I shot a 3 camera show last week but became very frustrated in post with split clips and the way 3 cameras with 45 minutes of content (3 segments each) were treated as 9 multicam angles in FCP.

After giving up on finding a simple no-fuss solution I sat down and started writing a Mac app to join long split HM100 or HM700 Quicktime .MOV files into reference Quicktimes that can be edited in FCP multicam sequences without losing any frames and maintaining original timecode.

When recording long clips on SDHC cards they will be "split" every 14 minutes because of the 4GB file size limits of the FAT-32 format. My app automatically determines which clips belong together, creates a new reference or self-contained Quicktime (user choice) for each take marks them in green. It then marks the original clips in red (to tell you not to bother dragging them into FCP) and locks them so you aren't tempted to trash them. Reference Quicktimes depend on the originals so it is important to leave them on your hard drive. Clips that are smaller than 4GB are left untouched.

Basically it takes this...
15263

...and a few seconds later turns it into this:
15264
As you can see Quicktime reference movies take virtually zero space on your hard drive since they reference the content in the originals. Clip 000_0009_01.MOV in this example was not affected because it was not split by the camera.

So my basic question is "what should I call this app?" I'm open to suggestions and if I end up using one I'll send the lucky winner a couple training DVDs as thanks.

I was thinking of "HM Joiner" but I also added compatibility for the DR-HD100 and MR-HD100 recorders, and could easily add support for other models as well so that may not be ideal. Then I got thinking of "MOV Joiner" but a quick Google search seemed to suggest there were already a couple apps on Windows with that name.

I'd love to name this thing and release it in the next few days.


UPDATE Dec 6, 2009: WOW. So many great suggestions. It's made it difficult to make a shortlist and I wouldn't feel right about randomly choosing so I've selected my "Top 10" (plus my original "HM Joiner" name) and added an anonymous poll that expires in a couple of days. I'd love to get the opinion of the forum. You are allowed to select multiple names and vote for yourself.

Thanks again for all these great suggestions.

Tim,

Looks like a very useful application! I suggest calling it ".MOV Consolidator."

HM VidPatch or VidPatchHM-MDR

Steve
Bethlehem, Pa.

Lickety Split

........ glueclip

I was going to suggest GlooM (GluM?), but then thought that might not be up-beat enough...

Have Fun,
Jim

How about:

MOV Mate
MOV Match
Fuse MOV
Un-Busta MOV

cheers
k

Wow there are some great suggestions. Some had me laughing out loud. "Un-Busta' MOV" especially.

Keep them coming! I'm working on an icon design.

So Tim not only has a great eye for cinematography, but can also code native Mac apps from scratch? That hardly seems fair. :-)

I would never call myself a coder Bob. My objective-C/Cocoa skills are still on a very basic hobbyist level so I started with Applescript (which is the easiest of all scripting languages) and then compiled and built it into a native Cocoa applet from there. It's not fancy but it gets the job done and it doesn't seem to crash! I actually spent two days this week just on error handling and I think I've accounted for all the possible bugs. By the time I was done the whole thing had over 500 lines of code. It's crazy how these things grow so quickly from a tiny 20 line-long Applescript.

Of course I probably would have never even thought to do it if I hadn't needed it myself.

By the way the show I shot is well into post production now using the joined MOV files and multicam. So far so good.

how about:

ClipCollectorTool
ClipConnectorTool
= cct


:-)

QuickJoin
QuickSplice (or QuickSplicer)
QuickFit (or QuickFitter)

Capt. Timmy's Whiz-Bang Quicktime Splicer and Gospel Opera

Clip dis-patcher.

I was also just thinking of "MOV Mender" or "MOV Linker"... and I have finished a preliminary icon design in photoshop. I was also thinking about stitches, staples or glue for the icon, but the splicing tape reminds me of my early days cutting on a Steenbeck.

I'll probably print out my favourite 5 or so suggested names and randomly choose one from a hat. The app is almost ready to be distributed so keep up the suggestions. They've all been great so far.

QT Joiner
Movie Joiner
FAT Joiner

Alan

Okay, one more

Phat Sammich

"common thread"

MovMate
MooveMe
iMovAndLink :-)
iJoiner
LinkMov
DashLink :-)

... aaah, the possibilities are endless...

"Clip Zipper" -- Instead of splicing tape re-joining the MOV logo back together...use a Zipper


"UnSplit" -- A video file Restore Program for .MOV files that have been split due to file size limits.

How about "The Clip Shepherd"

I don't have any of these cameras, or a Mac, but this thread caught my eye; I can't resist a chance to come up with a cute name for something.

How about "FAT Cat"? Everyone's heard the word "concatenate" before, but I just checked to be sure and it turns out that plain old "catenate (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/catenate)" is a real word, and means the same thing, "to link together; form into a connected series".

"QT Connect"

"Clipper"

"Clip Weld"

".MOV Velcro"

">14"

"ClipStick"

"QT Assemble"

"Clip Clamp"

".MOV Magnet"

".mov MERGE"

".MOV Meld"

WOW. So many great suggestions. It's made it difficult to make a shortlist and I wouldn't feel right about randomly choosing so I've selected my "Top 10" (plus my original "HM Joiner" name) and added an anonymous poll that expires in a couple of days. I'd love to get the opinion of the forum. You are allowed to select multiple names and vote for yourself.

Thanks again for all these great suggestions.

sounds like Chicago Tim. Vote EARLY Vote Often, it doesn't matter if you're dead. ;-)

"All 4 One" (the 4 reminds of the 4 gb too)

It looks like "ClipStick" is the crowd favourite and Jim Boda is the lucky winner of some training DVDs! (Will contact you about that Jim.) I've been looking into trademarks in the U.S. and there are some similar names for completely different products but I'm going to move forward with it and see if I can secure the trademark. If not possible I'm still very happy with the alternatives.

Hello, Tim -

Is this available for purchase yet? (ETA? Could use for upcoming project. :-) )

- Bob Richardson

We're launching Stereo3D Toolbox™ v2.0 first and then ClipStick™ will follow.

It has actually been working since late last year but 100% of my time since then has been spent working on 3D-related projects.


And Jim... you don't have an email listed with dvinfo but I would like to contact you for your prize!

Just pinging this thread... assembling a multiclip of a 45-minute 2-camera interview and recalled how useful ClipStick might be in this situation. :-)

I sent you a beta version Bob. Please let me know how it works out for you.

I might be too late with this, but how about
The FAT Controller.

Mac Attack

Hi Tim -

Not sure if you got my private email on this last week (I received a bounce)...

Thanks very much for the beta. It has worked well for this project. (If only my lighting during the shoot had worked so well...)

I encountered no errors or problems with the footage.

My only (minor) suggestions are:

1. Provide users with warnings that a number of windows might appear and disappear during the process. (As this is basically a script which invokes QuickTime). Alternately, if there's a way to open a progress window and leave it open on top of the others that appear, it may make users more comfortable.

2. Indicate to the user that the new file will be placed in the same directory as the existing clips.

Thanks again and best wishes,
Bob Richardson

Thanks for testing is Bob. In the release version all that stuff will happen in the BG and you will just get a crunch bar. You will also have a UI to select source and destination folders. At the moment it is just an Applescript app but I am half-way done converting it to objective-c in Xcode.