Before I get to the crux of my post, I would like to explain a few terms that a few people might not know about. Here is the progression of a cut as I do it...when dealing with a documentary project that has a script:
RADIO EDIT - Laying out of narration and sound bytes. Just getting things in script order on the timeline.
ROUGH CUT - Filling in the cut with footage. This is also the time that I start to ad pacing to the cut. Adding slates (title cards) where footage is missing and needed.
FINE CUT - Fleshing out the cut with music and more footage. Deal more with pacing as music is added...give breath to scenes and add montages when needed. Start to get into creating the style of the show, creating transitional moments and unique pacing. Sound effects added at this stage. Perhaps adding lower thirds (ID tags for interview subjects).
FINE CUT 2 - Addressing the producer and network notes. More versions as the notes progress.
PICTURE LOCK - Polishing the transition moments and all segments of the cut. Bringing the show to time, meaning making the duration as long as the network requires. Adding the required act break durations and title/credits.
When it comes to editing a rough cut, I am used to delivering what to many would seem like a "fine cut." What that means is that it has music and transition effects and sound effects. I have gotten used to this because many of the producers and production companies I have worked for have demanded this sort of cut. Many producers can't watch a rough cut for what it should be...just a rough assembly of the footage to get an idea of the story structure. They get distracted when they don't hear music or the cut isn't smooth or a sound effect.
Here's a great audio clip that explains this well:
Last week a producer, who typically wants the "Fine" rough cut just wanted a rough cut. A typical rough cut. I am not used to this. I haven't delivered a ROUGH rough cut in a long time. So I had to try to re-train myself NOT to add music and transitional moments and sound effects. And after a week of cutting I presented the producer with one of the roughest cuts I have done in a while. The other editors also did rough cuts for their segments...well, except for one who had more time to add music and transitional moments.
So I strung the segments together and watched it with the producers as we output it to DVD for the network. While watching it all sorts of story structure issues popped up. We found parts that needed to be moved and other things that simply just didn't work. here are a few paraphrases of the session:
"We have too many subjects in this segment. Two people are fine...the third makes this too long."
"This part is good, but we need to move it earlier so that the rest of this segment makes sense."
"This doesn't make sense...we need to add some narration to explain this better."
"Isn't this (task we are talking about) actually harder when done in this manner? I recall an interviewer talking about this...perhaps we should add that."
"The segment order doesn't make sense...let's try this one, then this, then this, and finally that."
Perfect. Just what we needed. Normally we would have spend a few more days on the edit, making it all fancy and FINE...and THEN be hit with these notes. Meaning that we just wasted days of our time on something that was cut. And sometimes as an editor you feel like "Hey, I spent a long time on that, I'd hate to see it go." The same reason that the director shouldn't edit their film. "But I spent a week shooting that scene...I can't cut it!" If it doesn't work, it needs to go.
Anyway,it was refreshing to go back to a rough rough cut,not spending days cutting something, then to lose a sequence that then messes up the music timing so you have to spend time trying to fix that...something that is very frustrating. Now we can move things around and get the story in order, THEN add music and pacing.
BTW, our first show is at the colorist and will be done VERY soon. No clue as to an air date yet. I'll let you know when I find out.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jun 1, 2008 at 1:26:27 pm
As you output your project to tape, or to DVD...whatever. Or before you encode it for the web or DVD...watch it all the way through. Even if you have seen it three dozen times, it would be very wise to watch your project before you do your final output, or an output that is going out to the network.
Why?
Well...one of the other editors here came to me with a big issue...one that I have never seen nor heard of before.
Last Friday he finished cutting his show...strung all the segments together, checked everything before the final render, then rendered. He did a quick glance through and things looked fine. He started the output (DVD-output to DVD Recorder via a Kona 3) then left. The assistants stopped the output when it was done, duplicated the DVD and sent it off to the network.
Come Monday...today...the editor in and finds that the network has complained that there were three black holes in the show. The editor goes to those spots and yup, there is nothing there but black. All three are stills (tiffs) with basic moves on them. When he matches frame, he sees the still, but there is black on the timeline. He is stumped, and comes to me to see what is going on.
I look at this and must admit that I too was stumped. I did a lot of fiddling...Made sure that the Canvas was set to RGB and not Alpha, but that wouldn't be it because we saw everything else. The scale was right, opacity was 100%. I fiddled with that and BOOM, the clip appeared. Hmmm...I moved it back to 100% and it was still there...but with the typical light green render bar above it. Another hmmm.
I went to another one of the clips and de-activated it (control-b) then activated it again (control-b). Boom...the picture came online. It was a bad render...all three somehow rendered out black, and I haven't a clue why. Re-rendered and all was well.
I bring this up to illustrate a point. The point is that you should watch your show as it outputs...so that you can catch stuff like this before it goes out and you end up with egg on your face.
I too was doing an output on Friday, and I too had a couple issues. About 20 min into a 45 min output I spotted a black hole that I forgot to add two stills into. I fixed that and started the output again. 24 min into the output and I encountered a clip where the filter hadn't rendered properly. I adjusted it, and then started the output again. This was going to DVD so there was no starting where I left off. Third time...DARN IT. 36 min in and there was a small 2 second hole of nothing where I did a pull up but forgot to close the gap. Fixed it and then started again. FINALLY the output was done and clean...at 2:30 AM.
I picked up this habit of watching my outputs when I too did what the other editor did...sent something out that had a couple trouble spots. I didn't watch the output, so I missed them. HUGE bro-ha ha from the network, and quite a chewing out by the post supervisor and producer. So I no longer just let things go...I watch. No matter how many times I have seen it and how boring it might be, I watch my outputs until they are done.
What does the above image have to do with all of this? Well, this is the subway station at Hollywood Highland at 2:45AM...when I realized that the subway stopped running and I needed to ride my bike ALL they way home.
EDIT: My buddy Tom has seen the exact same issue a couple years ago, as he posted here on the Cow
Posted by: Shane Ross on May 12, 2008 at 6:30:13 pm
My producer from The Mexican American War and Andrew Jackson is teaching a 4 week workshop. Time permitting I might see if I can pitch in when it comes to the editing phase. Anyway, here is the press release for this event:
HISTORY/DISCOVERY Channel Producer to conduct summer HVX-200/Final Cut Pro workshop at LA's Citrus College
LA’s Citrus College of the Performing Arts is conducting a 4-week summer INTRO TO PRO HD workshop with Emmy-winning HISTORY/DISCOVERY Channel writer/producer/director Jim Lindsay. One of LA’s best-kept secrets for arts education, Citrus has been the home of the Grammy Foundation’s summer “Grammy Camp”. Having offered terrific “real world” education in the recording and performing arts for junior-college tuition rates, Dean Robert Slack is moving into the video world, kicking it off with this workshop using Panasonic HVX-200 cameras and Apple Final Cut Pro. Jim Lindsay’s daughter Sara (former “Grammy Camper”) attends Citrus in the singing/songwriting track, thus the connection. Lindsay has been responsible for many of HISTORY’s highest profile specials including the 3-hour ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 2-hour MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR hosted by Oscar De La Hoya and most recently the 2-hour ANDREW JACKSON,(edited by Creative Cow Final Cut/P2 guru Shane Ross). Workshop will run Monday thru Thursday, 10 AM to 3 PM, June 23 – July 17, 2008. Cost is $400 per student. (No, that’s not a typo, $400 for 4 weeks, not 2 days. That’s why Citrus is LA’s best-kept secret.) Class size is limited to 24.
