[Adam Levine]

Here’s my workflow, adapted from Warner TV’s Mandated-by-Corporate workflow developed for shows shot on film:

1) Shoot 24P
2) Make offline cassetes (I use DVCam these days, 3/4″ in the olden times). This will introduce pulldown into the picture. Either remove pulldown on capture, or use Cinema Tools. If it’s “Advanced” pulldown (e.g., from the Panasonic 24P camera), just use FCP. Or you can capture directly from HD masters using DL RT downconversion to JPEG at 35% quality.
3) Offline edit at 23.98
4) Export program as a single QT file with window burn as an “offline cassette” (for double checking errors in Media Manager, etc.
5) Media Manage for recapturing
6) Recapture at full resolution
7) Color, titles, graphics
8) Lay back
9) QC
10) Have a beer or two

Bottom line is this: cut at the frame rate of your final program. Period.

[Adam Levine]

Don’t know what the specific problem is here, but it just shows that it is always best to keep your timebase constant throughout the post process. Next time, pull up all the footage before cutting (follow the instructions in Cinema Tools), offline at 23.98, and that way you’re ready to rock for online.

FWIW, my guess is rounding error when your outgoing cut is on one of the split frames in the 3:2 sequence (by sheer randomness, you would get 40% — 2/5 — of clips having this problem)

[Adam Levine]

This is on a Mac, and A and B work flawlessly. This is an intermittent problem.

[Adam Levine]

Don’t know,really, as I am unfamiliar with this setup, but I suspect it has something to do with your use of composite, rather than component out.

[Adam Levine]

It’s fine for wedding videos and local corporate work, but to shoot a whole feature is just asking for a nightmarish post production process. MPEG-2 is not, nor was it ever intended to be a production format.

[Adam Levine]

I personally refuse to do HDV editing, even with Lumiere, which will let you work with FCP 4.5:

https://www.lumierehd.com/

I did oine project a few months ago, and it was such a pain, I just decided that was my last HDV project. It’s pretty much a nightmare all around. If they haven’t shot it yet, tell them they need to step up to DVCPRO HD or HDCAM. Also, it is an anamophic format (1.33 pixel aspect ratio) so you’re not even getting full resolution. I think HDV looks horrible too.

I’m so tired of people using consumer technology for professional purposes.

[Adam Levine]

Sorry, about the broken link, use this:

https://www.squeezeanickel.com/fcp/

[Adam Levine]

>So if I already have some effects on the clips, will they still be attached to the clip when i media manage the whole project, or do they disappear?

They will remain with the same settings. However, if any of them are color related, I would redo settings.

>If they are still attached to the clip does it keep the keyframes?

Yes.

>Also, when I set up the online, should I media manage it choosing to recompress clips to uncompressed?

Yes. That or Online JPEG (I use a custome preset at 100% quality). Here’s a screenshot of my typical settings for anamorphic footage:

https://www.squeezeanickel.com/fcp/fcp-screen-shot.jpg

>What settings should I use for the online? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I find 8-bit uncompressed or JPEG at 100% best for DV footage. 10-bit doesn’t see to add anything (unless you are applying graphics, or lighting effects with strong gradients), and adds to render times and file size. I only use 10-bit for capturing DigiBeta source material. Also, FCP will adjust the frames size, adding 2 lines above and 4 lines below the 480 DV lines

Also, something I left out:

I always render a DV movie with TC burn and use this as an “offline cassette” to refer back in case anything went wrong (sometimes FCP screws up clips with speed fx, especially variable speed). In the new online timeline, I create a new, empty track at V1 and 2 new empty audio tracks at A1 and A2. Then I lay in the offline, matching my 2 pops and tail pops. That way, I can always check back to make sure everything is copasetic. Make sure you turn off these offline tracks before outputting to tape. Back in the day, we’d have a 3/4″ cassette layoff with TC burn from the Avid offline which we could use to check back against if there were any discrepancies in the EDL.

>thanks,

you’re welcome. pass on the good mojo

[Adam Levine]

Yes, but you should only be doing cuts/transitions in the offline stage. Save the levels work for your online.

[Adam Levine]

Great little checklist. Thanks.