Andrew Rendell
Forum Replies Created
-
I haven’t compared all of the options, but I’ll offer this: I’m doing a fast turnaround job one day a week at the moment (studio rec in the morning, editing during the middle of the day, transmission in the evening from the tapes I make). I have Avid and FCP on my Macbook Pro and it’s a no-brainer – Avid is the right tool for this job, I just don’t have to think about the speed of the system and I would have to if I were to use the FCP.
On the other days of the week I’m using FCP (this is for the same client) because those things are going onto the web and we established a different workflow for that on FCP about a year and a half ago (I’ve been going back to do another batch of them fairly regularly since we started the strand) and it would be very awkward to change.
-
Hard to say, but my gut feeling is that it’s going to be a “leave it going overnight” job.
(Kind of depends on what chipset you’ve got – a 2.4GHz i7 will be much quicker than a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo).
It might be worth making a 30second clip and see how long it takes to process that, then you’ll have something to base an estimate on.
-
I’d recommend learning at least two editing systems as that’ll open the door to more work. I’m currently FCP and Avid, but I recognise that Adobe has moved on from what it was five years ago (or 10, or whatever) and now has a serious set of tools that are just as suitable for the professional as the above and I’ll add it to my repertoire at some point (probably next time I’m quiet).
Sadly, the kit that you know becoming obsolete and you having to buy/learn the next thing has been part of this business for a long time and I don’t suppose it’s ever going to stop. OTOH lots of places keep on using kit long after the manufacturer has brought out a shiny new version, it works, so why change it it you don’t need to.
BTW the answer to the question what’s the best computer (Mac or PC) or software (FCP/Avid/Premiere) is always: whatever they’ve got. No one’s interested in some smartar5e telling them they’ve bought a cr0ck of sh1t.
-
I’d get a copy of the current specs from one (or more) of those companies, that paper is still broadly true but I wouldn’t rely on it.
Safe areas seem to vary from job to job. 4:3 safe is for those programmes where they do a 4:3 (standard def) transmission from a 16:9 programme by filling the frame vertically and cutting the edges off the picture, so it’s the same in height but much narrower than the normal 16:9 safe area.
[In Europe some of our broadcasters do a half way compromise of losing some of the edges and having narrow black bars top and bottom, giving a 14:9 picture in a letterbox on the 4:3 transmission, so we have a 14:9 safe area as well, but I believe that’s not allowed under the FCC regulations.]
My usual facility company (even when I cut on my own kit I use a facility for the final checks and playout) has a safe area overlay on their picture monitor and the first question they ask when I arrive is usually “what safe area do you need?” so they can give me the right one for that job.
-
Component is better than composite, but not necessarily by a huge amount (it depends on a number of factors). TBH I’d try a slightly different way: I don’t know that particular camera, but I see that it has an HDMI output, so I’d be inclined to connect that to your computer via something like a Blackmagic Intensity.
I don’t know for sure, not having tried it myself, but I’d expect that to be a noticeable step up in quality from the Dazzle.
-
Sorry. Setting up that side of things isn’t really my field (I’ve been the guy who has to fix things in the edit suite too often, for which I now charge A LOT to do, hence the attitude).
Google seems to find a lot of stuff, until you start looking for the gen lock connectors, when suddenly there doesn’t seem to be that much around (since doing that kind of work needs gen lock, I’m using that as a proxy for what you need).
Good luck.
-
I can’t say about a PC laptop (I used to have Avid running on a Dell laptop, but it was a few versions ago), but I’ve got Avid 5.5 running in a Macbook Pro 17 and it’s fine. I see Aja have brought out a new Io XT with thunderbolt (although I haven’t touched one yet) which might make all the difference…
-
Um, I don’t wish to appear pedantic, but you want to take an image at a size that gives you black borders with a given screen size and make it fill that screen size without black borders without stretching the image. Do you want to have a think about what you’re asking????
BTW black lines at the edges when you bring on a key (even if it’s outside the safe areas) is seriously unprofessional IMO – I’d have whoever supplied it resupply with it done properly (or pay for it to be fixed).
-
Wow, brilliant 🙂
-
If you’ve got some money, there are programs out there that do the job, e.g., Automatic Duck, Boris Transfer…
Tricky if you haven’t got that option though. You could get something simple across from FCP to Avid by exporting an edl from FCP and importing it into Avid using “create sequence” but you only get cuts & video dissolves coming through, so you’d have to do a lot of manual fiddling to replicate any kind of effects or audio work in it (too much IMO to make the process worthwhile).