[Al Bergstein]

Bob and John are absolutely correct. when I need to crank out a solo project fast, Vegas is it. When I need to ‘play well with others’ despite the fact that they may be a bunch of jerks who spout ‘FCP RULES’ well, I use FCP and give them what they want. It’s ultimately about money, how much you can make how fast. I’ve convinced some die hard FCP people in my neck of the woods that they should go look beyond the normal place, and they are now out looking at Premiere. They just can’t bring themselves to believe that Vegas could help them. Maybe if Sony renamed it SONY PRO EDITING TOOL FOR YOU, YOU HANDSOME PERSON…. (G)… But it’s all only a tool, and you need to use the right tool for the right job. That may force you to the less efficient tool, but WTF. You need to make a living. You can come back to Vegas when you, like me, need to crank a job out fast and clean. It’s easy. I have a dual switch on my monitors, and I can fast switch to the right tool without anyone knowing… And the customer has NEVER cared. Only the competing editors… “you edit with Vegas?” “Yes, why do you think I can charge less than you?” (G). have fun…we could all be “sweeping out a warehouse in west LA” as a songwriter once said, instead of arguing over which tool is best. Good news is that with Vegas, you can use one Windows 7 machine to run both tools. So just do it if you can afford two tools, and the extra add ons, like Boris if you are going to do Chroma key….

Ultimately, relax, grab a beer, and just enjoy the ride. As John said, the more tools you know, the more valuable you are.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Sorry, I didn’t reread the earlier threads. Yes, it’s odd that it’s not working with a 1TB drive, maybe a limitation of the software? Have you tried talking directly to the Sony development teams (John, I assume you have). Would the XDCAM EX output work? If you want to try this with me, my wife’s with her kids this weekend, and I would be willing to see if I can make it fly. We could transfer over the internet, though I only have DSL (sigh).

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

I guess I don’t understand. I have Vegas installed, and also *paid* for Quicktime Pro,which is inexpensive. I now have, on VEGAS, the ability to output to Quicktime MOV format. Why does that not work? Also, I can render to XDCAM EX which I understand can be used directly with no rendering in FCP. (I’m looking at it now under the FCP Audio Video Settings, Sequence preset CHOOSE XDCAM EX).

It seems to me that if you found an FCP person (like me) in your area, and simply asked them to take your footage and convert it to Prores and out put it for you, that they should take it, and it shouldn’t cost much. Heck, If you were in my area, I’d do it for $100! That would seem more than fair for my ability to have a computer and know how to do it. To buy a dinner for the time to rerender something which would take actually 15 minutes to do, and maybe a few hours of electricity while you have a beer with me and shoot the s****, seems like a good deal.

Or am I missing something?

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

I’ve read that PNGs are better for video than JPGs and I convert all photos to PNGs in a batch job. I think that it has something to do with creating an alpha channel for them, which apparently JPGs don’t. I user IRFanview to batch them all up. I also use Montage Magic for some simple slide show transitions. My latest montage is for a folk singer named Mark Pearson of the Brothers Four. You can see the montage, linked from YouTube at http://www.markpearsonmusic.com. It’s not great work, but the budgets are small and it’s fun to just try different things out. This stuff on FCP would have taken twice as long to do.

It’s an interesting situation. I also have shifted away from FCP for a variety of reasons. There is much to like in it, and Vegas is not without it’s problems too, but you’ll find things are much faster to do similar jobs over here. I hear that lots of folks are trying Adobe also, but I’m trying to stay simple, and I’m not looking to have another complex mess to deal with to do simple 1 and 2 camera jobs.

And Sound Forge has been wonderful to work in. Maybe my needs are miniscule, but it’s a nice little package for sound editing also. I just recorded our band in a two hour concert, came home, ran a few processes in S.F., split everything up into clips, and cut CD’s for the band. Was done in about an hour. And I haven’t hardly read a manual on it. So nice simple but advanced tools. Why ask for more?

I did buy Boris FX, as the Sony Chroma Keyer is not very good. Edge control is lousy, and Boris’ is superb. And I like the Boris cartoon like add on. I don’t use it often for pro work, but it’s a fun little effect for some things!

If you have questions on how to do something in FCP in Vegas, ask here. If I’m online I’ll be glad to try and help, as I do use both almost daily, maybe weekly. My most recent work is a three camera shoot, one of them being a JVC shooting XDCAM wrapped in MOV for FCP based setups. So I’m on FCP for this one job. But you have to be able to say, “Yes I do run FCP” when a client or some other ‘know it all’ asks. There are so many people who believe that FCP is god’s gift to video…funny stuff. Then I take the time to show them that I can get the job done faster with Vegas. Since they are paying my hourly, they like that…

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Would transcoding this MOV file help? You seem to be saying it’s an ‘uncompressed’ Quicktime file inside a MOV wrapper? What kind of camera shoots that? Red?

