[Bill Thomas]

Thanks Bob. Quite a great help, as usual!!

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

Good idea, Bob!

But in your list of folders, how do these 3 differ:

QT refs
Raylight QTs
Reference

Are they all reference files from Raylight?

Thanks,

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

[Bob Woodhead] “One tip I think the guys at Raylight should stress more is that’s it’s a good idea to save the QT Ref files along with your project archives. That way if you need to re-load the project, you don’t need to run Raylight again, and perhaps change settings from the 1st time, thus mucking up what would otherwise be a smooth, painless, media relink.”

In fact, they mentioned that in one of their support e-mails, but I guess I thought it would get too mixed up with dozens of duplicate file names in the same folder.

I guess I could always keep the QT reference files on the working drive – just in another folder besides the raw files.

Thanks again for the tips…

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

To Bob:
Thanks for the info on Raylight. I previously have been inporting using the basic feature of P2CMS (not the database feature) and the using Log & Transfer in FCP.

But my workflow is a bit different; I don’t use metadata at all (too much work in the field for a single shooter). Most of my shoots are: 1st day – interviews, 2nd day – B-roll. I then create 2 folders on my working drive where I upload the respective footage, ie: David_Int and David_broll

Then it was easy in Log & Transfer to pick the clips and rename them as need be. But realizing I would soon run out of space, I decided to try what you mentioned – Raylight. I think I will purchase it, but I only have 2 issues at this point;

1. When I select 3 or 4 folders I’d like to make QT reference files for, Raylight puts them ALL in the same folder. There goes my folder organization! My workaround is to either rename the clip BEFORE I bring it through Raylight, or just bring 1 folder at a time into Raylight, then put THOSE output files into their own subfolder.

2. When importing reference files into FCP, there is no setting for which audio or video channels I want – it brings everything in! (1 video and all 4 audio channels). Kind of a hassle for B-roll where I don’t need the audio. ( Unlike in Log & Transfer where I could decide what I want imported.) My workaround: separate the audio from each and every b-roll clip I need. A pain – yes, but if it’ll help me save a lot of disk space, I guess I can live with it. (BTW, Raylight tech support has no fix for this issue).

Any other hints Bob would be greatly appreciated!

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

They just need to see numbers on the screen to choose shots.

I know FCP will output a timecode of a Sequence, but I need to have the specific clip timecodes.

ALso, when I tried that before, it took forever to render the time code!

Thanks

[Bill Thomas]

Sorry Matt – could you elaborate? There’s a million settings in Compressor and I’m just beginning to use it.

Thanks!!

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

Well after messing with FCP, here’s one way that seems to work. But it takes longer than doing a batch in Compressor:

In FCP make a 525i sequence
Log & Transfer the HD clip(s) I want
Drag clip(s) to Sequence (DO NOT let FCP6 change sequence settings to match clip)
In each clip settings, change size from 75% to 100%
Export range as Quicktime movie
Import that movie into FCP 5 system.

[Bill Thomas]

As it turns out, Aja is swapping out my unit. Along with the audio issues, it gets a green screen on 525i HDMI connector. Weird.

We’ll see what happens with the swapped unit!!

Thanks all for your suggestions. If this second unit still wigs out, I will be looking elsewhere!

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

And I DO format the cards in-camera.

But I still can’t figure out the magic command to rename in Finder (it says the name is locked!!)

Thanks again,

Bill

[Bill Thomas]

Thanks a million Scott! That helps out quite a bit.

Bill