Lindsay has “done it all”, from shooting, to editing, to screenwriting (Showtime’s CONVICT COWBOY starring Jon Voight), to directing NBC’s UNSOLVED MYSTERIES all 9 years, and writing/producing/directing 50+ hours of prime-time specials for HISTORY, A&E, DISCOVERY, NBC, CBS, FOX & LIFETIME. So this will be no “academic theory” workshop. It will be classic Citrus “real world”, warts and all. Every student will come out with their own short film, shot in DVCPRO HD on the HVX-200’s and edited in FCP. (Jim will be taking students through the exact same HD workflow that he and Shane use for their HISTORY/DISCOVERY shows.) Jim will be covering every aspect of production: from story/structure, to network pitching, to prepping, budgeting, shooting, lighting, editing, finishing, distribution, the whole enchilada. Depending on their schedules, several members of his production team, including Shane, may be contributing as well. Overall, a rare opportunity to learn from folks who really “do it” for a living at levels of very high standards both creatively and technically.
For information on Citrus College, go to http://www.citrusarts.org/ or call the sign-up office at 626-914-8580. The workshop brochure page can be viewed here Jim Lindsay’s website is Jimfilm.com. Specific questions can be directed to Jim directly at jim@jimfilm.com Digital Content Producer also featured the Lindsay team and their workflow in this article
Posted by: Shane Ross on May 7, 2008 at 11:25:40 pm
Last week, on Thursday (March 13th for those who really want to know) we needed to output the rough cut of the first show and send it to the network. In actuality it was the SECOND show, but episode one was still being edited...but that's besides the point. So on Thursday I was pulled off my editing of a segment for show one (EP 101) and assigned to cut the tease for show two (102).
"Cut the tease"....sorry, that always makes me giggle a little.
Anyway...this was the beginning of a series of "missteps" that caused a couple complications with the assembly of the show. For the record, we are editing DVCPRO HD footage mainly shot with the Varicam, at 720p 23.98 This footage was captured via the Kona card and not via firewire, as firewire capture throws the audio off sync by two frames...audio leading by two frames. Instead of adjusting the sync on each and every clip we drop in the timeline, we captured via HD SDI from the Kona 3 ensuring perfect sync. Because of this, the Easy Setup we chose was AJA KONA 3-720p 23.98 DVCPRO HD Varicam:
OK...that in mind, let's move on to the series of events that caused a few complications.
We are in an XSAN environment. Each machine connected to shared storage, with multiple editors editing sections of the final show. One editor handling two segments, another on the third, and me working on the tease. When we were all done and ready to "stitch the show together," something odd happened. The lead editor opened our projects on his system, copied the contents of our sequences then pasted them into his main sequence and...the aspect ratio and dimensions of the clips were off. They were wrong from both me and the editor working on the third segment. The image was squished and stretched. And when we looked at the MOTION tab of one of the clips, the scale was 133%, and it was distorted at -33. Hmmm...odd. Why was this? Well, I looked at my sequence settings, and they were...well...wrong:
1280x720...not 960x720. Square pixels...compressor was 8-bit uncompressed. What the...? How did this happen? Well, I looked at my Easy Setup...I chose the wrong one. AJA Kona 3-720p 23.98 8-bit Varicam...8-bit UNCOMPRESSED, not DVCPRO HD. That means square pixels, uncompressed timeline. And that any clip dropped into this timeline would be scaled to fit that timeline.
But you ask "how could this be when FCP 6 prompts you to change the sequence settings to match the clip settings? Surely THAT would have made the sequences right...right?" Well...yes, that does happen, but only when you CUT or OVERWRITE footage into the timeline. This DOES NOT occur when you copy and paste footage into the sequence, like I did. I was cutting the tease...meaning that I culled scenes and soundbytes from the main sequences from each segment...copy and paste. And then we have the great OPEN TIMELINE of FCP 6. Because of this, I can put footage that doesn't match the sequence settings into said sequence and NOT have to render. No more RED render bar...dark green. A very unnoticable dark green I might add. So I copy and pasted merrily along blissfully unaware that I was doing anything wrong.
THIS is the proper sequence settings I should have used:
The other editor was in the same boat. Apparently he too had the same Easy Setup (I believe I set up that computer as well...ahem...) and he took bits and pieces of a couple sequences full of selects to start building his cut. So too did not get the "settings" warning.
Whew. OK then. Now we need to fix this.
We fixed one clip...scaled to 100%, distort back to 0. Then we selected the clip, hit Apple-C to COPY, then highlighted the other clips and hit OPTION-V, Paste Attributes, and chose BASIC MOTION and DISTORT. This fixed the other clips. We had to do this carefully, as not all the footage in the sequences were DVCPRO HD. We have plenty of archival footage that was captured at DV resolution, and loads of stills with moves applied to them. Fixing the DV clips was easy, just did the same Paste Attributes thing. But the stills...the moves were now all wrong, so we needed to fix those.
Needless to say, editing went on longer than anticipated and we missed FedEx (started the final assembly at 5PM for a 5:30 PM output to be gotten to the LAX FedEx drop off with a late drop of deadline). Since we missed the deadline, we took a little longer to tweak the show and then output it as H.264 that we then uploaded to an FTP site for the network to download and view.
Oh, and when I say "we did this" and "we did that," I mean the OTHER editors did most of this fix and output. I had to leave at 6PM sharp to get home to watch the kids as my wife had an important meeting to get to. So I got to miss out in all the fun. At least locally. I was on the phone for a bit of this.
This is the sort of thing that happens when one is deep in the "creative" aspect of cutting. You attention is so focused on story and content that you aren't really paying attention to the technical. When I was an assistant I'd notice this a lot in the other editors. They would render to the wrong drive, or mix AVR (Avid Video Resolution) formats in the timeline, typically titles rendered in the wrong format, causing the WRONG FORMAT error to pop up. Now that I am the editor, I am the one not paying attention causing the WRONG FORMAT errors.
Needless to say I won't make THIS mistake again.
COMING UP: On the next episode of Little Frog in High Def...
Shane's edit station goes from the occurance a few small minor annoyances to a complete system meltdown.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Mar 19, 2008 at 12:31:06 am
Here is the Kona KBox mounted on the back of my IKEA "rack." I had to add an extra piece of wood to the side, but the 2U rack brackets fit nicely.
Now...onto TIME MACHINE. In my MacPro I have 5 drives. The system drive is in Bay 1, I have three Seagate 500GB drives in the other 3 bays. One stands alone as a work drive, where I store show exports, imported footage and other odd and ends that I transfer to the server. The final two are RAIDED as RAID 0 and I use them to capture media too before I transfer it to the XSAN.
I have a fifth drive installed in this MacPro. The fifth drive resides in the normally empty second optical bay. It is connected to the computer via one of the two spare SATA connections on the logicboard (accessed by removing the fans) and a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter kit. I use this drive as my TIME MACHINE drive, since I am using Leopard. Already this has saved my behind.
There was a small bit of temp footage that we had in the system that was accidentally ripped from the DVD as h.264. When I added this to the timeline, it required rendering...a clue to me that it was not an editing codec. So I copied the file to my computer, used Compressor to convert it to DV, and copied the DVD file back to the XSAN. I then went to reimport this clip and dropped it into the timeline and..it STILL recuired rendering. HUH? I looked at the clip and it STILL said it was h.264. Somehow it was still referencing the clip on my desktop, or in the trash...somewhere. So I dragged the clip to the trash and tried to empty it. It couldn't...FCP was still referencing it. So I quit FCP and then emptied the trash. To make sure that it linked properly, I also trashed the converted file on my drive. Then I opened FCP and...and...the clip was offline. I looked at the file I copied over and it was corrupt...zero KB.
It was gone.
Crap. Here I am, Sunday night and hour 10 into a 12 hour shift, and I lost media and I don't know where the DVD is, and it is footage I need. Crap crap crap.
