Help me appreciate FinalCut

[Tom Wolsky]

I know many, many people who capture entire tapes, or at least long sections of tape. It’s a very common workflow with DV and/or offline material.

Start/stop detect with DV25 material only works post capture, not during capture.

I don’t understand the STP part. if you take a whole FCP project into STP it’s a multitrack project and has nothing to do with destructive or non-destructive. If you take long clips into STP and edit an audio project file non-destructively you have the advantage of being able to apply a filter to the entire track, affecting all of the material for that media file and not have to do it on a clip by clip basis. That can be useful, or it can be a pain, depending on what you want to do.

[Jim Waterwash]

Your point is taken on the re-encoding that occurs when breaking the clip up. I assumed I was loosing no image quality when FCP’s media manager chopped it up.

I think the one advantage to shuttling through stuff on a hard drive, is that if its on a hard drive, at least you still can more easily go and grab that sound of a bird that was on that shaky clip that you decided not to use. You can even mark it in case you want to use it.

The traditional way seems to put more emphasis on doing it right the first pass, before you have worked with your video. Sometimes, its not until I’ve worked a bit with a video that I realize that I could use the sound of that bird. I admit that is partly from inexperience, having only had a few years semi-pro experience. Its hard to appreciate traditional film-making tools when I’m unable to go back. Back to the bird sound or even back to SoundTrack once I’ve made a correction in FCP. I need to already know what I want and do it right the first time. Then the work-flow will work and be efficient. 😉

Thanks
Jim

[Jim Waterwash]

>>if you take a whole FCP project into STP it’s a multitrack project and has nothing to do with destructive or non-destructive.

Its a multitrack project true, but once within that multitrack project, I want to non-destructively edit an audio clip within it, I double click that clip and it wants me to name a project for that clip’s own project. Thats why I end up with a project for each clip within my multitrack project. Then, seemingly, with no way to reuse these projects, once the original FCP project has changed. Thats the part that has me now very confused.

Thanks

Jim

[Boyd Mccollum]

[walter biscardi] “Nobody I know captures entire tapes for editing no matter what NLE they’re running.”

Hello Walter,

Capturing entire tapes is a legitimate workflow in the world of documentaries. In many documentaries, there is no way to know which footage you need or don’t need at the beginning of the logging process. In addition, the logging process is often much more in-depth than what you find in other genres of filmmaking. For instance, not only will I log the in and out points of an interview and the topics covered, I’ll often do a verbatim transcript of the entire interview. I’ll then do that for all the main interviewees. I’ll then put together a paper edit, essentially building the script for the film out of the footage that I have.

For b-roll footage, I’ll have a simple log of what I have, but as the doc takes shape, the relative importance of b-roll footage changes. Something that seemed great when you captured it and were absolutely sure would make into the film, suddenly doesn’t fit. The reverse happens as well.

As for the one long clip vs. many individual clips, I learned an interesting workaround on this from Jerry Hofmann that combines the best of both worlds. After you capture your tape, log it using markers. Turn your markers into subclips then batch export the subclips as individual QT files. Then delete the original tape capture.

I’m a huge believer in logging footage. But I’m also a huge believer in leveraging the power available to me in the NLE to make that process more efficient – and I don’t mean efficient by by-passing necessary steps. In my case, shuttling/jogging/scrubbing back and forth through my footage is much quicker within FCP than with a deck, but I’m still interacting with the footage as an editor.

Regards,

Boyd
“Go slow to go fast”

[Boyd Mccollum]

Hi Jim,

you may want to cross post this question on the Cow’s “Apple Soundtrack” forum.

[Jim Waterwash]

Just did it. Sleeps kind of quiet over there though.

[Gunleik Groven]

As for me, I never do final audio in STP.

I cut in fcp

I’ll sometimes send the session to STP to do some easy scoring.

I then export individual files from STP and an omf from FCP and import these to Cubase for final audio.

I find mixing in FCP and STP a rather cumbersome experience.

But that is only me

Gunleik

[Ben Holmes]

Got to agree with Boyd, Walter. For a doco, many hours of available and searchable footage lends flexibility and creative freedom in the process – leading you in directions you would never have seen at the logging stage. For the Supercar Run I captured over 60 hours at DV res – then onlined later.

In many ways, this workflow is one of the most important creative changes wrought by NLE’s and large drives!

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Ben Holmes] “Got to agree with Boyd, Walter. For a doco, many hours of available and searchable footage lends flexibility and creative freedom in the process – leading you in directions you would never have seen at the logging stage. For the Supercar Run I captured over 60 hours at DV res – then onlined later.”

Just a different workflow for you. I’m cutting a documentary series now which has about 17 hours of footage per 1/2 hour episode and am logging as we go. The Lamborghini 40th Anniversary DVD we did had over 25 hours of footage, all of it logged and captured prior to the edit. Capturing entire tapes just doesn’t work for me, I much prefer to have all my shots logged and broken down before I start editing.

Different workflows for different people. Cheaper hard drive space doesn’t change the way I work.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Shane Ross]

I edit cable documentaries and we tend to break up the footage too. Well, for this current one we are capturing the full interview tapes, as the script is still being written and fluctuates, but we break up the tapes into 10-15 min chunks. And the B-Roll is broken up by subject…Beach footage or street footage or empty roads and mountains. Stock footage is even broken up into smaller sections. While the tape might be an hour and contain say all diamond mining, we’ll break it up into 10-15 minute chunks and call it Diamond Mining 1, Diamond Mining 2, etc.

And watch it while it captures. Although only the lead editor was able to do that. I had to review afterwards, and let me tell you the smaller clips makes finding footage easier. I know where something is by clip name, and having a small amount of footage to sort thru makes it easier.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net