3 different formats : workflow advice in FCP

[Gregory Wallis]

We have footage from 3 different cameras for the same project

Canon 5D MII which is H.264, 1920 x 1080, 30fps

Canon XHA1s which is HDV 1440 x 1080i50

Panasonic P2 (I think) which was only shooting in standard definition 720 x 576 25fps and the footage has been squeezed (widescreen into 4:3)

I am wondering what the best setting might be in the timeline for FCP 7.

The end product will probably be in SD and it would be nice if we could leave our broadcast options open. The P2 footage unsqueezes ok in MPEG streamclip.

I thought perhaps we should convert everything to 720p 25fps with Prores 422 and use that as the timeline. Am fairly new to all this so trying to get my head around everything.

The film is a documentary on a festival.

Any advice would be great

thanks

Greg

[William Hohauser]

I suggest transcoding everything into ProRes in it's native resolution. Then set up a ProRes sequence in whatever you think is best, 720p25 is good. Just drop the files in the sequence and let FCP automatically size the files to fit. If the 30f footage doesn't render well, investigate The Natress filters for frame pull down. The good thing about using 720 is that you can zoom into the 1080 footage if you want with no loss of resolution.

[Gregory Wallis]

thanks William

I ended up transcoding everything to Pro Res 422 but resizing it all to 720p at 25fps.

Seems to be working well in the timeline at the moment, and a couple of tests I've done with pushing the colour round seem to have held up pretty well.

Hope I will be able to pan and scan with some of the larger footage.

cheers

Greg

[David Slingerland]

I have fcp 7 and the new canon 5D3, and when I start log and transfer I get no info or files in the window.I dont even see the camera as a symbol on my HD?
I can however directly import the files in to fcp. They are however encoded to h264. They are that already because when I connect the camera to the computer, they show up in EOS Utility and I can then download them. On the forum I read that I need to transcode them to 422 proress for better edit and quality. Could somebody tell me if this is the workflow or do I need to transcode them? and how? Also the orignal file has a speed of 80 to 100 Mbit/s when downloaded to the computer but in fcp only between 9 and 10 Mbit/s
I shot everything in 25P 1920x1080.

[David Slingerland]

Just an update log and transfer also say's when a "volume is mounted its media will be added to the Queue automatically, but that is just it, the "volume" doesnt show up in mac finder?
help please!!

[Damian Heffernan]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

I suggest transcoding everything into ProRes in it's native resolution.

Sorry for the question but what does this mean? It's simple enough to setup a prores sequence but I'm confused about this step. Do you mean taking the camera footage into a program and encoding in a format and then importingninto final cut?

[William Hohauser]

Depends on the footage and the computer. While editing in a ProRes sequence FCP7 is much more forgiving of the formats you drop in unlike say a NTSC DV sequence where everything must be in the codec or you are forced to render just to see motion, the h264 footage might not cooperate so well due to the higher processor requirements it requires.Transcoding that footage to ProRes will make editing much quicker and easier.