[Bouke Vahl]

Hmm.
Just tought of something…
Does the cam shoot DVCproHD or AVCintra?
If the latter, you’re in for a render on both cams.

For the transfer speed, yes it will be fast if it is DVCproHD.
The top is 100 Mb /s, and a typical el cheapo transport disk will run at some 200 Mb / s, so the transfer will take half the time of the duration. (In your case, 20 hours…)
Divided over several days, totally doable.

If the shoot is AVCintra, the files will be very small and perhaps can be FTP’d (if you shoot / edit in locations where high speed internet is available.
But AVCintra does need a proper transcode before you can edit it.

You might also render proxies on the shoot location, transfer them over internet and start editing with those. (perhaps transcode the proxies to another codec in the studio, but if they are small, that should be fairly fast.)
So you get a head start this way, and replace the proxies with the HQ video after the transcode is done, a day or two before delivery.

But in all cases, do test the entire workflow before commiting yourself to it. And for a project like this, if there are only a few small transport disks available, i would be scared…
(cost of transportation might exceed the value of the disks. Strange way of budgetting IMHO…)

Now, it is all possible, and i could even alter Offloader to do the re-wrapping while making proxies.
(DVC-pro MXF is currently not included in the transcoding, nor is AVCintro, but i could change that.)

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

Please enlighten me.
(I never use P2 myself).
Isn’t the codec FCP comaptible?
A transfer from MXF to MOV is essentially re-wrapping the data in a QT container, and should be as fast as just a simple copy command.

So my idea was that importing the P2 would be quite fast, and you should transcode the Canon stuff to the same codec, so you don’t have a mixed codec timeline, and don’t have to edit H264 (which is a bad idea with FCP).

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

we love to make assumptions here to help people getting it right.
(we don’t make assumptions if you feed us with enough info. Eg, it was not clear to me that you did not start shooting yet…)

Now, you do not need a hardware converter.
I don’t mean record the signal, i mean, offload your clips and do the transcode while shooting the next card.
If you have Mpeg Streamclip or Compressor, it will be fine.
Or, you can use my ‘offloader’ application, exactly intended to do this kind of work.

https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/15/offloader/3

So take a laptop to the shoot, and start the transcode there.
(No matter what you use to transcode.)

If you are going to shoot 40 hours of Canon stuff, how many cams are you bringing?
If it’s just one, the shoot will take several days. That also should give you enough time to do the transcoding overnight during the shoot, if you don’t want to bring a laptop. Could be done in the hotel.
No way a transcode of a day’s worth of shooting will take longer than a night rest.

Get my point?

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

well, how much 5D footage do you have?
A decent encoder should be about RT, so it should be done in a day or so.
And, who is to blame for the mess? The transcode could have taken place during the shoot, so you were ready to edit an hour or so after the last take…

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

Just bringing back 18 hours to 9 hours?
Are there log notes where the breaks are?
If so, i can do this in one day.
If not, it will take me two days. (I can listen at 2x speed).
What is the work after that, setting chapter points etc?

5000 seems a lot to me. But if all needs ambient sounds / sound design to get into the mood of the story, it’s pretty low.

But why not ask your client what he expects to be fair, and see if you are willing to do it for the money.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

Oh, i forgot…
This might come in handy as well:

https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/41/fcpreconnect

(at least get the free demo, there is a lot of info on how FCP reconnects, this knowledge will save your butt someday.)

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

Exporting BWF can be done with QTchange:
https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/42/qtchange

(input a folder with QT’s with timecode, it can batch export to BWF)

Now i don’t know about the EDL, but an EDL is a simple text file.
You should be able to alter it with a word processor.

Try to get your hands on one and show it to us. (at least to me 🙂

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

No need to test.
SDI is lossless digital, your codec may not be.
And SDI is the industry standard.
But analogue component is lossless as well, but analogue.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

Any decent switcher can be set up to cut on either field 1 or 2.
So this is a very common situation.
However, if it is only in the beginning, indeed there was a technical problem.
If you don’t need to replace the shot, there is no need to change it though, it will display just fine, as the field order is not changed.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Bouke Vahl]

Don’t worry, the files are fine.
It’s QT who is messing things up, it shows you the display aspect ration, not the actual aspect.
(and it takes non-square pixels on a computer monitor into account…)

If you send this to another facility, you’ll be fine.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros