Jerky Video on FCP

[Don Greening]

[ShariLynn] “I just don’t like knowing the why of this.”

I’m sure this was just a typo, right? “I just would like to know the why of this.”

From what I’ve read and experienced with FCP, when the program starts to act up for no apparent reason, it’s usually a sign that the pref files have become corrupted. This happens more than just occasionally, so much so that there’s a nifty little freeware app called FCP Rescue available to do the job for you. Just Google it and it’ll come up. I’m sure you’re aware that if you do encounter a problem that you should try your fixes one at a time and then start FCP to see if the ‘fix’ worked. Otherwise you won’t know which one ended up being the cure.

I’m unsure of what GL2 settings you’re looking for with regard to using it with a steadicam rig. All I can think of at the moment is whether or not to use the camera’s optical image stabilization or not. On a tripod OIS should be turned off, otherwise it’ll try to correct the beginning and end of pan/tilt shots, presenting you with a small motion jerk as a result. In theory, using a steadicam with the GL2 would be similar to the tripod scenario, so I would recommend turning OIS off. Of course, once you have your new Steadicam Jr. in your possession, you’ll just have to take it out an play with it before you know for sure 🙂

I’ll be up fairly late tonight as well, so I’ll stop in here from time to time to check this thread.

– Don

“I never knew the true meaning of happiness until I started shooting DV. But by then it was too late.”

[Sharilynn]

Yes, a typo! It should have read, “I just don’t like NOT knowing the why of this”.

Two different jerkiness fixes seem to work – changing tracks (tried first) seemed to be fine. At least it worked for that particular editing session. I burned a DVD with the video just to make sure. All was well. Then I quite FCP and launched it again. Still all right, so I did more color correction. Upon playback, the jerkiness happened again. I changed tracks, worked some more, finished the rough cut and got well into the second color correction session. But it got late and I put the Mac on sleep. Me too.

I trashed the preferences this morning (Sunday), but haven’t had the time to reproduce the same above circumstances as of yet. So while all seems well, I’m not sure at the moment if this really fixed the problem. I’ll know tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’m going to check out FCP Rescue. I’m sure that will head off much frustration on my part. Thanks very much for that.

Steadicam JR is a small (and relatively cheap) stabilizing rig made for cameras 2 – 4 lbs. It uses camera positioning on the unit (nine choices), weight angle of two arms designed to drop the balance down below the camera (3 main choices sans extra weights, then you add 1 – 4 wieghts of varying sizes), and fine positioning using the connection of the grip to the rest of the unit. I’m sure I’ll get it eventually . . .

Shari

[Don Greening]

It sounds like you’re on the right track (pun fully intentional) as far as the preference thingy. There are also other reasons why your playback jerkiness continued if trashing prefs didn’t/won’t work in the future for this particular project. You’ve been doing a lot of colour correction and one or more render files may have become corrupt. Could be a sequence itself has corruption, or even a project file. Sometimes a render file corruption won’t show up until it’s time to encode for DVD and you find out when the encoding process crashes at the exact same spot everytime. Anyway, here’s a link to trashing FCP preferences the right way, and the reasons why it’s needed sometimes.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

Of course if you’ve got FCP Rescue now it’ll do the same thing with one mouse click.

Yes I know about the Steadycam Jr. I don’t have one, but I know how they work. The only reservation I have about using one is the amount of weight you’ll have to bear on your forearm for the length of time you’re shooting. Your shooting needs may be different than mine and you don’t need to hold it up for more than a few minutes at a time. Myself, I have to keep a steady shot sometimes for up to an hour, so it wouldn’t work for me or my second camera person. But you can take that Steadycam Jr. and it will bolt up quite nicely to VariZoom’s DV Sportster when and if the time comes for you to invest in that sort of thing.

– Don

[Sharilynn]

Hi Don,

Thank you for so much excellent information and help. I did get FCP Rescue, but also like the information on your link about trashing the Prefs. It is extremely imformative. I think I’ll try locking the Pref folder and see if that works. I wonder if that’s related to locking the sequence, which also seemed to work. Couldn’t get anything done that way, of course . . .

It is discouraging, but also enlightening to know about the possible other corruptions that can happen. I did have FCP tell me at one point that my Render File was full and that I needed to trash some other render files if I wanted to continue. Things were bad at that point, so I trashed what I had been doing instead. I expect I’ll come across that same message today. Maybe soon, as FCP is rendering during this reply. I had no idea that a Render file could become full.

The DV Sportster looks excellent, but I’ll wait until after the Holidays before I even begin to look at it seriously. It is not cheap, but what in this business is? It sounds like I’ll need it, though. Each shoot I do means I spend at least two hours steady behind a camera on a tripod. Then a lunch break, and then two more hours. There are times when I’d like to move around rather than staying in one position, but it’s not worth it if I get muscle fatique.

I’ll let you know how this render session comes out.

[Sharilynn]

“It is not cheap, but what in this business is?” That was a mistake to write. Your advice, and others on Creative Cow, are priceless, yet free! I AM grateful for that! 🙂

[Don Greening]

You could always remove the word ‘cheap’ and insert the word ‘inexpensive.’ An admirable substitution. 🙂

– Don

[Sharilynn]

“You could always remove the word ‘cheap’ and insert the word ‘inexpensive.'”

Point well taken.

I have gone through the whole sequence of major color correction, DVD burning, quitting FCP and starting it again – all is well! It seems that trashing the Preferences did the trick.

And because of your excellent guidance, Don, I know what to look out for and how to deal with it in the future.

Thank you, Shane Ross and Duncan Craig very, very, very much.

May you all have a very Happy Holiday Season!!

[Don Greening]

[ShariLynn] “May you all have a very Happy Holiday Season!!”

Well, I guess I could change my plans. Kidding!! Thanks for your wishes and the same back to you. Take care.

– Don