Andrew Rendell
Forum Replies Created
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Actually there are a number of possible answers to those questions and sometimes the best choice at each step only becomes clear in the context of the entire job.
Files have a wrapper (e.g. Quicktime, AVI, etc) and a codec (e.g., ProRes, H.264, etc). Data compression is handled by the codec and can be lossy or non-lossy, i.e., it keeps or loses picture (or sound)information. Delivery/transmission uses lossy compression, where the losses are cleverly engineered not to show too much on screen. Converting between codecs causes a loss of quality (called concatenation errors) so each stage before final delivery should be at the best quality available, non-lossy (or nearly non-lossy) compression being the preferred choice (e.g., ProRes in FCP or 2:1 in Avid).
Sometimes file transfer between departments does indeed happen by walking down the corridor (or across town) with a hard drive or memory stick. Stills and audio tracks are more often sent over a network or internet, but video files at high quality are BIG (so often the “sneakernet” is more efficient unless the media is stored on a shared network).
Final broadcast format depends upon the company it’s going to. Some still prefer tape delivery, some will give you a particular set of requirements for file delivery (I did some last year and the broadcaster accepted MPEG IMX files with particular settings).
Whether it’s what’s required, I’m not certain, but I think a diagram with arrows is a very good way of showing a workflow.
I hope that’s helpful and not too patronising.
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It looks like you need the AVCCAM Importer software.
https://news.creativecow.net/story/865800 -
I use both FCP and Avid, and it’s rare that either one has any particular advantage over the other for me while actually editing. You could say that those two have the advantage for me that I know them well enough that I don’t have to think about them when I’m cutting so I can concentrate on thinking about the pictures and sound.
The differences are usually in the way they interact with other aspects of the job that tends to makes one slightly better than the other, which may be as simple as I’m feeding sequences into a formatted show and the mastering is done at a certain facility using X (so it’s better to be supplying in the same software) or there’s a workflow which has been devised where software Y fits into the plan better. (For the money, FCS is hard to beat if you’re doing everything in the one box, but that’s fairly unusual for me.)
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If you are always in ProRes422 there won’t be any inherent loss of quality by passing the shots through different software. You get a loss of quality if you transcode between different codecs. (It’s possible that you might degrade some aspects of picture quality in doing some effects, but that’s a different issue).
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I use Audio Hijack Pro but that’s Mac only, AFAIK there is a similar thing called Total Recorder from https://www.highcriteria.com/ but I haven’t tried it myself…
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A high shutter speed will give a slightly more choppy look but playhead stalling and jumping ahead sounds like something else. That MBP spec is a bit slow compared to the more recent ones, but ought to handle it.
Has your Lacie got a decent amount of space on it (thing slow down a lot when they get near to being full)?
Which connector are you using (USB won’t handle it, you really want FW800 oe esata connections if you’ve got either of them)?
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I expect the most common opinion in the forum would be to go for the best you can possibly afford – each step up the ladder makes you’re life better (faster isn’t just rendering speed, it’s also the software appearing to run more smoothly).
Under severe financial constraints, well yes, all of those you mention will run FCP7, so you can choose how much you want to spend right now, but I’d agree with Dave that as the next version of FCP is released next month (and we don’t know too much about it right now), if you can wait just a little longer, it might be sensible to see whether there is going to be a big difference between the i5 and i7 for that.
Not an easy call right at the moment… but I’ve never regretted going for the max that I calculated that I could afford plus a little extra!
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It’s probably because the audio was imported while the FCP was in a 25fps project (FCP adds a frame rate tag when it imports which can cause the odd issue like this). Someone’s done a work around on Creative Cow before, called something like Fixing Assets (?) so you could search for that, or you could try creating a new project and making it 24fps using an Easy Setup and then re-importing the audio files.
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Yes and no… I’m a country lad from England (I grew up where John Constable painted the Haywain, etc), so fair enough, I don’t have much experience of the kind of insects you have over there (I know they’re a lot noisier than what we have on this side of the pond).
I have had footage though that was recorded in the manner I described by someone very skilled and experienced and we did have to add in background atmos sound because it was too dry! (Probably worth a big emphasis on skilled and experienced.) But I defer to those with experience in your particular landscape.
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Shotgun, yes, as in shotgun (hypercardioid) microphone, on a fishpole just outside the camera shot. It’s an underrated skill that takes quite a lot of practice to get right.