Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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[Drea Solan] ”
2) DV/DVCPRO or ProRes aside, do you recommend exporting from FCP as self-contained QT movie or using the Export using Compressor option?”It’s a good habit to export a self contained QT of the finished timeline for several reasons.
It may, or may not give better quality then the Export Using Compressor option in FCP. This is a debate for another time.
But, once you have a self contained QT of the finished product, it will save you from tying up FCP, or even having to open it up, to do your compression.
Hard drives are cheap. It is always a good idea to have a QT copy of your finished piece. If your sequence was your only master, and for some reason your copy of FCP crashed, or became corrupt, you would still have a copy of the finished work that can stand on its own. This could save the day if it happens and you’re in a time crunch.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Rendering, capturing all that type of work is billable.
While the machine is doing that, it is not earning an editing rate and it is accumulating hours.
A good (and fair) compromise is to have a sliding scale for ‘other’ services.
One downside of this is the added complication of keeping track of it. The ‘Time Tracking’ type programs that accountants, lawyers and architects often use is a solution.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Lots of false assumptions have to be in play for this to work.
The two most obvious:There are actually three players in the game, not two.
Apple, the so called “Hollywood” aka Professional Editors, and the Casual Editors.The assumption that Apple can only cater to one type of client. Almost every manufacturer, and service provider regularly sells to both the high-end elite customer, and the plain-Jane, or gray flannel customer. It is a standard business practice, and often (like in the case of FCS and Shake) not very difficult to do. Apple has simply chosen not to, hoping to cover their tracks with the fan base or the RDF.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Isn’t there already a forum for that?
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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The only way to capture HDV to ProRes is to ‘Capture Now’, which is not always ideal if TC is important to you.
Option # 2 it to capture HDV and convert using Compressor. It works, but is time consuming.
Option # 3 is to capture HDV, and change your render setting to ProRes. I often find this is the best solution for me since I’m using a JVC camera with a relatively short GOP which doesn’t eat up a lot of resources like the Sony 15 frame GOP does. You can always bake and re-import any clips that will need a lot of filters, etc. And you can always work in a ProRes sequence too, if you like. The best idea is to try each workflow with your set-up on a small amount of material and see what works best for you.
On the make a new clip on TC break issue, it doesn’t matter. HDV will always make a new clip if there is a TC or GOP break, even if you have FCP set to ignore camera start/stop. This is due to the GOP structure. One missing frame equals 6 (in JVC) or 15 (in Sony) missing frames, since they are interdependent. There is no way to ignore that many missing frames.
As someone said earlier in the thread, ProRes HQ is overkill, and gives you little in return. There are a few workflows that might benefit from it if you were doing extensive compositing , but for 99% of what most are doing, regular ProRes is fine.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “…Apple notes that there are now more editors working with FCP X that with Final Cut Pro 7.””
They may have had 2 million downloads of Movie Hero, but downloading a piece of fanware does not make you an editor, in the same way that owning a 5D does not make you a cinematographer.
Once the Reality Distortion Field is switched off the quote would have read: …Apple notes that 2 million dilettantss have downloaded FCP X, and a few editors have tried it with mixed results.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Nesting is evil, and is well know for producing unpredictable results.
If your working in ProRes, I would export the master seq (current settings/self contained) and then re-import that footage for use in other sequences. Baking your sequences is a little more work, but always works. It also adds a nice back-up should your master sequence be deleted or damaged.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Jon Frost] “I have been reading recent posts where the poster has a budget of say, $500.00… How would you spend that $500?”
That would really depend on what you are lighting. You could target that budget differently depending on the gig.
But…In a generic kind of way what can you do with 500 bucks?
Two trains of thought depending on if you are somewhere you can rent, or not.
