Media Manager Questions…

[Russell Lasson]

So the problem clips had speed changes applied to them originally?

If so, the best practice is to bake the speed changes into a clip. (Export the speed change as a single self contained clip and then put it on top of or replace the original clips.)

It’s really easy to mess up a clip with a speed change on it. Plus, if you’re going to be using Color for color correction, you’ll want to have the speed changes baked in as that’s one more step that can totally change the timing of your speed adjusted clips.

-Russ

[Olga Mazurkiewicz]

Hi Russ,

Thanx for the tip. The funny thing is that only a few of the clips had speed changes while the others did not – that’s what freaks me out about the whole thing because it seems that something deeper is happening to the clips when media manager gets a hold of them.

I have been told that when you export as quicktime and re-import into FCP you compress the video so you are not getting the same resolution as you started. This is a very big problem. Do you know if this is the case?

dadaglo

[Nick Meyers]

rather than baking the effects in, i use a different technique.

i locate the speed modified shots,
matchframe them into the viewer (where they should have no speed effect)
and then cut them back into the timeline on a set of new, and invisible tracks above all my other clips.

having the unaffected version in the timeline makes the shots survive a media management.

this works for simple speed mods,
cant guarantee it will work with more complex speed effects.

also, i don’t know what will happen with the shots in Color.
for that, maybe a hard copy IS best?

thinking about your weird shots:
some of your master clips in the browser may have speed effects on them, even if teh timeline versions don’t.
that could be the problem.
(this is just a wild-ass-guess.)

nick

[Olga Mazurkiewicz]

Hi Nick,

Thanx for the info. What exactly do you mean by “then cut them back into the timeline on a set of new, and invisible tracks above all my other clips”? Particularly the invisible tracks. Does that mean that you turn off the track in the timeline or that the opacity of the clips is turned to 0?

“thinking about your weird shots:
some of your master clips in the browser may have speed effects on them, even if teh timeline versions don’t.
that could be the problem.
(this is just a wild-ass-guess.)”

I thought that too but when I checked all the shots this is not the case. As a matter of fact when the shots with the speed modifications (only a few of the shots had speed modifications- the rest did not at all) are opened in the collected project they do not retain their effects even in the motion tab and a couple of them even are a couple of frames shorter.

If you hear or think of any other explanation I’ll be glad to hear it.

Thanx again,
dadaglo

[Nick Meyers]

yeah, just turn the visibility off on those tracks.

btw, dragging opacity down to zero will result in those sections needing rendering.
the clip is still active, but with a zero opacity.
a better way to work on the clip level: select the clip, and Control B to toggle visibility

nick