[Alan Okey]

[Kyle Davis] “I’m using FCP 6. If it recompresses, then I guess I’ll just deal with the right-click->open with method that was mentioned, which is what I’ve been doing. I just thought there might be an easy setting change or something that would turn it off.
“

That’s not necessary. Go back and read Michael’s post. You can set Quicktime to globally open all .mov files by showing the file info box (command-i) and following Michael’s suggestion.

[Alan Okey]

You can simply render out of AE to ProRes.

Any uncompressed clip brought into a ProRes FCP sequence will need to be rendered and end up being compressed to ProRes anyway, so you might as well avoid the need for FCP to render and simply make your exported AE shots ProRes Quicktimes.

[Alan Okey]

Audio files don’t have a frame rate, only a sample rate. Use Compressor to convert your mp3 to an uncompressed PCM 16-bit 48KHz stereo aiff file and import it into your FCP sequence.

[Alan Okey]

[David Roth Weiss] “Personally, I’m becoming much more insular these days. I pay little attention to the so called “news.” I get the information that’s relevant to my life right here on The Cow and in a few other places. Increasingly, the things going on in the world at large seems to have little to do with my life. Am I just getting old? “

No, it’s not that you’re getting old, it’s that mass media is devolving at breakneck speed. I’m only in my 30s and I feel the same way. I haven’t even owned a television in 10 years (rather odd for someone who works in video) and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

The Internet allows us to be much more selective about what we read and watch, and it’s a far more interactive medium than TV. There is potential in that to be both positive and negative, as most people have a tendency to seek out and limit themselves to content that maintains consonance with their own world view and opinions. Extreme insularity within a self-validating feedback loop brings with it the danger of rational discourse disappearing altogether, as every issue is reduced to a shouting match between binary opposing viewpoints whose proponents aren’t interested in engaging in any kind of a dialogue and seek only to drown out and negate the opposing opinion. That seems to be a pretty accurate description of the state of American politics these days. Or perhaps it’s only because popular mass media intentionally highlights, sensationalizes and magnifies extreme opposing viewpoints and thrives on conflict rather than on reasoned argument, rational discourse and finding common ground.

I think it remains extremely important to actually leave the house and interact with human beings face to face on a daily basis for a healthy dose of perspective. As much as technology is shrinking the size of the world, I think it’s also creating more barriers for genuine human interaction. Tweeting, text messaging, emailing and “friending” people on Facebook is not a substitute for interacting with other human beings in the flesh.

Having said that, I greatly value the Internet as an educational resource, the Cow being a fantastic example. The trick is in maintaining a balance and using technological tools for self-improvement and for good rather than becoming a slave to the tools themselves.

[Alan Okey]

Just wanted to jump in on the infotainment thread…

At the risk of sounding a bit like your grandfather who walked twenty miles to school uphill both ways every day and liked it, I can’t stomach watching television “news” anymore unless it’s the subject of satire or ridicule.

There are few things worse than being subjected to some chirpy bimbo (or “himbo”) blathering on about Very Big Important Scary Things (prescreened and selected for your viewing pleasure by the Very Big Parent Corporation of whichever news network you happen to be watching), puff pieces about kittens, salacious sex scandals or “reality” TV stars.

I highly recommend Charlie Brooker’s BBC series Newswipe, which you can find on YouTube. I haven’t had such a good laugh in years. He has a truly masterful command of the medium and an insider’s view of the machine.

[Alan Okey]

[Daniel Kim] “If I were to render out the specific locked footages and add VFX to it and finally bring it back to the NLE, wouldn’t I have hard time unifying the colors for each clip? “

It’s hard to say – it depends on the kind of effects being added. Some people might choose to add VFX to graded footage, others may choose to add VFX first, then grade. If it’s a complex composite, it’s not uncommon to have to do some color matching/balancing within the VFX app itself.

Also keep in mind that it’s not necessary to “render out” segments of a locked edit that will have VFX applied. All you need to do is locate the original source clip of the shot in question and import it into the VFX app using the same in and out points that are used in the edit. Once you complete the shot, you simply render the result in the VFX app and replace the original clip in the NLE with the VFX shot.

I can see how my earlier post may have given that impression:

Shoot > log/capture > edit > lock picture > export shots for VFX > import finished VFX shots back into edit > color grade > final output

Perhaps it would be more accurate to change “export shots for VFX” to “select shots for VFX,” since it’s not necessary to export anything from the NLE. You simply need to reference the edit for the proper in/out points for the shot and use the original captured media.

[Alan Okey]

[Kyle Davis] “I’ve been using Export to Quicktime Movie (self-contained). I’ll try “using quicktime conversion” from now on. There’s no difference between them (assuming I’m talking about self-contained)?
“

Don’t use Quicktime conversion unless you’re transcoding to a different codec than your sequence. Exporting using Quicktime conversion will recompress your output even if you choose the same codec as your sequence, adding an unnecessary additional generation of compression.

[Alan Okey]

What version of FCP are you using?

[Alan Okey]

[Tom Laughlin] “Any further thoughts Andy on this 24p to 29.97 and how that affects this project? Could I reset the sequence and change it from its current time-line setup to another setting, and change the frame-rate, or does that even make sense, sense it’s really not 24p, you mentioned a 3:2 pull-down? I guess this may need to be done on my next edit, as I probably won’t have time to reconvert this to a 24p format, then replace my assets with the same names and re-linking, I’m not sure if it’s worth it at this point. “

You’re probably right, at this point I’d suggest just forging ahead and treating everything as 29.97 (interlaced). For future projects, you could weight the pros and cons of conforming to true 24p before editing. The advantage would be a better looking end result on the web with either a lower overall bandwidth or greater quality at the same bandwidth, i.e. 24fps at a given bit rate will look better than 30fps at the same bit rate.

[Tom Laughlin] “But as far as steps 1-8, does this appear to be straight to what HDV would be imported as and edited? Taking into consideration everything has stayed the same with the original footage being imported and edited in HDV? “

Looks good to me as long as you stick with 29.97 (interlaced) for this particular project all the way through.

I’d suggest that you try posting some questions in the FCP forum. Several regular contributors there use the EX series cameras and might have some good ideas on workflow.

Good luck!

[Alan Okey]

[Tom Laughlin] “Also, I guess I can always export it out in 24p at the end, in QT or Compressor, and will that return it back to the 24p frame-base it was shot in, even if it was not edited in 24p, but 29.97?
“

This won’t really work because the 3:2 cadence will change with every edit point. If the piece is one long unbroken clip, then yes, you could conceivably do this, but if it’s many shots edited together then the pulldown cadence would be constantly changing.

An alternate solution would be to transcode the footage to ProRes, then use Cinema Tools to conform each captured segment to 24p. You could then edit in a 24p ProRes sequence. Cinema Tools can’t conform long GOP footage, hence the need for transcoding to ProRes.

Does Log and Transfer give you the option to create ProRes clips instead of HDV? If so, that would save the transcoding step. I know it’s possible to use Log an Capture to capture ProRes via Firewire from HDV sources.