Then I remember that I have Time Machine running. What the heck, I'll check. So I open my desktop folder and then hit TIME MACHINE. I go back one notch and...YUP, there it is...on the desktop. So I copy the DV file over...RESTORE it...and drop it on the XSAN. Import that into FCP and all is good.
I like Time Machine.
But this also points to an issue with my connection with the XSAN. I know something is up because I have to type in my password any time I want to copy footage to it...AUTHENTICATE it. And I can't create folders on it, nor set it as my scratch disk. I gotta call the IT guys and get them to look at it.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Mar 11, 2008 at 11:21:25 pm
The official title of the History Channel Series I am working on is STRANGE HISTORY. The stories will mainly deal with taboos, cultural and sexual, and strange cultural practices from around the world. There, now you know.
The first week there I was working on one of the rental systems. Because my computer hadn't come in yet and because they didn't play on renting my system for a few weeks yet. Now, this rental system was a bit lacking. Sure, it had the Octo Mac 3.0Ghz and a LARGE Mackie Mixer (that you would find on an Avid system) with 16 channels, 4 of which we use. Two for FCP, two for the deck...oh, 5...one for the microphone (temp VO). It had a Kona 3 card, was on one of those HUGE editing desks, was nestled in a rack, and had big HD LCDs. Not color correctable ones, but an early model Sony Luma series that was fine for producers to look at. The computer monitors? Lacking....WAY lacking. 17" square LCDs...brand I haven't heard of. SMALL, to say the least. I suffered on these for two weeks. The third week I was on my system. The rental didn't start on it until THIS week, but I wouldn't allow myself to suffer any more.
About the mic. We had it plugged into the Mixer, but then, how to get that audio from the mixer into the computer? The Kona 3 cards only have AES EBU audio in, so what do we do? Well, I happen to have the Griffin iMic, a device that takes an audio input via RCA and plugs into the computer via USB. This shows up on the INPUT list in the VO tool just fine. ISSUE...I had one, but Griffin no longer made the iMic. So for 3 weeks we have been shuttling back and forth from bay to bay. I finally searched EBAY and found a few. We will be getting them in soon. Why not get a USB mic and be done with it? Well, we already had mics, and to control them from the mixer is a breeze, so why not just get the $20 tool that allows you to use that?
Now for the types of footage we are working with. Plenty of Varicam DVCPRO HD 720p24 footage. A few 32GB cards worth of P2. Then comes the temp footage. DVDs with screener footage, temp stills, FLASH MOVIES from the internet...VHS screeners. Hoo boy...where to start. DVDs we are ripping using DVDxDV. I find it much more stable than MPEG STREAMCLIP, and the encode process is fast and very clean. I have the PRO version on mine, because one show I worked on had DVD as a master, and I needed to encode it uncompressed SD to match everything else.
The flash video (odd that we have to do this, but the clearance people said that is where they were directed) presented a problem. We tried FFMPEGX but that didn't do it. And we tried iSquint, but that didn't encode to an editable format. I could have gone with Visual Hub....but our budget was tight, and we had other fish to fry. OH, and FIRST we had to get them off the web using a few website services that did this. SO I did a test capture using iShowU and that worked out very well. I took the result into Compressor and used the Advanced Conversion presents (DV/NTSC) to upscale it and make it into a workable codec and all was good. And because of the open format timeline, we could mix DVCPRO HD and DV just fine without rendering.
Mind you all of these DVD rips and internet downloads are ALL temp. WE are putting reel numbers that indicate that they are TEMP only. When we lock picture, THAT is when we order the master footage and capture it properly.
OK...now on to how I spent my days. The first 3 days I spent looking at footage of female boxers. Figuring out how to use markers to mark and name the footage, then use those markers to subclip the master tapes. The other editor just went with the markers, but I liked the actual subclips. Of course this presented me with a few issues in dealing with these subclips...which I talk about on the Apple forums. Then I was presented with a script...well, semi OUTLINE with interview soundbytes paraphrased...and no transcripts. So I then spend the next two days listening to interviews and making a few selects. The BIG producer came in and said that this segment wasn't going to be in the first episode anymore, they have changed the order of a few things, so I was asked to start looking at footage for another segment. Again, no script, just interviews, so I listened to them.
The next week I was told to move onto yet ANOTHER segment, as it had more stuff to get into. And it did, the other one had no b-roll, it was all interview. It had to be, the story takes place in communist China in the 1970's. There would be generic b-roll, but we didn't have any yet. This other segment had more, and the producer had more of an idea about what points he wanted to hit, so I moved onto that. I spent the rest of the week cutting up the 3 hours of interviews into a 15 minute story. On Friday, I was handed a script. I was off.
Did I mention that the first rough cut for the first show was due the FOLLOWING Friday? I didn't? Oh, well either did they. I find this out on Tuesday.
Well, I can't go into details, but the delivery was pushed until Monday, then after a screening it was pushed to Tuesday, because huge structure changes needed to be addressed. What looked good on paper didn't on TV...which is typical. So I came in on Sunday and worked for 12 hours, then came in on Monday and worked hard until I finished my segments at 3. WHEW. All we needed now was a quick tease, to tie the segments together and find a bridge...or leave that alone for now. Just need to get the network something to show how we want to approach things. Then I come to find that we need more changes, and delivery was pushed until this Friday.
WHEW.
So today I was back on boxing girls until I get a new script. Mind you, this is all very typical for this kind of work. I grow to expect it. And I know that all the effort I put in on the weekend might get tossed aside in favor of a new approach. BUT, that work still served a purpose. To find out what works and what doesn't. Knowing what doesn't is a pretty big thing. Now all we need to do is find out what does work.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Mar 11, 2008 at 10:50:07 pm
Last December I was asked to edit a trailer for a documentary. This trailer would be used to solicit finishing funds. And while they couldn't pay much, they could pay. Since I wasn't doing anything in January and halfway thru Febuary, I took the job.
The client asked how they should deal with the payment I said that I would like half up front, and half when I deliver the final. That sounded fine to them, so I received half the payment and the tapes to begin editing.
I worked on the project for about 3 weeks, and delivered a rough cut. Then I waited...and waited...and waited. Finally two weeks ago I received word from the director (the guy who hired me). The producers partnership had split due to philosophical differences in the way they wanted to approach the documentary. So not only was it on hold, but it might be shut down altogether. At least the one that I was asked to edit. The producers might end up with separate docs...but for me, the project was done.
Now, I am glad that I got half up front, because the doc was DOA. I am darn sure that trying to get partial payment after what happened would be darn near impossible. Who would want to pay for nothing? This is a lesson I learned the hard way on a previous project. Getting paid is VERY important. If you don't arrange weekly payments, you need to arrange some sort of payment so that you can have something to live off of while you work.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Mar 6, 2008 at 11:22:20 pm
IT'S HERE! It was supposed to be delivered tomorrow, but it got here a day early. I was tracking it on FedEx and it seemed to be sitting idle in Fort Worth Texas...it was there for a while. But then I looked up the tracking number just after lunch yesterday and suddenly it was in Sun Valley CA (here in the Valley, close to Burbank Airport) and on the truck to be delivered! I called my wife...she was going to be out of the house from 11:45 to 3:00...and sure enough, that was when the delivery occurred. But then they made another attempt later in the afternoon and my wife was home and I GOT MY NEW MAC PRO!
I raced home from work...as fast as one can race in rush hour traffic...and burst through the door. There it was, in the entrance hall. Too heavy for my wife and kids to move. After dinner I unpacked it and...well, OK...I'll go into more of that later. Posting pics and all...as if you all care. I'm getting a new machine, it is exciting to ME. But I'll post a few pics as to what I installed and how crowded it is inside there.
