[Andrew Rendell]

BTW, transcoding your footage into a different codec doesn’t necessarily change the frame size or rate, but things like Compressor and MPEG Streamclip have the ability to change frame size and rate (and a few other things) so whichever way you decide to do your transcoding you need to check how how you want those options when you set up.

Oh and backup, keep copies somewhere else for safety’s sake (particularly the camera originals). Computers and drives are very reliable these days, but on the rare occasion that a drive does go down it will be when you haven’t backed it up for a while!

[Andrew Rendell]

Hello again, sorry it’s taken me so long to come back.

This is a helpful page on how to set up Canon’s import utility:
https://www.finalcutuser.com/?p=1829

Then you import your footage using the “Log and Transfer” window and right click to choose import preferences and the utility is in there – select source format as EOS MOVIE and Target Format as ProRes 422 (or one of the others if you prefer).

[Andrew Rendell]

The thing to do is use Canon’s utility to import the media into FCP, which converts it to ProRes as it does it.

Now, that utility is meant for the 5D/7D and you have to do a little fix to make it work with the 550D (basically opening a file and adding a text line to it). I did it 4 or 5 months ago, and I’ve forgotten exactly what I did, but it was quite easy. I’m pretty sure that it’s come up on here before though, so have a search around for the appropriate thread (maybe Google it as well). I’ll come back and post what I did later when I’ve had time to hunt around for my notes.

[Andrew Rendell]

I’ve got a Lexicon Alpha and a Samson Go Mic and both of those worked straight away without a hitch (FCP7, Snow Leopard), so I’d be surprised if there was a problem with the Shure.

[Andrew Rendell]

Talk to an electrician.

Seriously, it really is a safety issue (I once got a shock off a lighting rig and it’s a scary way to learn).

[Andrew Rendell]

Shooting B/W and colorizing later – do you know what a staggeringly pains taking and time consuming job it is to colorize monochrome film? OK, if that’s what you really want to do (and I’d love to see the results), but how about shooting in color and making a B/W intermediate, at least you’d have the option of going back to the original rushes if it didn’t work out?

[Andrew Rendell]

As Shane says, it’s because it’s at 44.1kHz, you need to change it to 48k (I have a Compressor Droplet on my desktop for that very thing, so I never bring in anything at 44.1k).

The overload is because CDs are normalised to peak digital level, which is way higher than the levels used in tv. I normally lower anything from CD by 10 or 15dB before I even play it.

[Andrew Rendell]

I’d make the master on HDCAM SR, then whatever copies you end up making from that will have the best chance of remaining at the best possible quality.

Copying digital files/tapes doesn’t incur a generation loss, what does is changing codec, frame size and rate, so you want to avoid those kind of processes unless you absolutely have to.

You can ask your colorist anything you want to! But don’t waste their time, what you need to do is agree on the “look”, then let him/her get on with doing the job (then you can watch it through and make a note of any changes you want before mastering it).

[Andrew Rendell]

According to the FCP 7 User manual:
“Drop frame timecode is only available as a display option for 29.97 fps (NTSC) media files”

The purpose of DFTC is to make the timecode count equal real time, so if your sequence is in any whole number of frames per second there’s no use for it (and the option won’t do anyhing).

[Andrew Rendell]

I agree about Hollywood Edge, also I’ve used the BBC stuff for background atmos. Some of the music libraries have sound effects as well (e.g., https://www.audionetwork.com/sound-effects/ )