[Mark Richards]

Timecode, who cares? It’s all kind of arbitrary anyway. As long as clip name, reel and tc are consistently correct, you should be able to match back no problems.

This comment sums up this forum. I thought it was for professionals – I’m dropping out.

[Mark Richards]

The idea is to use the ProRes files.

Yes, I agree, you can modify the timecode and add a reel name to the ProRes files imported into FCP, but you will have to do this for each and every clip one-by-one – you cannot select a batch of files in FCP and modify them all in one go. Fine for one or two files, but not very professional if you’ve got 100-200 files.

As I said before, great camera if your keeping it all on-board, but big issues to consider if you’re out-sourcing your high resolution conform.

Mark

[Mark Richards]

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the suggestion.

Modifying timecode is possible in both Media Composer and FCP, but it only changes the timecode of that media file within that application. What it doesn’t do is embed a source name and timecode within the original file and, therefore, you can’t do an on-line auto-conform.

I have imported a ProRes file into FCP and modified the timecode and created an EDL for the sequence. I have attached a screen grab to show the warning dialogue you get from FCP when creating the EDL and a screen grab from EDL Manager showing that EDL. The former warns/explains the issue very clearly. You will also see from the latter, the media files have ‘No Reel Name’ and the second column shows their sources as ‘AX’, meaning an auxiliary files – with no embedded data. You cannot auto-conform this EDL, which is my whole point about Canon files being only suitable if the project is being handled all in one system. You cannot do a traditional off-line/on-line process with Canon files – unless your post-house is happy to have someone sit there importing the files manually and then construct the edit manually, reading the timecode from the EDL. Fine for some – not for others!!

Mark

[Mark Richards]

I have recently finished an edit combining RED files and Canon 5D files. I edit on Avid MC 3.5.4 on a 17″ MacBook Pro. The workflow for the RED files worked like a dream, if a bit slow transcoding the RED files, but the Avid Fast Import made up for that.

I transcoded all the Canon files using Compressor to Apple ProsRes at 25fps, ending up with 14Gb of files. I could have gone to Avid DNxHD files, but the workflow I used was for ProRes, this was my first job with Canon files and I didn’t have the time for experimenting.

All the work I do is at an off-line resolution and is conformed at on-line resolution once the edit is approved, so source time-codes are imperative. Obviously, the RED files have time-code embedded, so are not a problem in the EDL.

As the Canon files have no time-code, each file is imported with the same time-code start (determined by the settings you create in Avid), in my case 01:00:00:00. So when you create an EDL, the RED files are listed with their correct time-code and file source names, so no problems there. However, because the Canon files have no time-code and related source file, they are shown in the EDL as AUX. They show the correct time-code for the section of rushes in the edit. The only way round this, that I have seen so far, is to adjust your EDL settings to “Show Clip Names”. Then import the relevant ProRes files you have created and manually edit them into your conform.

It obvious, for many reasons, that this camera is a stills camera at heart, but has been hi-jacked for video shoots. It is perfect, from an editing point of view, if you are importing your rushes, editing and producing your final master all on one system. Beyond that, it is a post-production nightmare.

At least with the 7D, there will not be the necessity to varispeed the rushes, which is great from a visual point of view, but they’ll still need to be transcoded from H.264 to ProsRes (or even Avid DNxHD). I hope Canon will solve this time-code issue. No time-code doesn’t affect me personally, but it has a massive impact on the conform and the EDL is seen as the Editor’s responsibilty. You should be aware of this before embarking on a project.

I hope this helps anyone dipping their toes into Canon-world!!

Mark Richards