But I did want to mention one thing. One thing that put a damper on this machine. I replaced the stock ATI x2600 card with the ATI x1900XT. I read on BareFeats.com that this card works in the newer MacPros. I plugged in a monitor and fired it up and....nothing happened. The card was spinning VERY FAST AND VERY LOUD...but nothing appeared on the screen. DRAT! I took the Kona 3 card out and put the x2600 card back in and fired it up again. Yup, now I can see something. I looked in the System Profiler and it saw the 2600 card, but it said GRAPHICS CARD...then ATI...in slot 1. It wasn't working.
GAH!
I updated the system fully. Nothing. I looked to see if there was a driver for this, and I found that there was a Firmware Update. I downloaded that and ran it, but the computer said "that is unnecessary for this computer" or something like that. GAH! So I e-mailed Rob-Art of Barefeats and told him my predicament. He responded with "You have to upgrade the firmware on the X1900 XT with it installed in a 2006/2007 Mac Pro." OK...fine. I can do that. Rather I can have a friend with an older MacPro do it for me.
More after the weekend. BIG post when it is all installed into the edit bay.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Feb 29, 2008 at 8:55:08 am
Quick update. My MacPro is finally shipping. And it turns out that I will be getting the original machine I ordered. Even though my dealer bent over backwards to get me the older version of the MacPro, I will be getting the new machine. Why? Well, the XSAN we will be getting will be running Leopard, so the fact that my machine will be running Leopard as well can only be good. And this saves me a few hundred bucks too...which is also a good thing.
I am still tracking the progress of the shipment at Apple...building the excitement. And when it arrives I'll to the obligatory unboxing photos, followed by the installing of the accessories photos (Kona 3, x1900XT, hard drives).
In the meantime I finished building the desk. Here is a quick photo of the desk...built entirely from parts purchased at Ikea. Well, except for the shelf, that was bought from the lumber store.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Feb 29, 2008 at 8:49:21 am
I am in a pickle. And goes to show that even people who are FCP Gurus and forum leaders aren't infallible.
OK...the situation thus far. I needed a MacPro 3.0Ghz that was to be included in a Tiger SAN network running XSAN. The new MacPros...the one I ordered, do not come with Tiger installed, they come with Leopard. In fact, they are designed to work with Leopard and Apple highly recommends AGAINST installing previous OS versions on the newer machines as they might not function properly. They are designed to work with the new OS. In the case of the new MacPros, it is because the PCIe slots are the new PCIe2 technology, and MacOSX Tiger is not designed to work with them. Since the x1900XT graphics card will be on these slots...when it was designed for the original slots...issue may arise. What they are yet, who knows. How often they will happen, if at all, who knows. But I really cannot afford to be testing that out, as this will be an edit machine used in a broadcast environment with deadlines and downtime is bad.
Soooo...what I have to do now is figure out how to remedy this. Perhaps sell my machine with a slight loss, look for a previous MacPro 3.0Ghz and pay the higher cost for it. Yes, it stinks, but attention to detail is what is needed in circumstances like this...and detail is what I seemed to have missed. I was giddy to get a new machine so I was a bit blind to the details. BAD.
Of course I'll keep this thread updated...as well as this blog.
EDIT: OK, I got it all worked out. I was able to find a previous version MacPro 3.0Ghz and swap it out with the one I ordered. At a slight cost increase, of course. But the new machine will have 8GB of RAM...plenty.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Feb 16, 2008 at 4:39:45 pm
Well, I am still awaiting my MacPro. Everything else has arrived: Kona 3 with K-BOX, HD10AVA, RAM, X1900XT Graphics card...heck, I even bought the pieces to the desk I intend to build today. I am discussing the arrival of my machine on this thread on the Apple forums. Trying to build tension, and have fun discussions that aren't meant to solve issues.
I'll post desk pics when I get the thing together. I bought various pieces at Ikea, but the design will be unique.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Feb 15, 2008 at 10:23:42 pm
With the most recent Mac OS Update, OSX 10.5.2, the Matrox MXO is now compatible with all Mac models, INCLUDING the new MacBook Pros. Finally.
To get this to work, the following is REQUIRED:
Update to Leopard 10.5.2 Then Update to Leopard Graphic Update 1.0 Then install the Matrox MXO 2.1.1 drivers.
This has been tested by Matrox and according to them, it works. This has always been a thorn in my side, as I try to recommend this great box, only to have to tell people, "sorry, it doesn't work with the new MacBook Pro models."
Well now it does. Wheeee!
EDIT: Well, apparently I was a little gung ho and announced it BEFORE it was official. Here is the official press release from Matrox, with a link to the MXO 2.1.1 drivers
Posted by: Shane Ross on Feb 14, 2008 at 9:32:15 am
(Freemont Street light show - I was in Vegas this weekend)
I am on the verge of buying a new edit system for my next project, so I thought that I'd take this opportunity to talk about setting up a good working system. Unfortunately I won't get into exact details on OS versions and QT versions, because that is information that I and others keep closely guarded as this is information we use for consulting. But I would like to explain the general steps and reasons for those steps.
First off, lemme get into the specs of the system. This machine will be one of four edit systems on an XSAN shared network storage, so the specs of this machine will need to match the other 3 exactly. Not that you MUST do it this way, but the more the machines are the same, the better. I will be getting a Dual Core 3.0 Ghz Mac Pro with 4GB of RAM and a 4GB Fibre switch. I will also be getting a Kona 3 with K-Box and the AJA HD10AVA mini converter so that I can convert analog signals into HD SDI, since those are the only inputs the Kona 3 has. Finally I will be getting an Intel Mac, after relying on my trusty Dual 2.0 GHz G5 for 2.5 years (It will still see regular use, just as my home system).
On this I will install Final Cut Pro Studio, Adobe Creative Suite 3 (mainly for Photoshop and After Effects), Panasonic P2CMS and HDLog, as we will be dealing with P2 footage. I might get Firefox on there as I like it better than Safari, but that is about it, besides the drivers for the Kona card, which is a given. No games, no funky widgets, no neat little applications from versiontracker.com. The OS and versions of Quicktime will all be exactly the same as the other three machines. All of the Final Cut Studio apps will be updated to the exact same versions. AND WE WILL NEVER EVER EVER PERFORM ANY AUTOMATIC SOFTWARE UPDATES ON THESE SYSTEMS. It is never advisable to do that. Go into the System Preferences and turn that option off. Ignore every prompt iTunes sends you asking to update to the latest version. We are going to inform every editor to NOT update the machines in any way. Print out, in big bold letters on a sheet of paper, "DO NOT RUN ANY SYSTEM UPDATES ON THIS COMPUTER." Put it on the wall behind each edit station. A simple system update, even to iTunes, can throw a system out of whack and suddenly it won't work well with the others, and the system administrator will have to wipe the system clean and install everything from scratch, and that is not a way I like to spend my day. When an update says "adds enhanced functionality to Quicktime. Recommended for all Apple users," don't believe it. Apple is lying to you...well, that little blurb is lying to you. Sorry, but you have to believe this. This Quicktime update might be designed for Apple's new video rental system, and often very little consideration or testing was done with Final Cut Pro and the third party hardware you have installed, so there is no guarantee it will work. Don't do it.
