[John Rofrano]

[Thorsten Achen] “Also interested in this question. Is there anybody to answer it?”

I thought that my answer was clear but let me try again:

El Capitan is supported on a 2009 Mac Pro and works fine (I have it on my 2008 Mac Pro)

Sierra is NOT supported on a 2009 Mac Pro (it won’t even install)

Sierra flat out won’t install so there is no question of “what will happen?” because it can’t be installed on a Mac Pro earlier than a 2010.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

Scott, You are correct that the refresh rate of computer displays is tied to the AC current frequency of 60Hz and the frame rate of televisions is also ties to this as well. That’s why countries that have a wall current of 60Hz use 30fps while countries with a wall current of 50Hz use 25 fps (exactly half). They use a timing circuit that is synced to the electrical currents frequency. The problem of 29.97 came about when color TV was introduced. The additional color information was having phase problems with the audio signal so they offset the video by 0.03 fps to move them out of phase and restore picture quality. We’ve been stuck with this solution ever since.

Computer video has adopted the analog standard simple because it was the standard. There was no technical reason to propagate it except for the fact that, at the time, all computer video came from analog sources which were 29.97fps. Now that everything is digital it seems silly but here we are, with an analog “ball & chain” around our ankles until someone declares a new standard.

Judging from the fact that the transition to HD was the perfect opportunity to do away with interlacing and they couldn’t even agree on that, I would guess that the standard will never change. The sad fact is that existing body of work is keeping us from moving forward.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Shane Ross] “I’d just use Compressor.”

+1

I would just use Compressor too. That’s one if it’s purposes (to batch re-encode).

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Ned Cordery] “Yes a “custom” template can be created for UHD but it is 29..97 fps. Are we still creating drop frame shots in Progressive scan?”

The frame rate of 29.97 has nothing to do with Drop Frame vs Non-Drop Frame, nor does it have anything to do with Progressive vs Interlaced.

29.97 fps is the frame rate of NTSC color video. Drop frame and non-drop frame are two methods of keeping timecode. NTSC can use either drop frame or non-drop frame timecode. So regardless of whether you are counting timecode in drop frame or non-drop frame, the video is still running at 29.97 fps. The term “30p” comes from people being lazy and not wanting to accurately state 29.97p but that is the actual frame rate of what is referred to as “30p”. Likewise “60p” is 59.94 fps (not 60.0). It’s just easier to say but it’s inaccurate.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Jt Billings] “Option 1:
Import RED into FCPX > apply LUT to 4K footage > transcode to proxy media (does the LUT get baked in?)”

Yes, the LUT get’s baked in. You probably don’t want this.

[Jt Billings] “Option 2:
Import RED into FCPX > transcode to proxy media > apply LUT to proxy media (if I were to revert back to 4k footage for an export, do I lose the LUT?)”

No, you don’t loose the LUT because it is applied to the Clip which can be sourced from proxy or original media so when FCP X swaps out the proxies for the original media, all of the FX remain on the Clip. I believe this is what you want.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

I have to agree with the others that you should purchase some basic training from Ripple Training and get into the new mindset of FCP X because it seems that you are approaching it from an old way of thinking if you are messing about with folders on your filesystem.

[Jerry Jones] “1) Do I need to combine these two folders?”

I definitely would. You need to consolidate things but you really need to change your approach to media management because you are going about it the wrong way if you are using folders to organize things.

[Jerry Jones] “2) Is it possible to just click and drag items from one folder to the other (to combine folders)? Or does that create problems?”

Combining the folder won’t hurt anything because the highest level in FCP X is the Library and these folders contain a collection of Libraries so moving them around won’t affect FCP X because it has no concept of your higher level Folder; just it’s own Libraries. FCP X is pretty smart. You can move Libraries around on a drive and it will still find them.

[Jerry Jones] “3) Can I simply drag each of these files to a new folder (to combine with files in the other folder)?”

Yes. They seem to all have unique filenames so combining these shouldn’t affect anything.

[Jerry Jones] “4) Same question for these files. Can I just drag to a new, combined folder and be ok?”

