[Scott Aigner]

I’ll definitely look up those books, thanks!

So as for DV. If you are starting with DV footage (which I’m not, I’m just curious). Would you recommend compressing it into ProRes or something else before editing? Or will it not matter really?

As for my former issue with these files. I’ve given up on re-compressing them and trying to get them to work with my current timeline. I’m just going to have to edit them in a separate sequence, then combine, and then wait for the render.

Thanks for the help everyone! Special thanks to Richard!

[Scott Aigner]

I’m new to the forums here, I didn’t even know there was a podcast, but I’ll be sure to check it out!

In terms of books, do you have any recommendations?

Most of what I do is just editing of my vids that are part of my art. I am a video/performance artist and so I do lots of weird stuff in terms of editing, but I’m really interested in codes and formats for exporting and all that stuff. But also in getting source material from a variety of things (old archival vids, old vhs vids, new hi-def footage and shhhhh even some copyrighted material – of course I use it in a way that I have permission to).

And the problem with new sequence, copy and pasting, is that when I put the old edited material together with the new material (either way, by putting the new into the old, or bringing over the old sequence into the new) I still will have to render in the end.

[Scott Aigner]

Unfortunately, when I go to change the sequence settings to that they match the new video, it wont let me change the FPS, which is the major issue I think. It is set to 29.97 and the video file is 25..but the “editing timebase” field cannot be changed.

Would it just be best to use up my time recompressing these files with Compressor as you said before?

[Scott Aigner]

1. Thanks

2. I’m trying to match them up and haven’t had any luck so far…but thanks for letting me know what the problem was!

[Scott Aigner]

Thanks for the response, I have some new info..and questions.

By coffee table book to newsprint you mean it is THAT much better to work in? I was always taught to edit in DV and just recently found out about ProRes. Have I been being taught wrong all along?

Second is the new info that might change your answer.

While messing around with my files, I found that if I open a new project and import the SAME EXACT converted ProRes file, it works no problem without needing rendering.

It is only when I import it to the project I am currently working on and drag it down into the timeline (which already has edits at the beginning of the timeline of different files (some of which are ProRes) does it say that I need to render it.

Could this be part of the problem? And why?

[Scott Aigner]

Thanks a bunch David! I appreciate the help. Doesn’t a “close all gaps” function seem like something that should be around? Seems simple…I wonder if they will ever add something like this.

[Scott Aigner]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, but I must say, did you have to do it in such a snarky fashion? The reason I didn’t find anything about it is because, like I said, I am new to Final Cut and therefore not familiar with the terms used. I was searching for things such as

“merge edits”
“align multiple cuts”

and the like. So thanks for putting me on the right track, but I am still a little lost. I have the close gap function working and it is still going to save me tons of time, but what I can’t figure out now is how to do that to a whole bunch of gaps at once rather than having to still click on each gap and then close it. It seems I cannot select multiple gaps at once and I can’t get the ripple delete function to do anything like that either.

[Scott Aigner]

I should add, that I think I basically figured the RAM preview out, I just want to make sure I am doing it properly. I am also using After Effects CS3 if that matters. What I find odd is that I essentially have to re-do the RAM preview every time I change anything…even something minor. This becomes a bit of a hassle when doing a key and just moving a screen gain or clip black slider by 2 or 3 points. Does this make sense that I should have to re-do the RAM preview every single time, for every single thing?

[Scott Aigner]

I’m still having a bit of trouble with the image being really choppy in AE. I recaptured using FCP this time instead of as .dv footage. I think I have RAM preview enabled, but I’m not entirely sure and that might still be the problem. Could someone describe to me what it should look like or the exact steps to making sure it is enabled? The zero thing didn’t seem to work for me, but I think that is because I’m on a laptop and don’t have a numeric keypad, just the numbers at the top of the keyboard. Any help would be great. Thanks much guys.

[Scott Aigner]

Thanks for the info so far, this is helping alot. I do have a few more questions due to the information that was presented however.

1) I must have captured with imovie although I did not realize it. Is there a better way that I should go about capturing my footage off of my camcorder? FCP, AE, something else? (What should I be using, when remember, my end result is to be combining with actual ripped dvd footage)

2) How do I disable real time vs. RAM Preview as I think this may be part of the problem as well?

3) You say I should stick to AE for compositing, should I stick to AE for editing as well? Or should I composite both of the footages together and then switch to FCP for editing? Or is that a waste of time/energy?

4) I am very aware of legal issues involving this, (shhh don’t tell, but as an artist, we really don’t care about this matter). But thanks for the looking out!

5) I’ll be sure to check out Magic Bullet and see what it does for me.

Lastly) What kind of camera/footage is best for keying. I have heard and read about issues with ALL DV footage (1CCD, 3CCD, and HDV)…but on the opposite spectrum, I have heard that HD footage in another format such as AVCHD is difficult to edit anyway due to propriety encoding and whatnot)? Not saying I’m going to go out and buy a new camera for this project, but it would be nice to know what others think about the matter.

Once again, thanks very much for all the help here. I really appreciate it and I hope that I’m giving enough information. Thanks again!