Matt Lyon
Forum Replies Created
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Sounds like you are doing everything right. But the EOS Plugin is delicate. I would not touch anything on your computer while it is batch capturing. Don’t even look at your email! If you check your capture folder, can you see if the full media managed clips have been transcoded?
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hey Amberlie,
There is another issue with the EOS plug-in I was just made aware of. I’m not sure if it applies to your situation. Basically, if you’ve transferred your footage from your cards, then moved the data to a new location, recapturing via the L&T plugin won’t work, because the absolute file path is now different:
If you read the comments, they discuss some ways to prevent this from happening.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
After hearing about these problems, I tried spitting out an xml of a short, offline 7D timeline to see if there was anything helpful. But there doesn’t seem to be anything that is human readable. Each item seems to have a bunch of long UUID strings, but I certainly couldn’t wring anything useful out of them. Presumably some of these strings are created based on the original, absolute file path … but I’m just speculating here. I’m gonna be more careful next batch of footage I ingest.
Please let us know if you have any luck fixing your issue!
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Aaah, sorry Elliot, I didn’t understand that you’d mounted everything in the L&T window.
Shane, that’s insanely bad news to hear. I just duplicated the problem on my system too. I guess I’ve just been lucky enough in the past to not move the original clips off the original transfer drive. On my current project, I’m not so lucky.
Sounds like an issue with the EOS plugin, eh? Has anyone talked to Cannon about a fix?
Bum trip, for sure….
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Elliot,
You can’t just have the volumes mounted in the finder, they need to be mounted in the log and transfer window as well. Click on the “add volumes…” button in the same window as your screenshot and select all your cards.The error message makes sense, because when you click “ignore missing volumes,” you are effectively telling FCP to ignore every clip. So it then thinks there is nothing to capture.
If you are having trouble getting the process to work, you can try starting FIRST by opening the L&T window, then mounting all you cards, THEN initiate the batch capture process. Sometimes I’ve found doing things in this order is more reliable, but YMMV.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
[Amberlie Bankoff] “Batch Capture does ask me to load the volume and says it can’t find it even though I am looking directly at the files that should be transcoded.”
are you sure you’re pointing the program at the right folder? You need to select the parent folder of the original card, not the subfolder that contains all the .mov files.
[Amberlie Bankoff] “He basically said that he doesn’t use the batch capture and log and transfer in FCP because it always gives him errors”
I can’t speak to his situation, but there are lots of people on this board, myself included, who successfully use Log And Transfer all the time, and rely on it professionally. The main thing is to not do anything else on your computer while it is transferring. But in any case, everyone needs to find a system that they are comfortable with and gets your show done on time.
Good luck finishing the movie!
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
I haven’t used the 60D, but it is listed as a supported model for the EOS plugin.
But I’m not sure exactly what your issue is, can you elaborate? When you go to “batch capture” your footage, you get an error message? Does FCP prompt you to load the volume that contains the original footage? Do you have this material archived, with the original card structure intact?
Most importantly, did you follow Shane’s workflow when you first ingested:
https://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7/1
Do your clips have timecode and reel names? If not, that is a sign of trouble.
Also, did you rename your files during ingest, in the Log & Transfer window? That is fine, FCP should be able to conform to the camera original files, which will still have their original names (MVI_9856.mov, for example, in the case of the 7D). But once you’ve ingested footage, it is a bad idea to rename them in the browser window. Asset names in FCP should always match the file name in the finder, IMHO. I don’t know if something you’ve done here screwed things up … it’s possible, I guess.
I know it sucks to hear this, but you really should test your workflow in its ENTIRETY at the start of your project. Use the first day’s footage and test your process from start to finish. As it stands now, there are a number of things that could have gone wrong and troubleshooting is gonna be tough.
Try running some tests on a three or so clips and see if you can get the re-capture to work.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Amberlie, I have been through this a few times and have some tips that might help:
[Amberlie Bankoff] “I have completed my media manage, but it dumped everything into one bin called master files”
This implies you are doing the first step wrong. You need to set the media manager to “create offline” mode, not to “copy” or “move.” Use the “create offline” mode to create a trimmed version of your final timeline, with handles, that is ready to be onlined using the “capture” command.
[Amberlie Bankoff] “1). With media manager, can you set it to move the original structure of the bins into the new media managed project?”
No you can’t. This is annoying for sure, but it isn’t really a huge deal, since onlining is theoretically the final stage of your editing. So does it really matter if your newly captured clips are all in one bin?
[Amberlie Bankoff] “2). Is there a way I can recapture all the footage I used in batch capture in segments?
You can break your movie up into reels, which are usually around 20 minutes (2000 feet of 35mm film). This is a good idea to do anyway, especially if you hope to show your movie in theatres. Then you can batch capture each reel, one at a time. This will give FCP less to think about at once, so it will hopefully be more stable.
You should also definitely delete all the audio from your timeline before you re-capture. Duplicate your timeline, lock your video tracks, then delete all the audio. Now run the media manager and then batch capture your material. After it is done, you can marry picture and sound together again. In my experience, this makes the process MUCH more stable.
Also, watch Shane’s tutorial if you haven’t already:
https://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless_online/1
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
[Craig Ricker] “Ok So your experience with a DSLR was it had TC and reel, or you did what the other guys have done and used a program to add those metadatas to the DSLR footage?”
No, the 7D footage I work with gets ingested via Final Cut Pro’s Log and Transfer (like I said in my other post). The timecode and reel info is automatically generated during this process. You need to install the Canon EOS plugin.
If you haven’t watched Shane Ross’ “Tapeless Workflow” tutorial, you should. It is on this site.
I haven’t worked with GoPro footage, so I don’t want to speak outside of my experience. But in addition to the other tools people mention, you can add TC and reel info right within Final Cut. You can batch assign reel names, but not timecode, IIRC.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
[Craig Ricker] “why did the relink of the go pro files work for me? Am I just getting lucky?”
Craig, if I understand correctly, when you did your test you just deleted the media files, then relinked to the camera originals. When you do it this way, FCP is ONLY looking at file names as the basis for relinking.
So while your test worked, you can run into problems if you have tons of footage. Chances are, you will have multiple files from different shoot days that have the same name. At least this has been the case for me on every DSLR based project I’ve worked on. So in my mind, having a workflow that preserves reel and TC info is essential. Otherwise, for example, you might end up in a situation where you have six files all named “MVI_9367.mov” — which can turn your conform into a very tedious and error prone process.
I’m just speaking about DSLR footage … I don’t know how GoPro stuff works with FCP Log & Transfer.
I haven’t tried “Grinder,” but in my experience using the FCP L&T method has been very reliable. I’ve done several projects recently using ProRes proxy, then used media manager to prep my final timeline and “re-captured” to ProRes HQ or even 4444. It’s been totally frame accurate and I’ve had to do ZERO fixes on any filters/mattes/motion effects, a nice benefit of off-lining at full raster.
Just my two cents,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto