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Need a Final Cut consultant immediately
We are looking to hire a consultant to help us export a TV series from Final cut pro for mastering. The consultant needs to be based in NYC and be available to set up our system immediately.
If you’re interested and available to consult on this immediately, please contact me at “info at nfgtv dot com”
Here is the specifics of what we need:
We are a TV production company working on a number of projects in Final Cut Pro.
Here is a breakdown of our setup and expectations :Hardware:
8 iMac Final Cut Pro systems
1 Mac Pro (Details attached) with Kona 3 SDI card
Terrablock Raid Array
Flanders Scientific LM1770W (SDI) Broadcast MonitorMedia Types:
XDCam EX HD
Prores 422 (HQ) HD
Prores 422 (HQ) SD (720×540)Current Final Cut Setups:
We are delivering SD, but the editors have been working in HD timelines, The workflow so far has been like this :
Editors have been working in XDCam EX 1080P Sequences doing repositioning, crops and scales.
Originally they were going to output SD from this “over scaled” HD sequence hoping that when it scales back down the footage will look ok, it does not however.
– For example in the HD Timeline the editors scale media up 150% then its squashed back down when output for SD (so its final dimension is less than the original media), but due to this scale up scale down process the image suffers noticeable degradation.At this point it was decided to rebuild the final edits in an SD timeline.
In an SD Timeline the HD clips are imported and repositioned to match the editors HD version.
This solution the clips are only ever repositioned or scaled down, retaining image quality.
But in this scenario Final Cut completely locks up and becomes unusable on the editors machines (both iMacs and the MacPro Kona3 System)What we would like to achieve:
We need a workflow where we are finishing in SD – Repositioning, incorporating the SD graphics (on iMacs) and Color correcting, Mastering (MacPro)
We need to be able to use a mix of HD (scaled and repositioned) and SD media.
We would like to work square pixel up to the point of output to tape if thats possible.
No media should have double transformations in scale or positioning (no scaling up then scaling down!)The MacPro system should be set up correctly calibrated for a Colorist to work off the Flanders Scientific Broadcast monitor.
Correct Final Cut color space,
Correct Kona I/O settings,
Correct connection to the broadcast monitor,
Broadcast monitor needs to be calibrated for SD Mastering,
Kona3 card has to also correctly output to a DigiBeta deck. (Im assuming this requires a nonsquare output – 720×486).That’s it i think.
Our goal is to retain quality of all the media in the projects. No shortcuts, An expertly calibrated Finishing System, and compatible iMac editing stations.All the machines run great in HD sequences, the raid is very good no problems with bandwidth etc..
The Colorist begins work this weekend so we require immediate assistance, naturally haha!
The Technician can work at night if that helps. -
5 Replies
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Your square pixel sd timeline is probably the crux of your issue.
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With a realtime high qual downconvert available with the Kona 3, I wouldn’t change the HD timelines to SD. Apart from days of work mucking around with image sizing, you are using FCP to downscale to SD which will look ordinary compared to the Kona.
Also you will end up with an HD timeline to grade and a final HD timeline to future proof the material.
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this is not strictly true
the Kona 3 downconvert will work ok for some jobs but not others
I find it aliases the graphics if they start off sharp, bright and saturated in HD
Also this can cause broadcast safe specs to not be respected on output, due to out of range transients on these anti aliased graphicsOther problem of course is the one frame delay on audio and trying to slip audio on timeline to conspensate so that the downconvert is in sync and accurate on edit to tape, this makes for very tricky inserts which sometimes are easier to just drop in an SD timeline and render up. throw in different timecodes in HD from SD and it can get pretty confusing unless there is the same workflow every time.
plus of course the fact that HD titles that have small text sizes wont work at all in SD sequences
Best solution is often to upconvert SD tape feeds using the kona 3 card to HD, check for picture blanking and audio sync going out. drop that in HD sequence with HD content, render up and play out to HD tape, then use downconvert on HD deck to make SD Dupes, much simpler process
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Check my site at
https://www.benscottarts.co.uk/ – – – – – – – – – -
[stefan springman] “we require immediate assistance, naturally haha!”
You’ve made it through preproduction, production, most of post-production and now… oops! Help!
You’re my new poster child for “planing ahead”.
mark
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Indeed Ben, the Kona3 is not always the best, but always better than FCP scaling.
I also use my HDCam to downconvert under certain circumstances, depending on the source footage. Nice to have choice. I don’t know if Stefan has the same choices as he only mentions the Kona 3. Compared to the time to resize and render the scaling in FCP down to SD, the Kona3 is a vastly superior workflow.
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