Locating Original P2 file names

[Shane Ross]

Just delete the corrupt clips, connect the drive with the P2 backups, and hit BATCH CAPTURE. You MIGHT have to mount the cards in L&T first…if the batch doesn’t work the first time. Tell FCP where to look for the footage.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Dean Sensui]

If the media used in the project was renamed in the transfer process, then you’ll have a very long and tortuous road ahead. And if the folders in which the media resides aren’t well organized nor documented, then that makes the process a lot harder.

When I organize a project, the hard and fast rule is to NEVER rename media during the transfer process. Otherwise, there’s no way to know what the original media was nor where to find it.

I might rename a clip in a sequence. But the media itself retains the original name that was assigned by the camera when it was shot. It’s not an intuitive name, and that’s not very convenient. But it’s even less convenient to attempt to find something that’s been renamed with no records of its source.

There might be some metadata somewhere that indicates the timecode and that might help.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Anna Jane]

Hello. Thanks for your feedback. I tried your advice and got this error message:

Volume Not Available
The selected clips cannot be imported because they originate from the following volumes that are currently not mounted: Spanned Reel

The drive I am working from is a backup of the original P2 media, so I don’t have the original source drive for transferring. Unfortunately, the footage was given to me after two other editors had worked with it, so I had no control over how it was originally logged and transferred, and currently no way to find out what their process was, as the previous editors are no longer speaking to the director, unfortunately.

The P2 dumps are not in any way organized (other than one folder for each shoot, which spanned several days and locations) so I wouldn’t be able to tell FCP where to look for the footage. Yep, no log or anything.

I’m beginning to suspect that there is no record of the original P2 file name assigned by the camera for footage renamed during transfer…? Say it ain’t so!

Any further illumination is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Anna

[Shane Ross]

[Anna Jane] “The drive I am working from is a backup of the original P2 media, so I don’t have the original source drive for transferring.”

That should be good enough. The basic process is to back up each card to a separate folder on a separate hard drive (than the media drive), then import from that drive. The ORIGINAL original is the P2 card, and they might not have imported from that.

What version of FCP are you running? When I hit BATCH CAPTURE in FCP 7 I get a LOG AND TRANSFER recapture window that says the name of the volume (which in this case would be the name of the folder the P2 files are in)… get that and then just use SPOTLIGHT to look for that folder.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Anna Jane]

What version of FCP are you running? When I hit BATCH CAPTURE in FCP 7 I get a LOG AND TRANSFER recapture window that says the name of the volume (which in this case would be the name of the folder the P2 files are in)… get that and then just use SPOTLIGHT to look for that folder

I am working on FCP 6. When I highlight the clip in the browser that I want to retransfer and then select Batch Capture, the log and transfer window opens, giving me the above-mentioned error message. Maybe FCP 6 has trouble locating the correct volume…?

Also, this might be a good time to mention that the person who imported all of the media didn’t use FCP’s Log and Transfer to transfer the stuff from the P2 cards into quicktime. They used a Panasonic platform (I’ve forgotten the name of the software program) for transferring. Apologies if I should have mentioned that earlier.

Thanks again for your help!

[Jeremy Garchow]

Open the Log and Transfer window and then simply load all of the cards in the log and transfer window. Then select the corrupt clips you want to capture in the browser and right click and choose Batch Capture.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Dean Sensui] “Otherwise, there’s no way to know what the original media was nor where to find it.”

You can revert to original metadata in the log and transfer window.

I prefer to add metadata to the footage itself, that way the information of the clips moves with the footage, and not with an FCP project that might get lost, stolen or broken.

Jeremy