[Grant Gomm]

I think coremelt has some really great transitions. As for deleting your transitions, if I’m not mistaken, they all end up in your MacHD>Library>Application support>Final Cut Pro System Support>Plugins. But I’d be careful about deleting them if you don’t know exactly what you want to delete.

-Grant Gomm
http://www.blacklionproductions.com

[Grant Gomm]

Hey Rob… Maybe you already are doing this, but I find that by going under the render drop down menu and turning off things like reflections, shadows, motion blur, DOF… stuff like that helps with larger projects. I’m running a machine similar to yours, and if I get too many layers, effects, 3D layers, cameras, etc… that it can really slow things down. On the other hand, when I have those other things above turned off, it runs just fine and helps me with things like keyframing and just seeing where the elements of my projects fall into place and how they move. Hope that helps.

-Grant Gomm
http://www.blacklionproductions.com

[Grant Gomm]

Hey Derrick.
It seems to me that there are quite a few ways to do what you need. I think the way that would give you the most control over your settings is just using compressor.
However, if compressor isn’t your thing, or you’d just rather export directly from the timeline, from what I can see there’s really only one option to make an MP4 file. I’m just gonna get detailed here – maybe you’re already doing exactly this, but here goes:
So i’ll just assume you’re going to File>Export>Using Quicktime Conversion. Then at the bottom where it says “Format:” I’ll assume you select MPEG-4, and then click on “Options”.
Once the new MPEG-4 Export Settings window opens, next to “File Format” there are 2 options to select from: MP4 (ISMA) and MP4. With the video button selected, the only “Video Format” option that I could get to work as you said (using multi pass) was the .H264 option. So I’ll assume that’s how you’ve been doing it.
I tried a sample clip with those settings, and I got it to work just fine. My source footage was ProRes 4444 960×720, so when I exported based on your settings, it came out squished on the sides, but it was still 640×360. The only things that I can think of are that:
1. You’re doing something different than what I did above,
2. There’s something with your source footage, maybe aspect ratio, pixel aspect… dunno
3. Well, I’m not sure about a 3, lol…

But I’d just recommend sending it to compressor and see if you have the same problems there.
-Grant

-Grant Gomm

[Grant Gomm]

Like others have said above, the codec you’re using produces relatively small files because they are so highly compressed. When it comes to editing, you need a more robust codec and so you really do need to convert at least the clips you’re using to something else, ie one of the proRes codecs. Sure this takes up more hard drive space, but that’s just the nature of the game. Ross is right. When you ingest footage using log and capture in FCP, you can set your ins and outs on the clip which should help with hard drive space.

Portability is great, and when I go out into the field, I take a glyph 320gig hard drive and my laptop. I use that just for storing footage, and when I get back I transfer everything over to a macpro for editing. Sorry to say it, but I do kinda think that expecting to edit HD from a 500gig external FW hard drive is not realistic. Multiple large internal drives are the way to go (aside from expensive raid systems like these: dulcesystems.com)

Alternately you could do an offline edit with small proxy files on your hard drive and try to find a very good friend willing to share their macpro to make the online and finish.

Other than that, I’m not sure what to suggest that doesn’t have “headache” written all over it. Best of luck.

-Grant

-Grant Gomm

[Grant Gomm]

Hello Patricia,
If you plan on working with MiniDV, I’d say the iMac should be fine. That being said, I think you’ll quickly find that you’ll regret going down the SD road. Get a Mac Pro if you can. One of the main problems you’ll find is that external firewire/USB drives aren’t all that great at the high demands of video editing. With a MacPro, you’ll be able to add drives (four drives total) inside the machine, and you should raid 3 of them together. For now to help with the money situation, just remember that a mac pro is much easier to upgrade and expand later on. With an iMac, you’ll be pretty much stuck.

Also, I would discourage you from investing money into a miniDV deck at this point. That’s pretty much wasted money. If you plan on shooting tape, you’ll still be able to capture from your camera. I personally love panasonic cameras, and encourage you to look at some of them. You can find a great tapeless workflow with AVCAM cameras recording on to sd cards.

I hope this helps. Best wishes.

-Grant Gomm

[Grant Gomm]

Hi Zachary,
What I would do to produce the same effect is to start with 2 video track in your timeline. Use a closeup shot, maybe with a little desaturate filter and a blur filter applied on track 1. Then on track 2 put the main clip you want to use. Then crop the top and bottom of the clip so track 1 shows through behind track 2. As for some of the time remapping, I’d do that in Motion. Actually, I think i’d do it all in Motion, but that’s just because I like motion. Good luck and I hope it works well for you!

[Grant Gomm]

Thanks for all the suggestions. William, how did your bag fit on the plane? Right now i’m using a 16×9 bag (i think petrol is the actual manufacturer) and took my camera with me on a short trip to the rocky mtns last month. I flew on one of those ultra small jets – united express – and that bag wouldn’t fit anywhere. It was a HUGE pain. And needless to say, I don’t want to have to check my camera!

[Grant Gomm]

I don’t think 13MB per second is bad actually… now that being said, 13Mb per second would be horrible!