[Todd Reid]

You may have hit it!

The file was created by this client’s graphic artist.
It is a properly saved photoshop file that includes layers.
In the original post, I explain that it opens fine in Motion.
So it is not the file itself, but I’m thinking its relationship with FCS2.

When I go back tomorrow, I will see if it was a pc and report back.

Thanks all for your input.

[Todd Reid]

That is correct. If I double click, it acts as if its a graphic.

The layers are all individual layers, no adjustment or effects.
Just basic 10 layer psd files, but FCS2 thinks it doesn’t have layers, yet it does.

[Todd Reid]

Thats exactly what I thought.

I ran into a situation with a funky, abnormal resolution at another clients place.
If we render it first, then export, it came out blurry. If we didn’t render prior to exporting, then it was clean.

So I thought I’d see if the cow could shed some light.

thanks!

[Todd Reid]

matte vs glossy screen.

Its so weird how different people have different views. When I looked at them side by side it was a no brainer….Glossy looked so much better to my eye.
I got the 17″ glossy and I’ve never had an issue with reflections, and I feel that it makes everything look nicer (I love crushed blacks) even normal computing.
I’ve had it for over a year and now I’m eyeing the new octos. MBP works fine, but with the increased bandwidth of my HD projects, I’m wanting a bit more power. NO problems when I’m straight SD though.

Just my 2 cents

[Todd Reid]

use the scroll bar at bottom of your browser and scroll to the “compressor” column, this will tell you what codecs you have. “Items Properties” (located right under “Clip Settings”) will also give you this info.

Also, in general it is not recommended that you keep media on the same drive as your system.
You should be ok with your external drives, especially if you have FW800. There are some concerns with “sharing” a FW bus with another device (like aja, harddrive or camera), but many people continue to do this with no problem. It is recomended use only one device per bus (most computers ship with 1 bus, even though they have multiple ports).

As mentioned above, when mixing codecs you will eventually have to render, so don’t sweat it. FCP6 allows realtime (-ish) playback, but before output will need to render everything.

Set up your sequence codec to match the codec of the footage that you have the most of. This should minimize the amount of rendering that you will need to do.

hope this helps

[Todd Reid]

mosaic?

[Todd Reid]

I haven’t run into any reconnecting troubles in FCP 6, but I work solo.

Here’s a thought, its very logical that in your situation you would need to reconnect media since the project (that you email) will be looking for media on the drives from (lets say) your computer, when it doesn’t see drives named as you have them, it thinks there gone.

So I was thinking if you could name the drives the same name as woman in Ireland, this may help. Project may see the drives and all is well.
I would normally say that it shouldn’t matter if you partitioned to match her, but in this case it might. I could be off here because in the path of the drives might include the username (~) which would be different.

In the few times that I’ve had to “share” drives (even though that’s not exactly what your doing) I’ve always had to reconnect media, but I look at it as a neccessary evil, and don’t give it another thought. The larger your project, the more time/effort it will take, but other than syncronizing names, I’m not sure what you can do.

OK, just thought of this as I was proofreading my post…
Make 2 projects one with all your raw footage and effects, the other that contains only the sequences. After your projects are synced on both systems, just send the sequence project back and forth. Since (I assume) the media won’t change, you should only have to reconnect the sequence and not the whole project. So you would just work with both projects open and hopefully that might save time.

[Todd Reid]

I would thing the opposite regarding de-saturation. I remember everything being bright and neon during the 80’s. If your trying to match film in general, yes desaturate, but when I hear 80’s, I’m thinking saturation should be high.
same goes for applying grain. I don’t associate either of those things with the 80’s.
Think of new wave videos, that’s what comes to my mind when you say “from the 80’s”

Not sure what your going for, but if its 80’s video go vibrant, but try to match bad lighting.

hope this helps

[Todd Reid]

Did footage originate on a firestore?
Try “organize P2 footage” before you take media off?

You mention contents folder, did you also bring over the small text file (lasttext.txt – I think)?

[Todd Reid]

Chroma keying in FCP is still a bit tricky, but doable.

You didn’t mention what format you will shoot on, the theme here is….
the less compression you add, the better your outcome.

Capture your footage at the highest quality possible, cause the more your signal gets compressed, the worse its going to look.
Input your footage with the least amount of compression your system will allow.
Spend the most time on your lighting. Evenly lit greenscreens go a lot faster in post.

You may want to look into 3rd party apps for the compositing Boris, dvmatte, shake, AE. A google search will provide many options.

The internal FCP chroma might work if footage is carefully shot/lit, but I’ve always
relied on zmatte for keying in the dv world.