Hi there.

So ive been shooting News for most of my career mainly on old fashioned tape. So when i ingest my footage into FCP its one continuous clip. Which i like!

I have just bought myself an Sony Ex1r which obviously doesnt shoot continuous and when importing into FCP, it separates the clips everytime i hit the record button.

This might be great for some people but it doesnt really work for me. News is usually quite a fast turn around, and i dont really have the time to go through every single individual clip. I find it much easier to scrub up and down one larger clip.

Does anyone happen to know of any software or any workaround to stitch all my clips into one?

Ive heard of the software called "proxymill" but i want something which doesnt compress my clips. I need to keep the quality raw. Maybe there is a way with this software with a custom preset... i dont know.

ProxyMill™ for Macintosh Automated Video Compression for HD Digital Media [1115] (http://www.imagineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1)


Hope someone can help

Many thanks

Based on the file names, the files will hopefully sort in time order. If so, Quicktime Pro lets you create a reference file that points to other media. Basically this file looks and acts like a single file containing all the "referenced" media. This means you can open the first file, scrub to the end, select all the others, then drag and drop them onto the player window of the first file. Make sure you do a Save As to another file name so that the original "first" file is retained in it's original format. As a convention, I name these "reference" file with a "_r" and the end. If you have Final Cut Pro, you have QuickTime Pro. Otherwise it's a $29.95 upgrade.

Of course you can drag/drop them all onto your Final Cut timeline and scrub it there. FCP is using the same "reference" technology under the covers as it refers to the bits and pieces you cut on the timeline.

One solution is to create a sequence and drop all the clips in to it - just select them all in the bin then drag and drop them onto the timeline. Now drag the sequence into the viewer and you can edit that into your edit sequence.

Takes 10 seconds, but you need to make sure you didn't have any ins or outs set on the clips before you do this.

But in reality you won't be able to view the original timecodes this way, trimming clips will roll over cuts etc. You can however edit the original clips to the timeline from this compiled rushes clip if you drag it to the timeline each time with 'Option' selected (IIRC)

Don't forget you can use TOD timecode on the EX camera and never get pre-roll problems. Also consider using the bin view differently to see the clip content.

And one more thing to add, FCPX would seem to provide the solution to your problem, as you can just drag over clip thumbnails and concurrently scrub through an entire bin. Smart stuff - I hope.

You could create a QT reference file and edit with this I suppose.

Double clicking clips isn't that much of drag is it? Certainly quicker than shuttling around a tape.

Regards, Duncan.

Awesome tip that Les. Many thanks. Works a treat, you've totally saved the day.

Loving Quicktime Pro ....

Seriously thank you. I owe you a pint or 10

Les, I have QuickTime Pro and can't open any EX clips with it and I can't see an option to create a reference file. Can you give a step by step guide to the process.Thanks

Vincent, if you can't open the clips I guess you mean the mp4 files? We are talking about the wrapped QT that FCP makes.

It's worth mentioning again that the method Les outlined (and I also mentioned) doesn't keep the original timecode when you put it in FCP.

Whereas my timeline kind of works... if you want to get back to the original clip from the compiled clip in the FCP sequence - just double click it. You can't do that with the QT workaround.

Duncan.

Thank you for the clarification Duncan, I use Premiere CS5.

I beginning to think my brain had died on me.