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F900 capture – how to break into individual clips?
Hello all,
I am relatively new to the world of editing, so I hope you will forgive what may be a slightly uneducated question. My company recently shot around 4hrs of a promotional tourism video on a Sony F900, spread over seven tapes. The tapes require a Sony JH-3 to digitize them – a piece of kit we do not own – and we are therefore outsourcing the digitization and ‘capture’ process to a studio. The studio will, I understand, produce a series of Prores HQ files ready for offline editing.
My question is: is it feasible to ask the studio to capture these tapes into individual takes? By this I mean according to the physical timecode breaks on the tape – corresponding to when the cameraman hit ‘pause.’ To put it another way, can the studio rig the capture process so that, each time there is a timecode break, FCP creates a new Prores file?
If the answer to the above is no, I guess I will be getting seven Prores HQ files, each roughly 35mins in length. What would be the most efficient way of breaking these down into individual takes within FCP, again according to timecode breaks?
Many thanks indeed in advance.
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6 Replies
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[Michael Pye] “is it feasible to ask the studio to capture these tapes into individual takes? “
Yes, if you pay them for their time. Logging and Capturing takes time. As long as you are willing to pay, they can do. OR…you can save money and learn about SUBCLIPPING. Making clips (not new media, just separated clips in FCP) that point to sections of one big full tape capture. Grab that manual and read all about them.
[Michael Pye] “By this I mean according to the physical timecode breaks on the tape – corresponding to when the cameraman hit ‘pause.’ “
There won’t be any timecode breaks, unless they shot TIME OF DAY code. IN which case, if there ARE timecode breaks and they DID shoot time of day, then there will be no choice BUT to capture individual clips. To maintain timecode integrity…which is VERY important. Normally the timecode is continuous on the tape, regardless of start and stops.
[Michael Pye] “What would be the most efficient way of breaking these down into individual takes within FCP, again according to timecode breaks? “
SUBCLIP!
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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Shane,
Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. I will definitely investigate look into the ‘time of day’ mode for the future – in your view, does this highlight a possible advantage of using a flash media-based camera e.g. an EX3 – precisely because these *do* create separate clips as you shoot?
As concerns software, however, was it naive for me to have wondered whether there is a function in FCP which can analyze a full-tape capture and identify where the breaks are, hence subclipping automatically? I ask this question out of curiosity rather than laziness – I am familiar and comfortable with the manual procedure!
Thanks,
Michael
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[Michael Pye] “n your view, does this highlight a possible advantage of using a flash media-based camera e.g. an EX3 – precisely because these *do* create separate clips as you shoot? “
Well, yes and no. I have used the Panasonic P2 camera, the first tapeless format, for years. And it does the same thing, one clip every time you start and stop. And I both like and hate it. Like it if it is a narrative piece, but if it is a doc, and I want to scrub through all the footage quickly, this can be a pain. Just depends on your point of view.
[Michael Pye] “there is a function in FCP which can analyze a full-tape capture and identify where the breaks are, hence subclipping automatically?”
There is, but only with DV footage captured via firewire. It is called DV START/STOP DETECT, and it will detect the camera pauses and make MARKERS, which you can then convert to subclips. This feature, however, is only for DV.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Shane,
Thank you again for your advice, which was very helpful. As it happens I have an old DV capture I have been intending to edit for a while, so I applied the detect function to that and it worked reasonably well. The only issue is that it marks the first frame of each take, with the result of course that you can cannot use the marks as out points – doing so adds frame of the next take to the your clip … all in all, it seems manual sub-clipping is the way forward, as you originally suggested.
Michael
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Definitely subclip manually. This is a great way to screen your footage and you can also add markers at the same time which will help you when you’re searching for a specific shot.
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May I thank both of you for taking the time to reply to what I now realise was a fairly basic question. Your forebearance is much appreciated!
– Michael
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