[Bob Cole]

[Kyle Bachman] “Some cameras can measure sxs1 though.”

Which cameras can do this?

[Bob Cole]

Thanks guys. This is really good news.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[John-Michael Seng-Wheeler] “Also, if I might ask, what format do you usually deliver to?”
Variety of output formats. Often ProRes, .h264, .wmv for corporate websites, and DVDs.

Shane, are you saying that the render time on output is not that lengthy? I’m usually making 3-10 minute pieces.

The render/re-render workflow does not worry me; I doubt there is a significant quality impact. But my workflow often has involved making After Effects renders, then layering them with other elements in a FCP timeline, so as to be able to edit and adjust the timing of certain effects in the final timeline. What format should I use for the AE renders, or is the integration so tight that I have to look at a different way of working?

Thanks for humoring these basic questions. I’m thinking of making the jump for a project that is due this summer and want to look, and re-look, before I leap. I have other questions but I’ll post them in another thread, if I can’t find the answers through the Search function.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Just looked at this entire clip and saw something that was very striking. At the end, McNamara repeats himself: “He and I’d say I were behaving as war criminals.”

McNamara is framed to the right during this bite, which ends at 3:21. Then the camera slowly zooms in on and centers his face (he’s looking into the lens, actually at Morris’s teleprompted face), as a line of McNamara voice-over continues until at least the end of this clip, at 3:46 – a long, long time, which makes me very curious. It SEEMS very natural because it fits so well into the editing. But anybody who’s ever shot an interview knows that this is not natural at all. In fact, good interviewers use silence to “force” interviewees to fill the awkward void.

But the effect is very dramatic. I wonder (1) whether it was set up that way (did Morris ask McNamara to give him that line and then keep looking at the camera, and (2) just how it was shot – was the image zoomed in post or only with the camera?

[Bob Cole]

[Don Greening] “‘m just about ready to buy the Mac Pro that’s still available. As soon as I do that you can be sure they’ll come out with something new. They always do :)”

Now that’s being a public servant. Thank you for that! I’ll wait and see what happens after your purchase.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thank you Don for the excellent explanation. It all makes sense. I have the CalDigit HDOne 8-disk array, and an early Intel MacPro (“MacPro 1,1”), so my hardware suits ProRes quite nicely – and the XDCAM not as well. I’m hoping that Compressor can give me a droplet which approximates the ease of use of the Episode watch folder.

This is a bit OT for this forum, but thanks for the comment about alternatives to FCP7 and how that choice interacts with hardware. I hesitate to jump to the PC side, though that seems to be the better choice for more powerful desktops. I understand that some editors are going to iMacs. Perhaps if I can keep my MacPro going for ingesting the occasional tape source, I can use a more modern iMac for editing.

[Bob Cole]

Thank you Don.

Compressor sounds fine, as long as I can learn to automate the procedure, use batch processing, and the quality is top-notch. (If there is guidance available as to how, I would appreciate hearing about it.) I have never used droplets but guess I’m about to learn how.

More questions, I’m afraid:

1. Why should I even consider a 3rd party app for the transcode?
2. What do you think of my new approach of just biting the bullet from the beginning and transcoding everything to ProRes?
3. Given that I will have to move from FCP7 to something else, most likely Premiere Pro or Avid, how would their handling of the XDCAM files influence your choice?

Thanks again!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

No help here on that table assembly, but you should contact the manufacturer.

But I would like to say something about chairs. Or, rather, I’d like to share a nice link about how chairs are ruining our lives.

https://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/05/the-problem-with-sitting.html

Clearly, the human body did not evolve over the ages so that it could be placed into chairs for 8-12 hours/day.

The next redesign of my editing room, I’m converting my editing table to a standing table.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

That would be great. But I have no idea whether the market for this is one person or many. There are only 168 ratings for MovieSlate on the iTunes Store.

Another idea would be to incorporate audio recording (not necessarily high fidelity), and a way to use something like PluralEyes to link to the camera files, so that the “taps” would create (tail) markers on an NLE timeline.

I know I already mentioned this, but being able to use multiple taps for rating would be pretty cool too.

Thanks!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Fair enough. I think I read somewhere that LTO backup is mandated by insurance companies on big productions. Hard drives are pretty reliable, but LTO seems to be the gold standard.