Jeff Kirkland
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Nope – The current version of FCPX requires Yosemite (10.10.2 or newer). It takes advantage of features that don’t exist in earlier versions.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
Agreed, although leaving it as h264 is fine for smaller projects – unless you’re using the new Mac Pro. Mine struggles with 4k h264 files while my 27″ iMac can open the same project and edit really smoothly.. I think the lack of hardware h264 handling on the Mac Pro makes using Pro Res a pretty much a must on that machine.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
I’ve always thought that the renaming e.g. filename (1) is FCPX’s way of handling multiple files with the same name in one folder whether inside a library or in an external but managed Finder folder. So the only way to get filename (1) is if FCPX created or moved the file to that location and found another file of the same name already there. It does the same with the date-stamped folders it creates. Multiple cards imported from the same date end of being date, date (1), date (2), etc.
In fact FCPX’s current method of storing even managed imports in date-stamped folders is, I think, supposed to prevent file renaming because every import ends up in it’s own folder so no two filenames in that folder should ever be the same.
I just went back and looked at all the projects I currently have on my hard drive and as far as I can see, not one media file has been renamed.
My first thought is maybe something about the file name is causing FCPX to truncate it so that it sees multiple files with the same name. You might try a quick test with some files you named by hand, avoiding any sometimes reserved characters like #, etc.
Other than that, we’re obviously doing something differently that makes it work for me but not for you.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
That usually only happens when you let FCPX do the importing. I’ve never seen it touch the name of a file with the ‘leave in place’ option selected.
My workflow is to convert all the files in EditReady, organise everything into folders in the Finder based on cards, days or whatever, then add to FCPX telling it to leave the files in place. It shouldn’t rename any files.
~jeff k
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
I’ve edited some basic 4k stuff on an 11″ MacBook Air so I’d assume you could get away with it on that spec iMac. It probably won’t be the most fun you’ve ever had but it’ll probably work. Using proxies will help a lot.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
Use externally managed media instead of copying the clips into the library.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
Usually I just let FCPX do all the scaling as most of my work just isn’t that critical but if I knew I was editing for 1080p delivery and it was critical, I’d have used Resolve to upscale all the 720p footage to 1080p. Hard drives are cheap.
Yes, you could edit in FCPX and then send the project to Resolve upscaling. If you are doing that be careful not to overdo adjustments and tweaking of footage in FCPX – a lot of that stuff will get lost once it’s sent to Resolve so you’re better worrying about that sort of thing afterwards.
The one thing I would be doing right now is testing the workflow before you get past the point of no return..
Render 1080p and 720p on the same timeline, watch it at 1080p. Can you tell the difference? If not, forget about it and get back to editing. If you can then upres a clip in Resolve, add it to the timeline. Can you tell the difference now?
If not, then Resolve is going to be the way to go.
If yes, then maybe you do want to edit everything at 720p. Projecting 720p may be a bit softer but is consistency important? Is it better to have a 720p master that looks the same throughout the entire film, or are you ok with inconsistency as it goes from 1080p to 720p sources?
Time to start a new project and do some experimenting, I think.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
If you do decide to scale footage up, I’d probably do it in Resolve before importing it to Final Cut as Resolve has great scaling options and tends to give a better result than FCPX – important if you’re projecting on a large screen and trying to squeeze out as much quality as you can.
As to the key frames not scaling… It only takes 30 seconds to duplicate the project and change the size to 720p to see what happens.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
To be more accurate, if you do a 720p timeline then you will get the full quality of the 720p footage plus the full quality of the 1080p footage scaled to fit. Which is to say you won’t have any issues scaling down but you will lose quality scaling up.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
I’m not sure you could expect much else if you decided to shoot pseudo flat on a grey, overcast, low contrast day. Especially if your white balance was off kilter when you shot the footage. Sometimes the one size, or at least one profile, fits all approach just doesn’t get results.
One thing that’s really important with the GH4 is to get white balance spot on. Everything falls apart if you don’t.
All I can say is I shoot CineD where it’s appropriate, but other profiles where they’ll give a better result. It’s worked for me shooting documentaries, TV commercials & sundry corporate stuff on the GH4 – so I can’t agree with the “it doesn’t work shooting flat” theory.
V-log may or may not ever make a firmware release but even if t does, you still have to know where to use it.
Would an external recorder have helped? Maybe. 10 bit would certainly give you a little more to work with, especially on the sort of day you described. It’s probably the sort of situation where I’d definitely add a LUT to my Shogun so I could see what I’d get once the profile was graded.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland