[Tim Ryan]

I just booked a job for late October and realized, in addition to not having a new camera yet, that some clients like to get the RAW footage captured during a shoot unedited. What’s the going process now for tapeless shooters who need to hand off something to say an advertising agency? Would I just convert the footage to .mov files in FCP and export to a DVD?

MacBook Pro
Mac OSX version 10.4.11
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB DDr SDRAM
FCP 6.0
G-Raid 2 Tb external hard drive

[Tim Ryan]

Craig – Long render times and pushing my Mac Book Pro to its limits with huge files is a concern. You addressed the question by translating what I was trying to explain when I said downconvert.

MacBook Pro
Mac OSX version 10.4.11
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB DDr SDRAM
FCP 6.0
G-Raid 2 Tb external hard drive

[Tim Ryan]

thanks Craig.

Sounds like a deck (or even the camera’s SxS reader) is not necessary if I can simply use my MBP’s Express slot. Is there a way to downconvert while editing or is that what the Apple Pro Res does?

Do you recommend additional SxS cards or the Sony Hard Drive for field interviews where I won’t be able to bring a MPB and an external hard drive?

MacBook Pro
Mac OSX version 10.4.11
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB DDr SDRAM
FCP 6.0
G-Raid 2 Tb external hard drive

[Tim Ryan]

Lee and Don,
Thank you both for your advice. I’m always afraid to trash files in the middle of a large project so I chickened out and opted to first try to create a self-contained reference file. This seems to have worked perfectly. I exported the new file via Compressor and tested both MPEG-4 and MPEG-2. They both worked and actually look better than ever.

What exactly happens when you create the self-contained reference file that makes this work? Is this something that is recommended prior to creating a final MPEG version of the project for DVD? Are there any other things I should do prior to the final output?

Thanks again!

Tim

[Tim Ryan]

Well, the MPEG-4 compressed through Compressor did not “fail” but it has the same issue I had with the MPEG-2 compression through Compressor. One of the segments within the project is frozen on its first frame. That may not technically be the best way to describe it. It’s a map with a moving red line that corresponds with a driving tour of a neighborhood. As we drive through the neighborhood, the red line moves along a map. The map is a .mov file.

Again, I was able to compress an MPEG-4 as an export to Quick Time conversion. It doesn’t look as good as the Compressor version but the line moves within the map.

Thanks for any advice.

[Tim Ryan]

I just cleaned out the Compressor preferences and the MPEG-4 compression worked via Compressor. Will now test the MPEG-2.

[Tim Ryan]

I was able to create an MPEG-4 version via Quick Time Conversion vs. Compressor. Not sure why this worked and compressor does not now work? The compressed MPEG-4 looks mediocre.

I applied the following steps:
-Export to QT Conversion
-File Format = MP4
-Video Format = MPEG-4 Improved
-Date Rate = 256
-Size = 320×240 GVGA
-Frame Rate = 29.97
-Key Frame = 24 Frames

It’s 39 Mb.

[Tim Ryan]

Thanks for the quick response.

[Tim Ryan]

Thank you all!

[Tim Ryan]

Got it!

Thank you very much.

T