Matt Lyon
Forum Replies Created
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You can check by going to one of the files in question in the browser and right clicking and selecting “REVEAL IN FINDER.” Then press “command-i” to bring up the “get info window. At the bottom of the window, in the “sharing and permissions” section, see if it says “you can read and write.”
If it doesn’t, then you need to change the settings so you have read and write permissions. Then try modifying the timecode again. If this is indeed the problem, then you can batch apply new permissions to all the files in question by modifying their parent folder in the finder, then selecting “apply to enclosed items.”
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
This is kind of a w.a.g. since I haven’t used GH2 footage, but I believe the modify timecode command only works with quicktime files. Could your media be in a different format? You might need to convert to something like ProRes before this will work.
Or, if you don’t have write permissions to your hard disk or files, then FCP might not be able to modify the timecode metadata as necessary, since this is stored with the files themselves, not within FCP.
hth,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Sounds like it might be worth doing a test with a couple reels of material. What’s the source of the original media? You could try transcoding some footage and then seeing if you are able to take it offline and re-ingest at full quality. Whatever process you use will have to preserve the timecode and reel names.
[Schureman Lear] “If we leave the current media as-is, can we bring in future media as proxy and mix codecs without a problem?”
I’ve done this in the past (mixing proxy and “regular” pro res). It didn’t pose a problem. The footage that didn’t match the sequence setting will simply be played as a real-time effect (assuming your computer is powerful enough).
[Schureman Lear] ” If we re-did the ingest, we’d have every frame that was shot”
I’ve done a re-ingest on a job (actually still in the process of doing it!) and it is working fine so far. As long as the file names match EXACTLY, you can point FCP at the new material and it /should/ work (test, test, test first!). BUT, in my case, both ingests were of the full clips. I’m not sure what will happen if a file has mis-matched in and out points (very likely it breaks your edit!)– another test is in order, perhaps? 🙂 You can make a new project with a sample timeline to mess around with, so it won’t break your other sequences.
In any case, I’d be interested to hear how this goes!
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
In what situations do you see this happening Gaz? I’ve round-tripped ProRes HQ footage I’ve received from Color Correction facilities and not had this problem. Last time was a Pablo though, not a DaVinci.
There’s a “gamma correction” setting in the codec options that might affect this behaviour…
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Mike, on my last job I played around with the Spyder to calibrate our edit suite computer monitors. As you’ve probably read on other threads, you really need a video break out box and broadcast monitor in order to do color correction. The Spyder didn’t magically make our computer monitors suitable for broadcast grading.
Your monitors will probably never really match, btw.
On this particular animated show, we weren’t grading in my edit suite, but I wanted the computer monitors to match the compositing workstations as much as possible, for when the lead artists came in to look at footage (color approvals were done on another workstation). The artists all calibrated their displays to sRGB.
The problem with Final Cut 7 is that it applies a display gamma multiplier to the viewer and canvas, since it assumes that your monitors will be calibrate at 1.8 gamma. So the program darkens the image in order to achieve a net viewing gamma of 2.2.
So you have to select a gamma of 1.8 in the spyder advanced settings, in order to achieve somewhat near 2.2 gamma in FCP.
The sRGB are actually a good starting point for calibrating computer monitors, since the white points match rec709 (the HD video standard). IIRC, you can set the Spyder to use the sRGB white points as its targets. Your color temp should be 6500 and your screen luminance will depend on your viewing environment. 80 cdm2 would be suitable for a cave like setting, and 120 would be more appropriate for a bright, office like-lighting situation.
Oh, and set your gamma correction in FCP to “accurate” in the preferences, not “approximate.”
So after doing all this fiddling in our edit suit, the head lighter still thought the picture looked like crap! (Too contrasty and too saturated were her main comments) What are you gonna do? So I wouldn’t say we achieved any kind of calibration that was broadcast quality, but the color temperature was generally correct and the contrast of the image was in the ballpark in the sense that we weren’t losing any shadow detail.
You have to bear in mind that fundamentally computer displays and video monitors have different color gamuts, so colors you might be able to render on you computer displays won’t necessarily translate to video.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to put my screens next to a proper HD broadcast display for comparison’s sake, but I did look at some downconverts on an older SD broadcast monitor and the results were similar: the video display showed much more muted colors and softer contrast.
I wouldn’t consider my test definitive at all, but I thought I’d share, in case you find this helpful.
Of course, all this goes out the window when you start talking about AVID. I have no idea how it handles color.
HTH,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
[Terence Nance] “when simply viewing the pro-res color corrected masters delivered to me by the colorists the footage is at least a stop or 2 darker than what they showed me on the Davinci when we did a watch down of the film. “
Terence, this says to me that your home viewing environment is not properly set up to evaluate the footage. You have to trust what you saw at the facility, on their very expensive, presumably frequently calibrated monitor.
It might be helpful for you to do a test render of a ten second section, with your effects added. Send it back to the facility, and have them watch it on their DaVinci, next to their original export. Only then will you be able to say for sure what adverse affects your renders may or may not be having on the footage.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
I’m with Shane … capture your footage using one project, then organize on the finder level. I make subfolders for each camera reel and put them all in a “REELS” folder, which lives inside a folder I’ve created for the project’s media. Then I drag and drop the folders for each reel into my main project. So everything is already sorted and ready to go.
I frequently version up timelines, usually before a major creative change. I also version up projects themselves (using the “save as…” command). I think this helps to keep the project file “healthy,” by forcing FCP to re-write the entire database from scratch. It also allows me to periodically prune old timelines within the project, in order to keep the file size manageable. I know I can still find these deleted timelines in old versions of the project — without having to hunt through the autosaves (which may or may not still exist). I haven’t had any issues with the render manager but I also don’t have particularly render intense jobs, so I’ve never felt compelled to keep the render folders organized at all. I just periodically delete the render files wholesale whenever the folder gets too big. (with the exception of renders from the newest timeline).
And I also keep the FCP project files on the main system drive, so they get backed up to my TimeMachine disk. I also keep backups on “the cloud” and a USB flash drive.
HTH,Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hmmm, a quick google search seems to suggest this isn’t possible with applescript:
https://lists.apple.com/archives/quicktime-users/2009/Apr/msg00044.html
Have you tried mucking about with Automator? Maybe you can record an action that can be applied as a droplet or something? But you might have better luck finding help on some of the developer forums…
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Shams,
You probably just need to re-import the audio, using the correct method, as described in my tutorial (second part):
https://library.creativecow.net/lyon_matt/fixing-fcp-assets/1
Hope this helps,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Fair enough, but you said it yourself that you are using a new camera. There’s a lot of variables at play. FCP and quicktime don’t necessarily play footage back exactly the same. I would want to watch the original, uncoverted footage on a broadcast monitor, and then the “fixed” FCP footage on the same screen, in order to make sure the entire pipeline is sound.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto