Reel/Montage from various video 'flavours'.

[David Scattergood]

Hi all,

Hopefully this is a real quickie...

I'm currently putting a reel together (possibly my 'first proper' one) and so far so good - just need a nod from you folks that I'm following the best workflow.

Essentially the footage comes from various projects shot on different formats (and mainly on the JVC HD100 aside from one or two shots on a DV camcorder):

576p25 4:3
576p25 16:9
720p25 HDV

I've created a SD timeline in FCP in which I'm dropping the clips into (organised into a few sequences). The 4:3 footage I'll keep pillar boxed (some projects insisted on this format) integrating them with the 16:9 footage. I've got round this a little by sending some clips to Motion and adding effects text in the borders...bit of a mish mash really, but then I guess that's what reels are all about?!

When it comes to inserting the HDV footage, I'm contemplating whether it would be worth using a 8 bit uncompressed (I'm still on FSC1 by the way)...or will this muck up the other SD footage? Having never used the 8 bit uncompressed codec before am I right in mentioning that I'd have to adjust the aspect ratio via distortion (the HDV footage was vertically squashed)?
And will I see benefits of using the uncompressed sequence to send the footage onto linked programs such as Motion/STP etc?

Ultimately this will end up on a website, but most likely also as a DVD in which case I'll send the 8 bit uncompressed to compressor to create the DVD (and use H.264 LAN for the web).
Space shouldn't be much of a worry as the result will only run around 2 minutes...although saying that, as I type, a 7 second exported QT clip from the 8 bit uncompressed sequence is a monstrous 145mb and I have to think about file size when it comes to the website.

Thanks.

[Noah Kadner]

Which FCP? In 6 this is all fine mixed on one timeline and you render the final out. Not much to be gained by making HDV into uncompressed in terms of quality.

Noah

[David Scattergood]

Originally Posted by Noah Kadner

Which FCP? In 6 this is all fine mixed on one timeline and you render the final out. Not much to be gained by making HDV into uncompressed in terms of quality.

Noah

FCP 5...I don't have the option of ProRes which has been promoted a bit in this forum.
Does FCP6 usually handle differing formats much more easily?

Bit of a situation where a rush to get a 'draft' reel together panicked FCP - the 8 bit uncompressed timeline was creating havoc with all the different formats...thankfully it sorted itself out (created a new 8 bit sequence and altered a few ratios - all was ok).
Comparing the two sequences as a QT file I can barely see differences (negligible at best) between the two, although the difference in file size is staggering. I'll compare A & B for the DVD footage but for the web sequence I'll export the SD timeline - I cannot see any justifiable reason for running with the uncompressed timeline.

Many thanks.

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by David Scattergood

Does FCP6 usually handle differing formats much more easily?

Yes. FCP6 can mix formats in real time on a sequence. You still choose your master format for the sequence, but you can drop anything in there and FCP6 will do its best to work in real time.

[David Scattergood]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

Yes. FCP6 can mix formats in real time on a sequence. You still choose your master format for the sequence, but you can drop anything in there and FCP6 will do its best to work in real time.

Cheers - the upgrade to FCS2 is pretty necessary for me now then - FCP handling a few more codecs and the aforementioned mixing of formats (real time) will be welcomed. With Motion 2 (3d capabilities), Colour/Color, and STP's 5:1 surround it's about time I upgraded.
I'm quite fond of FCP now, so I'd prefer to stick with it rather than migrate to Premiere Pro (which is the first NLE I started on back on the PC), even though [perhaps?] the communication between FCP and AE is perhaps not as efficient as the full adobe lineage (Paulo has posted some good info on this).
Must admit it's a bit of pain constantly rendering the clips on this multi format reel using FCP5.

Thanks Tim.
ps...PAL DVD imminent? I'm thinking of ordering the NTSC version :) [I know you're busy as ever]