SONY ex1 help!

[Clint Fleckenstein]

“So I just copied the clips from the SxS cards on to the HD.”

This presents the million dollar question: Did you copy the BPAV folders to your hard drive, just the MP4 files, or did you try to combine everything? If you did anything but the first one, you just made a terrible mess of things. This piece of information is necessary to help you out.

“I didn’t use XDCAM EX Clip Browser, since I just got it and didn’t know how to use it when I imported all my footage.”

Big mistake. I’m not going to get all snooty and berate you for it, but you really should have learned the workflow beforehand. This tapeless stuff is very particular about workflow. If you didn’t use Clip Browser, and can’t organize your clips, I doubt that you’ve successfully “imported all my footage.”

I’m a nerd, and have been a taskmaster around here as far as the XDCAM workflow goes, so I don’t have any experience to draw upon as far as rescuing a pile of orphan clips. In any case, we need to know just what exactly you have on your hard drive waiting for import: Do you have BPAV folders for each card? Do you have the various subfolders? Do you simply have the MP4 files? That’s going to have to be the starting point.

Cf

[Marcus Perfjell]

Sorry for the noobiness in my workflow Clint!

I imported the BPAV folders for each card.

You probobly wonder why I didn’t learn the workflow… Well, I had some major troubles getting hold of this camera, since they were all rented out everywhere.

So I downloaded a FCP workflow for it and read it. But I didn’t use clip browser since I had no experience with it, and this would work as good, the manual said.

I will learn clip browser, just needed to save some time…
Marcus

The fall of building 7 is a bit weird.

[Craig Seeman]

I’ll 2nd Clint’s comments although I’m usually a bit more hard nosed.

Do NOT try to rename anything in Finder at this point unless you want to dig your hole deeper.
If you have the MP4s orphaned from the metadata, they can be rescued.
If you have BPAV untouched, you can organize the parent folders.
NEVER rename the BPAV or any of its contents.

We’ll have a hard time rebuilding the “engine” unless you tell us how you took it apart though.

[Craig Seeman]

You can use XDCAM Transfer to log and name clips.
You can rename the parent folders you created for the BPAV (do not rename BPAV or its contents).

[Marcus Perfjell]

Can I in clip browser change the names of the files?
Or should I have done that before importing them to my hard drive?

If so, how should I ever be able to empty two SXS cards fast enough to get them ready for shooting again if I only own two? If i have to name all the clips after importing them to clip browser.

sorry if you got confused
Thanks for helping

Marcus

The fall of building 7 is a bit weird.

[Marcus Perfjell]

yeah ok.

But how do you recommend to have it organized, inside the BPAV folder if I can’t rename the clips. Or is it even possible?

I’d just like to have a certain name for a certain clip, but maybe that’s not possible if I understand you correctly?

The fall of building 7 is a bit weird.

[Craig Seeman]

Why would you even bother trying to name them during a shoot? Why would you have to?
Copy with ClipBrowser. Log at a future time. ClipBrowser reads the clips from anything including the hard drive you copied them to.

XDCAM Transfer is much better logging utility.

Also note the challenge of reconstituting a project if clips in project don’t match archived clips (ARCHIVE THE BPAV) though. Please think through your workflow before digging more holes.

One reason many of us use MxR, MxM, Hoodman with SDHC is that they are much cheaper than SxS and one never has to offload during a shoot. Offloading during a shoot is a good way for human error to muck things up. The fact that you are concerned about offload time with SxS is a VERY GOOD reason why you need to rethink your workflow.

[Marcus Perfjell]

thank you for your help.

The problem I have now then is that I don’t know how to use clip browser correctly, I have the newest version.

And the few clips that I had renamed (5), I was able to find them again.
Is there any difference between the upper and the lower window in clip browser, the ones to the left? or are they just there to make things less complicated when copying?

haha I think I actually just found something out. you are welcome to laugh at me for being a noob, but I “managed” to copy my first day shoot to another folder, and a BPAV folder appered, with the same clips, and the same size of the folder so I assume they are the same.

Question though, In the first folder there are a bunch of .mxf files, they weren’t copied, do I need them?

thanks for helping

The fall of building 7 is a bit weird.

[Marcus Perfjell]

by the way, when I later on log them in FCP, I just give my coworkers the Projectfile, and the files (BPAV folders) and they will have the logged clips there, is that what you’re suggesting?
Marcus

The fall of building 7 is a bit weird.

[Craig Seeman]

ClipBrowser manual may be hard to find.
Here it is.

Sony ClipBrowser 2.5 PDF Manual

Sony XDCAM Transfer 2.9 PDF Manual