This is the key to a solid functional editing machine. And when you are in a shared editing environment, you really should use exactly same machines, versions of OS, Quicktime components and versions of the software. Any deviation from this can lead to issues. Very often I have seen on the forums people trying to work on the same project but on different systems. From completely different systems like an Intel iMac and a PowerPC G5, one running FCP 6.0.2 and the other running FCP 5.0.4....to two systems running FCP 6.0.2, but one is a Dual G5 and the other is a Quad Intel MacPro. Obviously you will have issues with the iMac and G5, as the versions of FCP are very different. The only solution there is to exchange XML files of your sequences. Obviously this is far from ideal. And you would think that the Mac Pro and the G5 running the same versions of FCP and QT should work, but often they don't. The wonderful "the project is unreadable or too new for this version of Final Cut" might rear its ugly head, and you are stuck. It doesn't seem to make any sense...you have the same versions of everything. Well, it could be that one computer is running a different version of the OS than the other computer. And if they are both running the same version of the OS, then it might be the fact that one machine is running a PowerPC processor and the other is Intel processor based. So many factors, and such small ones that you wouldn't think they'd matter. But they do.
Why would that matter? Well, I am not an engineer so I can't even fake my way through an explanation. Other than small system enhancements and applications might run some system resource that interferes with FCP or QT in some way. So the need to not have your machine cluttered with applications, and the need for everything to match as exact as possible (even down to the RAM manufacturer) is very important in maintaining a solid shared storage editing solution. This has always been the rule on the Avid editing platform...specific versions of everything, and all the machines running the same version of everything. Big notes on the wall warning against running system updates. Being on a FCP system doesn't change the fact that specific
But what if you aren't in a shared storage environment, as I'll wager 90% or more of you will never find yourself in. Finding and maintaining the perfect balance can be a difficult and time consuming thing. Once you find it, DO NOT MESS WITH IT. Same advice on automatic updates applies. DON'T DO IT. If you are a professional, avoiding the updates and neat widgets and small cute applications might be an easy thing, because your work computer is only for work. If you use the computer professionally, then find your balance, install the applications you need to do your job, then leave your machine alone.
This is a bit more difficult for all of you prosumers, semi-pros, independent film makers and hobbyists. You might use your machine for not just editing, but all of your e-mail and web surfing and playing games. So you might need that update to iTunes and Quicktime so that you can rent those movies online like you have been wanting to do forever. Just know that in doing that you might damage your ability to edit. If you can, have the one machine for editing and get a second machine for web surfing and word processing and e-mail. If you simply cannot afford to do that, I understand I've been there myself when I was starting out. I had an iBook that I used for editing and for everything else I did. In this case, before you updated it would be wise to clone your working OS to a firewire drive so in case the updates mess things up, you can always go back to your working OS. I use Carbon Copy Cloner (found at www.versiontracker.com) to clone my hard drive before I perform any updates. And I recommend firewire drives because they are bootable, and you will need the drive to be bootable if you want to clone this system back to your machine. You'll need to wipe the machine drive clean, then clone back the OS on the firewire drive.
OK...sorry for the long post. I hope even though I had to be vague with details that the overall general points I make are helpful. I have spent many an hour and day fixing editing machines that have had some small update mess things up...dating back to Avid Media Composers running version 6.5 on NuBus Macs. It isn't fun to fix, and is frustrating to find that one simple extension was the cause for the edit system not working properly. Play it safe, err on the side of caution and never ever mess with a working system, unless the update provides functionality that you need in your workflow (added support for new camera formats). And always cover your ass by cloning your system.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Feb 11, 2008 at 12:34:36 pm
While I am on a plane to New Jersey (business purposes), I thought I'd take a little time to make a quick post. I am taking a little break from editing the documentary trailer.
Things are slow going and the deadline was extended, because of a couple reasons. First off, I have a LOT of interviews to sort through for quote. And second, because a script is being written while I do this, and it isn't done yet. But the script will really be just a guide, one that I can add to, subtract from...change.
Typical stuff, but not something that I am normally used to. I am used to being handed a script with interviews and suggested b-roll, and cutting away. Get the segments done, get the Act assembled and then see what works. I don't normally read or watch all the interviews and know what else I can gleen from a subject. I work with what I am given and can rearrange things or add small things or take out other small things. That is the way things are done with a TV documentary. Short delivery times once editing starts. The producer and director and writer (often the same person) fix the script and get the changes for me to address.
This is different. I like this, but it is time consuming. I have more freedom and that is nice to have. And I get to figure out the "editing style" of this as well. Something that fits with the topic...yet semi fast paced. Not MTV/VH1 hyper fast and full of effects...basically devoid of content. Nor will it be the smei-fast paced cutting I employed on several Discovery Channel and History Channel documentaries. But no way am I going to make this as dry as several PBS shows I have seen. Sorry, but many of those things bore me to tears. Documentaries have to be engaging, both story wise and stylistically. And the style cannot...or SHOULD NOT...distract from the story. Story is king, but it has to be told right as well. And since this is a documentary TRAILER, it has to be a bit different. Not the short 2 min trailers, but sort of an example of what you might expect to see if you watched the whole thing.
ANYWAY, this editing the media manager compressed low res footage stored on my laptop hard drive is proving to be a dream. No dropped frames, time code matches up perfectly.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jan 30, 2008 at 9:37:49 pm
When Steve Jobs was giving his keynote speech for MacWorld 2008, my buddy Jared and I were standing in the CalDigit booth, both of us staring at our iPhones...parked on the MacRumors site and reading the announcements as they came. That's right...we BOTH had our iPhones out. Wy didn't we just look at one and conserve the other's battery? We were excited. WE ARE MAC ADDICTS! And last year the keynote was exciting. But, with each announcement, our excitement faded. iPhone update? OK...cool. Now I can make my icons dance. Now what? Oh, I can find where I am with a new feature...that is cool. And it is VERY close. SDK due soon for it...soon. The iPhone sales numbers excited me...I am a stock holder, I like good sales numbers. Time Capsule. OK, that is neat. Not earth shattering, but helpful. MacBook Air? OK...it's thin, and it's...thin. But other than that....eeeeh. Slow processor, a battery you cannot change yourself. TWO external connections (USB, Mini-DVI). $1800. $1800!?! Who is this for? Sorry, that didn't excite me. And movie rentals on iTunes. BOOOORING. you have 30 days to watch them, and 24 hours once you started it. CRAP! I have Netflix and I can watch it whenever I want...no limit. BETTER QUALITY. Sorry...dumb. Apple TV 2. Eeeh...I like my TiVo. Just ho-hum announcements IMHO. Last year was exciting. Not only for Apple, but for a bunch the other products that were on the floor. There was the iPhone announcement, that was huge. Another company announced a service to modify a MacBook into a tablet Mac. That was cool (they won best in show too).
OK, so let's get to this year. If you want to know what Apple released (if you don't already know), go to Apple.com and see for yourself. Don't get too disappointed over the MacBook Air. In the meantime, let me touch upon the things that I saw that caught my eye.
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2008. Microsoft has the second biggest presence at MacWorld, next to Apple. Yes, people consider them the evil empire...I consider them a necessary evil. I use Microsoft Office because...well, I have to. I get scripts from producers and I need Word to read them (as opposed to NeoOffice and the iWork suite). Because one of my producers likes to put little notes that only pop up if you have MS Office 2004 or later to see. Microsoft released a new version this year, Office 2008. Apparently is has some really cool features...that I won't use myself...BUT I hear they are cool. A college friend of mine who works for Microsoft, and who was there in the both, told me so. Go to www.microsoft.com to find out what those features are. Just because a product caught my eye doesn't mean I know all about it. I just know it is new and has a lot to offer. Leave me alone...I worked the entire time for Caldigit.
Speaking of CalDigit, lemme tell you what they had to offer.
CALDIGIT . They have two things. First is their CalDigit Raid Card (at the time of writing this, it is not on their site). If you know about Apple's Raid Card ...this is similar, but different. When you buy a MacPro, the cool thing about it is that you have four internal drive bays to install hard drives. This means that you don't need to get an external drive right away to store your captured media. The advice I always give is "fill up these drives first, then buy an external solution," because internal drives are cheaper than external boxes. If you want to, you can even raid the drives so that you can have faster performance and edit uncompressed standard definition and many formats of high definition.