Yes. It seems so.

[Jerry Jones] “5) Is it also best to keep all of my other files (“Art/Photos/Graphics/Video”, etc) in my primary project folder? How do you tend to organize these folders with your projects? (I’m trying to learn best practices with FCPX.)

I think my biggest concern is that I do not want to move things around at the file level (as pictured above) and then find out I have screwed myself. Is it safer to do this organizing within FCPX somehow?”

I’m concerned by the term “Primary Project Folder” so I don’t quite know how to answer. There are no Folders in FCP X. I would definitely organize from within FCP X. You could keep common media in a separate Library. I have a sock media Library that I keep all of my stock assets cataloged but I would keep project media with the Event that contains the Project that uses that media.

[Jerry Jones] “5) Can you send me a screen grab of the way you tend to organize your files for each project? Visuals help me.”

Everyone works on different production formats (i.e., feature films, documentaries, episodic series, etc.) so the organization will be different for each. I explained my organization to you in reply to your question in this post: Editing Clips between Libraries?. In my case I have one Library for an entire Series and then each Event is a single Episode in that Series. All of the media of each episode is contained in that Event. I have one additional Event that contains common elements of media that are shared across the others. You might prefer one Library for each episode with an Event for every scene in the episode with it’s own Project for that scene. Then a master Event to assemble the episode from it’s scenes. It’s all about what make sense for your workflow.

[Jerry Jones] “6) Is it possible from within FCPX to simply reorganize my files? For example, if I wanted to drag any of the items with the key icon (in screen grab above) to another folder, will that work? “

Yes, you can (and you should) do all of your organization from within FCP X but do you know what the key icon represents? You can’t drag anything to or from the key icon. Those are keyword collections that FCP X categorizes for you. You manage what’s in those collections by managing the keywords. I believe you are trying to impose a Folder concept on FCP X and there are no Folders in FCP X which is what’s throwing you off. In FCP X there are keyword collections that help you organize your work by tagging clips with metadata. You don’t drag things into folders in FCP X. You tag them with keywords and they magically appear in the correct collection. You really need to watch some Ripple Training because you aren’t going to get very far if you hold onto your Folder concept of organizing. The mess that you currently have should be proof to you that you need to understand keyword tagging and the role that metadata plays in FCP X. (I think you already know that which is why you are asking the questions you are asking) ????

[Jerry Jones] “7) I seem to be getting some duplicate files? What can I do to prevent this?”

Are these really duplicate files, or just your misunderstanding of how keyword collections work? Any clip that has a keyword will show up at least twice! Once in the Event that it was Imported into, and again in the keyword collection. So you may not have any duplicate files at all. Clips show up in multiple places depending on the metadata that they are tagged with. For example: a clip that is tagged with “black & white” and “wide shot” will show up at least 3 times. Once in it’s Event, once in the “black & white” collection, and a once in the “wide shot” collection (and probably in the default All Video collection as well). The physical clip only exists in one place (the Event). But it shows up in many places based on it’s keyword metadata.

[Jerry Jones] “8) Finally, to help me be clear on the new ways of doing things, if I have a master project called “Over the Moon,” and it is made of 12 different segments – Do I create each segment as it’s own “Project” within my master “Library” (where everything pertaining to this project lives)?”

Yes, I think you are getting the concepts but you have it somewhat backwards. As your title implies, I believe you think the hierarchy is Library -> Project -> Event but that is NOT the case. The hierarchy is Library -> Event -> Project. Libraries do not have Projects. Libraries have Events, and Events have Projects. I think this might be part of your confusion and why you have so many Libraries and no Events.

I would make “Over the Moon” a Library. Then make an Event for each of the 12 segments. Import the media for each segment into the Event that you have created for it. If you want to work on the segments individually create a Project in each of the Events which will be your Timeline for those segments. Finally, you can create a master Event with a master Project to hold the entire movie, then make each segment a Compound Clip and drag all of the compound clips into the master Project to assemble the final timeline.

[Jerry Jones] “And how can I better understand how to use “Events?””

