[Ron Craig]

I don’t know of preferences that are particularly for Log & Transfer. But if you mean the Capture Presets inside Audio-Video Settings… I am using the standard FCP DVC Pro-720p60 template setting with the “Remove…duplicate frames” box unchecked.

I appreciate your thoughts about this, though. Are we talking about the same preferences setting?

[Ron Craig]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for taking the time for this. We shot everything in 720p 30. I’m not a camera guy but I believe the HVX900 can’t shoot 720p 60.

So from what you’re saying it does sound like this could be either a Firestore setting or an FCP ingest setting. The truth is that we don’t recall changing our settings or workflow at any time in the project but mistakes are always possible.

After reading your post I checked one of the Firestores, which still holds data from the third shoot and it is set at regular P2, not PN. So I don’t think that’s the issue. But maybe I did something unusual when I brought the data into FCP. What would the setting be in FCP that would ingest our data as 29.97? (Remembering that everything was “log-and-transfered” at the same time. AND that bars shots are showing up as 59.94; all the other shots are 29.97.)

Thanks again.

Ron

[Ron Craig]

The best way I have found is the Keylight plugin in After Effects.

[Ron Craig]

Thanks John. You have echoed what was in my brain but I wasn’t really sure. And I didn’t realize that doing the Pro Res import of the HDV material would do so much compression on it. As I say, there is very little HDV stuff so I think importing it into an HDV project, selecting my shots, and then exporting those as DVCPRO might be my best bet.

Cheers,

Ron

[Ron Craig]

Thanks very much for your words of experience. So far P2 on the FS100 has worked well for me. I think my 2 recent problems might be unrelated to P2. We’re on a shoot now and being diligent about all procedures. Hopefully with that attention to detail (and the FS100 firmware upgrade) we’ll be OK.

[Ron Craig]

While I’m dreaming a free upgrade from the HVX200 to the HVX300 would be nice too.

Ha!

Thanks for the full report of your experience, Rocky. Sounds like things are fine with you shooting Quicktime rather than P2. I guess I’ll have to experiment with that approach. I tried it way back when we first started with FS100 and, frankly, didn’t really know how to use the unit. Organizing by P2 solved the issues I had with shooting just QT — mainly getting a bunch of 1.8 gig files that I had to edit and assemble in FCP.

I don’t yet know everything about the Make Ref Movie function — particularly how it organizes clips (especially long clips) and what steps are required to get beyond the Ref movies to make sure that I can edit with the real source files.

I like Log & Transfer because it lets me review material, name shots, delete shots that I don’t want to capture, and set new in-and-out point on shots that I like. Or I can just import everything as-is and walk away.

I guess everyone has their own flavor preference.

Cheers,

Ron

[Ron Craig]

Hi again Michael,

Not to be argumentative but I don’t see how shooting Quicktime on the Firestore saves several steps over using P2. My only reason for NOT wanting to shoot QT is that, by my estimation anyway, shooting P2 saves several steps. For example, not having to open 200 clips inside Quicktime Player and export them individually, which you suggest as a workflow. That’s a perfectly acceptable workflow if you have the time and I agree that it does just what you want. But it’s a lot of “steps.”

And your post seemed to imply that P2 doesn’t retain timecode data. It does.

Cheers,

Ron

[Ron Craig]

Thanks Michael. OK, now I’m seeing how this works. However, in a single day we might shoot 200 shots. The thought of bringing them into Quicktime Player one-by-one and exporting them seems onerous. I see the benefits of your workflow, certainly, and I do definitely agree with making sure that I have a backup of all data.

Since you have experience with this, I have an additional question: Have you had problems with P2 files from Firestore that cause you to avoid organizing by P2 — and using straight Quicktime instead? I’m trying to decide whether the two problems I have had with Firestore were operator error — e.g. unplugging when the camera and Firestore were not powered down, which Focus Enhancements advises against — or something else. I am mindful of the tech support admonition that P2 files, according to him, can have drag-and-drop problems. But if I can work with P2 successfully I would like to stay with that workflow.

But I’d appreciate your thoughts about this and about why you (apparently) don’t use P2.

Thanks.

[Ron Craig]

Thanks, Shane. You have hit on my main concern, which is exceeding a file size limit when shooting Quicktime. The first time I tried a Firestore it broke up long shots (e.g. interviews) into 1.8 gig files, thus requiring re-assembly inside FCP. That’s when I went to your tutorial and learned how to get discreet files with P2.

The fellow at Focus Enhancements responded to my question about this by writing, “The FS-100 (Firestore) has a function called ‘Make Ref MOV’ which strings your Quicktime files together in the FCP timeline and makes them look like one long clip, no organization required.”

That sounds like what I need so I’m going to read up on it and run a test today or tomorrow. I’m posting here to see if anyone has experience doing this, and perhaps some words of wisdom. (I’ll be working exclusively in FCP and After Effects.)

–Ron

[Ron Craig]

If the darn HD-SDI input wasn’t as much as the screen, we would probably just run that in there.

Ha! Yes, I understand. I bought an AJA Hi5 SDI-to-HDMI converter when I was spending all that money putting in the HiDef edit system and those smaller components got lost in the budget.

Cheers,

Ron