Now, before the Raid cards, the only way you could raid these was to use the Disk Utility and do a software Raid. The problem with this concept is that if your operating system crashes, the software raid goes with it...and thus your media is lost. And you are limited to Raid 0 or Raid 1. With the Raid card, you can now raid the drives as Raid 0, Raid 5, or Raid 0+1 and have the cards manage the raid. They have an onboard CPU, as well as RAM and battery backup. What sets CalDigit's Raid Card apart from Apple are many things.
1. You can install it yourself. The Apple Raid card is really big, and to install it you need to take many of the MacPro components out so that you can get the card in. The CalDigit card is smaller, and is easily installed. 2. Expandibility. With the Apple Raid Card, you are limited to the internal drives. That is all that it will control. CalDigit's Raid Card offers expandibility. It has three external mini-SAS connections that you can connect to external 4-drive enclosures (up to three for a total of 16 drives) that CalDigit makes. You can do Raid 0, Raid 1, Raid 5, Raid 6. AND....I love this...AND when you run out of space and need more storage, you simply buy one of these external boxes and ADD IT TO YOUR RAID...no erasing, no loss of data. You just use the software to add it to the raid and boom, more storage. They call it "migration." I like it. 3. Speed. The CalDigit Raid Card gets you slightly faster read/write times than the Apple Raid Card. 4. Price. The Apple Raid Card is $800. The CalDigit Raid Card is $550. So you won't break the bank. 5. BOOTABLE. That's right...if you Raid all four internal drives and install the OS on that Raid (why would you do that?), that Raid is bootable.
CalDigit also announced the HD ONE. This is the "little brother" to the HD PRO. Same capacity, same transfer speeds, less upgradability in terms of RAM...and cheaper. If you don't need to do Uncompressed HD 4:4:4 or 2K and 4K...this might be the box for you.
SONNET TECH. Sticking with the hard drive enclosure theme, let's take a look at Sonnet Tech. First off, the D800 Raid 5 series has always been a fully populated drive solution, just like CalDigit's HD Pro and Dulce's ProDQ and a host of others. But, due to popular demand, they are offering the D800E...meaning "expandable." They will sell the case empty and ready for you the consumer to populate with hard drives of your choice. Now, while I find this cool and appealing to many many people (I get people arguing with me about wanting the CalDigit towers to be sold empty) it isn't the best solution. Why? Well, when the companies populate the enclosure with drives, they not only make sure the firmware on the drives is updated and compatible with their controller cards (a big thing if you want good performance)...so if something fails, you have one person to call. That company. They support the whole shibang...and the warranty they offer covers everything. If you buy the enclosure bare, then when a drive fails you'll get the run around as the drive manufacturer and enclosure company will point fingers at the other guy. My advice? Buy them populated
What really caught my eye at the booth was the fact that they had a MacBook Pro hooked up to an AJA I/O HD which was in turn hooked up to a small flat hard drive, called the Fusion F2. A two 2.5" hardware raided BUS POWERED hard drive. But while it was powered by the firewire bus, that wasn't how it was connected. It was connected via eSATA. Because of this, it was a perfect solution to a field capture and edit package that includes the MacBook Pro and AJA I/O HD. The I/O HD connects via firewire 800, so that ties up the firewire bus. Your only option...which is a good option because of the speeds required for ProRes 422...is to connect an eSATA drive. The Fusion F2 is great because it doesn't require separate power. It pulls power from the computer via the firewire 400 port, yet doesn't get all caught up in the firewire bus, so it doesn't conflict with the I/O HD. SWEET! I'll be getting a unit to test and review soon.
OK...what else. More iPhone and iPod cases that you can shake a stick at. The usual crowd of laptop bag manufacturers, drive enclosure companies, software vendors. I would mention that KIDPIX is now available for OSX...which is REALLY EXCITING to me, because I have 3 daughters that loved the original version that came with the original iMac, and they were bummed when I lost the disk. But I am sure most of you won't be as excited as I was to find that. So, moving on.
ELGATO. Not really a newly announced product, but one that I finally relented into buying...the Elgato TURBO.264 hardware encoder. This handy little device connects via USB and speeds up the H.264 encoding process enormously. It has software that comes with it with presets for iPhone, iPod video high res, iPod low res, and web streaming. And you can make your own custom presets as well. It is touted to take the bulk of the encoding burden off of your computer, but really I think it simply compliments it. It doesn't take it all on by itself, I am sure, and here is why I think that.
When I took a 2 min DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 file and encoded it for the iPhone on my Powerbook G4 1.67Mhz machine with Compressor...it took 15 min. QT Pro export took the same time, same export settings.. When I used the encoder...it took 5 min. SWEET! But that is an OLD machine, what about a new one? So I took the same file to an Octo Core MacPro. Not the new one, the first version. On that, Compressor took a little over 4 min, as did QT Pro. But the Elgato? Well, on the Octo it did it faster than real time. A little over 1 min. So it was much faster on the speedier machine. This is why I believe it doesn't do all the encoding internally, but shares the burden. That makes this the best purchase I have made in a while.
NEC. OK...this brings me to my all time favorite thing at MacWorld 2008. It was the thing that won the MacWorld 2008 Best In Show prize, for good reason too. I was on the way to the restroom when I walked past the NEC booth and glanced at the two monitors they had on display. My glance turned into a long look, one that stopped me in my tracks. On the monitors, a 24" and 30" model, were really vibrant pictures and a demo of Lightroom. What caused me to stop in my tracks was the fact that when i was walking by and looking at the monitors, the colors on the images did not change. Off axis viewing didn't diminish the colors at all. By off axis, I mean viewed at a 45 degree angle or more. So the image I saw looking directly at the monitor was exactly the same color when viewed at 45 degrees, and even more...70 to 75 degrees! THAT IS HUGE.
The models on display were the LCD2490WUXi (24") and the LCD2690WUXi (26"). I looked the monitors over and noted that they hand only VGA and DVI connections. I asked the person manning the booth if they had plans to make one of these amazing displays for video editing monitoring, because the current crop of HD LCDs have issues with off axis viewing. Red becomes "salmon," dark rich blues become lighter. Only the high end TVLogic displays have realy good off axis colors, but they start at $8000. The NEC rep said that it was something they were exploring...but was not available at this time. Because the current monitors has a response time of 12ms (milliseconds), and for video it would have to be at 8ms. Plus if they add the appropriate connections...HD SDI, Component...that would increase the price beyond the $1200 for the 24" and $2100 for the 26". I was fine with that. If they are able to make this monitor for $4000, and have the same off axis viewing I saw then...it'd be worth it. But for now, they are FANTASTIC monitors for photographers. Ones that I cannot recommend highly enough. These monitors really did deserve the MacWorld Best In Show.
The NEC rep mentioned that a large production house was already using them in their edit bays, but they didn't indicate which company or if they were being used for anything beyond simple client monitoring. I would LOVE to see this monitor in combination with my Matrox MXO....or even AJA Kona LH and AJA HDP.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jan 28, 2008 at 7:29:25 am
Until this weekend I have avoided the Media Manager, which has been dubbed the "media mangler" for good reason. In the past, when you used the Media Manager to do anything, it would produce varying results....none of them the correct ones. It still has issues with SPEED CHANGES, but that is because actual media isn't made. But other than that, its reputation has improved.
