-
Starting a 5D MK II project in Final Cut Pro
Hey guys, this is my first post. I’ve googled and searched through the Forums for the answer to my problem but it seems to be so complex that there is no straight answer, so I’d really appreciate it if someone could reply and help me out here (and if the same question is buried somewhere in the Forum then I apologize).
I am about to begin editing a project on Final Cut Pro 7 using footage shot with a Canon 5F Mk ii. The footage was shot at 25fps and will be eventually be exported as PAL when it is all finished. I have set the Final Cut sequence settings so that the footage seems to have imported fine, but looking around online (mainly this Forum) it seems that almost everywhere advises converting the footage from .h264 into another codec, as there will be some problems editing.
The issue I have is that the footage seems fine at the moment, without having converted it. It plays back fine; using multiple tracks on top of each other doesn’t lead to me having to render, I can’t see any problem with it.
Should I still convert the footage, or will that be a waste of my time? This project is hopefully going to be shown on cinema-sized screens, so I don’t want to take any “it will do” roads – I want it to be perfect, but before I spend hours and hours converting all my footage, I just want to be sure.
Thanks for any help in advance. If you need any other information from me then just ask.
-
6 Replies
-
It will not work out in the end. When you export the sequence, it’s likely to export the wrong footage. You definitely need to transcode all of the footage to ProRes, then edit with those proves files.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.
-
Good news: You can use the Canon FCP Import plugin to log and transfer all your footage to ProRes. As Jerry says – leaving it in H.264 just will not work, as FCP7 is not designed to work with that codec – it will see it as it’s quicktime, but it doesn’t mean it WANTS to use it. And for another reason – ProRes is 10-bit, so will hold up much better under grading.
Your new footage will, unfortunately take up more space – an hour of HD ProRes is around 60GB. But storage is cheap these days. Make sure, however, that it’s fast enough to deal with a proper codec – you really need an external RAID, FW800 or SATA or better. A nice big G-RAID is a good start.
Of course, there’s always FCPX – which will natively import and cut your footage. Many people still prefer to let X background transcode this footage to ProRes for better performance.
Tragically, this question is asked daily here, and the advice is always the same – but many people prefer to ignore it and try to edit with the H264 files..
Ben
Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producerhttps://www.blackmagic-design.com/community/communitydetails/?UserStoryId=8757
-
Thanks for the replies guys. I can guarantee I won’t be ignoring the advice. Just out of interest though, what would happen if I continued to just edit in H264?
-
You’d be complaining how sluggish your system has become. That’s just one problem. h.264 is a delivery codec, not editing.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Someone here said they edit in h.264 all the time but it is single video track, cuts only.
then they use media manager to change it to pro res at the end.
they claimed it was fine to do cuts only single video track.
I didn’t take a chance on it of course, but it was intriguing to hear.
-
Another question regarding my project:
I’ve been filming hour-long interviews, which since I’ve filmed on a 5D have had to be filmed in 12 minute chunks. I was going to put all the chunks of each interview together and then export as one hour-long “Export as Quicktime Movie” on FCP so that it’s more manageable.
Is there any reason that I shouldn’t do that, rather than keeping each interview as 5 separate ProRes files?
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up