Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Final Cut Pro 7 Log & Transfer - Warning: do not play media while transcoding!

    In Final Cut Pro 7, viewing / playing back a clip while it's Log & Transfer transcoding is happening might lead to a incomplete transcode of the media - a truncated / shortened clip.

This happened to me several times with some Canon MXF and P2 footage.  And with short duration media for what I can tell.  Long media files seem to be immune.

So no playing around while transcoding, and for added safety, after the transcoding is complete, I check the duration of each clip against the original media duration  before I move on.  If they appear different, I trash the transcoded file/clip and re-transcode.

Why is that Apple?

Radeon 7950 Mac edition on MacPro 3,1 early 2008 OS X Mavericks

Reporting Radeon 7950 Mac edition in MacPro 3,1 working fine.
---
Plain Mavericks, no drivers installed (Sapphire or others.)
No glitch, no flicker, no lag, no hang to report after over 40hrs.  400hrs. of use.
--- Update (May)
I do get the occasional "flicker" reported by other users, on single monitor config, odd.
It's more like a "zap" though. It really happens rarely, but I noticed it up to three times on a single day while working in FCPX.
It's very short, less than a second and I didn't notice it before with two monitors attached.
---
Graphic card working well with FCPX, Motion, and Adobe CC suite (Premiere, AE, PS, AME.) 
---
Radeon 7950 3GB Mac edition
MacPro 3,1 early 2008
Quad Core Intel Xeon 2.8GHz
16GB Ram
OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 (upgraded from 10.9.1 clean install.)



Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Close all gaps in Final Cut Pro 7

    I always forget this one, so there it is:
- Move the last clip in the timeline to the upper empty video track.
- Select the gap into that upper track + hit and hold "delete".
It will effectively delete all gaps in the tracks below.


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Adobe After Effects - Replace Source in Layer

    This is so useful!  Replace layer sources with references to another footage item in After Effects:
- Select one or more layers in the Timeline panel
- Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a footage item from the Project panel onto the selected layer in the Timeline panel.
http://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/creating-layers.html

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Un-trim (revert trim) a Quicktime file

I just Trimmed and Saved a QT file with QT Player Pro 7 - But I did it wrong!
How to un-trim???  I don't want to have to export a 2 hour long video again!

Well here is the solution:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/1332201?messageID=1332201&amp%3b#1332201?messageID=1332201&amp%3b

1) Get the app Hex Fiend here:
http://www.ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend/
2) Open your mistakenly trimmed QT file
3) Search for the text string "free" (like free...lmvhd)
4) Manually replace "free" with "moov"
5) Save

Hop! The trimming is gone! Yeah!  Thank you juliejuliejulie, thank you!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Shooting for post, a checklist (work in progress)

A few notes for my fellow directors, cameramen and other camera and sound operators out there.  Can you please take into consideration your fellow editor needs, who is working hard with your wonderful footage.
Below is a non-exclusive check list to make our film better.  It will look and sound better and we will achieve a higher level of quality, making you look better.  And I know that it's not always possible to do it that way nor desirable, still, it makes my job easier.

1- Roll camera and sound with synced time code. Check and jump sync regularly to avoid drifting.

2- For cameras that cannot be jam-synced, run Time Of Day separately, but as close as possible. So each device is in the same ballpark. That helps a lot, searching for elements is much faster. Watch out for am/pm discrepancy.

3- If possible, slate every take with SC/TK info and rolling time code and make the announce for sound, and please frame and focus on the board so I can read it.

4- Let it roll for a second before calling Rolling, another second before calling Set and another second before calling Action. Or even more if you dare! Each one of you take 3 deep breaths, that will give me wonderful handles.

5- Similarly, let it roll for a few seconds before calling Cut. Heck let it roll for a few seconds AFTER Cut is asked. Hmm! More handles.

6- Brief your actors on the necessity to not overlap dialog with their fellow actors. Tough one, I know, try it anyway. Overlapping dialog, especially with actors improvising their lines is a big limitation in editing. I can always overlap them in post.  It's easier to condense time with editing than it is to expand.

7- Always record reaction shots - make sure that the director and actors know you MUST record them in addition to the scripted talking shots.  Actors listening, looking at someone/something, nodding, standing there, noticing something, sitting, standing, hands, cutaways... the list is endless - Use your judgement! I need these shots constantly and they are a huge asset to make the cut better, richer and more natural.  Ironic, yes I know, well we are manipulators.


Friday, June 21, 2013

FCPX non-magnetic timeline

FCPX 10.1.1 non-magnetic timeline
You don't like the magnetic timeline in FCPX? No worries, just "Connect" your clips to the Primary Storyline - using "Q", instead of using Insert ("W".)
All clips brought into the Timeline with "Connect" stay relative to their position. The vertical line at the beginning of each clip represents the "anchor" or connection.
Neat. Less aggravation.
---
Update (May):
I now use the Magnetic Timeline more and more and I like it. Combined with Secondary Storylines, it works great.
I also use the Position Tool ("P") in the Primary Storyline in order to move clips without the magnetic behavior. That too works great.
I would like to be able to connect clips to Secondary Storylines though, not just the Primary as is only possible at this time.  Apple?