[Alex Elkins]

Hi Grant

I find that I’m my least productive when I’m trying to do all sorts of tasks at once. It’s not unusual to have three different clients each sending you to-do lists on the same morning, and trying to service all of them at the same time means (for me) far less productivity.

I find that by dividing my day into solid blocks of time to spend on each task it’s much easier to focus and work quickly. Try to take a more defined bookings approach…

“Hello Client A – I’ve booked a half-day for you on Tuesday. I’m afraid I can’t fit it in earlier as on Monday I’m working on Client B’s job all day.”

If something urgent comes up then you mix things around a bit, but generally clients have no problem with hearing that your services are in demand!

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Alex Elkins]

[Travis Roesler] “my jpg background image is completely resized to be small and disproportionate”

This is happening because your original JPEG is not the same size as the sequences you’re working in. For example, if you’re working in HD and the JPEG is bigger than that, FCP will scale it down when you paste it into a new sequence.

One solution is as David says, to create a self-contained QuickTime. However, I would add that you only need the QuickTime to contain the background image, so you’re essentially creating a movie file of a still image. That way it leaves your text and music editable.

Another solution would be to crop/re-size your JPEG in Photoshop to match your project. That way FCP never thinks it needs to re-scale the image when you paste it into new sequences.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Alex Elkins]

I’ve just had a chance to revisit this and really can’t see what I’m doing wrong. Frame size, frame rate and interlacing all match up.

However, I am accepting that it may well be a user error here. I tried the same process in a different project (SD PAL) and the fast import worked fine.

Here is a screenshot showing my project settings, which I believe matches my QuickTime:

I also let Avid do a ‘slow’ import to see how the settings differed compared to when I AMA linked the ProRes file and noticed that the settings appear different:

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Alex Elkins]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but has anyone here got an update on this? I’ve not purchased yet but seemingly was on the verge of getting ‘caught out’.

The last post on the thread said that it could be done with two instances of Media Express, but an earlier post said that it couldn’t.

The Blackmagic Design marketing on this and the new 4-channel models is extremely misleading. The suggestion is that they provide software to enable 2 (or 4) channel capture. I was just told by a dealer that it is only possible with third-party tools, such as Tools on Air, which I think comes with quite a hefty licence fee.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Alex Elkins]

I’ll double-check that my project settings all match the QuickTime when I’m back in the suite on Monday. I’m pretty certain they do, as I wouldn’t have any reason to begin the project as anything other than 1080/25.

Thanks to everyone for your help on this. Will keep everyone posted.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Alex Elkins]

[Paul Hillman] ” Do you think either method makes a difference in terms of quality? Or do they produce the same results? Would using MPEG Streamclip also yield the same, better, or worse quality?”

All will produce the same results, (although Compressor is the only one that will generate timecode during the transcode).

[Paul Hillman] “transcoding directly to ProRes from camera-original SxS cards using ProxyMill”
I’ve never used or even heard of ProxyMill so I can’t answer that. Having had a quick look at their website it sounds like it’s for creating proxy files (i.e. low quality), which isn’t what you’re after. I may be wrong though, it’s probably quite likely that you can customise the settings.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
View Post Blue showreel
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[Alex Elkins]

Option 2 – export a QuickTime reference file from the XDCAM EX timeline, the in Compressor you can add a timecode generator filter. That’ll be the quickest way.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
View Post Blue showreel
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film
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[Alex Elkins]

The media is actually an animation from After Effects, rendered out as ProRes, so perhaps that’s the difference.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
View Post Blue showreel
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film
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[Alex Elkins]

Hi Andrew,

I’ve just tried the Consolidate method you suggest and no matter what settings I use, Avid is skipping the file (even though I have unchecked the ‘Skip files’ checkbox.)
It’s giving me an error message saying that the video contains foreign compression types. It appears that my Avid is racist as well as tempremental!

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
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[Alex Elkins]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

From what I can tell I’m already importing using the settings you describe, but just in case I’ve taken a couple of screenshots so you can see what I’m doing…

My Media Creation settings (I’ve also clicked on ‘Apply to all’)

Then I go to File > Import, using these settings:

This is what MC6 does when I click ‘Import’

Does all of that look right?

I’ll try the Consolidate method now and post my results…

Thanks

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
View Post Blue showreel
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film
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