[Jeff Meyer]

A quick Google search for Google Cloud Storage will allow you to find their pricing – $.067 per GB on the storage tier you’re looking to join. Roughly $2,000 a month. They’ll also charge based on your monthly bandwidth usage.

You’ll probably need a more robust internet connection to make this work. Here’s a transfer speed calculator. 20TB over a 45mb connection (if you’re outside of Kansas CIty’s Google Fiber bubble this is a pretty fast connection) makes the initial backup a 45 day upload. That also means a 45 day download if you need the entire archive.
https://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/downloadcalculator.php

I’m not sure why you have the cloud requirement, but if it’s simply for backup, tapes would probably be a better choice. I’d guess within 6 months you’d already return on investment for an LTO tape drive, two sets of LTO tapes, and a bank vault to securely store the second set. And that’s without factoring in a faster internet connection. In case you’re wondering it’d be about a day and a half to make/restore an LTO backup.

If the cloud is in place for moving files do weigh pros and cons of using 2nd day air to send LTO tapes versus paying for two fat internet connections. Even at 2nd day, LTO could be much faster than an internet connection.

[Jeff Meyer]

You can send jobs to Compressor and work in Final Cut while Compressor is busy, but it doesn’t tend to work very well.

[Jeff Meyer]

Shame they left the optical drive behind. I had been hoping for BluRay. Me thinks they went the wrong direction. I too opted for the Macbook Pro non-retina. Upgraded to 16gb of RAM and a Seagate Momentus XT hard drive. Perks of SSD and spinning disc. One of these days two thunder ports will be far more useful than one firewire and one thunder..but we aren’t quite there yet.

Sounds like your best bet is finding a Mac with a firewire port and Final Cut Pro. These things happen on the bleeding edge. If you’re going to have more DV in the future, Belkin is releasing a Thunderbolt dock with firewire very soon, and the thunderbolt cinema display has firewire. I can only assume Final Cut Pro will see these ports. As always, bleeding edge tech comes with steep pricing.

[Jeff Meyer]

If you use Motion use the Send-to command from Final Cut. It will bring everything in already timed out and positioned if you have moved things on the screen.

Duplicate your sequence, then right-click on the duplicate and Send to -> Motion.

Always us a duplicate when sending to Motion.

[Jeff Meyer]

Perhaps keyframing the “Basic 3D” filter could do the job? It’s under Perspective.

Since it’s a filter you can paste attributes. Copy a clip with the effect, then select a clip and press OPT+V to paste attributes. Check Filters to paste Basic 3D.

[Jeff Meyer]

Michael gives solid advice – cutting is generally a better approach than adding. I do agree regarding a high pass, but and if the venue’s acoustics allow, I would target 80Hz for the high pass instead of 120Hz. There’s a balance to find between removing presence and adding clarity. 120Hz might cut back on your host’s presence more than you want.

A cut at about 400Hz might also be able to do a lot.

I’m doing full time stadium work right now. Generally in the venues I do most of my work (8,000 seats closed and 76,000 open air) a small boost on the high end goes pretty far.

Like I said above, sound advice is approximate. There’s a few approaches here. A combination of everything I suggested and everything Michael suggested could lead to the best results.

[Jeff Meyer]

As Dave suggested, you’re using the wrong tool for the job. You might try (on a duplicate sequence) highlighting, right-clicking, and using Send to -> Motion to see if it will send animation keyframes along the way. Not sure if it will, but if it does you’re in business. By the same token you could send an XML into Premiere and move the Premiere project into After Effects.

If you’re stuck in Final Cut, I’m sure you’ll find best results come from working on a ProRes sequence. If you’re working in XDCAM you’re adding math for a long GOP compression onto the transformation.

When going out to MXF I would export a current settings ProRes without recompressing all frames. If you can use the render files on your timeline you can render in chunks, then an out of memory error won’t mess up the whole export. After you have your stable, self-contained QT movie, convert that to MXF/XDCAM inside or outside of Final Cut.

Also, regularly restarting Final Cut can’t hurt. I would suggest hourly if you’re trying to work with large images.

[Jeff Meyer]

The kind of voice you’re describing (plotted with the volume on they Y axis and the frequency on the X axis) tends to respond like a smiley face – lots of low end, not a lot in the mids, and some more on the highs. Try bringing up the highs up for additional clarity.

Use an equalizer to add 2-3dB in the 2-4kHz region, or 2000-4000Hz. With audio there’s rarely a “this is the answer” kind of solution – it tends to come down to playing with the sliders and finding what sounds “best.” The numbers I say above aren’t “the answer,” but they should be a solid starting point.

[Jeff Meyer]

Shane mentioned the JVC 150 above, which does shoot Quicktimes that work with FCP – no transcode needed.

[Jeff Meyer]

Based on the benchmarks there’s a difference, but it isn’t dramatic for Motion work. Motion 4 and Motion 5 both rely on the GPU for rendering, so the results are representative.

https://www.barefeats.com/wst10g12.html
https://www.barefeats.com/wst10g4.html

You know your budget. In some environments that’s worth the expense, and in others it isn’t.