[Walter Biscardi]

[Jonathan Holm] “The drive itself may be shot. I agree FireWire drives aren’t the best option for mission critical but unfortunately I had no choice.”

Actually, I use FW800 drives all the time and trust them enough to cut broadcast shows on them. Both LaCie and G-RAID products are fantastic. Not the same speed as my fibrechanel array, but I don’t have any fear of mission critical work on them.

A BIG issue with FW800 drives is if you plug them into a machine and they are already on or you turn one off before ejecting it. Both of those can cause major issues with both the drive and the G5.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Jonathan Holm] “I am trying Disk Warrior right now to rebuild the directory but it looks to be progressing slowly.”

This can take several hours or more on a 400GB drive. Give it some time to do its job.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

Never upgrade or update mid-project unless you’re having a real issue that requires you to make some sort of update.

I’ve installed Tiger / FCP 5 Studio onto our second edit system, though I partitioned the internal HD to run Panther / FCP 4.5 as well. FCP 5 seems to be working ok, though no really hard testing yet and I haven’t tried playing around with graphics, which seems to be a real issue right now on FCP 5. I’m cutting my own independent film and will use FCP 5 for that as a test project.

So if you have an extra system or want to install Tiger / FCP 5 onto another internal drive, then go ahead so you can experiment with it. As for putting it right into production on a money making machine, even I’m not doing that yet. We’re doing a broadcast HD series right now and my system is so rock solid on OS 10.3.8 with FCP 4.5 that there is simply no reason to make the move just because FCP 5 is here in the shop.

As soon as we get the series cut and Apple addresses the graphics issue, then I’ll look to put a “real project” on FCP 5.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

I just reviewed the LaCie Biggest F800 external array. Up to 2TB in one FW 800 enclosure that’s perfect for all flavors of DV. (DV, DVPro, DVPro HD, HDV)

G-RAID is also an outstanding unit that not only supports the DV’s, but easily supports 8bit SD and can even handle 10bit SD as well.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

Approx. 4 hours on a Dual 2.0 with 3GB RAM. It was some pretty heavy duty color correction and there were a lot of titles along with several Chroma Key / Matte / Composite shots. Probably about 2 hours without all the extra stuff.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[BeeLaster] “Thanks again! I’ll post a hello when this film goes to festival!”

Please do! I’m cutting my own indie film right now and it’s pretty fun stuff to do.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Paul Ingvarsson] ”
Are you kidding?? Do you really need to render colour corrections in DVCPro HD??”

Yep. You’ll get some realtime with basic settings, but if you really push the CC into some heavy tweaking, it will be render time. I always render everything before output anyway.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

Here, go to the Panasonic site to get the Frame Rate Converter.

https://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=70438&catGroupId=14595&modelNo=AJ-HD1200A&surfModel=AJ-HD1200A

That’s a link to the 1200A deck and then click on the Support and Resources tab. You’ll see two things to get. DVCPro HD Components for Final Cut Pro, which will actually take you to the Apple Site.

And the Frame Rate Converter tool, which you’ll download directly from Panasonic.

If this link doesn’t work, go to panasonic.com > business & professional > professional video > video recorders > dvcpro > AJ-HD1200A

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[walter biscardi] “They’re all color coded into groups depending on what they do.”

I should clarify that I color coded the buttons using the label tool, they are not color coded by default.

[walter biscardi] “FCP asks me what I want to name the project! The one I am presently working in!””

Missed that one before, you probably have an “Untitled Project” open in your Browser. Look at the Browser and if you see an “Untitled Project” tab, close that project.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[BeeLaster] “1. The timeline is so difficult to control! I understand that FCP’s magic happens when you have shortcuts at the ready, but as I’m new I’m a big mouser and the timeline is all over the place. I miss the AVID timeline.”

Go into Tools > Button Menu. You can drag the shortcuts to your timeline in the form of small buttons. This way you don’t even have to remember any shortcuts. Heck I’ve been cutting with FCP over 4 years and don’t know half the shortcuts. But I DO have a whole row of frequently used shortcuts sitting in my timeline window. They’re all color coded into groups depending on what they do.

FWIW I cut with a 9×12 WACOM tablet and find that there’s nothing faster than a tablet for cutting, no matter what NLE you’re running, especially if you have dual monitors.

[BeeLaster] “1a. The rendering! I have read that the Timeline settings must match clip settings exactly- I’ve done this- my clips are @23.98, my timeline is @23.98, yet I have to render every move. If I have missed something obvious here please tell me.”

If you have to render each and every clip as you insert them into the timeline, then something is wrong. The easiest way to ensure that all is correct is to simply use an FCP Preset rather than creating something yourself. You may have a mismatch in the codec or something.

[BeeLaster] “2. I’m doing all night sessions (it’s 3am right now) and FCP crashes at random at least once a session. Autosave is set to 10mins-occasionally when I manually save after a couple of moves, FCP asks me what I want to name the project! The one I am presently working in!”

I actually turn off Autosave as I find it gets in my way and can cause a crash if it pops up just as I’m doing some filtering or DVE type moves. My left hand is always on the keyboard and I just hit Apple+S all the time to save manually.

Repair Disk permissions and trash FCP Prefs if you’re getting that many crashes. My system might crash once per week, but since OS 10.3.8 came out, it’s been really rock solid.

[BeeLaster] “3. When I touch anything besides FCP (e.g, look at email), the timeline freezes and I have to restart. I’m told that I need more RAM to remedy this and my new Crucial should be here tomorrow. Then I’ll be up to 5.5 gigs.”

Better yet, use another computer for internet / mail. Both of my FCP systems are editing systems, not general purpose computers. I run all manner of graphics / animation / editing software on the systems, but no internet or mail. I have a client internet computer and two laptops with airport connections.

FCP only uses 2 GB RAM so if you have at least 3GB you should be able to run other apps with no issues.

[BeeLaster] “I’m not trying to start a flame war here. The nights are long, the project is tough (supervised edit sessions w/ a new director), & I’m wishing this was easier.”

Tough situation to be in no matter what NLE you’re using. Going from one platform to another for a large project is not fun. Just slow yourself down a little bit and don’t try to cut too fast. When I switched from Media 100 about 4 years ago I was much slower for about first month or so. After two months, I was definitely faster on FCP than M100.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

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