FCP destoyed my original footage.

[Shane Ross]

FCP cannot modify master clips in this way. FCP works with media in “non-destructive” ways, meaning that all the changes to clips occur within the program…the original files are untouched. Add filters, subclip, razor…all of that…doesn’t effect the source footage in the slightest

Are you sure the reel didn’t look like that in the first place? Due to some pilot error somewhere down the line? Is this the ONLY copy of the footage you have? Does the Telecine house have a copy of the footage that you might compare?

Shane

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[Dean Sensui]

Sounds like you worked on the originals instead of making duplicates and working with those.

Whether the material originates from a camera or a scanner, one should always archive the source material first, then work on copies. That way there’s always something to go back to.

And Shane is right. There’s no way for FCP to foul up the original media unless you had FCP export a modified version of the material on the sequence, and over-wrote the original media with the same names. However, that’s also unlikely as FCP doesn’t allow one to overwrite files that are in-use within FCP.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Dean Sensui]

Regarding legal recourse, an attorney is about $300/hour. Maybe more. It’ll take several hours to consult with an attorney, gather all the required evidence and file a case. Even then it might get tossed out of court if a judge decides that you didn’t take normal precautions to protect your source material.

Compare all that — along with the usual costs of delay — to the cost of re-digitizing the film.

Better to consult with the telecine service and see if a deal can be worked out, or to determine if they might have made a mistake and inadvertently applied a mask to the film transfer.

Hope it works out OK for you.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Ed Sully]

Thats exactly what an editor in hollywood i talked to said, as well as an editor that works with me. Were all perplexed at how this could have happened but i am 100% certain that the footage did not originally have blackbars because i directed it and was there in the telecine house when they were doing color correction on the davinci system. I can also tell it was the work of FCP because i noticed that there was a certain fuzzyness to the edges of the “widescreen” effect bars, whereas using slugs gave a sharper edge.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 and i should have made a copy, but i have not seen the likes of this on any other NLE for the 10 years i have been working on them, so i never saw a reason to do a backup. I do have the original film, but i highly doubt that telecine kept a digital copy.

I guess FCP is no longer a NLE.

[Ed Sully]

I just wanted to know about legal recourses in such an event should FCP cost me more than the thousand(s) it already has from this one event, but i dont forsee any reason why i should use an apple product in the future. Making the same mistake twice wouldnt hold up in court anyways.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Ed Sully] “I opened the original footage outside of FCP and found to my horror that indeed the letterboxing effect had been permanently applied to one of four rolls. I tried opening old saves before the effect had been applied and this did nothing, so indeed FCP has screwed me complete. Has this happened to anyone else? Do i have any legal recourse against apple?”

I’m with Shane on this. FCP can’t possibly do this to your original media. The only way this can happen is for you to Export > Quicktime Movie > Make Self Contained Movie and name it the EXACT same name as the original.

But even there, FCP would stop you and tell you the file is in use and cannot be modified.

There’s an operator error somewhere along the way and I’m thinking it was in the transfer.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Ed Sully] “but i dont forsee any reason why i should use an apple product in the future. Making the same mistake twice wouldnt hold up in court anyways.”

That’s your choice, but Apple did not cause this issue.

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!
Read my Blog!

[Dean Sensui]

Just curious: how much experience do you have with FCP?

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Ed Sully]

I already stated i have 10 years experience on NLE’s, and they are all more or less the same.

[Dean Sensui]

[Ed Sully] “After getting my footage back from telecine, i spent a few days breaking it up”

BTW, is the media file now broken up into short clips, or is it still a single, unbroken file?

If it’s cut up then the foulup was something that doesn’t happen with FCP. Cutting up a clip in FCP doesn’t cut apart the original media file. Instead, each clip within the sequence merely points to various in and out points along the contiguous media file.

If your original media file is now cut up into separate pieces, then your problem is due to something more than simple editing from within FCP.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing