[David Eaks]

I recently had to edit some iPhone 4 clips with the same issue. I did the job in FCP X instead of FCP 7, just to try it out. FWIW I’m not familiar with Premier, but some simple keyframing is all you need.

Place a keyframe on both scale and rotation at the first frame where the camera begins to rotate. leave them alone. Then place another keyframe on both scale and rotation at the last frame of the camera’s rotation. Adjust these keyframes to make the clip fit the frame.

That should give you the first 30 seconds of unaltered portrait view, then it rotates to fit full-frame for the rest of the clip.

[David Eaks]

I’ve used the Panasonic DMR-ES10 to create “play on insert” DVDs as well.

[David Eaks]

Any ideas or explanations? Besides that one clip, my four day shoot went great!

[David Eaks]

Sounds like Auto Render is on.

Go to: Final Cut Pro> User preferences. In the lower right, find the “auto render” check box. Uncheck it if you don’t like the feature.

[David Eaks]

Please elaborate, Mr. AdventuresinFCPX.

[David Eaks]

Reading Thomas’ reply, I remembered that some of the effects I got with Coremelt Polychrome were free. Low and behold there is a free plug-in pack that has exposure flash.

Link to Coremelt Free download-

https://www.coremelt.com/products/coremeltfree.html

Link to a video right here on the COW demoing the free effects-

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/anderson_iain/CoreMelt-Easy-Slick-FX/video-tutorial

[David Eaks]

You could use FCPs effect “dip to color”, set the color to white and make the transition nice and quick. Not the best, but REALLY easy.

[David Eaks]

If you follow Eric Strands advice, it will work but the scale will be off. Manually adjust Scale back to 100%, Reset Basic Motion for each clip or highlight all, right-click> remove attributes> basic motion. Hopefully you don’t have a lot of key framed zoom and pans etc!

[David Eaks]

If it’s still the original file and your just re-rendering the timeline with changes to an effect, no generation loss.

If your not still working with the original file, you have suffered a generation loss and therefore some quality.

[David Eaks]

Here’s what I’ve been doing, it’s been a constantly an evolving process but I’ve finally got pretty comfortable.

I have three internal 2TB drives in RAID 0 called “Media Drive”, I set Capture Scratch in FCP to the root folder of Media Drive. FCP automatically creates folders for Capture Scratch, Render Files etc. right there at the top level. FCP also automatically creates sub-folders in Capture Scratch et al. based on the name of the project that your logging to. This way I have only ONE Capture Scratch folder. All my original media files live there, in folders automatically organized by project and I pretty much don’t ever have to change the capture location. I love this.

Also in the root of Media Drive, I create three folders: “All to do shoots”, “All done shoots” and “All other stuff”.

“All to do shoots” contains a folder I create for each clients project. This is where I put everything related to that job like project files, titles, images, audio, exports etc. (except capture files which are in there own location). Once the edit is finished and delivered, the clients project folder is moved to “All done shoots” keeping it both handy in case a change is needed and out of the way at the same time.

“All other stuff” contains random personal stuff ranging from a folder with all the install files for my plug-ins, Apps etc. (very handy for clean installs) to videos I make for my Mom to show her what I’ve been up to lately.

Folders get color coded labels. “Capture Scratch” is Yellow, “All to do shoots” is Green, “All done shoots” is Red “All other stuff” is Blue etc.

System drive is currently DRW’s “Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion” method with three partitions, “Snow Lepard and FCS3”, “Lion and FCS3” and “Lion and FCPX”. Typically I replace the system drive with a new one and do a clean install instead of cloning. I keep a couple old system drives on the shelf just in case. If there is a problem I can just throw in the last System Drive. Since I don’t keep anything unique on the system drive, just the OS and Apps so I’m never “missing” anything after a clean install. Well, I do leave Autosave Vault in the default location on the system drive. I know where it is if I need it.

I manually back-up to an 8TB LaCie 4Big, just copy one folder from “All XXXX Shoots” and one folder from “Capture Scratch”. I “dump” really old projects, that surely won’t be needed again, to old internal drives from the shelf using an HDD dock connected via esata. I can then delete said unneeded project from my system (and backup if needed) to free up space.

So when I start a new project I first name the Sequence then immediately save the project and create a new folder in “All To Do Shoots” for the job. Now I’m ready to capture, no need to set the location, FCP will create the folder in Capture Scratch based on the project name. Then it’s edit, deliver, move project folder to All done shoots. Next!

Of course this is just what works for me. I don’t have to collaborate with anyone throughout my process. I shoot with two cameras, switching live and capturing the mix in Prores on the field. At the office I just create a title, brighten a dark scene, boost a quiet line or whatever is needed. Then burn BD and DVD masters and/or post to Youtube. One man shop. Shoot, edit, deliver. YWMV (Your Workflow May Vary).

Constructive advice is always welcome.