Clint Fleckenstein
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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I came from DV/DVCAM, so the ease of keying XDCAM EX footage was especially joyful. Earlier this year I did a seven minute video that consisted entirely of a “coverflow effect” – you know, that effect in iTunes and other Apple apps where you flip through a series of album covers, etc. – that was full of chroma-keyed squares shot on an EX-1 and EX-3.
Complicating this project was the fact that these clips were of kids at a camp, fair, or something, shot “on the fly” with only a standup BLUE background and minimal lighting. This is the kind of thing that would have had me jumping off a cliff with DV. Complicating further was that they needed to keyed over solid color backgrounds. There was no hope of using the background to conceal jittery edges on the keys.
This was almost one-click keying in Keylight. Since I was doing the entire video in After Effects to automate the Coverflow effect, it was easy to just key the clips over color before placing them. Only one lady, wearing a turquoise-colored shirt, needed to be keyed in three pieces. Even that went quickly. This was NOT well-lit footage, either. Stuff I’ve keyed that is lit well has been even easier.
I have never keyed film, 2k, 4k, or uncompressed HD. If it’s easier than this, I can’t imagine how. Consider that we’re shooting with cameras costing under ten grand, and you’re looking at the best chroma-key money ever spent.
Cf
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Right now we’re editing on my 8-core Intel mac, a quad-core G5, dual G-5, and a Macbook Pro. Obviously my Octo does the best job of working with the footage, but depending on the complexity of the edit you may squeeze some life out of a dual G5 if necessary.
Cf
Our President spent six months picking out a dog for his kids, but wants to force us into socialized medicine by the end of the week!
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I’ve been using After Effects to do any slo-mo or downconvert work. It’s an application designed to do things like that. Final Cut Pro really isn’t; it does a poor job at both, in my opinion. I’ve always been of the opinion that you use your NLE for cutting and transitions, and leave the effects to programs that are designed for it (and therefore, more likely to be good at it).
As far as editors complaining, I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut on that one. I haven’t had any problems with XDCAM EX since we migrated to it. Besides, most complaints are a symptom of the complainer (that doesn’t just go for codecs!).
Cf
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Glad it worked! My guess is that some of the “support files” in that BPAV directory didn’t appeal to XDCAM Transfer. That’s why I suggested making a new folder with Clip Browser and copying the clips; it makes new versions of all those other files.
Cf
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You could open an additional Explorer window in Clip Browser, make a new folder, and make a copy of those clips. Then point XDCAM Transfer at that folder and see if it’s able to retrieve the clips from it.
Cf
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Perhaps this has something to do with the term “gigabytes.” For instance, a blank DVD comes from the manufacturer with the number “4.7GB” printed on it – but that’s using 1,000 as the basis for a kilobyte. Computers, however, use 1,024 as the basis for a kilobyte, and they only get 4.3GB on that DVD disc. Consider that the discrepancy of .4GB is 400MB. Not all of that is due to the base-1000 problem; there are also parts of the disc/card dedicated to directory/TC structure and stuff. If one wanted to multiply by 3.04 (16GB claimed capacity divided by 4.7GB claimed capacity) you’re looking at a 1.2GB discrepancy.
That’s just my layman’s attempt at a possible explanation. I’m just saying it may be a little premature to assume you have a bad card.
Cf
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I still have a Umatic SP deck in my garage, low hours too. Someday maybe Tom Petty will drive up and pull the plastic off it and wonder what it does.
Cf
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I think DVCProHD might be another one of those codecs you need FCS2 for. I tried to browse around some footage an agency sent us last week on an iMac that doesn’t have Studio installed, and it didn’t have the codec.
I see your quandary, Kate…but you really do need to have Final Cut Studio 2. The only other option is going to be headache after headache after headache.
Cf
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A lot of people are ripping Mann’s choice of shooting HD instead of film pretty hard. Going to be a while until digital is widely accepted by the “sit on the internet and hurl insults” crowd.
Cf
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Second that, now you just select NTSC or PAL in a menu item when you’re shooting. No conversion necessary, if you have that setting properly configured. Yay!
Cf