[Andy Mees]

hey Rafael,

what I’m suggesting is nothing more than a selects reel.
very simply, all you are doing is creating a sequence of all your source clips and then using that instead as your source “clip” for browsing and selecting shots for the edit.

heres a few quick tips for the process:

store all the source clips for each disc/card in separate source bins
open one of these bins, select all the contained clips, and choose Modify > Make Multiclip Sequence and then press Enter (OK) to accept all default settings and create the sequence
… this will create a new bin of multiclips (which you can delete), and more importantly, it will create the sequence that you will use as your virtual clip
open the sequence into the timeline and you’ll see that your original xdcam clips have been assembled in order such that the timecode of the clip matches the timecode of the timeline

take this sequence and rename it to something appropriate, then copy or move it into the main project folder

repeat for each bin full of source clips

of course, you need not create these timecode synced reel sequences if you don’t want to. if you prefer just manually create the sequences and drag and drop any selection of your source clips into them to quickly create butt-cut assemblies of the selected clips

… and thats pretty much it. all you need do now is use these sequence as the source clips

to open a sequence into the viewer window as a clip, rather than the opening it into the timeline window as an edit, simply drag and drop it from the browser to the viewer window, or you can just option-doubleclick the sequence in the browser window
(note: if the viewer displays the sequence in a multiclip view, eg 4-up, 9 up etc then you can choose View > Multiclip Layout > Multiclip 1-up and then reopen the “clip” again)

and as mentioned before. if you use cmd-f9 and cmd-f10 to edit into the timeline then this will use the original clip source from the sequence rather than nesting the sequence itself (if you’re a drag and drop kind of guy then if you hold the command key down when you drop the file into the sequence, again this will make it use the source rather than creating a nest)

hope that explains the idea/workflow better, and that you might find it useful

cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Hey Mitch
You must surely know that its been discussed to death … I really think most folks are a bit tired of the topic :/
Anyone who really needs BluRay support has probably gone out and bought Adobe Encore and just got on with it. Just as with hardware, you buy when you need it, not wait in the hope that an unannounced update may or may not be released with or without an unannounced feature. If and when the support finally arrives in DVDSP all the better but until then …

Fwiw, by first hand accounts, at the LAFCPUG Supermeet during NAB the Apple rep specifically teased the massed hordes with a “who wants BluRay support” taunt right at the end of the session, thereby giving a very clear message that Apple and the ProAppds devs were already very well aware of the clamour for such support, and one can only assume busily working on it (why else the public taunt?)

Just my 2c
Andy

[Andy Mees]

exactly … clear as mud 🙂

>does ProRes work in a DV sequence

ProRes is a quality intermediate codec that can be used to encode both HD and SD media, though most commonly and famously its being used for compressing HD sources to data files that retain the image quality yet at manageable file sizes … can it be used in a DV sequence? of course, but as Jeremy points out, when rendered it would be rendered to DV.

If you’re looking for some means to leverage the new codec with a DV workflow ythen ou might instead choose a ProRes SD Easy Setup, editing your DV native files in a ProRes timeline. Similarly you might instead take advantage of the Open Format Timeline to work with your DV clips in a DV50 or IMX50 timeline, both better codecs native vanilla DV.

Hope it helps
Andy

[Andy Mees]

A few options:

You can assemble the clips into a single “virtual reel” and then use that as the clip source, rather than the individual clips. When editing from the virtual reel into the timeline use Cmd-F9 and Cmd-F10 rather than the typical F9 and F10 (for insert and overwrite) as the former will insert the virtual reel’s original clip sources rather than a reference to the virtual reel itself (aka nested sequences)

If you are shooting with an F350/F355 XDCAM HD camera or recording to an F70/F75 deck then you can enable the “Continuous Clip Recording” mode. (You’ll need the latest firmware upgrade for the camera/deck). This means you can record as a single clip across multiple button on/off recordings … obviously that then extends to your FAM mode file import as the cumulative recording will appear as a single clip instance.

As already suggested, you can capture the file as a single clip into FCP with Log and Capture using baseband and a suitable I/O interface (or. with a suitable camera/deck,a thru firewire as a down-converted DV stream)

Hope it helps
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for joining the cow pokes at the top of the page. May your care and feeding of us gentle bovine grazers give you as much satisfaction as the feed gives us.

Cheers, and many thanks in advance
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Yup, I can see where you’re coming from Chris … just our different interpretations of the post I think. Not to worry.

