[Craig Alan]

I find it flat. Monotone voices with B&W that lacks texture, contrast, and light design. I’m left with no desire to touch any of this luxury. It did not have the look and feel of NY. Life would help. They were introducing two key industrial designers, perhaps hoping to bring them front and center like their version of Jonathan Ive. Not sure B&W was an after thought. I think they were going for the understated industrial matt grey design look. But even those backseat Ipads did not look like Ipads. Considering that BMW is already considered the Apple of autos, they have an uphill battle to win this image war. For starters, Bentley’s design has an old school look. The dual IPads are in the back seat. As are both subjects. One subject talks about drawing designs and cars being his toys. So why not show him drawing a car design on the Ipad in the back seat of the car he helped design while the other designer drives the car and maneuvers/accelerates out of danger while his colleague doesn’t miss a beat with his drawing because the ride is so smooth.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

For one person shots, I often find that one 401 diva and one low watt fresnel does the trick. I have quite a few of the kino flos in the studio but I find that I often turn off the fill light if lighting one talking head. I find that a properly placed kino covers the face well and produces only one catch per eye. Often with two kino’s you’ll get snake eyes as the talent turns their head. Plus with only one you get some modeling. That said a second one comes in handy with more than one talent or a talent that moves or if there are other things in the shot that need to be lit – props, background, etc. You might want to look into the new LED lamps as well. Still on the pricey side but they are pretty amazing. I really like the matthew’s baby jr triple riser with the kino’s and small fresnels. Makes it very easy to position the lights, move them as needed, and is fairly light weight. Under most conditions, no sand bags needed.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/33087-REG/Matthews_H386020_Baby_Jr_Steel_Wheeled.html

Because kino flo’s are not as easy to control as fresnels, you might want a couple of c-stands and flags as well.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Select the exported file and type command-I. In the get info box what type of file does it say it is?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I struggle with getting an unnatural spotlight look when I use the mask. I try making it more subtle and feathering but I am never pleased with the result. Probably end user error.

I think the color board should use the complementary opposite colors on the negative/down side.

Do you ever use more than one puck adjustment for say midtones on a different layer? That is adjust more than one color up or down for mid tones?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

If I’m understanding you correctly, you created a new project. If the new project is now active, you need to reopen the older project. On the upper left of the timeline, you will see a right and left arrow which will toggle between open projects. “Project” is what FC calls a timeline. Causes lots of confusion.

If the older project is now closed, you need to double click it in the browser. Projects are stored in an event so you would need to find the library>event you put the project in.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

We are using P2 AVC-Intra 100 1080p 30/60 and I am rewrapping upon import into FCP X all day.

I looked at the link and was confused by all the choices – many different packages.

The suite, if I’m reading correctly, would be about $1000? But not sure that is the right choice.

1) Would this allow me to edit natively right from the P2 card without rewrapping?

2) First I copy the card, then I rewrap (saving both so I have a back up). The P2 card readers are usb 2 and the initial copy is slow. Would the import into FC be much faster? Any time savings would be helpful.

3) I assume that exported projects would still need to be transcoded to pro res and then compressed depending upon need.

Also we have 6 FCP stations at the moment and will be setting up a lab with 20 more. Do we need a license for each computer?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

command-9 brings up the background tasks so you get a visual of the process.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks. I followed most of that. I do keep all my individual projects in a sparse image. I’m pretty sure I can copy my card backup back onto a P2 card. I open the folder i put it in and copy the folder and file back onto the card. I’ll try this soon to make sure I’m right. I found that FCP X could not handle 720p 30P coming from one of our cams so I remember copying the media back onto a P2 card, played the media out SDI on the camera and used a Ki Pro to make a copy of the footage and then importing that. As of now my workflow is to copy the P2 card into a folder. Then import that folder into FC saving the rewrapped clips into an external folder and the alias files into the library — all of these are in a sparse bundle with the project name. For important projects, I make an additional copy of the P2 card on a different system and a copy of the sparse image when the project is complete.

If your card copy app can make the first step faster and more bullet proof, I’ll give it a try.

One small request on your sparse bundle creator app. When I type in the name of a new project in your app, I like to do a select all copy of that name so when I make the various folders of this project (library, event, project, external folder of rewrapped media, etc I can just copy the project name into each of these and maybe add or delete from there. For example for the P2 card folder I add P2. But in your app I can’t copy the name I just typed in. No big deal but I have never seen that behavior. My work around is when the sparse bundle is created, I right click on the name and choose rename and then command c to copy the name.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Bill.
I used that P2 program when I got our first P2 cam and needed to edit in FCP 7. It’s a viewer and can rewrap the media. It would be a whole other step and the interface is a bit unintuitive.

As far as I can tell as long as I copy the entire folder structure of a card into a folder in the finder nothing is missing from the structure. FC has no trouble importing and rewrapping it. One time when a project got corrupted, I was able to reimport the media from these folders and had no problems. But I will give Andreas’ program a try anyway.

I starting using his disk bundle creation tool and it saves me time over using the disk utility app. I love the fact that his little app can resize the bundle. I have had little luck doing this in disk utility. However I do not want to create yet more sparse images (for each card folder). I keep an entire project with all assets in a sparse bundle and that organization works for me.

That said FC does not see my folders as a camera or archive. It sees it as media. Not sure why I would care, but willing to learn.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

You are correct!
Opened library package>
opened original media folder>
get info on one of these clips saved to a different folder>
and sure enough it’s an alias.
The next time I set up a new project I’ll try saving to a different folder and see if the entire media card is saved outside the library.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.