[Kai Cheong]

You could buy a stock footage of the light leak and composite into your video – either in FCP or AE. For example, from: https://www.istockphoto.com/search/text/light_leak/source/basic/

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

Hi all,

Good to see such a vigorous discussion and thanks for all the tips. An update on my situation: I’ve learnt my lesson not to throw all I have at Pluraleyes and expect it to sync while I scoot off. Paying penance for it now on New Year’s Eve, redoing my sync and manually syncing the ones Pluraleyes can’t manage 😉

A few things I’ll be looking out for in future projects – both in terms of my own workflow and in instructions to my crew [I think I’m fortunate that our regular freelance DP is very open to suggestions to make my life easier!]

– Cam mic on the 5D needs to be turned on louder. Some of the audio was too soft since the shots were fairly wide

– Was clued in by another editor that if my shoot has a soundman, to feed a signal from the mixer into the 5D for clearer audio

– To break down and organize my footage into scenes before I pluraleyes them separately. It makes it more manageable for me to do my manual sync correction as well.

– Get my AP on set to slate [though for this current project, my director’s loud “action!” is working very well as an audio slate]

I think the slating will help since like what Phil encountered, my talents are spouting similar lines so Pluraleyes got quite confused a few times.

The 5D + H4N combination works pretty well for our needs [nice visuals at a good budget] – in fact, we use it more than our Sony Z1-P. Just need to develop an efficient and logical workflow. For this project, it helped that our soundman had set the clock on the H4N, so there is some semblance of ‘time of day TC’, which made it easier for me to group the scenes.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

Hi Jason,

Got to admit – we got a little complacent with how well Pluraleyes worked on our previous shoots [which were more limited in complexity/number of shots], that we didn’t go for the good ‘ol fashioned clapper.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen the latest Firmware update for the H4N, but I believe it allows you to adjust each channel’s level separately now: https://www.zoom.co.jp/english/download/software/h4n.php – that’s what we’ve been working with recently. What would be REALLY cool is if it could split 1 XLR input into 2 channels and allow independent levels for each channel.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

If it’s sound giving you problems, it might be because the audio wasn’t transcoded when you sent the file through Compressor.

Load the original .mp4 into Compressor, apply the ProRes setting, go to the 2nd tab in the Inspector window. The default seems to be that ‘Audio’ is ‘Pass-through’. Change it to ‘Enable’ and adjust it to be 48kHz.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

+4 Dell monitors here. Bought 2 x 2409W’s for my suite at work based on recommendations on the Cow. Love ’em.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

What codec are you editing in? Are you experiencing drop frames, the spinning beach ball or frequent crashes?

If you’re almost done with the project and not experiencing any peculiar troubles, then maybe you’ll be fine pushing through till you finish up this project and sorting out your scratch disks later.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

FCP has a default setting for scratch disks and render folders etc. It’s usually on the system drive – which is not a recommended place to store these things.

If you have not captured anything yet, it’s best you set the scratch disk to a dedicated media drive, be it external or an additional internal HDD. Even if you have, it might be good to do so – but you’ll need to do a bit of transferring and relinking.

You’ll probably need to re-render but unless you’re working on a massively big project, it usually shouldn’t take more than a lunch time 😉

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

There is no added value in re-linking your H.264 files to your sequence. In fact, I don’t think anyone would recommend that at all. Plus, H.264 is really more of a deliverable than editing format – and you’ll find that it’s unwieldy to cut with that in FCP.

Once you’ve transcoded the H.264 files from your CF/SD cards, you could just work with the ProRes footage like you’re working with any other HD formats and go through the usual Compressor > desired deliverable format. For that step, I would recommend exporting a Quicktime .mov to encode in Compressor, rather than sending straight through – faster and also frees up your machine for more edits.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

If they’re making the animation in something like AfterEffects, they could just give you a Quicktime .mov, based on your DV NTSC [whether it’s 4:3 or 16:9] resolution, in Animation codec & with alpha channels, so that it could be superimposed on your current newscasts.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

[Kai Cheong]

I’m still a n00b, in the grand scheme of things here at the Cow, but I’ve also gotten a few emails spun off from the Cow asking for specific help, after I posted a related solution on the forums.

Also recently gotten a very nice surprise: a thank you email from someone who dug through the archives and found a solution that solved his problem!

Don’t expect anyone to be calling anyone yet… though my number is actually somewhere [not too inconspicuous] out on the Net. But like Rafael, I think my country code is also a great deterrent 😉

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W