Best
Andy

[Andy Mees]

>I don’t think ProRes works with SD

it does, Chris. in Kevin’s case, as he noted, he used a DV Easy Setup … which sets the External Video to Apple Firewire, then he used a XDCAM sequence w/ ProRes rendering. FCP then did a realtime down conversion to DV over firewire using RT Extreme or whatever they call it ….

take a look at page 8 of the New Features document found under the FCP > Help menu

[Andy Mees]

its been a basic feature since FCP 6, Kevin

just as the timeline can play back formats that are not native to the timeline’s settings in real time (aka the all singing all dancing mixed format playback support), so FCP can output a non-native format in realtime using the same principle

[Andy Mees]

Hi Dylan

The usual mantra is “FCP is not Avid, and Avid is not FCP” … you seem to have grasped that concept pretty well so I’ll leave that without further comment other than to say thats its always worth bearing in mind.

Regrading your specific issues:

Title Tool: When I first used Avid’s Title Tool I thought something along the lines of ‘this is crap, oh god’

And most Avid editors I know still do believe it’s crap!
FCP’s Text Generator, as already noted, is pretty much a no go zone for any real tilting job. I wouldn’t recommend using it for any more than throwing up a basic slate or placeholder (insert gfx here etc). FCP ships with Boris Title 3D which is a quite powerful title generator … but you need only use as many of the controls as you need. Similarly it ships with LiveType, and once again, just because it can be used to create creative and complex title animations does not mean you have to use it to that effect … ditto Motion.

Capture Tool: The FCP capture tool hasn’t changed in the last 7 years. What it does well is offering the opportunity to add more descriptive data at capture time, but that’s where the benefits end.

I think every professional editor working on FCP has declaimed the lack of running timecode in the capture window. Goodness knows its only the FCP developers who seem to believe we don’t need it. I think maybe the developers ate mired in a low end mindset where things like rack rooms and edit suites without a physical VT don’t exist … that said, with tapeless systems gaining more and more ground the world of ingest is changing rapidly. We may have to resign ourselves to this never happening.

Changing settings on the other hand you can do easily from within the standard Log and Capture window. Just click on the Capture Settings tab to change your device settings.

Effect Editor: The Avid effects paradigm can seem pretty weird when you first encounter it, and perhaps it is – but one thing I think it does better is the editing of existing effects

I couldn’t disagree more on this one. I wouldn’t trade the effects paadigm of FCP for Avid;s for all the tea in China (and I like tea). Press Optio-T to toggle the Clip Keyframes directly in the timeline. Read more on how this works in the manual. If you need to work with filter adjustments directly in th etimeline then you’ll like this… personally I like to load my timeline clip into the viewer and adjust the keyframe in the timeline that is displayed there (to the right of the parameter controls). As for needing to have a different clip open in the viewer … well I can have as many viewer windows open as suits if necessary. (option double-click to open a clip into a separate viewer window).

No option for copy and pasting keyframes tho, entire attribute collections yes, but not individual attributes or keyframes 🙁

Render Management: Okay, this one really seems mental to me

It is mental, and again I’d wish it were more intelligently handled. But as already noted by Rafael, a simple undo will work assuming you have made no changes whilst you had toggled off the upper layer (and if you made changes then you’d have to re-render anyway, right?). Another useful trick in dealing with this limitation is to use the Control-B shortcut to enable and disable specific clips in the timeline without enabling/disabling the entire layer. If you need to see what is below a clip why disable the whole layer, just “turn off” that clip. Again, you can Undo to re-enable that clip and maintain any associated render, or just re-enable and re-render the specific clip

Media Management: If you haven’t used Avid, this tends to make no sense, but the way Avid manages it’s media is brilliant.

No doubt … we live in hope in FCP-land.

Trim Tools : … but there are some scenarios that I struggle with in FCP. Now to be fair, I haven’t fully explored this stuff yet …

weeeelll, horses for courses I guess, but where you struggle to do what you’re used to in Avid, I find the tools comfortable under my FCP adjusted fingers … to me the seem very intuitive. I love the visual feedback that the slip slide trim gives you, letting you “see” exactly where in the clip you are … but I still really miss the ability to slide multiple clips as a group and wait with baited breath at each update to see if such things surface. in vain.
if you’re still in the voyage of discovery phase (and aren’t we all to greater or lesser extent) this tip may be useful to you: select the clip you need to slide, change to the slide tool (ss), press the trim keys to slide the clip in the timeline … doesn’t work for the slip tool tho 🙁

[Andy Mees]

well Jerry, you have me pretty much sold on this whole Digital Cinema thing … I hope you’re getting commission! sadly though, I fear that by the time I’m in the market for a new home video camera I’m guessing the Scarlet will have been discontinued :/