We're shooting a doc in Rwanda. We have:

1 x panasonic HVX 200
1 x panasonic HVX 200a

4 x Firestore FS-100

Macbook pro running FCP 6.0.1 over OS X 10.4.11

We want to film in 720/24p

We are having major workflow problems, and problems with the Firestores. Has anyone got a set of system settings for camera, firestore, and laptop that works?

Thanks and best wishes

Rob Adams
Kigali

If you could list exactly what your problems are then someone can chime in and help, but just saying "we have problems..." is too vague.

hi Robert

Yes, of course you are absolutely right. This morning when I wrote first we had dozens of problems, but we're stripping them down.

Key issues now are with importing into FCP. We have the option of using 5.0, 5.1.4 or 6.0.1

1: We understand that the ie1394 output from the camera to the Firestore is in 720 60p, even though we are shooting in 24p. Is there anyway of outputting from the Firestore in 24p? 60p is using 14.1mb/s, and that's a lot of data. 24p seems to use more like 5.5mbps, which would be fine.

2: how do we import p2 pn files from firestore to the /hard drives and then into FCP? At the moment we can import .mxf files into the hard drives, but we can't get those back into FCP in a useable format.

3: we had a problem with the firestores showing disc full after only a few minutes, but Michael at Focus support in Germany has (I think - the 2nd unit are out on a test shoot now) fixed this for us by suggesting we change UB mode to Frame Rate on the camera.

4: Tony Benson at Focus in the UK has sent us an Apple white paper with a work flow, but we still can't get it to play ball. A simple 720/24p DR-100 to Hard drive to FCP workflow would be fantastic.

I'm afraid there'll be more later - meanwhile, thanks for your time.

R

Check with Focus on the 24pN. As I understand it you want to send 24p standard in 720p and Firestore has to be told a specific way to do the pulldown. Sorry to hear the problems. Is is too late to dump the Firestores and rent a bunch of 32GB P2 cards? You'll definitely sleep better at night....

Noah

sadly no P2 rental options here in Rwanda - probably not on the continent, actually. So we're stuck with the firestores, and not much sleep so far.

we have confirmed that the 720p24p output from the firestore to the disc is actually a 2:3 converted 60fps, which is ok. We're still having problems getting the .mfx files to appear in an fcp timeline. any thoughts would be much appreciated.

R

You can't drop MXF into an FCP timeline native without installing an MXF plugin reader such as:

http://www.calibratedsoftware.com/MXFImportQ_OSX.html

Otherwise you have to bring in through File>Log and Transfer.

-Noah