[Nick Meyers]

“When I use Media Manager to convert the clips to ProRes I find that the Digi footage has turned from interlaced to (what looks like) progressive.”

using Media Manger to up-res your footage is not a good idea.
yes, it can transcode as part of it;s operations, but you are better off using a dedicated tool such as Compressor.
i have no idea what MM’s scaling algorithms are. for all i know they may match your timeline’s “Fastest” option, not it’s “best”

actually if you can CAPTURE your digi beta, the simplest option, and one that will yield good results, is to capture it again as 1080i.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

if the TC changes across shots, then FCP needs to give itself some pre-roll on the breaks to allow for re-capture.

it’s set to 3 seconds by default.
there is a way to drop it to less than 3 seconds, but i can’t remember where it is (haven’t captured from tape for a while!)
also i don’t really recommend it.

if you really need to capture everything, the safe option is to DUB the tape, and make sure you generate new TC on the dub,
then capture that.

the non-safe way is to set Log & Capture to “non controllable device” and that just ignores the tapes TC.
this is not safe as you can’t re-capture.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

Sync n Link is expensive, but worth it for a whole feature film’s worth of material.

why this wasn’t dealt with on a daily basis during the shoot is another question, i guess.

as Andrew suggested, try Make Multiclip sequences,
like him i have not used it, but it has been working for someone else i know

another option to explore is Sequence Liner from Spherico filmtools

one more idea is Resolve.
yes, the grading software.
also used for batch transcodes of rushes,
it has a function where it will match TC as it transcodes.
so you would be re-transcoding your rushes, but might be worth it?

i think shane is wrong on this one.
i mean i f i had an assistant who did everything the longest way possible, without trying to explore better options, i would be un-impressed.

you are correct, it is a simple technical issue, and there are solutions.

however you should be aware that TC is not always accurate.
you maybe should test a few clips to check it’s ok.
often they will be ok at the beginning of the day, but TC may have drifted by the end.

also, Syncing the clips counts for abut a third of the work of preparing rushes for editing.
there is a fiar bit of work involved with logging the clips, andy un-married audio such as Wild lines or FX tracks,
grouping into scenes etc.

i used Sync n Link on a feature last year.
it worked well because the crew was very rigorous with their TC, (used lock-it boxes on the camera)
BUT it did skip over un-maried audio, so that had to be dealt with.

syncing manually takes me a couple of hours, and i am very experienced, and have developed QuicKeys macros that make the job a lot faster.
for some one doing ti for the first time it would take longer.
S+L takes it down to about 5 minutes, so have another think about that.

even using S+L, preparing a day’s rushes took me 2Hrs at absolute top speed, and 6 hrs on the other end.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

there a few parts to this.

first yoo need to “FILL” out the area you have removed the original words from, using the original bg audio. find some parts of the clip where there is a stretch of clear audio.
obviously it has to match , so looking closer to the area you have cut may be best, and you can expect to join a few bits together, as well.
the result should be a perfectly smooth version of the original where the words just disappear, but the bg audio remains.

next your recording does have to mach pretty well.
same mic helps a lot.
there are so many other things involve that sometimes EQ alone wont help.
sometimes a spot of reverb is requires, but maybe not if your original was outside.

if your re-recorded sound has a room feel to it, maybe you need to do it again in a more dead environment.

the final thing to resort to is MASKING,
which is adding some extra sound that covers that troublesome area, like a plane going overhead, or a telephone ringing if the scene is inside.

or as someone else suggested, try re-buiding the vocals from other words.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

dont work from the timeline, as you have to export each one separately.
you can copy all in the timeline and paste into a new bin.

now you can do a batch export:
QuickTime Movie,
Same settings
NOT self contained
USE IN TO OUT

OR, one you have your bin full of clips, try what Joseph suggested.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

yes, ther is, it;s b ery simple.
it;s called “Swapping” in FCP.

pick up one clip (second cip is easier to work with), drag it to where you want it to be,
now hit OPTION.
the playheasd turns into a hooked arrow icon, and snaping should engage
when you let go of the clip, the two clips wil swap.

give it a go, it’s good.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

no need to fix the clips one by one in a sequence

merge all your clips,
drop all in a timeline, and slip as a group.

oh.. i see you have tried that as you wrote “(which can’t be used if clips are butted next to each other)”
that is not quite correct
is is more likely that you have some clips where the sound is shorter than the image, and it is those clips that are hindering the process

you could locate those clips (“next track gap” is the command that would help, you have to find that in the modify keyboard window) and put the audio on a lower track,
slip the other one, then do “something else” with the short clips.
it’s a job of work, i’m afraid unless you use some outside tool

better than merging perhaps, is to use the “create multiclip sequence” function.
that can sync your matching TC.
i haven’t used t myself, but friends have
it seems a bit messy, and there is a certain amount of tidying up to do.

but i cant stand the merging process: find the matching clips, select them open the merge box, select timecode, hit OK, so most other solutions seems better to me!

personally, i use Sync n Link, a 3rd party app, and in that you can set an offset.
a bit pricey, compared to Bouke’s offering

nick

[Nick Meyers]

i havent read the entire post, BUT…

in answer to your initial Q, the issue could be that that there is not a Master Affiliate relationship between the browser clips and the timeline clips.

very hard to fix that, simplest way is to use Tools Menu > Create Master Clips.
this can be neatest copying the sequence into anew project.
it wont help your reconnect problem AFTER the fact,
you would have to Create MAster CLips, THEN do the reconnecting

nick

[Nick Meyers]

well, yes, and no.

whats wrong with using QT?
that is the way to do it.

use QT player7,
File Menu> open image sequence,
navigate to your 1st stil, follow the prompts.

you would be best to export as a self contained file in a format FCP likes.

you *could* import the frame sin to FCP (1st set your still / freeze duration to 1 fr in user prefs)
plonk them into a sequence and use that as a nest.

see how you go, could get slow and cumbersome.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

kicked off the re-transcode in Resolve early this afternoon.
10 days of rushes on one system
10 days on another,
and 5 on a third.

should be ready tomorrow morning
compressor could never do that

resolve also opens the MXF files, so is probably the answer to the original question.

nick