If you can rent, spend the money on light meter, and having your own basic tools and supplies. You don’t get that stuff when you rent, and you will need it. Spend the remaining money on renting what you need. Then buy as you go along, once you know what you will use most often.Don’t want to rent, or can’t rent? Think used, open face lights. Fresnels like Arri’s are cool, but Lowel open face lights are simple, easy to field repair, travel well, and are reasonably priced. The accessories are reasonable too. Despite all the LED, Kino and other advancements in lighting, these simple open face lights are quite serviceable, and combined with some basic control devices can produce great results. If you find you need ‘better’ lights in the future, buy as needed.
[Jon Frost] “A soft box of some sort would be a nice addition to a light fixture. Next to that, some foam core for flagging, which probably needs a way to mount and position (ala C-stand with a Lowel foam core mounting plate…)”
A Lowel Tota and a Chimera work pretty good for a softbox, even if the Chimera and speed ring are a bit pricey. Or use the traditional Lowel umbrella with the Tota, or bounce light it off a foam core. People might laugh at the Tota, but they have some uses that you don’t want to waste a better light on, and can make your lighting kit go farther.
I’m not a fan of flagging hot lights with foam core, but for reflector/fill, I use it a lot. A foam core holder and a couple of C-stands are really must have basic items. A couple of china’s are good to have also. A Wescott Scrim Jim kit is pretty handy too.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Jon Frost] “It seems that some folks get stuck on “what lights should I buy first.” I would suggest that Lighting Control is more important than the number and type of light fixtures to purchase first. A fixture is nice to have, but if you can’t control the light coming from the fixture, you are going to be frustrated from the start.”
Well, I wouldn’t really agree with that. Light control pieces aren’t much good without lights and the first and easiest control is the pin-flood control on a real light.
I suppose this is really dependent on what type of work you do, the size of the crew, and what your budget is. And by budget, I mean time and money. Deploying a large amount of light controls is often out of the question due to the amount of time and warm bodies this requires. Sure it’s nice to have a grip truck full of flags, etc, but people have been doing decent lighting for years without using film style light controls. Lots of folks can get by with 3-4 lights with barndoors, C47’s, a little Cinefoil, and it your really on a budget hardware store metal screen in place of scrims.
Give a limited budget that only allows for “home depot” lights, but some light control items vs a adequate number of proper lights with barndoors and no extra light control items, I’d go with the real lights every time.
My minimum list would be:
4 basic lights with barndoors, stands, sandbags, alternate wattage lamps and spares.
A light meter, probably a Sekonic L-398.
Basic grip supplies-gloves, cinefoil, C47, ND, booster, etc.
Once you acquire these items, then purchase light control items as needed, probably starting with a Cimera for one of the lights, or maybe a couple of C-stands and sandbags and go from there with flags, reflectors, etc..Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Todd and Mark are on the money here, and whoever marked the reply that said to “Use it, use it, use it.” as a ‘solution’ should rethink that. It is a recipe for disaster.
To post copy written work without permission is foolhardy, doubly so when permission has been expressly denied. Equally foolhardy is to advocate doing this in a public forum read by clients and peers.
You have no rights to use the material, and now the owner has voiced his opposition. While ignorance is a poor legal defense, you don’t even have that now. So to continue at this point would show a willful and deliberate act on your part. To use (post) this as others have suggested here opens you up to ‘take down’ actions and a civil lawsuit, which you would most likely end up settling, or lose if it went to trial. Even if you don’t have any money to lose now, judgements usually have a seven year time to collect. A judgement against you will cause financial difficulties for years and make it tough to get business insurance, show up in background checks for employment and make it difficult to get loans.
Maybe you could just continue on, and hope that the director doesn’t have the will, or resources to push the issue, but the best advice is to avoid this situation entirely.
Demanding compensation after the fact is another bad idea. We play in a pretty small sandbox, and things like that can make you look like a completely unprofessional amateur. If you don’t care about reputation, you could try a small claims court lawsuit, but after the fact claims like these almost never work and can open you up to a countersuit.
There are much better uses of your time, like trying to work out why the director didn’t like your cut, getting up to speed on contracts, looking for work, etc.
Do yourself a big favor and consider this a lesson learned and move on.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?