imovie & FCP

[James R. Wilson Sr.]

Due to the tremendous learning curve on FS Studio, I have imported some video in i movie. Will FCP recognize that video stored on my scratch disk, or will I have to import it all over again when I begin to get fluent in FCP?

Thanks!

JW

[Theodore McNeil]

You'll either have to to render out a quicktime file that's more to FCP's liking or recapture. Either way takes time.

Which version of iMovie? And why do you find capturing in FCP so hard?

[James R. Wilson Sr.]

Hi Theodore,

Thanks for your reply, I figured the footage wouldn't be up to FCP standards out of the gate.

My difficulty with FCP at this point is, I have a hard time getting it to recognize my cameras (Canon GL1, Canon HV20, Canon XH/A1) When I get it to recognize the A1 it gets stuck trying to correct some timecode break. I posed this question on the forum and several folks responded. Seems that maybe I reviewed the capture and then didn't begin recording again in the right spot or something and it confuses the program. One person recommended I put my new tapes in and run them through to the end with the lens cap on to have a continuous timecode on the tape.

In trying to get the cameras recognized, I keep getting the recording parameter window and I'm not sure what setting each camera will be recognized in. I know it shouldn't be this difficult, but at this point FC Studio is way smarter than I am!

JW

[James R. Wilson Sr.]

I have my GL1 plugged in and FC Studio booted. I can play the tape through the FC capture window, but when I click the capture now button, it loads a black screen with the Apple logo which, at the bottom tells me it's searching for time code and that the device must be in vtr mode. The GL1 can only be in camera or vcr mode and I have it set in vcr. What am I not understanding?

JW

[John C. Plunkett]

Shouldn't you be able to set your device control in the log and capture window as a non-controllable device and just bulk capture from the camera?

[James R. Wilson Sr.]

Hi John,

Thanks for your input. If I set the log and capture to "uncontrollable device" it still doesn't recognize the camera. There's a second window in that preference that asks for the specs of the device. ie, 1080i/60. I can't find what setting the GL1, HV-20, and XH/A1 should have in there.

[John C. Plunkett]

Have you tried the easy setup function?
It's located in the Final Cut Pro drop-down menu in the menu bar.

That should give you the HDV capture settings you need.

[Dino Leone]

Originally Posted by James R. Wilson Sr.

Due to the tremendous learning curve on FS Studio, I have imported some video in i movie. Will FCP recognize that video stored on my scratch disk, or will I have to import it all over again when I begin to get fluent in FCP?

Thanks!

JW

James,
I have done that for quite a while using iMovie 05 and 06 with my Xh A1. It works very well when you use a supported frame rate (30F or 60i). After capturing in iMovie you need to make an alias to the media folder inside the iMovie project package. Then drag and drop all the files into the browser in Final cut or import all those files using the import command via the newly-made alias to the media folder.
I found this very easy to capture, no rendering required in final cut. In the end, I switched to capturing directly in FCP because I wanted to shoot in 24F which is not supported by iMovie (at least version 6).

Best,

[Jonathan Jones]

Hi James,
I can't offer any helpful input on getting your cameras to play well with FCP, but getting back to your original question:

Typically, FCP doesn't play well with the native codec systems that iMovie operates on, although if you are using the new iMovie '08, I understand that may have changed.

With iMovie '06 and earlier, you needed to export your video clips in a manner that FCP could work with. The standard full resolution .dv file that iMovie exports requires re-rendering by FCP, which is sometimes a no-go, as trying to render the .dv files has caused some versions of FCP to crash while attempting the render.

As a consequence, the appropriate method is to export the iMovie files into a Quicktime Movie file using the 'custom settings' feature, and then using the appropriate settings in accordance to your preferred project settings for FCP - such as, standard def video as NTSC 720x480 - 38Khz.

I haven't played around with the new iMovie '08, and I don't see it in my future, but I understand that it may already have an export for FCP preset.

I have heard of a few FCP users take advantage of this, along with the notably hobbled limitations of the new iMovie to create a simple workflow that involves importing and rough cutting in iMovie '08, and then sending the rough cut to FCP for the heavy lifting. This workflow allows them to bypass the time consuming log & capture process.

-Jon

I just remembered to add that I am using an older version of FCP, - FCP HD (4.5), so I can't say for sure whether or not later versions have an easier time working the iMovie .dv files.

[James R. Wilson Sr.]

Dear Jonathan,

Thanks for your input. I'm using the newest version of i movie '08 and Final Cut Studio 2.

[James R. Wilson Sr.]

Hi Guys,

I appreciate all your input. I tried easy capture but it still asks for parameters and I don't know what to sut in there for each of those cameras. I hope I didn't make a $1200 mistake here.

JW

[Dino Leone]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Jones

Hi James,
Typically, FCP doesn't play well with the native codec systems that iMovie operates on, although if you are using the new iMovie '08, I understand that may have changed.

With iMovie '06 and earlier, you needed to export your video clips in a manner that FCP could work with. The standard full resolution .dv file that iMovie exports requires re-rendering by FCP, which is sometimes a no-go, as trying to render the .dv files has caused some versions of FCP to crash while attempting the render.

Jonathan,

This is strange - I've been using this technique for quite some time because I felt uneasy with the capture function of FCP. I was using iMovie 06 with my XH A1 and the footage I captured (HDV, 30f) got stored as individual clips with a .mov extension (inside the media folder of an iMovie package); when bringing such files into either FCS or FCP there was never any rendering required! When I directly open one of the raw files in quicktime player and show info, it says it's Apple Intermediate Codec, 1440x1080.
Maybe the situation is different for DV files?

Regards,
Dino

[Jonathan Jones]

Originally Posted by Dino Leone

Jonathan,

This is strange - I've been using this technique for quite some time because I felt uneasy with the capture function of FCP. I was using iMovie 06 with my XH A1 and the footage I captured (HDV, 30f) got stored as individual clips with a .mov extension (inside the media folder of an iMovie package); when bringing such files into either FCS or FCP there was never any rendering required! When I directly open one of the raw files in quicktime player and show info, it says it's Apple Intermediate Codec, 1440x1080.
Maybe the situation is different for DV files?

Regards,
Dino

Yep, I'm beginning to realize that my personal knowledge base is potentially rather dated. I think I still have iMovie '05 on my drive but its been quite a while since I opened it, I never felt the need to upgrade when 06 came out, but then I also haven't done any work with the HDV codec systems so far. I'm thinking what I posted earlier is specific to a standard definition DV codec.

Thanks for helping keep me up to date on the topic.

--Jon

[Cole McDonald]

In FCP...if there's no VTR control of the deck (your A1), hit play on the camera manually. If doing a capture now, you can dump the whole tape (not good for larger projects...but it's how I work)...you can then subclip the bits you want and either export them separately, or just work with the subclips.