Using RED footage in FCP7 project with many other file types. RED virgin

[Shane Ross]

[Paul Boone] “What do I do to get them into FCP7? some kind of clip wrapper or something?”

Well, you can use Log and Transfer to do it. Here’s the workflow for tapeless formats, including RED:

Tapeless Workflow for FCP 7 Tutorial

Or, you can use RedCine or any of the RED transfer options. But it must be converted first.

[Paul Boone] “I hear, Color 1.5, can deal with RED footage almost like editing a RAW photo, and would like to have this ability since most of the clips are shot in very low light and need a lot of color correction. So whatever process to get it into FCP7, hopefully won’t take that ability away, or should it be going to Color first?”

Now you are talking very high end workflow stuff. Not really needed unless you are outputting to HDCAM SR or FILM. You can take the ProRes footage you imported using Log and Transfer to convert the RAW into…that will be fine in Color. If you are brand new to the workflow, I’d say stick to the easy steps. Avoid the complex high end ones if you don’t need them.

[Paul Boone] “Do I need a crazy fast computer to deal with RED footage?”

Once you convert it to ProRes…nope. But you need an Intel Mac to convert to ProRes…and your machine is that. You are fine.

Shane
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[Paul Boone]

Hey Shane,

I installed the RED FCP Log and Transfer Plugin

I tried using Log and Transfer, but all the files are greyed out.

I don’t actually have the RED camera or memory card it came from. I was just given a hard drive that has a bunch of .mts files within a folder.

There’s no specific folder structure from the RED camera. I tried to just select the folder itself, but I got the error message:

“Stream 2” contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.

Can I create a directory.. or is there a workaround for this? I have no contact with the people who actually made the files originally

[Shane Ross]

[Paul Boone] “I don’t actually have the RED camera or memory card it came from. I was just given a hard drive that has a bunch of .mts files within a folder. “

Did they NOT give you the FULL card structure? It should look like this:

.mts? That’s not Red. Not from what I see. I’m used to that being AVCHD. And again, if you are lacking the FULL card structure, you can’t use FCP. ClipWrap2…yes. BUT, contact the client and ask them to verify what camera was used. Ask if they have the full card structure, and not just the .mts files in a folder.

Shane
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[Michael Gissing]

RED file format is .R3D not .mts . If it was RED you could use REDCineX to do correction to exposure etc before converting to ProRes for editing.

This is a better workflow than using Log & Transfer unless you are doing a full grade in Color.

[Paul Boone]

Ok.. well maybe its not RED footage perhaps. That’s what i was told when I was given the footage, but I think its likely he was mistaken. This is a project that I found out about yesterday, and involves all different kinds of footage that I have about 2 days to edit, so I’m just going to have to do what I can with what I have. The nature of the video is very home video style.. so I can get away with a little more. The RED footage, or so I thought, was footage of the recording process. Clipwrap it is.

Thanks