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KeyFlow Pro
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[John Davidson] “To a bigger point, if your current organization method consists of having to mount and open every single camera archive you’ve created in 5 years to find a single shot,”
Just to be clear, I just need proxy clips of my camera archives (FCPX). KFP doesn’t create proxies of such regardless of codec. At that point I’d only need to mount what I need to use. Again CATDV does this so I’d how KeyFlow Pro would do the same.
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Actually it can create low res preview files of media so you can review it even if the archive drove is offline
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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But it can’t create proxies from FCPX Camera Archive contents. This even though the files are ProRes (from Blackmagic cameras). Basically it can’t see inside the Camera Archive.
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[Craig Seeman] “Perhaps my concerns are not common but it can’t read FCPX Camera Archives.”
Not uncommon, since that is one of my biggest gripes at the moment also, yes. I really don’t understand why it can’t either, since archives are nothing but FOLDERS, only with a suffix to make them appear as a package on a machine with FCP X installed. It also still doesn’t do RED. Big bummer.
But all in all it’s an amazing tool for the money. And I am VERY curious to see what they have in store for the next version. Very much hoping for a server version.
– RK
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[Robin S. Kurz] “It also still doesn’t do RED. Big bummer.”
I think in general they should consider how to handle codecs not part of AVFoundation. Certainly buying plugins is possible. Ideally if there were some way it could access the codecs supported in FCPX or made a license deal with the manufacturers, that would be good even if it were an add on purchase.
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[Craig Seeman] “Ideally if there were some way it could access the codecs supported in FCPX or made a license deal with the manufacturers”
Why should they have to pay for playback? FCP/Apple doesn’t have to either in the case of RED. It’s a free plugin. I don’t see why it should be such a big deal to simply tie into it. Though I think the standard folder structure and getting it sorted is the difficulty, not the playback itself. But then I really only want/need it to generate proxies for archiving (or even viewing). FCP is where I want the native files (at least optionally) which it could then send. Pretty much as it already does with everything else, too.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
[Robin S. Kurz] “Why should they have to pay for playback? FCP/Apple doesn’t have to either in the case of RED. It’s a free plugin. I don’t see why it should be such a big deal to simply tie into it.”
I’d agree.
I’d mention that CatDV does require one to purchase the Calibrated decoders for XDCAM family playback, not that I think that should be the model for KeyFlow Pro. As you note, the plugin is free. Same for XDCAM and XAVC support I believe.
[Robin S. Kurz] “I think the standard folder structure and getting it sorted is the difficulty, not the playback itself”
In my case, unlike Camera Archives, KeyFlow Pro does see the file content of XDCAM and XAVC-L folders directly. It doesn’t see them as video though, just data files.
Have you tried pulling out the Redcode media files directly (R3D inside the RDC folder, granted may not be useful in that form but it would be an experiment to see if decoding is the issue)? Are the .Red mov proxies seen inside folder structure?
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How hard is it to edit with a low-res preview in FCP X and then replace with the original media? Any automated workflow for that? That, and having it on a central server would be the critical components for me to move to cataloging with KeyFlow. I’m not sure how robust the ingesting from camera cards is. That would be important also.
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Ridiculously easy.
But as with most things X, the old paradigm has changed a bit.
If you shoot in something X doesn’t have as a “native” codec. (R3d, Uncompressed, etc) that gets imported as Original Footage (Footage pool 1) and stored. You can edit with this pool directly if your system has the power to handle the big file throughput.
If your system doesn’t have the grunt – X can do an internal and qualitatively excellent auto-transcode of your Originals to ProRes which is much more efficient for desktop editing – so that’s Footage Pool 2.If you have REALLY complex stuff – lots of multicam or huge composites with intense calculation required –
then you transcode to X’s internal Proxy files (another option) which becomes Footage Pool 3.Switching between ANY of them is trivial. It’s also really easy to create a simple workflow where Pool 1 and/or Pool 2 live on your big system – and you take Pool 3 with your laptop on the road. Edit till the cows come home. Then back at the office, hook up to the original pools and flip the switch. All your original footage is referenced and it’s exactly like you made all your editing decisions working with your originals.
So it’s extremely simple.
The new shared storage systems coming along also allow this switch to happen seamlessly, so it’s going to get better and better. And as the RTS and Metronome case studies proved, this can work not just at the desktop level, but at a facilities shared storage level as well.
Basically, X is a very agile system regarding tiered resolution workflows.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Craig Seeman] “I think in general they should consider how to handle codecs not part of AVFoundation. “
They do actually. The solution is so simple. I’ll be showing it off Monday4/18 @ FCP Exchange at 3:45.
There also may be free beer. Maybe.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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