So, here I am working on a project, that documentary trailer that was shot HDV and that I captured as ProRes and DVCPRO HD. I settled on editing it using the DVCPRO HD captures, because I get more real time performance with effects and layering, faster render times...and because this is only going to DVD. Now, this week I am scheduled to fly to New Jersey for a P2 Bootcamp at Panasonic. A trip that will shut me down for 3 days on this project, and I really cannot afford to lose 3 days. The flight will take 6 hours and that is time that I can use to work on this project, even though the most I can squeeze out of my Powerbook battery is 4 hours. But, if I had an external firewire drive attached...bus powered and fast enough to handle the 1080i footage...my battery would last at most an hour and a half. So...what to do...
RECOMPRESS.
Yup...recompress the footage into a smaller file size that I can then store on my main hard drive. I looked at my options and there was on called OFFLINE RT HD. That seems like it will do the trick. So I dove into the Media Manager. The first thing I did was highlight the two folders of footage I wanted to recompressed and copy. Then I right clicked on them and chose MEDIA MANAGER (or you can go to the FILE menu and see the same option):
Now I wanted to recompress my exisiting footage into a smaller size, and retain the timecode, so I chose the following options:
Now...this took time. 24 hours on my Dual 2Ghz G5 (I know...upgrading soon). But I started it on Friday night when I was done, and it went into the weekend, when I wasn't working. And I'm sure an Intel Mac would do MUCH better.
The end result was 16.1 GB (from 435GB) and easily fit on my Powerbook. I could play it without dropping a frame, and when I brought over the cuts I already had, I could reconnect to the sequences pretty easily. I figure when i am done and bring the sequences back to the main project, they will reconnect as well. I base this on testing I did where I cut random shots into a sequence, put that into it's own project, brought that back to the main computer and reconnected. It all connected fine and matched up.
Nice to see things have much improved.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jan 28, 2008 at 7:26:13 am
One of the things I am known for are my SHANE'S STOCK ANSWERS to commonly asked questions. Getting a little tired of typing the same answer over and over, I decided to build a sort of FAQ (frequently asked questions) database and call them Shane's Stock Answers. So when the question came up, I'd simply copy and paste my answer. People have often asked if I had a place I stored all of my stock answers...a site they could quickly search through to find what they want.
I have been hired to edit a 5-10 min "Teaser" for a documentary...a teaser that will be used as a fund raising tool to solicit more money to finish shooting and editing this documentary. This documentary was shot on HDV at 1080i 29.97 using the Sony VU1 HDV camera...with another one as b-camera, and at one point a small DV camera for minor pickup shots. When I mix the footage, I might treat the DV to look really grainy or something else to set it apart. That I captured natively with my DSR-11 deck. But the HDV footage I have set about capturing as ProRes via firewire. And thus far (on the second to last tape...it is finishing the encode as I type) it has been pretty smooth.
I rented a Sony HVR-1500 deck that is FLUSH with connections. Yes, I could have captured via HD SDI or HD Component...but because I am running an older Dual 2.0Ghz G5 (PPC), I can't capture it as ProRes via my Kona LH. You can only capture as ProRes with a capture card if you are running an Intel Mac. And I don't want to capture as DVCPRO HD...the old way of dealing with HDV...because I'd lose some resolution. Sony HDV is 1440x1080 (anamorphic)...and DVCPRO HD at 1080 is 1280x1080...I'd be losing 200 lines of resolution! Well, that's just not acceptable, not with ProRes out there. And ever since the FCP 6.0.2 update, you can capture HDV as ProRes via firewire even if you are running and older PPC Mac, like I am. How cool is that? Pretty cool in my book.
Now...my first question was...why ProRes and not the higher quality ProRes HQ? Well, when I captured a couple short clips and compared...I couldn't see any difference. Yes, I used my HD CRT to judge them. I'm guessing that this is because the HDV format is already highly compressed...and that the HQ ProRes is for higher end HD formats like HDCAM and HDCAM SR...where you can tell the difference. And because ProRes was 15.1MB/s and ProRes HQ was 22.3MB/s...I opted for the lower bit rate one...since there was no visible difference. And the Caldigit S2VR Duo that I am capturing this footage to is handling it all beautifully. (FYI, I wil be backing up all of this footage onto my homemade RAID tower, that has been designated as footage backup.)
So as the article describes, when I start capturing, the actual capture window does lag behind by 33%. And it plays back in slow motion...this is I wager is because it is transcoding HDV into ProRes. So to monitor the footage, I connected the deck to the HD CRT via the SUPER out, so I could see timecode. When the tape ends, I press stop, and then the system takes about 30-45 min to finish the encode. This would be shorter on a faster Mac, I am sure.
And as advertised it breaks up the footage at the start and stop points on the camera. When the tape is full of interviews, that is fine. There are about 1-4 clips to deal with. But when we are talking about b-roll and scenings...suddenly I have 65 clips to deal with. But, this is no different than with P2...footage is broken up at the camera start and stops. While I might be used to this, it doesn't mean that I like it. I don't...I really really don't. I like my b-roll of the desert and the desert sunset to be in 10-20 min chunks, not 5 sec to 1.5 min bits and pieces strew about. This makes scrubbing thru footage a BIG hassle. I'll probably end up linking them all together either as a sequence, or more likely as a self contained QT file. Although that is dangerous, as the new QT file won't contain the original tape timecode. Gah..what a pain!
So I do what the article states, delete the CLIPS (not the media, just highlight the clips and press delete) from the Browser and then on the finder level in the Capture Scratch folder, open and rename the footage more descriptively. Then re-import that into FCP and organize it.
NOTE: There are a couple issues with this workflow that I'd like to point out. When you capture this footage, FCP does not assign it a reel number. This is a pretty important piece of info to have on the clip. Fixing that is simple enough, just add it in the Browser. You'll be warned that you are "Changing the source timecode on the file," that's fine...just click OK.
Hmmm...this brings up a concern. When you do this capture, you do it pretty much as a CAPTURE NOW. Roll the tape and let it go. There is no LOG AND CAPTURE, no place to add REEL numbers. So let's say that you lose a drive, and your footage is lost. How will you get it back? With logging and capturing, simply BATCH CAPTURE your footage and it will reconnect in the Browser and timeline. But with this method, CAN you batch capture? Because of the camera starts and stops will the recapture start on the exact same first frame and last frame? If you have to recapture the footage and try to reconnect it that way, how can you assure that you get the same TC start and end times...and the same clip names?
The more I think about it...the more this workflow makes me nervous. This is why I am backing up my footage.
I think if I have the time, I will also capture the footage (only 8 tapes) via HD SDI as DVCPRO HD 1080i 29.97 and see how things look. At least with this format, I can log and capture, label my clips, assign reel numbers as I capture, have the ability to capture the b-roll as one long clip. And piece of mind that I can re-capture via "batch capture" in case footage is lost.
Sometimes I think slight loss in quality might be preferable when it comes to a proven stable workflow. We'll see...still figuring this out. What are your thoughts about this?
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jan 12, 2008 at 9:41:37 am
A.C.E. editor Harry B. Miller III (http://imdb.com/name/nm0587823/) over at the American Cinema Editors Blog (http://ace-filmeditors.org/blog/index.html) talks about his experience in editing a feature film with FCP. A nice frank post about the strengths and weaknesses of the application in a tapeless feature film workflow.
(thanks to Scott at the EditBlog for the link)
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jan 7, 2008 at 10:07:00 pm
Well, it was inevitable. Sooner or later I'd have to work on a project that was shot with an HDV camera. And now here it comes. It will be a "trailer" for a documentary on Shamanism. I say "trailer" with "quotes" because it isn't like a movie trailer...2 min tease of what the movie is about. No, it is a partially shot documentary in need of finishing funds. So I will be cutting a 10 min "mini-doc" (do I love those "quotation marks" or what?) about the subject.
