i cant sit there for hours capturing scene by scene

[Walter Biscardi]

[robertbec] “i cant sit there for hours capturing scene by scene manually i need FCP to recognise that when there is a new scene (when the camera stops then starts again to create a new file”

So log the tape first. That’s what most professional editors do. Most of us don’t sit for hours and watch the tape, we log In / Out points of each scene and then capture that way.

You can also turn on Start / Stop detection with DV footage with FCP.

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

[Wes Plate]

Most of us don’t sit for hours and watch the tape

I do. What better way to get to know the footage you’re cutting? I watch it, sometimes taking notes along the way.

— Wes Plate
Automatic Duck

[Walter Biscardi]

[Wes Plate] “Most of us don’t sit for hours and watch the tape

I do. What better way to get to know the footage you’re cutting? I watch it, sometimes taking notes along the way.”

Absolutely. And while we’re watching it, we log the footage. That’s Editing 101. If you’re lucky and have interns or tape production assistants, you get written logs. They’re helpful, but you still need to view the footage because what can be described on a page sounds nice, but the actual footage can be unusable.

Working on a series right now with 14 hours of material per episode and we’re doing 5 episodes. I’ll be watching just about every frame of that material to make sure we don’t miss anything in the 23 minutes of the final show.

So yeah, you can sit there for hours capturing scene by scene.

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

[Dean Sensui]

I log and capture the entire tape at once. Along the way I’ll check to see if it’s running properly.

After that, I’ll spend hours cutting it up into individual clips and logging the shots. Not unlike clipping film and tagging takes.

So either way, you’re going to spend time at it.

The only way to shorten the process is to learn to type faster. 🙂

I do it this way mostly because it reduces wear and tear on the tape. It gets captured in one continuous pass. Then all the back-and-forth shuttling is done in the NLE which is designed for that sort of abuse.

Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii

[Blub06]

I cant imagine not capturing every shot and every segment of every tape individually while I watch it all. I can think of dozens of projects which I have made better because I watched every frame as I am capturing, something producers sometimes fail to do. Its slow, it can be boring but it works and works and works.

I guess its old school in a new school discipline. I would go so far as to say I prefer digging from an analog source so I can better tweak the look, on EVERY shot.

[Shane Ross]

Dean’s method is very valid. When I am working on a narrative show, I break up the footage by scene and take…logging and capturing each shot. BUT, on a documentary, I capture long takes. Never full tapes, but 10-15 minute chunks. This way, if I lose something, it is a small section. Then I subclip into sections. Or if the tape happens to have 3-4 different b-roll types, I break it up by b-roll type.

Both methods work. But you still have to babysit the capture. If it stops for some reason and you are in another room, you have lost that time.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Anders Haavie]

Start stop detection.. Not sure if it will help you, cause I have never used it (I log the tape like everyone else)

Read page 273 in the pdf help note that is available directly from FCPs help menu

Anders

[Robert Bec]

hi there

thanks for your imput guys

you have all been helpful

rob