[Alan Langdon]

Indeed, kind of annoying this… I will see if it solves for me too. Thanks!

[Alan Langdon]

Hey, Darren!
Thanks for replying, as you can see, I followed your advice and am loving MultiCam. The speed is what impresses me, which allows one to focus on the editors ‘performance’. Thanks again for your initial push 🙂

So, the files are in H264 .mov and also one channel has been trascoded (via AME) to ProRes because the originals (.MTS 1080i) were causing the system to lag a lot.

Some channels have Black & White applied to them.

I noticed just now that I had all the files in a specific channel turned off, because the cameraman just didn’t get any good angles, and when I turned his channel back on, the problem disappeared, and seems to stay OK. If the problem comes back, I’ll come back here, but it looks like FCP was not appreciating having one of the MultiCam channels with only Disabled clips.

[Alan Langdon]

Aldo, how do I give a camera an angle? I seem to be able to change each clip’s Camera Name, but I can’t see where to define a camera’s Angle.

[Alan Langdon]

Darren, thanks for your advice!
How would the workflow you described change if I were to venture into MultiCam land?

[Alan Langdon]

Thanks again Dave for the input.
YEs, I always import AE renders (Quicktimes) into FCP. And there, within the browser Fielld column, it has been saying Upper, which has been my problem, but now with the solution I found it imports as None. Is there somewhere where I should configure BEFORE importing? I know this is something that FCP has with audio, the frame-rate being important to set (Sequence settings in Audio & Video Setup) BEFORE importing audio, or else it might drift… but is there a similar procedure for importing Quicktimes? I never thought there was, always just imported them as they were created in AE or whatnot.

[Alan Langdon]

Thanks for the insight, Dave.
But as it is, the footage and timeline are indeed Progressive… I always take a lot of care to work in a optimized timeline, with the same settings as the footage (in 99% of the cases, Progressive, or None as FCP puts it).
I guess what I found is a quirk between FCP7, CS6 and Quicktime, possibly with the participation of Mavericks, my OS. But the procedure I discovered (which in essence is nothing but opening some settings windows and changing nothing inside them) seems to work, so that’s a good relief.
Let me know if anything else crosses your mind on this, and I’ll do the same especially if I discover something new on this topic. For now, I will write down my solution so I don’t forget it 🙂

[Alan Langdon]

Thanks for helping out, Dave.
I know it’s a vague claim, and I would probably need to post a render to show what I mean. I’ve been using AE for 15 years now and there’s always something you don’t understand. I had this problem a while back and looked for any notes on how I solved but found nothing.

I did, though, just now try something that solved it while not making much sense. I think this is what I did to solve it.

First of all, upon scrutiny, I noticed that FCP 7 was importing the footage as Upper dominant, although the AE Comp and render settings are Progressive.

Then I did a test render, and before setting it to go, I entered the Quicktime settings in the Output Module and went all the way deep where you configure the Quicktime settings (Format Options / Codec Settings), where you always get the message to “adjust the settings in the dialog provided by the codec, then close it when finished). In there, I did nothing but just observe that the settings are correct: Gamma Correction: Automatic and NOT interlaced… Closed the dialog box and went back to set the Comp to render.
And horay! This time rendered out and Final Cut understood the Quicktime as Progressive, not Upper…
Go figure!? Any idea why this happens?
The down side is that it means every time I need t render something, I need to go deep into the codec settings and then close the box like I did above. Whenever I re-render the Comp, I can just Duplicate With FileName and this seems to keep the Quicktime as Progressive when re-rendering.

[Alan Langdon]

OK, figured it out: the RGBa wasn’t selected, just RGB…

[Alan Langdon]

This may be the case, I will try that option. I recently had to exchange the RAM on this macmini in fact, something was wrong with the ram that came with it (16gb).

Although I have in the meantime started experimenting with Compressor 4.1.3 and loving the ease of use of the presets and destinations… !

[Alan Langdon]

Thanks for the specific replies regarding Workflow 1 (footage not compatible with FCPs Log & Transfer).

(I’m looking tino ClipWrap as I type 🙂

I agree, I much prefer to not even bother converting footage. One of the attractive aspects of Premiere is the ability to just drag in footage from different cameras.
Case scenario: what if you are working with 2 cameras: one shoots 1080i30, while the other shoots 1080p60, but you want the timeline/outcome to be 1080p30 ?

Then, I guess I will use a deinterlacer effect for the 1080i30 clips?

many thanks!