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Multi-format timeline…or How sloppy should you expect to be able to work?
I was sitting in on a client’s edit yesterday helping them assemble a show reel of sorts of ancient, old and current work of theirs. The freelance editor that was running the station kept cursing the machine and saying how much he hated FCP and how he told this company to buy an Avid and yadda, yadda, yadda. Which evidently he does every time he’s called in for a job. The more advice I offered and questions I asked about his work approach, habits and set up the more tense things got. I get it. Nobody likes a “backseat driver” but I’m wondering if anybody else out there works this way. Or more importantly, does anybody work this guys way and get away with it trouble free.
So basically, after a few minutes of watching the editor struggle with some weird and buggy clip behavior when trying to apply a speed change (150%. 200% 125% all looked like 400%), I got up and had a look at his timeline. It was a ProRes HQ timeline set to 720 x 540 Square Pixel. The clips he was working with were:
– Animation 720 x 540
– ProRes 720 x 486
– Animation 720 x 486 Widescreen Anamorphic
– ProRes 1280 x 720
– H.264
– MPEG-1
– Maybe even a Sorenson clip thrown in thereAll of that was being pumped out a Blackmagic Multibridge set to NTSC 720 x 486 8-bit.
So there was lots of rendering. Lots of “you can’t look at this clip on the monitor you’ll have to come over and look over my shoulder at the FCP screen.” And pretty much everything was squished or bouncing in and out of letterbox when it would preview on the monitor. He had weird problems like the sticking speed change thing and it even froze up in the middle of “preparing media” or something. After a couple of restarts it didn’t seem to be getting any more stable.
Now I never work this way. I have the exact same system at home and I recently convinced this client to set up another FCP system in another department. And I have adopted a rather anal approach to media management and project set up. My thoughts are it’s a Blackmagic box and it’s going to run one format at a time (if I can help it) — ProRes. That’s it.
If we get XDcam or DVCProHD footage in from a shoot…we transcode it to ProRes. When we have an animation sequence of 16bit TIFFs to add to the show…we transcode it to ProRes. When we have HD footage going into a 4:3 SD show…we crop and transcode it to ProRes.
Am I being too rigid? Too much an old fuddy-duddy?
i’ve never used an AVID — like the freelancer who was having all the trouble so I don’t have a clue how much freedom that platform allows you. But when I suggested that he might want to think about transcoding all these old mix matched clips in an attempt to narrow down the issues then he just got indignant and said FCP was a big time waster if that’s what it needed to work properly. I foolishly made some smart ass wisecrack about “old dogs and new tricks” and it went all down hill form there.
BTW, I’m no ageist. The freelancer is a probably a good 10 years younger than me 😉
Kevin Taylor
Atlanta, GA -
3 Replies
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Kevin- You are right on. If you have multiple formats life becomes much easier in FCP if you bite the bullet and convert the media to the codec you want to edit in. Then import the assets into a FCP project that matches that codec. Choose a codec that your FCP system (processor speed, drive speed, memory, etc.) can handle with ease. This minimizes rendering and cuts editing time dramatically.
HTH,
JerryG5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP Studio 6.02
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1
GV-HD700 -
I can see the wisdom in all your comments, especially with all that chaos in his timeline – though i was wondering – why exactly would you transcode DVCProHD to ProRes? (Forgive my questioning – i don’t doubt you i just want to get behind the reasoning a bit better – i’m quite new to working with HD but i always want to learn and NOT to be like your nightmare freelancer!) I know ProRes is a great option quality wise – but don’t some bradcasters have issues with it? And if you are going back to DVCProHD isn’t it better to stay that way?
One comment in particular struck me
“My thoughts are it’s a Blackmagic box and it’s going to run one format at a time”I’m using a blackmagic multibridge at the moment at a new place i am working (i’m more used to kona cards). is there something i should be watching out for with the DVCproHD?
On this project i will be working with predominantly DVCProHD footage but also a little bit of HDV and a little bit of RED (though i’m not sure yet if it will be set to 2k or 4k). My plan was to transcode the HDV and the RED footage to match and keep my timeline DVCProHD.
Can you see any problems/issues with this?
Would you just use media manager to transcode/recompress in my position?Perhaps i should have asked all this as a separate topic?!?
All the best,
CH -
Unfortunately All,
Your response has very little help in it editing from these different capture devices into FCP 2 or 3 which Apple clearly claimed in their false sales pitch that FCP 2 “was a multi-cam editing for cutting video from multiple camera sources” (wikipedia). At this time FCP in it’s most recent version (3) supports a very limited number of formats in a real working way. If they do support multiple formats, they have distributed very little information to anyone about how those formats ACTUALLY work in their programs.
Apple should have to reconcile these clearly false claims for all of us that have spent many many hours trying to get a program whose maker said their program could work with these format, but in truth offered no explanation except hour long rendering process’s for short clips regardless of your machines speed (Mac Pro 64 gig 3.2 8 processor). If we are going to continue paying these prices for these programs, WE have to demand better updates, programs, and explanations from the corporations that make these annoying but necessary products on how to solve these problems without an expensive or extremely time consuming work around.
Figure it out Apple, and FIX IT FOR FREE. Then you won’t have a lawsuit on your hands.
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