Matt Lyon
Forum Replies Created
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My experience is that FCP darkens the gamma of clips, regardless of whether you are running Leopard or Snow Leopard. This is discussed in the manual (not in great depth):
So my advice is always to set your screen gamma to 1.8 in your system preferences. Then your effective gamma in the FCP displays will wind up being 2.2, after FCP applies its gamma multiplier.
So if you’ve left your system gamma at 2.2, which is the Snow Leopard default, then the footage in your FCP viewer will appear too dark.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Dustin,
Have you tried bringing the exported clip back into FCP and A/B’ing it on a timeline with the original footage? That would probably be a more accurate way of checking the footage then comparing the quicktime window with the FCP viewer.
That being said, I recall one situation recently where I had a similar issue and I had to check the “recompress all frames” options. Don’t know if that will apply to your situation, but worth a quick test.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
If you take your processed clip back into FCP, you can inspect the item properties and confirm that it is 29.97 fps.
Then you should view your clip in the viewer, while it is set to %100, so you’ll be able to see the fields. The playback pattern should be:
AA BB BC CD DD
In other words, whole frame, whole frame, mixed frame, mixed frame, whole frame.
Find a section with a camera move or fast action, as it makes it easier to see the pattern.
HTH,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Another option is to convert using proper 3:2 pulldown. You can do this with compressor or after effects. I forget the exact settings, but if you search the cow, you can find instructions on how to do this with compressor. I would imagine that would look better then straight up frame duplication.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
[Phil Bucci] “The only way I’ve had any success is making a MERGE clip with one of the camera angles and the audio then taking the MERGE clip and the extra angle and multicliping that. That sorta works but I feel like it’s going to bite me in the ass later.”
That will probably work fine Phil, as long as you set your multiclip angle switching mode to “video only,” so the sound doesn’t suddenly disappear when you switch angles.
But that being said, I have gotten in the habit of duplicating the audio clip, then making a merged clip for both angles, each with their own copy of the audio track. Then I make a multiclip from that. That way I feel I’m covering my ass more.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Justin, I’ve seen this problem you describe happen a lot. Basically, FCP can occasionally think that clips SHOULD have field dominance, even when they don’t.
Changing the property of a clip in the browser after the fact won’t fix anything in a timeline. What you need to do is select the clip in your timeline, go into the item properties and change the field dominance to NONE. Then you have to cycle the visibility of the clip, to force FCP to refresh its mind. Now your clip should display properly with no jaggies. Obviously, you’ll lose any renders.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Alex,
If you relog and transfer, and the file lengths AND file names match exactly, you should be able to reconnect and not screw up your edit. This is because FCP simply lines up the first frame of picture when you do a “force” reconnect. At least, it has for me in the past. You can do a couple clips and test to see if it works.
Then you’ll have real timecode and correct reel names.
FWIW, I like to append the reel name to my file names when I ingest, so every file name is unique across the board. So my clips look like “001A_MVI_9999.mov”
You definitely won’t be able to spit out a proper EDL until you add reel names to your clips. My guess is that is enough information to make each asset unique enough for the conform to work. But what if the post house is doing the conform based on the camera’s TOD timecode that your ingest process has thrown away (I’m assuming they will be going back to the original cards).
In any case, this sounds like a conversation you should be having with the post facility.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Render again in ProRes and try clicking the “enable legacy gamma support” in the AE render options (I can’t remember the exact text).
This has worked for me in the past, although there was a VERY slight mismatch still. You could also try changing the “gamma correction” setting in the codec options to “none,” instead of “automatic” (I haven’t tested this).
If you can’t render to ProRes, I’d use “uncompressed 10 bit 4:2:2” instead of Animation. Animation is 8 bit and RGB color space, and isn’t supported in FCP for realtime playback.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Michael,
What you think you are seeing is definitely not reverse telecine. Changing the speed of a file between 23.976 and 24.00 fps would be referred to as pullup or pulldown (depending on the direction).
But the duration readouts in Quicktime pro are notoriously unreliable. So it is hard to say for sure that the problem you are describing is actually a problem at all. You can try opening your clip in Cinema Tools and using the “conform” command to “force” your clip to 23.976 (it may just list 23.98 as an option … they are actually the same thing, FCP just tends to confusingly round the numbers off).
Bring the file back into FCP and see if the duration is the same. In any case, you should trust the duration read-out in FCP more then anything that Quicktime Pro says. If you are not seeing any playback issues with the clip and it is correctly being labelled at 23.976), then what’s the problem?
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Dylan, if I understand your question correctly, you might find the tutorial on the Pluraleyes site useful:
https://www.singularsoftware.com/tutorials.html#useful_multiclips_final_cut
click the “Tips for truly useful multiclips video” link
However, they recommend UNCHECKING the “make self contained” option, to create a reference movie. I don’t necessarily agree. I think there is too much potential for reference movies to “break,” should you move or lose the original media. But you have to decide what approach works for you. If you check the “make self contained” box, then you are creating a brand new media file, which obviously takes up more disc space. Also, both approaches break any links your clips have with the original camera media. This is problematic should you need to re-ingest or recapture your media in the future.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto