[Craig Alan]

Hey Bret,

Would this work? Open two libraries each with the timeline (project) in question open. Select the entire timeline in one. Switch to the other and paste the first one as a connected clips. Then you move copy insert whatever clips you want into the primary storyline.

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, does a camcorder’s built in light metering have the same limitations as a digital still camera in that it measures the reflected light bouncing off the object rather than the light that the object is actually exposed to. I remember reading that camera meters can give false readings because the object’s reflectivity is not factored. Unlike a quality light meter. I see this when taking stills. Though there I’m looking at a meter that is really averaging the entire frame where as zebras are showing contrast within a frame. I agree with you that the scopes are way more informative than zebras in post. However it would be nice to see the zebras that the cam operator could have been looking at as a learning experience. Oh that’s what it looked like and it was still under or over exposed. So you learn what to look for while shooting with that cam on that subject in that environment. Hope that made sense.

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]

could be wrong but the way I look at is this: if your library gets corrupted or you just want to go back in time to a previous version, the program auto backups every 15 min. the program also saves the most resent library on the fly. However either of these can have failures partly since they are most likely stored on the same media drive and any drive can get corrupted or fail. So good idea to have a clone on a different drive and even in a different location. You can also choose a different drive for the FCBack-ups to auto back up to.

Also it seems FC has unlimited undos (command-Z) However it will not undo things that happened in a previous session (that is you close the library).

Most of the time when I have had a glitch or FC quits or freezes, my last edit is saved and there when I relaunch the program. But not always. Still it works well enough that I think it’s better than in FCP 7 days in which I was always saving.

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]

Scott. I have a similar issue. Two cam shoot that needs to be synced. Usually this is a piece of cake with multicam in FC. But on one shoot that runs about an hour the on board mike of the second cam was turned off. So there is no reference track. So what methods did you use to sync?

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]

[David Lawrence] “”Sequence” and “Project” are terms that have very specific, commonly understood, technical meaning throughout the entire industry for decades.”

I agree and Apple’s disregard for industry standard is misguided.

“Library” as a name for the master folder is a bit more complicated. A library is a master container so in this sense it’s name is descriptive. However, if you organize your libraries so that each is its own “project” container then it seems a bit off. A brick and mortar library in the real world holds all available media which is rather poor organization for a NLE and was exactly how FCP X started out – one large library that held all your media.

I think “timeline” is a better term than “sequence”. When you open a FCP X “project”, what you open is a timeline.
It may even be blank or hold one compound clip.

Let’s be honest a bin or an event is just a folder and different folks organize their media differently. Some by events, or days of production, or camera angle or subjects or whatever. It changes often by the nature of the project at hand.

I know what Panasonic means by auto white balance. The camera sets the white balance when you aim at white card and press the AWB button. But every other manufacturer calls this a manual white balance. And that is the industry standard name. Stupid decision on Panasonic’s part. A project is a timeline? No, it’s not.

I would call the library a project folder. I would call the event a media folder. I would just allow an editor to create folders inside the project folder which anyone who uses any computer understands. And I would call a timeline a timeline.

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]

[Todd Terry] “Even from extreme wide and crane shots you’d never guess 56 was such a low-ceiling stage”

Yup. A crane will give you a high angle shots with motion and thus avoid looking up over the CYC or b.g. limit.

Each 5′ gives you more options. Our current one is 12′ and depending on the shoot we feel squeezed. The hardest one we shot was a film from a dog’s pov. we kept the cam tethered to a monitor as a cam op handheld it and practiced each shot before shooting.
But really for independent films best to learn to hit the road and get shots in the field. But lighting on a no budget gets really hard out there.

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 can’t have a big enough CYC. Make it as wide as you can afford. We often shoot into the depth of where the corner is. I’ve seen several 3 wall CYC set ups where the sound is ruined due to the parallel walls. So avoid that. We use banks of LEDs to a lighting board to flood it evenly with green or any b.g. color. The wall is painted a flat white. It functions as giant projection screen as well for gobos and the like. We use diffusion on the LED banks to even out the spread.

But Bill is right there is spill in front of the CYC so you need enough room to place your talent away from the spill. That is only true for keying however. Other times we put the talent in the spill if we are just creating an atmosphere like sunset. And in another thread someone questioned the limitations of using a CYC as opposed to being able to bring in sets.
That’s why I like white or other colors. Its just a matt white wall so it can be an office, living room etc. With LEDs you can dial in the color.

Bill is also right that keying has gotten so much easier to pull off.

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 dramatic lighting (at close distance) i like using small fresnels (300 watt) and a variety of diffusion and gels at hand. it will give modeling to the face and shadows on the CYC. I use multitool pliers to swap out the filter rings. Can’t beat kino flos for even flattering light. LED banks with added diffusion are perfect to light the cyc with nice even light for green screen or any b.g. color.

The minimum height of the ceiling and CYC wall depends in part on how big a room you have. The further the camera is from the b.g. (CYC) and talent, the higher the ceiling and CYC would need to be. But really as tall and as big as you can afford is the practical answer. If you use any low angle shots you’ll run out of height really quickly. If you use wide angle shots, you’ll run out of all dimensions quickly. Talking heads, MS, and even two shots you can make it work. Sometimes you’ll just have to crop and/or transform your shots in post.

For your full body shots you’ll have to be level or high angle on your talent or you’ll start seeing the lighting grid.

I was in on the planning of a new studio and read a bunch of stuff on this very question. For medium size studios, the minimum height recommended is 20′! Medium of course is relative. But if you are shooting in a 10′ height room, you frame accordingly. CUs are the most common shot in video since they give us emotion and detail. Really just ask how much head room do you need above your tallest talent. A crane will help bring movement to your shots while using a variety of high angle and level lighting to your mix. You can pan across a group rather than using a VWS to establish their presence.

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 Rob. Beautiful shots. However, I am still not seeing full screen on any of your links. Your cover page with or wout the text would still have the browser’s navigation bar above the picture. Again I want the equivalent of clicking the full screen button on a vimeo video. Even in mac’s finder you can double click a picture>opens in preview> click the green button on the top left and the photo will be full screen – no distractions at all. If you open several photos in preview you can command ~ between them. Aperture has a full screen mode. We’ve tried several templates in square space and not finding this.

The closest we’ve gotten is putting a black frame around each photo so that at least it gets separated from the navigation bar.

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]

https://vimeo.com/113068790

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.

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