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

I’ve tried Montage Magic but it didn’t seem to give me the fine grain tuning that I wanted. I still use it for simple jobs, but for the kind of Ken Burns look, I just jump into pan. It’s not that hard! Learn it and use it to good affect/effect. (G).

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Well that would be nice but I transcode my DSLR footage using Cineform, and it seems to work fine. No I haven’t edited 6 camera videos at this point with Vegas. But all in all, it is much *faster* that doing *the exact same thing* on my Apple dual quad core FCP machine. So much so faster that as long as I’m not working with someone (like a buddy) who has a JVC that shoots native XDCAM MOV files for FCP, that I do all my editing on Vegas. And don’t get me started on having to transcode my DSLR (Canon 7D) to Prores using Compressor rather than ‘natively’ using the MOV footage! So the grass is not greener. But I haven’t tried Adobe yet. I do use Lightroom for all my still work. Great program.

I have to agree that Vegas is not as stable as FCP, but is much faster when it *is* stable, which is usually. 10.c has been great for me, editing Panny AVCHD whereas 9 was not, not at all. I am rapidly not even transcoding AVCHD if the job is simple.

I am of the impression that the computer you are running it on is as much a factor as Vegas. No apologies for Sony’s development team, but Windows in general has a much wider range of ‘stuff’ that you can use, that doesn’t conform to a narrow definition of ‘device’ like Apple does. That’s a plus for Apple, by the way, but *costs more*. On the other hand, as most people here have done, you have a choice of motherboards, drives, ram, etc. That leads to variables that leads to instabily. You ought to see the testing labs for Windows! It’s a nightmare.

All this is to say that your mileage may vary. Your machine and the ‘stuff’ you add to it, may affect your stability more than mine might, for example. My stability is fine.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Ah, sleepless in the NW. I use both Vegas and FCP, and would add to this thread that collaboration is overrated. From what I’ve seen, you either are all one thing in your project or the other. Perhaps down in Hollywood you find large teams cutting with different tools,blythly using EDL, but up here, people buy one product and stick with it during projects. The real agravation is from the ‘demand’ in the FCP world to get everything to ProRes. However, I’ve got friends who are envious of my ability to throw a variety of things on the timeline and get the project done faster than they do. Hours matter in small work and large. Some are right now trialing CS5 for just that reason and seriously looking to leave FCP. Long term users that is. I currently had to edit in FCP because my hired second cameraman was using a JVC and his format was native to FCP. It was easier to just fire up the Apple than transcode everything he shot. I don’t think EDL would help many people, and from what I’ve read, it’s prone to it’s own incompatabilities. Whatever….it’s not a requirement for my work, it’s just easier to work on whatever is needed. Its no sin to have two different tools for whatever job comes your way. Most of us have two different cameras…their just tools. nite all..

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

It might be hard to shoot white balance, especially if there are stobes, etc. but try and get some practice in doing what you can. Zebra can be very useful in eliminating overexposed areas. Very easy to overexpose in such a situation. You’ll likely find the exposure by adjusting when you get there. No guidelines. Might not be anywhere near wide open if your lights are bright. Then again, you might have to boost in post. I’ve had to on occasion. On my Youtube site, the one video of Southbound was needing a bit of post boost. Worked just fine.

Alf

[Al Bergstein]

Thanks. I can’t answer the questions on cost. That is a local issue you need to investigate. How many interviews are you going to do? Where are you located? where will the interviews be located? Depending on exactly what you are trying to achieve, and how many locations, etc you are liable to be all over the map. I guess we have no idea of your budget, so that limits the discussion, eh? And you said you were going to shoot in a professional studio but without their gear and people. Why not ask them for a quote? It’s a good starting place!

As to what to ask, just be very clear about what you need, and any good video producer or cameraman should be able to ask questions specific to your project. You should have either a script, or an outline of what you are looking to achieve. There are more details on this at various web sites. Try Google. (not being flip, but the questions you ask are pretty large to answer in a forum like this.

Expect to deposit perhaps a 3rd or half down in advance in good faith, since you apparently don’t have a track record with these folks.

Lighting is also another possible cost. So is traveling with a person who knows how to get quality sound. That’s not trivial. If you video tape something and blow the sound, you are back at square one.

Anyway, best of luck.

Alf