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FCP 6 meets flipcam- unhappily
Hi all,
What I hope is an easy question for you FCP gurus out there…
A client wants to use FCP 6 to edit from a flip cam. The final product is going to the web, thus the lack of concern over quality.We converted the Flipcam file to a .mov file, 30 fps & 640×480 but the FCP6 timeline didn’t adjust to accomodate it. No matter how many times I tried to manually set the Timeline Preferences to match the clips, the clips on the timeline needed both audio and video to be rendered.
I thought FCP6 automatically created timelines to match the first clip in a project. What am I doing wrong?
Elizabeth
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14 Replies
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FCP will adjust a sequence to match footage that it recognises as an editing codec. It is also expecting a frame size that matches a standard and a frame rate as well.
Depending on the flavour of the flipcam footage, you should convert it to a frame size that FCP is happy with. So if the footage is 25 fps, then 720 x 576 is a standard PAL frame rate. If it is 29.97 then 720 x 480 will look good. Of course you should choose a codec as well. .mov is a wrapper. Did you use an editing codec like ProRes, DV or uncompressed?
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Michael,
thanks for your thoughts.
The media was converted using a utility provided by flipcam for those editing on Mac. The we converted it again using Clipstream (I think that’s the name of the utility.)
By looking at the parameters of the clips in the browser columns, I was able to glean that they are 640×480 and 30 fps. Both of which are options for timelines, and both of which I plugged into the timeline preferences. Yet still the clips on the timeline needed to be rendered.
Elizabeth -
And the codec?
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Hmm, I guess I am not clear on that. And I don’t have the clients laptop in front of me. I made the timeline an NTSC, but that was just a guess– a wrong one. I wasn’t sure what the clips were.
Why isn’t FCP6 figuring this out for me? -
[Elizabeth McGraw-Austin] “Why isn’t FCP6 figuring this out for me?”
Probably a non-recognized codec like Michael has been saying all along.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Walter, Michael,
Ok, I see what you’re saying. Does anyone on the forum have an alchemical conversion workflow to turn flipcam media into something FCP can recognize?
Elizabeth -
[Elizabeth McGraw-Austin] “Why isn’t FCP6 figuring this out for me?”
Because it can only do so much. It needs the clips to match a list of codecs, frame rates and frames sizes. If you have chosen a codec, rate or frames size that it has to render, then your clips are not in a format that FCp can automatically match your sequence settings to.
Thee are lots of variations in video land that FCP can work with. There are however, many more variations that it can’t edit natively. You need to choose a combination within the long list that FCP can edit without render.
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Flipcam records in h.264 You need to convert the files into an editable codec. I would suggest DV since it is the easiest for you to work with. MPEGStreamclip is what you need. Once again, make sure you convert the files to DV NTSC.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Thanks, Steve (and Michael and Walter).
I’ll try this when I meet with her tomorrow. Now to hunt down that tutorial for doing conversions in MPEG Streamclip.
Elizabeth -
[Elizabeth McGraw-Austin] “We converted the Flipcam file to a .mov file”
Like the others said your not converting it to a FCP friendly codec.
Simply convert the videos to match your FCP time line.I once had to use a small amount of video from the FlipUltraHD I converted the files to ProRes and they worked fine for me.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!
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