Single file to go “online”

[Shane Ross]

That is my exact workflow. I render the timeline fully, then export self contained QT files (texted and textless) and make a project using only them. I put those on an external drive and take them to a post facility for output to HDCAM.

It works.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[David Roth weiss]

[mortimer heathcliff] “my plan was to render the final timeline to a single QT file (DVCPro HD codec) and take it to the online house to dump to an HDCam master. i talked to the post house today and the guy sounded like this plan would not work and that i should bring my drive with all my clips”

Mortimer,

Did the guy say why he thought that wouldn’t work? What video card is he running? Its done all the time.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[J. Tad newberry]

by “texted and textless” do you mean you render two versions, one with graphic overlays and one without? also, would you leave it in DVCPro HD codec or go ProRes?

new questions in the next post…

thanks again for your help…i just received your DVD-ROM “Getting Organized in FCP”, so hope to dig into it this afternoon!

thanks again!

mh

[J. Tad newberry]

Thanks David,

Not sure what card he is using, but i’m sure it is a high-end one. He didn’t really say why he didn’t think it would work, but at $225 an hour, my cynical side is saying that he wanted me to rent more time there! : ) This is one of the very few post houses (and it is a “real” post house, they do commercials, etc.) with an HDCam deck, so i figure the guy knows what he’s talking about (or at least has very strong opinions!), but it sure sounds like he’s wrong…in my humble opinion so far…

thanks again!

mh

[David Roth weiss]

[mortimer heathcliff] “He didn’t really say why he didn’t think it would work, but at $225 an hour, my cynical side is saying that he wanted me to rent more time there! : )”

Funny you should say that, cuz thats exactly what I was thinking. I really can’t think of a good reason for all the fuss he’s putting you through.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[J. Tad newberry]

a bit of funkiness in codecs after rendering a couple test QT’s of this….

on the first one, when i went to “Export/QT Movie”, i left everything in default mode, leaving settings at “Current Settings” (and i assume this means it will render in the current settings of the sequence that is to be rendered…or does it use whatever was chosen last in “Easy Setup”, which may or may not be what the selected sequence is?). anyway, it rendered well, but when i put it back on the same timeline, the red bar appeared above telling me that it needed to be rendered…which i thought was odd since i THOUGHT it was in the same codec as the original sequence.

round two: i changed “Settings” to the drop selection of DVCPro HD 1080i60 (which is what my timeline is) and let ‘er go. same thing: it had to be rendered upon bringing it back to its original timeline/sequence.

upon checking the file info on these clips, one rendered at 1280 x 1080 (the “Current Settings” version, which is what the sequence is), and the one where i chose the DVCPro HD rendered at 1920 x 1080. obvious discrepancy here, and just trying to nail down what will cause me the least amount of time and headache at the post house. again, starting with 1440 x 1080 HDV and 1280 x 1080 DVCPro HD (from HDCam original footage), also wondering if i really “gain” anything by rendering at 1920 x 1080 or should i leave it at 1280???

i’ll keep running some short tests to see what works…

thanks again!

mh

[J. Tad newberry]

also, forgot to aks in the previous flood on this topic, is there a way to batch process Exporting a QT Movie?? it doesn’t appear to be such, unless you use Compressor, which i’m hearing is not the best way to do what i’m trying to do here…

thanks again!

mh

[David Roth weiss]

Looks like Shane is sleeping late, so I’ll jump in…

[mortimer heathcliff] “by “texted and textless” do you mean you render two versions, one with graphic overlays and one without?”

Yes, thats what he means. The reason for doing that is a) so you can make changes later without being tied to the graphics and b) so foreign broadcasters can create new text in their own language.

[mortimer heathcliff] “also, would you leave it in DVCPro HD codec or go ProRes?”

You could go ProRes without much fear, as long as the facility you’re going to has FCP 6. I’m mastering in ProRes (HQ) on a DVCProHD project myself at the moment. I just hope Apple is commited to the format.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Shane Ross]

[mortimer heathcliff] ”
by “texted and textless” do you mean you render two versions, one with graphic overlays and one without?”

Correct. I am required to output a texted and textless master. Texted for English speaking countries, Textless for non-english speaking.

[mortimer heathcliff] “also, would you leave it in DVCPro HD codec or go ProRes?”

So far I have exported Self Contained QT Movies as DVCPRO HD. I haven’t gone ProRes yet. Maybe for the next one, I’ll go ProRes, color correct, export PRORES, then output.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Shane Ross]

[mortimer heathcliff] “upon checking the file info on these clips, one rendered at 1280 x 1080 (the “Current Settings” version, which is what the sequence is), and the one where i chose the DVCPro HD rendered at 1920 x 1080. obvious discrepancy here”

This is truly ODD! Because two weeks ago, when I exported my Texted and Textless files, I used this method (QT Movie, Sequence settings, Self Contained) and reimported that back into FCP and dropped it into a timeline…not a problem.

But then on Tuesday I had to do a fix to some other show, and exported a QT Movie in the same way…and when I brought it in it needed to be rendered. Same thing…the file was now 1280×720 instead of 960×720. I didn’t update anything…I didn’t download anything. I even tried the Multiclip trick to get a sequence to match my settings and it STILL needed to render. I tried it on my laptop (later version of QT) and it STILL happened.

I am not sure what is happening here…but it is irksome. Try exported as a QT Conversion, using DVCPRO HD 720p60 at 23.98 (or whatever your sequence settings are)…and leave it at MED quality (that is soemthing you can’t change…don’t worry about it)…and then see what happens. I do this sometimes as a way of getting my project to have broadcast legal levels…it chops off the highs rather neatly.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net