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Offline // Online workflow for FCPX
Before we make the switch from FCP7, I just want to make sure an offline/online Proxy workflow is doable for a feature length documentary with over 10tb of footage. Ideally, we would want to transcode + edit in Proxy, but have the original media exist on an external drive elsewhere with the same names//folder structure. I’ve read articles stating that this is “easy”, but still haven’t tested it with any of our footage.
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33 Replies
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Elizabeth.
If you send me an email link,(use davisbill AT Icloud plus the typical dot com) – I’ll connect you directly with some of the folks who have done exactly this over the past year and who can help you make sure your workflow bypasses all the hassles of something you haven’t done before.. It’s really no big deal anymore.
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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great! just emailed you
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The most important people to talk to are the people that will have to grade and online the final. As that is the job I do I am constantly dismayed by ignorance of finishing workflow by many editors and cinematographers.
Talk early, talk often to them as they are the ones who will have to sweat blood on a tight schedule and budget.
Personal opinion – offline/online workflows are possible with all of the popular NLEs. X, 7, Pr, Avid are all doable but there can be specific gotchas with each one. Knowing how to work around these and how best to prepare a sequence prior to creating xml/aaf is what needs to be discussed as is pixel aspect. Finishing systems like Resolve take the sizing information from those and you can’t change from an HD sequence to a 2k or 4k without planning for it.Easiest thing is to create proxies with identical names and pixel aspect and select the correct aspect in the edit timeline so that sizing information comes across without manual adjustment.
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I would highly recommend that you transcode to both optimized media and proxy media. The reason I say this is that documentaries often involve a mix of various media types, many of which are consumer-level or don’t have proper timecode/reel/source ID information. This way the optimized media files become the master camera files (“online”) and both your “online” and “offline” files are managed by FCPX.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Hi Oliver,
We will mostly be shooting this doc with one camera, mostly 4k footage, and since we’re a small production company, we’re trying to save some money on drive space. You’re saying to transcode all media to proxy + optimized, but is there a way to only “optimize” the final edit? Do the optimized + proxy files have to exist on the same location? Mostly want the proxy files to exist separately
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[Elizabeth Perlman] “We will mostly be shooting this doc with one camera – but is there a way to only “optimize” the final edit? “
Which camera are you using? That affects the answer. Also when you say “mostly”, what sort of percentage and what are the other sources/cameras?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
We’ve shot some footage with the Nikon D810 but plan to shoot the rest with the ursa mini 4.6k. I would say 90% will be shot with one camera with additional drone footage that will be 4k.
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[Elizabeth Perlman] “but plan to shoot the rest with the ursa mini 4.6k”
OK, one more quick question. How does the Ursa Mini handle media files? For example, are you recording as ProRes QuickTime (.mov) files? What sort of control do you have over timecode and clip naming? IOW, what I’m trying to determine is whether or not you can control all the recordings over the course of this documentary so that every clip has a unique file name. At no point should you have any duplicate source names/timecode. Does the Mini’s menu structure permit this level of control?
What I’m leaning towards is to pre-process/transcode the Nikon and drone clips before you ever edit with them. I can post a more detailed workflow this evening.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
We will be recording as ProRes Quicktime, the camera has a timecode input and I’m pretty sure you can control the clip name by date, but we don’t have the camera yet to test.
transcode nikon outside of FCPX? thanks again!
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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll work up my thoughts in detail and post this evening.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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