[Carsten Orlt]

Dear Ze’ev
I totally undesrtand your problem and your got a real Post problem in front of you! (and I 2nd your response to earlier post here about the ‘stop using it like an Avid’ comment)

I do not have several editors working on dif projects with same media, but I work on very large projects which I organize into Masterclips Project and Edit version projects (To keep the MB per project smaller which keeps FCP happier). This effecively creates the same problem you have, namely there is no link between the clips I have in the Masterclip project and the cips in my edit version project.

The only solution I can see for your problem is the following:

Prefix:
– You only can work with full Masterclips meaning when you uprez you have to capture the whole take you want exactly as you captured it low rez (not deleting unused parts!) The way I do it is to log all clips as camera start to stop, never! combining takes in one masterclip! FCP is much better in working with small masterclips.
– you never can change the filename through the whole process (clipname) as it is your only save reference for masterclip over sev projects. The way I do it is the use clipnames (and therefore filenames) that represent project/reel number/scene/running number. describtions are only entered via log notes. Much easier to find clips later on!
– FCP stores all clip information for a seq in the seq itself! You do not need the masterclip project to recreate all clips used in a seq. (but you know that 🙂

The Workflow:
– Capture the clips as above. Let your editors cut away.
– When uprezing, take a given seq and use the Media manager to create a new project with selecting to create new masterclips with the setting you want to uprez in. DO NOT select ‘delete unused media’. The reason is if the next seq is uprezed and contains clips that are already captured for seq A but trimmed for unused media, FCP will not be able to understand that a clip in seq B may use a slightly diff part of the master media! FCP looks when relinking first for the filename, then for the length of the clip. Even if the filename matches it will refuse to link to a clip with diff length. It also can’t just check reel number and TC to match to media (which is where the whole problem originates in the first place!)
– recapture the uprez clips for seq A into a new directory where all uprez clips should go for all following sequences. This way you later on only have to look into one directory to see if clips are already there.
– When it comes to uprez seq B again use the media manager to create the project. Now select your new masterclips for seq B and relink first to find already captured clips. When the dialog comes up select to automatically relink all clips find in the new directory and only find matching names. This gives you a half automatic way to relink. It will still ask you every time it can’t find a clip, but then you only have to click ‘skip’. I know its a real pain, but no other way I know of :-(. Capture the remaining missing clips for seq B.
– And so forth.

Sorry but I do not know any other way to solve the problem inside FCP.
If I could write software I have an idea how to use the XML export in FCP to create the ultimate Media Manager which would solve all problems (and then some). But I can’t and until I find somebody who can….(if you know somebody, drop me a line 🙂
All the best getting through your project, either with FCP or Avid 🙂
Cofe
cofe@exemail.com.au

[Carsten Orlt]

Yes Commotion is dead in the regard that it has been discontinued, even so there are some rumors that Avid (after buying Pinnacle) might do something with it.
But I never sell my copy as I find Commotion can do things no other package at this price (when you still could by it) can do! And I’m not talking roto matte work.
I’m an editor and not an compositor so in the regard to high end compositing I can understand why everybody has moved on. But I use Commotion mainly for one thing and that is paint on my pictures! The other day I needed to remove a number plate from a car while a guy was moving in front of it and revealing it from time to time. Doing this with masks in AE or FCP or any other package would have taken ages. Sure I could export to PS and do single frames, but why bother when I can open the quicktime in Commotion and just paint over the picture, press play, make adjustments and save and done! Also in the package I bought I got all this great filters. You can buy them for all the other packages but for a lot more money. And not compositing all the time I couldn’t justify the extra cost for very ittle use. I find Commotion an indespansable tool for an editor.
my 2cents 🙂
Cofe

[Carsten Orlt]

Hi Johnny
I have a Pipe (sorry to intrude guys, but one has to see what the competition is doing 🙂
and I saw kind of the same problem. After some tremendous help from the Aurora guys I finally got the answer back.
FCP is doing it! Apple decided to make all PAL (regardless of DV or any other codec) upper first for external playback. As you know PAL DV is lower per spec. So Apple now forces FCP (external vout only – effecting all cards) to throw away the first line, shift all the rest one line up and filling the last line with black. This makes PAL DV on the external vout effectivly upper first. It doesn’t effect the processing because it really is only a ‘playback to output device’ adjustment. If you would output through Firewire to a DV deck all would be normal.
The reason you see a change is when you stop is that when paused FCP displays the ‘normal’ frame
That’s how I understood it anyway. Not a techo you know…
Who would have thought.
Cofe