t find the “edit post” button now.

Wanted to add that this is not a complicated film so there doesn’t seem to be anything like Flex Frame used or anything much other than some standard resizing. I don’t expect anything complex to arise for this in the future.

And yes, it’s THAT old of a version but it is fully paid for and I have the Boris FX suite and a lot of other stuff that came with it and it still works! So I’m fine with it for small projects I cut at home. 🙂

[Shane Ross]

[Nina Lucia] “The Dailies bins all have “kem rolls” in them of all the clips so I can cut into the sequence from those to retain the LUT from MC8 so if it goes back to an MC8 project for anything in the future it will be there. Does that sound right?”

Wish I could answer that, but not having gone from MC 8 to anything earlier than MC7, I can’t say.

Shane
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Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[John Pale]

The blank effect sounds very much like Frame Flex, a Motion Adapter, or color management, as it kicks in automatically on any footage that doesn’t conform to the project settings. MC 5 would not have any clue about what this is.

Without knowing the technical particulars of the project, I can’t say how this would affect onlining later. Might be meaningless, might be very important.

If there is any way possible, I’d look into getting the trial of MC 8.x and cutting with that. The trial is fully functional (30 days, I think, unless they have changed it).