[Matt Doe]

Production house I work for uses 2 large XSANs. Our workflow is to copy any project files locally and work from there.

We use the SAN to back our projects up at the end of the day (have a FCP Project Backups folder); or at any point if we need to move a project from one room to another.

We also have our capture and renders set to go to the SAN, waveforms and autosaves are set locally.

I wish I could give more in depth info, but it’s been standard operating since I started with this company over 3 years ago to not work with project files housed on the SAN. It falls into one of those, we just don’t do it that way as it tends to be more stable to have it locally, categories.

[Matt Doe]

Check the Trash, hopefully the files might still be in there. If they are, you can move that folder back to where it should be.

[Matt Doe]

Comes down to how much footage you have to keep around.

Obviously for editing you’ll want to keep all your footage in it’s native format. When it comes to archiving, it’s hard to say. If you are archiving with an intention to be able to go back and work with it later, going to h.264 doesn’t make much sense (h.264 is not an editing codec). You are still stuck with all that source media AND the h.264 of the same thing with nowhere to put it that will save you any space.

I know you mentioned you had issues with it, but having an LTO system in conjunction with your shared storage sounds like the best way to go. You have all your source media on the SAN to edit with. After the project is over, you can compress it all to h.264 screeners to keep around, and dump the native media to LTO tape for long term storage.

This gives you the best of both worlds, you have a small file around to screen and can bring back whatever full rez media you might need later.

You could do the same workflow with external drives and the SAN, but LTO is much more secure for long term archival purposes.

An example. The company I work for has a 150TB XSAN shared storage system. With the amount of work we do, we are running up against that 150TB more than you’d think. We installed an LTO system and as we delivery a series, all of that raw material is pulled from the SAN and put on LTO to make space for the next. If we ever need to go back, we have all the FCP projects, and can pull just what we need from LTO.

[Matt Doe]

Are you not going to be editing from the SAN?

If you want strictly an archive solution, you’re better off looking at LTO tape solutions.

[Matt Doe]

Still have the same issue with 5.5.1

ProRes crashes when I try to playback after XML import. I did notice that Premiere is changing the edit mode of my sequence from ProRes to XDCAM.

Meaning, I import a ProRes XML, look at the sequence settings of the imported sequence in premiere, the editing mode now says XDCAM.

If I take one of the imported prores clips and do a “create sequence from clip” it creates an AJA HD sequence.

WTF

[Matt Doe]

Washington DC is actually a great place to look. With Discovery Channel (and all its related networks) HQ right outside the city in Maryland, and with companies like National Geographic downtown; there are a lot of opportunities.

I’ve been working in the post business in DC for just over 5 years, I am currently at online editor and colorist for a large scale broadcast production company (will have done close to, if not more than, 50 hours of broadcast work this year) just outside of DC.

I got my first job right out of college at one of the largest and well regarded post houses in DC at the time. Granted, it was not what you think, I worked in their shipping/account management department for most of my first year labeling tapes, answering phones, doing whatever else needed to be done. It was a full time job, and it got my foot in the door. 5 years later, I wouldn’t change a single thing. I’d do it all over again.

When I started out, I wasn’t making very much, but then again, I was in the shipping department. Over time, as I expressed my interest and showed the skills I had through outside work and weaseling my way into any form of editing/post job at the company, I was able to move up in position and pay.

I am a firm believer that if you want something bad enough, you will stop at nothing to get it. Did that require more than 60 hours a week, you bet your ass it did.

Get your foot in the door anyway you can, work your ass off, no matter what the position is, even if it’s shipping tapes, ship the hell out of em.

Through that, good things and good pay will come. I can 100% attest to that.

[Matt Doe]

It’s the video card.

I had this issue, it’s a known issue actually, with the X1900 XT. I ended up buying a new on off Amazon, and it fixed the crashing.

I think Apple even issued some form of recall, or replacement program for that card. I was unaware of it until after I had already purchased a new card.

Give Apple a call, they may replace it for free.

[Matt Doe]

Best bet, if the look is slow enough for what you want, shoot 720/60p and conform the files to 24fps. Don’t have to deal with Twixtor/rendering anything at that point.

If you want the slow footage to play at normal speed, I believe it is a speed ramp of 250% on the conformed clip will get you back to normal-ish speed.

[Matt Doe]

I’m getting the same issue with a 1080i/59.94 ProRes XML from FCP into Premiere 5.5.0

The XML will import, but as soon as you try and save, it crashes.

On another note, it also crashes when I try to save a new workspace layout.

Running 10.6.7 on a mid 2009 Mac Pro

[Matt Doe]

I would go with a 960×540 h264 and see where the file size ends up.