[Chad Gilmour]

Thanks for the tips guys, it helps. Now if I can find the time to experiment with these tips. I really appreciate it.

[Chad Gilmour]

To answer Jeremy’s question, I use cinema tools to do the pull down removal because (at least for me) it has failed me far, far fewer times and it has worked much better than doing it on the fly through final cut.
And to prove your point, I tried it that way (capturing with the 24P ADV pull down through FCP) and it worked fine. I captured 1 of 3 tapes and I noticed it split the clip up though half way through, so there might be a goofy hicup in the timecode around there. Which might explain why cinema tools was giving me odd results, but I have this audio drift problem on 3 tapes. I personally didn’t shoot the material this time, but the person that did shot with the same camera, same setting and everthing (I checked to make sure).

To answer the Eli’s question, I capture through a firewire minidv deck. I haven’t tried doing the pull down removal in FCP the way you suggested. I will give that a try as well. Thanks for the tip. Does going through an SDI source make a difference?

[Chad Gilmour]

Interesting, we typically don’t use the firestore very often as we are usually only recording at most 10 minutes of material for use in 5-30 second promos. So it’s just been easier to record to cards then have to bother with bolting on the firestore. I might have to look into that though.

[Chad Gilmour]

We are running Media Composer 2.6.8 as far as I know it doesn’t have an import p2 button/option (I’ve worked more with Final Cut than Avid so I learn a new trick everyday on these things).
So far we have been transfering the .mxf’s into an obscure folder burried deep within Avids project structure on the Raid Array because that’s only folder in the system that Avid will recognize .mxf’s for some reason, we can’t even rename them. Then we disconnect the camera and load up Avid. Then we can find the files via the media tool and import them into the timeline and edit. If we need to do some keying or whatever in AE we export a quicktime reference.

I have heard people complaining about media files appearing offline and such and Avid not finding all the files. I haven’t experienced that personally. Some of my coworkers have expressed interest in pulling the clips onto the timeline from the camera itself which they claim they have seen, but that doesn’t make sense to me because if you someone needs the camera when your editing your screwed. But since Avid crashes when the camera is on it’s impossible anyways.

I have been searching high and low and I have realy only found complaints about this.
So any advice or workflow wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

[Chad Gilmour]

I am having the exact same problem and have been searching high and low with no avail, an help would be appreciated.

[Chad Gilmour]

That’s good news, maybe I’ll actually install PPCS3 when I get a chance and give it a shot. It sounds like a HUGE workaround, but I wouldn’t be doing it too often anyways.

[Chad Gilmour]

Above post is true, but if you have nethier the ability to shoot with an HVX, let alone a camera that can do 60fps, it helps to up the shutter speed so the images recorded are as crisp as possible, so when you slow down in post they won’t look as blurry. Also I’ve found After Effects does a much better job at creating clean slowed down footage than FCP (I can’t speak for premiere or AVID, but I assume the same is true for them), but that again kindof depends on how much you slow it down, if you only slowing it down a little bit, I’d still use FCP, but turn off frame blending. If you plan on slowing it down more than %70 in FCP I’d bring it into AE instead and play with frame blending on or off and see what looks best.

And if you can’t up the shutter speed because it’s dark, and you can’t get lights, it’s just gonna be messy, then all you can do is pray to the video gods that your client won’t notice or care.

[Chad Gilmour]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge your answers have been very helpful. I couldn’t really find a good answer on whether canons adapter effected DOF or not. On your point about the ef adapter teleconversion, I was doing a little digging in the canon camera forum yesterday and found out that the ef adapter will act as a 7x magnifier, or whatever you call it. I just wonder, if you get that and stick on a pretty wide angle lens (14mm) as you said and it’s magnified to a fairly good telephoto distance (98mm [14×7=98]) would that create an odd picture distortion? a 7x teleconversion seems almost too drastic to even be usefull, unless you have a tripod and you need get something far away, like animals or something.

[Chad Gilmour]

Thanks for the advice, i didn’t realize it was that tough to get it in focus, I suppose it’s a lot more crucial in HD though.
Do you (or anyone else out there) have any experience with bolting on canon EF lenses on an XL-2 using canon’s adapter. the company I work with has an XL-2, I thought it might add a nice/different creative touch if we could incorporate a bigger line of lenses. However our work is more in the documentary area and interviews, not really any commercials or products. Is it the same case there too with drastically reduced DOF?

[Chad Gilmour]

no you definitly did not say too much, it’s been a little hard for me to get an honest opinion about theses devices that wasn’t coming from the company that makes them or an opinion on a particular one. Thanks for the advice, you say you are a big proponent of them, just not in live unpredictable events, what do you use them for then, or what is most of your work consist of?