Trimming 5DMKII project to then convert to ProRes?

[Adrian Roup]

Hi Rodrigo,

Interesting problem. I’ve suffered similar problems working with Flip Cam footage which is also H.264. The approach that seems to have worked best for me is to covert everything first and then edit. However it sounds like you won’t have time for that. If your offline edit is locked can’t you just output a ProResHQ of your time line and then bring that back into Color? If speed is your top priority – this may be the way to go. Another option would be to copy everything that’s on your timeline and paste it into a new BIN in Final Cut – you’ll then effectively have an EDL referencing your used media – it might be possible to re log and transfer the footage (into ProResHQ) using this BIN… I’ve not tried this but maybe worth a shot? I’ll follow with interest – hopefully the legendary Gary Adcock or one of the other Gents will come to the rescue.

Best wishes,

Adrian

[Rodrigo Silvestri]

[Adrian Roup] “If your offline edit is locked can’t you just output a ProResHQ of your time line and then bring that back into Color?”
Yes, the problem with this is that I need every clip to be separate. So I need to remove all cross dissolves, fade ins/outs, then separate those clips with cross dissolves (to an extra sequence), extend them in the timeline so I have the footage needed to then reapply the filters later.
Then export and convert everything to ProRes HQ, then use the original files to cut the new files again, reconform all the edits and transitions, and theeen send to Color.
I think this is what I’m gonna do (I’ve already told the director to start doing all this, preparing the sequences, etc).

[Adrian Roup] “Another option would be to copy everything that’s on your timeline and paste it into a new BIN in Final Cut – you’ll then effectively have an EDL referencing your used media – it might be possible to re log and transfer the footage (into ProResHQ) using this BIN…”
Log and Transfer tool says that the folder structure is not compatible. I found no ways of importing H.264 footage to Final Cut directly (and have a “trimmable” sequence), you need to make the proxies or just convert everything to ProRes HQ (or ProRes) and get rid of the H.264 footage.

Hope Apple surprises us with Final Cut Studio 4. If it is ever released, then I believe FCP will have native H.264 editing.

Thanks
Rodrigo Silvestri .

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Some people seem to love getting angry. I don’t 🙂

[Jeremy Garchow]

To log and capture 5d footage you need the free log and transfer plugin and you need the original CF card file structure with THM files. Then log and transfer will work.

Grinder will convert your files for you, but it’s still going to take a lot of hand matching back.

Man, what a mess. A 5 minute search on the web before the edit started would have saved days of trouble.

Any idea how the original proxies were made?

[Rodrigo Silvestri]

I’m just the colorist :P, met this project yesterday.

Anyway I’m used to incompatibility issues, using EDLs as cut lists, etc. I mean, lots of projects come from Premiere or AVID or complex situations that I just ask for one file and one EDL.

I didn’t know of that way of importing H264 to FCP.
I understand the proxies were made in Compressor, edited, and then reconnected to the original files.
I don’t have the project here, but I can ask the editor how he did this.

If the footage was ingested through log and transfer, would that be helpful for what I want to do? Or should I just stick to the one-file-ingest and manual cut?

Thanks!
Rodrigo Silvestri

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Some people seem to love getting angry. I don’t 🙂

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Rodrigo Silvestri] “I’m just the colorist :P, met this project yesterday.”

I’m not blaming you, I’m blaming whoever did this. It’s total craziness.

If they logged and transferred to begin with, then all oyu have to do is media manage the final timeline to a ProRes HQ setting with handles (Create Offline), then relog and transfer just what you need to ProRes HQ.

[Michael Gissing]

If the project with the H264 files opens in FCP then you can Media Manage and delete unused medai and add 3 second handles. At the same time, recompress the project to ProRes. That should just do the shots in the project to length plus handles and make it ProRes for Color.

[Jeremy Garchow]

That’s the method he said would take three days to compress.

[Shane Ross]

H.264 is NEVER to be used. Ever. That is the base camera codec, and one for final delivery…never match back to it for finishing. They did this wrong, not you. Will Color even accept this format?

Media manager will not work unless the footage has REEL numbers. Reel numbers are added if you use LOG and TRANSFER (them, not you)…or if you use Grinder.

What can you do? If Color won’t take the H.264 files…then when you render out as ProRes, it will render only what is used, with handles. If not, then you need to manually add reel numbers to all the footage, then media manage.

Bill for each and every hour it takes you to clean up this mess.

Shane

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[Rodrigo Silvestri]

[Shane Ross] “H.264 is NEVER to be used. Ever. That is the base camera codec, and one for final delivery…”
I DPed a short film with a 5D last year and I was going to do the post-production. As soon as I came home with the drives, I converted Everything to ProRes and deleted the camera files, LOL.

Color takes H.264 files and seems to handle them OK. The big problem is that playback is slow, and it has a longer lag to start/stop playback. Scrubbing is impossible. That’s why I asked the director to start preparing the project for exporting two video files, one with the base layer and one with the extended clips that have cross dissolves.

[Shane Ross] ”
Bill for each and every hour it takes you to clean up this mess.”
I’m doing it 😉

Thank you.
Rodrigo Silvestri.

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Some people seem to love getting angry. I don’t 🙂

[Michael Gissing]

That’s why I was suggesting using ‘delete unused media’ unlike the description in the OP which was converting full files, not trimmed.