[Simon Mercer]

Thanks for the responses. You’ve essentially confirmed what I was thinking, which is that it’s basically impossible. Especially with screen capture software and all the other toys we have available as editors. I guess my next port of call is a lawyer who might at least be able to draft us a warning document to go along with the file.

[Simon Mercer]

Er, pretty sure. I run a busy production and post house, and am the guy who pays the bills for the cameras! The Sony EX3 is our ENG camera of choice, hooked up to a Rode NG2.

Let me reiterate my question: Is it the opinion of the people of this forum that the Zoom H4N with a phantom-powered Rode NG2 attached should even remotely match the audio quality captured through a similar setup on a Sony EX3. I understand from anecdotal evidence that the EX3 isn’t all that hot for sound, although I love it for all our main interview recording.

So, yes. I’m pretty sure it’s an EX3.

[Simon Mercer]

Hi, Jason.

My strong advice would be to do all the keying once you’ve compiled the rough edit. It’ll take you a really, really long time to render and re-render if you keep making changes. What you might try is creating the two bgs (one for wide, one for close), applying them to the appropriate clips, but then unticking the key filter in FCP, so that you’re just previewing the unkeyed footage. Then if you want to see what a cut between a wide and a tight would look like, just turn on the key filter for the two clips you want to check, and render scrub between the two. This is what we usually do, prior to agreeing the edit. Then we just leave it all churning overnight.

Also, if you download the Primatte keyer trial for FCP, you get a free cutdown version, which we often use on its own. Worth a shot.

Simon.

[Simon Mercer]

Aha! The missing piece of the puzzle: keep the crowd out of the way! Thanks for the swift response! Makes perfect sense!