From your screenshots it looks like you are “off by one”. By that I mean, you seem to have a physical Folder on the filesystem that contains 14 Libraries, one for each day (sometimes multiple for each day). Then you have no idea what to do with Events.

What you probably should have is one Library with an Event for each day! This is what I mean by “off by one”. Your folder should be a Library and your Libraries should be Events.

The Library is at the top of the hierarchy. It contains EVERYTHING you are working on. Events are used just like the real events in your life i.e., birthday, valentines day, first day of shooting, second day of shooting, scene one, scene two, etc. Whatever makes sense to your project. You seem to be managing files on the file system when you should be managing Events in your Library. I believe that’s at the core of your problem.

Feel free to ask lots more questions (as your head is probably spinning right about now) but I can’t say how critical it is to get some formal training because FCP X is not like anything you have used before and it’s just as important to unlearn all of your old habits as it is to build new ones. ????

Hope that helps,

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Amanda Duffield] “i have vegas 13 – I don’t want 14 because I want vASST caption assistant. “

Just FYI – VASST Caption Assistant has been updated to work with Vegas Pro 14.0. Just visit the Download page of the vasstsoftware.com web site and get the latest installer.

Like the others said, we need more information about your video format. Handbreak will not add copyright info or concatenate your files. I do agree with what the others have said about the bit rate that you are rendering to may be too low.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Fergus Hammond] “Good point about keeping the metadata around. Do you know if that’s important for consumer-level video cameras?”

Absolutely. The problem is that most memory cards use the FAT32 filesystem which is limited to 4GB as the largest file size. Depending on the format that you are shooting, this could be as little as 5 or 10 minutes of video. Consumers are more likely to be recording a school play or other event where they are recording for a long time. When these broken up files are just dropped onto a timeline without any stitching, there is often video frames or audio missing. The metadata on the cards give instruction on where one file leaves off and the other begins allowing for a seamless concatenation of the two. It also provides for files that match the recorded takes that the consumer made. i.e., if I recorded a 30 minute ceremony, I expect to see one file when, in fact, there may be 4 files on the camera card. Having the metadata to stitch these back together during import and present one file to the consumer is more preferable.

This feature is squarely aimed at consumers who would happily edit the only copy of the video that they have right from the camera card if you let them because consumers usually don’t think about backups and “safe copies”. FCP X tries to keep them from forming these bad habits.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Fergus Hammond] “That seems to confuse FCP: it thinks that the folder *is* a memory card and won’t permit the “Leave files in place” option to be used.”

Actually, that is not confusion. That is the expected behavior and an extremely useful feature. It is a safeguard to make sure that you are not editing the only copy of the video that you have.

A common workflow is to use the Create Archive button in the Import window to make an exact copy of your “real” memory card on disk. FCP X will never let you edit these files in place because they represent the original copy. Then when you begin your project, you import those into your Library which becomes your 2nd copy. This way the archive of the memory card is a backup in case files get deleted or corrupt. If you want to keep the Library small by placing the original media somewhere else, I would copy these files to the other location but I would never delete the memory card metadata. The metadata that you just deleted is very important information like how to stitch long takes together when they exceed the capacity of the cards file system and break up into multiple files. For some formats, FCP X will not import them unless they are still in the original memory card location. So always have a copy of the complete memory card handy just in case. If for nothing else, as a backup.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Vegard Bell] “I know I can use a lot of different templates from Newbluefx titler, but is there any other plugins that will do this without a lot of work?”

Not for Vegas Pro. Companies like MotionVFX make tons of plug-ins for Final Cut Pro X, Apple Motion, and After Effects that create this style of pop-up title but there are none for Vegas Pro that I know of. If you want to create motion graphics like that, Vegas Pro is not really the best tool for the job. You really need a motion graphics tool.

BTW, that was probably done with Apple Motion or After Effects. While you can keyframe a lot of it in Vegas Pro and use masks, you will never get the bouncy movement. Those are behaviors that are built into apps like Motion and AE and are calculated mathematically. Just using keyframes won’t give you the same fluid movement. It’s a matter of using the right tool for the job.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com