[Jeff Brown]

What hardware are you using to output to Beta ?

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

[Tim Byer] “What if I have someone walk in front of the screen during the video? I would need a green screen at that point and time right?”

—-Yes, you would. Or you could rotoscope, but that’s always a pain. Greenscreen would be better. The tricky part is that you will lose the corner reference when the person is blocking the corner (if they walk in front), and have to interpolate the position during those frames. BTW, green (or blue) fabric or cloth cut to fit will generally work MUCH better than sending a signal (color image) to the monitor.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Tracking + corner pinning. No need for greenscreen. Here’s an article on VFX Talk that walks you through it:

Corner Pinning Tutuorial

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Not yet working with P2; I do a fair amount of FX/greenscreen work, so was looking to test a P2 camera in the coming weeks. I just did one job that originated on Sony’s HDX format, and wanted to compare the two.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

…either what Mike says, or you are seeing field-reversal, probably from using a 720×486 project instead of a 720×480 project.
Drop vs. non-drop is only a timecode numbering issue– video and audio do not differ.
Here’s a place to start:
Adobe’s Digital Video Primer (PDF file)

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

What are your project settings?

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

You could look into these folks:
Next Computing
Not exactly a laptop, but portable.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

I’m curious as to P2 workflow as well.

I can offer a possibility for archiving: Companies are now making USB/FW external drives with dual 500 GB discs, giving one the option of running the unit as a mirrored (RAID 1) set. Very reasonable cost/GB– I just purchased one for about US$300.

You may feel more comfortable with optical media, however.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Try IMDB (internet movie data base) http://www.imdb.com. Look up a film, look up the visual effects or special effects crew and company, and look on the company’s web site. You’ll probably find some good info that way…

Happy New Year,
Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Will FCP export an AAF file? Premiere can import AAF, though it does not always work. AAF is apparently pretty unrefined vis-a-vis compatibility. A CMX EDL might be more reliable.
Another possibility is FCP –> OMF file, OMF into AfterEffects, AE –> Premiere. (good luck if you try it!)

-jeff