[Craig Alan]

I wouldn’t mind a clearer indication when the timeline is active. When I edit a clip into the timeline I just assume the timeline is now active even though I’ve made the mistake a zillion times.

And custom layouts with keyboard shortcuts. That would help. Lots of mousing to get things ready for a given operation (color correction comes to mind, or editing audio).

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 had that happen when FC crashed after I imported to one event. The other events still had their media and reimported the footage worked fine and has been fine since. It was strange that the media was just gone. This was unmanaged media but the links in the library in the finder were still there. Just was seen as empty in that event. Never seen that before. Most crashes have left every thing in place. The crash did not happen during import. Just was doing something during the same session.

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]

Maybe as a response to your telling FC to abort its mission? I agree there should have been a less destructive response or at least a warning dialog box that canceling would mean …

A better choice would be to update them as needed one at a time.

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 have a vague memory that FC gives you the option to save or delete the old libraries when updating to the new ones. So maybe your hard drive crashing left the files in the trash with no new ones at the ready. It’s probably rare that a media drive goes south in the middle of this update the libraries dance.

At first I thought apple had really messed up the first time I was asked to update the libraries. Wow that seemed radical. But now we’ve gone through this several times and for many it’s been flawless transitions and very fast.

Recently FC crashed one me and an event lost all it’s imported media. It was still saved in the finder but that was the first time FC ever lost files and I use this program a lot. Most of the time when it crashes every is still where I left 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]

But by default, FC re-opens in the state it was left – meaning the project should still be open. So this might be a permissions issue. If so command option open FC and trash preferences.

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]

Not a fan of reality shows and the fabricated conflicts and plot points that get repeated over and over. We can’t do much about the room characteristics except build a better studio. But I am hoping to get the HVAC system fixed so we can shut down that fan noise which is amazingly persistent regardless of mike placement, type of mike, and gain levels. For the no budget films we shoot I’ve been pleased with the sound quality on some of the shoots. I have a poor ability to estimate distances but I did get the overhead hyper closer on our last shoot and it helped but Hvac noise just seems to reverberate all through the studio. I was told a HVAC contractor was coming to repair it and hopefully get the AC working in the storage room where we charge our batteries. Right now I’m just looking for a post filter to remove much or the HVAC sound that will play nice with FCP X. I’m trying out FC built in noise reduction – not in the audio effects window but I assume that’s what it is anyway. It seems that it needs to render before you can hear the final result. So I’ll try it on small portions of clips before using it on entire clips. Will try John’s suggestion as well.

Since the hyper is aimed down would adding a rug underneath the talent help at all?

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]

Sorry. I just took a ruler and measured approximately where I placed the mike and it was closer to one foot than two.

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]

Richard I got as close as I could and still be out of frame. The two mikes were on two different channels and
Listening to just the channel with the headset mike you can still hear the hvac noise . The room is not that small. 51 x 39 feet with a light grid at 15 feet high and ceiling at about 20 feet. But virtually no sound treatment. I’ve recorded in this room without the noise and at that distance I’ve been pleased with the audio. I’m sure you could detect less than ideal acoustics. I’ve never read anywhere that 2 feet from a talent’s mouth is too far to place a boom mike. I had the talent on two close ups and a mid shot. The overhead cam was the only one that I could see the mike dipping in a bit on a monitor. I lifted it just out of frame. Even with a quiet voice the mike picked up her voice at decent levels. I can’t use a headset on this talent. Now if the headset mike didn’t pick up the noise I might start thinking about hiding a lav on the talent. But my need right now is to get the hvac fan to turn off when we are shooting. That won’t fix the room acoustics but no one will spend money on doing this since we are designing a new studio and have an audio expert to consult on sound treatment. This studio is EOL. If you thought maybe hanging blankets around the talent or some other make shift treatment would help I’d consider it.

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]

NeoPax Wireless Transmitter Belts

And countryman headsets are very flexible but hold rigid once fixed. different colors to match skin tones. Yeah the audience catches a glimpse of them from time to time. But they use them on broadway, at huge rock/dance tours almost every workout show on broadcast etc.

Have the talent adjust the headset while looking in a mirror – custom fit. You can’t turn your head away from the mike the way you can a regular lav or boom.

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 Bill and Ronny. I took your advice and imported everything so far into one library. I created a new event for each day of production. I see advantage and disadvantages to this approach but for now I’ll have to learn by doing since I’ve never handled a project with this much media.

During one import FC crashed and the media was gone within the event that was created during that session. In the finder the library did show the clips as links (I am keeping the original media, FC Backups, Render files outside the library) but was not showing in FC. The media card copies were also still in the the finder. I tried trashing FC preferences and rebooting FC but the media in that one event was still gone. I reimported the media into that event and I don’t see any problems but that was kinda strange behavior and I’ve never had that happen before. No off line messages or missing links … just an empty event that had clips before the crash.

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.