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Synch R3D footage Best Practice
I have a possible project coming up and was thinking of giving FCPX a try since I have heard good things lately. It is a documentary so there will be about 30 hours of footage give or take.
We are shooting with a Red Scarlet and Sony F3 using a Sound Devices Mixer/Recorder and Zoom H1 (for pocket audio recorder with lav). Since this is a doc most will be shot run n gun style with very little time for prep so synched timecode will not be an option.
Since there will be no time code what is the best way to figure out what clips belong to what audio? It might be possible to figure that out by TOD timecode even if it is off by a few seconds it would still allow me to figure out what clip goes with what audio. Is this the best way to do it.
Also since syncing will create a new clip should I sync all the footage first, then create a new folder called synced with keyword collections for shoot day, interviews, etc…?
I will be using Resolve for grading. Will these new synced clips cause problems with conforming similar to problems that you would run into with subclips in FCP 7?
Thanks
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4 Replies
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TOD is probably your only option. You can organize by TOD in the event browser. I shoot this way with my dslr. Make sure you have audio going into the camera as well so FCP can match it up. Otherwise, you’ll be syncing by eye.
If, for some reason, your TOD is way off on the audio clips, you can modify its record time/date in the modify menu. You can apply that to several clips if you need to. But, the best way is just to make sure the time on the cam and audio is the same every morning (I’ve noticed significant drift on my camera and recording device).
You could use Pluraleyes since you could just send everything to it and (hopefully) it would be able to sync all your clips without issue.
Ultimately, I think it’s “best practice” to sync in FCP and avoid the XML in-out early on in the edit. Pretty sure you’ll be a-ok with Resolve if you sync clips in FCP. Always recommend trying it out before you shoot.
With RED footage, I recommend not allowing X to copy the files into the events folder. This way, you can create new events and move footage between them without FCPX copying the footage. Reason I bring that up is that, to save on space/confusion in your event, you could move the synced clips into a new event to keep all the original footage separate and avoid event-bloat. Also, you’ll have less issues with relinking files later on since FCPX won’t be assigning UUIDs to clips.
Does anyone know if there’s a pocket recorder out there with the ability to jam-sync TC?
Michael Garber
5th Wall – a post production company
Blog: GARBERSHOP
My Moviola Webinar on Cutting News in FCP X -
Unfortunately, synch clips will not retain TC from the RED files. This would obviously be an issue going to resolve.
Having just gone thru this process- I thought was was screwed getting ready to export to Resolve. Good news is that when you’re ready to export, just use the Timeline index to select all your sync clips, then use the “Break Apart Clip Items” function and that will separate your Red sync clips into the raw RED files and the zoom audio.
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Yeah, forgot to mention that about the TC issue. The only way around that is to make multiclips instead of synced clips. Multiclips will carry TC from the video.
While multiclips are great, I don’t like working with them if I don’t have to since you can’t break them apart or do audio-only or video-only cuts.
Marcus – have you brought multiclips into Resolve? Any issues there?
Michael Garber
5th Wall – a post production company
Blog: GARBERSHOP
My Moviola Webinar on Cutting News in FCP X -
Yeah. It’s a bug Apple definitely needs to fix.
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