[Chris Short]

Hi Chris,

The 16 or 32 bit setting did not work for me, and as Spencer suggests the process of sending the project through color to render before sending back to FCP and then to Motion works but is protracted, Sure when i use Color (which is most of the time) i grade within 0-100 which produces perfectly in-gamut shots to throw at motion, but this is just not feasible on a low budget quick turnaround show.

As yet i have found no way to do this successfully, motion always clips the super whites. Again, i could grade my shots with the 3 way and render out a flattened quicktime, bring it back to fcp, blade it up, yada, yada before sending to Motion – what a waste of time though.

Heres hoping!

Cheers – Chris

Chris Short
Colourist & Online editor
Films@59
Bristol, U.K.
(formerly Granada Media, Bristol)

[Chris Short]

Thanks Mark,
I kinda realised that we would need to flatten and reimport if using FCP 3 ways if their result is to be visible once sent to motion, but i still havent got a definate answer to whether Motion WILL accept and roundtrip the super white information.

If it wont or there isnt a workaround that doesnt involve flattening pre-graded clips then our workflow will need to be re-evaluated.
As stated we arent grading this particular project in color.

Thanks again and any further clarification welcome.

Chris

Chris Short
Colourist & Online editor
Films@59
Bristol, U.K.
(formerly Granada Media, Bristol)

[Chris Short]

Hi Guys, we are experiencing the same issues, it is proving problematic on this
particular low budget series we are working on, as we are only doing a technical
grade using the 3 way in FCP, usually we grade in color and then do any blurring,
painting etc in motion after so all our levels have been graded within 0-100 in
color and consequently dont have super whites that can be clipped off.

The current series i speak of is an ob-doc following the emergency services and has
super whites present in the DV rushes frequently, we frequently need to blur faces
and car reg’s In this case, we find that any 3 way color correction applied before
sending to motion is ignored and stripped when round tripped back to FCP thus our
super whites are clipped and detail lost.

The only solution in this workflow would be to tech grade the shots and flatten out/
reimport before sending to motion for blurring – hardly ideal and too time consuming
given the already tight budget.

Arnie – changing to 16 bit or 32 bit isnt working, scopes are telling us so. I think
it wouldnt make a difference anyway as bitdepth doesnt relate relate to the YcBcR –
RGB mapping?

Or am i missing something here? I can understand completely why the clipping is
occurring, however is there any magic workaround? we have tried setting the video
processing options in FCP to RGB before sending to motion – no good and no change
noticed on the scopes when doing so. Is there any color correction filter of any
sort that can be applied in FCP that wont be stripped by motion and bring our super
whites back into play? I obviously thought well maybe i could use a levels filter in
motion to bring the super whites down prior to sending back to FCP but this isnt
possible either as Motion seems to clip on import, i guess this is obvious if its an
RGB only tool.

Any advice appreciated as always.

Best – Chris Short

Chris Short
Colourist & Online editor
Films@59
Bristol, U.K.
(formerly Granada Media, Bristol)

[Chris Short]

Hiya, using Kona 3 with g5 quad, we have no problems with SD recordings to DVW VTR’s however we are having major accuracy issues with HDCAM SR VTR’s whether in Freerun, SD sync or TRI-sync genlock, so much so we are doing a second clone pass after laying out to tape to correct the TC. This doesnt help when needing to do a drop in though!

So far tests are showing that a Keyspan adapter (with one frame playback offset)is more accurate (i.e. the recordings are starting on the correct tape frame around 9 times out of 10)

This percentage inaccuracy is still a problem however.

Chris Short
Online Editor
Films at 59
Bristol UK