And it was shot on HDV. With the VU1. And not only that...but the b-camera was a DV camera. BUT...no worries. It was used sparingly, and just to get another angle on interviews, so I can blow up and effect the footage and make it look like crud...in other words, make it look "cool."
I will make my attempt to capture HDV as ProRes...via firewire. Because I am very behind in the times and am still running a very reliable Dual 2Ghz G5 with a Kona LH...and for some reason I can't capture ProRes via the card without an Intel Mac, but I can via Firewire.
So I'll keep you appraised with how things are going and what workflows I will be using...what works, what doesn't. Basically what I intended the blog to be.
OH...since a lot of the workflow depends on the final delivery format, I will say that the intended delivery will be DVD...to give out as fundraising tools. But I will cut this as if I intend to output to HDCAM at 1080i 29.97. Because in the end...the FINAL project will have that as the final master.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Jan 7, 2008 at 10:05:10 pm
I have heard people ask for this all the time, and I didn't know how to do it either. All these things that FCP can do...some people know how to do this, some how to do that. Great thing is that we can share those tips with other.
Thanks Scott.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Dec 14, 2007 at 12:54:35 pm
Here I sit in the online of my latest show, watching someone else do all the work. This show, SURGERY SAVED MY LIFE ("Battleground Miami" is the episode title...on Discovery Health) was done the old fashioned way, an offline/online workflow. We offlined on Avid Meridian v11s on G4's running OS9....all the media on a Unity. Sure, it's old, but it still works and works well. I had very few issues, and really enjoyed being back on an Avid. Well, I cursed at it a few times when I had to do something that in FCP would be a SNAP...like shuffling footage and scenes...but overall I liked it.
So I did the offline cut at the production office, working with five other editors, all on different episodes. When I locked picture (late last night) they took the bin with the locked sequence to a post facility that then onlined the cut on an Avid Symphony. When this is done, we will output a digibeta, then take it to a DaVinci for color correction, the output a tape, then to a linear bay for titling...then output to another tape. MAN...what a lot of steps. I didn't have to do this with my last FCP shows...or even my last show I cut on an Avid. We did the titling and color correction in the symphony. Whew.
I mention this because the next show I will be working on...well, the one AFTER the next show I am on (I will be going to a company to help "fix" a series they are having issues with)...the next show with THIS company...will be shot on DVCPRO HD, Varicam and P2, for the History Channel...a series no less...and we are trying to pitch FCP to the main production company as I have already done three shows this way...but they are ballking and wanting us to use Avids. So we are doing a workflow comparison for them. I'll blog about that soon.
ANYWAY...I have COMPLETELY digressed from what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about distancing yourself from the editing process to allow you to view your work more critically.
Last week when we were working on the FINE cut (the step between Rough Cut and Locked Picture...the second pass at a show that you send to the network), I had finished my cut and we were about to watch the show to see how it looks as a whole, when my producer said to me, "Shane, come here....sit on the sofa. Get away from the controls and sit back and relax, I'll control the machine."
"But, I..." I try to protest.
"No, get back here and watch it. Get away from the machine. Watch it from my point of view. NO! Watch it from the perspective of someone who just turned on the TV and goes 'Hey, this looks interesting.' Watch critically."
Now, I never thought of doing this before. Dunno why. Because it is VERY true....when you watch it in your chair in front of the controls, you are still in your 'editor's mind.' Noting things that aren't working, or wanting to stop the show and just fix this one small thing. You are still seeing it from the point of something YOU put together. Sitting back does put you in another frame of mind completely. I was able to sit back and actually view it as though I was watching some show on TV. That surprised me. And it was really helpful, becuase instead of seeing it as I need to fix this one small edit, or music cue, I was paying attention to the story, following the people and the personalities and...well...enjoying the show.
I wasn't allowed to take notes or anything. I was to watch it and give my general impressions. What worked for me, and what didn't...all based on my memory, based on what impacted me and stuck with me. And when it was over, I can say that I did genuinely enjoy the show. It was odd, but I was able to remove myself from the process and watch the show. And it was eye opening. I gave my impressions to the producer, he agreed with most of them, gave me his...and I went about the task of fixing what didn't work, or needed a little something more to get the point across.
As I said, I had never thought about doing this before. I think that my producer, also knowing how to edit (but having been away from the chair for quite some time) recognized what a difference it was watching in front of the machine, and back on the sofa. Because you are closer to the work, still there and involved in the cut, you are more invested in it, and apt to defend the edit decisions. But by stepping back and removing yourself from the process...distancing yourself...you can watch the show with a more critical eye.
Try it.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Nov 7, 2007 at 1:07:42 pm
The website has posted FULL RES quicktime files of each camera angle (five of them) in the DV codec. And from the look of it there is a LOT of green screen work for this. So this isn't only an exercise in creative editing of a music video, but also compositing work with green screen. Now, green screening DV, which is a bit of a task, but some good practice nuntheless.
Now, I find this to be a BRILLIANT idea. Release the footage to a the aspiring editors out there and have them edit their vision of the music video. You might get a LOT of bad videos, but, there are some talented people out there that just need the chance for you to see them shine. So these aspiring editors get the footage to practice, and if they are good they get the exposure. And the company gets a music video.
Sure, the prizes are on the cheap end (Grand Prize is a couple of tickets to a Tori concert, and second prizes are iPod Touches), but this is intended for the beginners, the aspiring filmmakers....not us Pro's who don't even have time to edit family home video...although I am downloading the footage as I type this as I haven't edited a music video before so...so...family video gets neglected again.
This reminds me of the guy who edited an iPod ad that he posted on YouTube that is now being picked up by Apple and will air.
I mean...how cool is that? Like the Doritos ads that people made and that aired on the Superbowl this year. Giving creative opportunities "to the masses" opens creative channels that have been untapped for years. I applaud this.
OK guys...get downloading.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Oct 29, 2007 at 10:44:45 pm
Met with the director, the lead actor (also a producer) and the main producer on Saturday to look at a rough cut of the first half of the show and talk things over. Overall they liked it. Wondered why a few things were missing, and it was due to it not being in the script and me not knowing where it went. So I took notes and we talked things over and...well...the Producer...the person who recommended and hired me...got into asking a lot of questions about the show...questions and concerns that I had but didn't feel like I could voice. She voiced ALL of them. And got a few of them cleared up, and...well...just did everything I wanted to do. And I didn't have to ask her to do it...she just had the same feelings I did.
It was amazing.
And the pressure of getting a cut in soon...gone. I have more time to do it. The reason they were so anxious and pressuring me...to which I was going to say "hey stop...I am doing this as a favor, I am being paid VERY little, and said from the start that I couldn't devote a lot of time to"...was because they hadn't seen the dailies. They didn't know what takes they had and what they had to work with. They wanted to see it. The Producer cleared things up. I was going to provide all the dailies to them on DVD (TEN HOURS worth) and they were going to look at the footage. And they were going to give me SELECTED TAKES TO CHOOSE FROM!
This is huge.
Normally you have a script supervisor on set who takes notes and draws lines on the script. One of the BIG notes that they take...that is really important to the editor...is noting what takes the director liked. For this to happen, the director needs to indicate what takes are good, and which ones are NOT good. This way you eliminate the bad stuff...cut down the amount of footage you have to look thru. Now, I might "mine" that footage later for looks or reactions or snippits of something, but I won't look at them for performance. That saves a LOT of time. This being an inexperienced crew, there were no indications of what the good takes were because the director didn't say so, so the script supervisor didn't write them down.
People don't realize the importance a lot of factors are to post...it seems that the script supervisor is a "throw away" position. But they have LOTS of jobs. Paying attention to continuity of action ("uh, on that line he is supposed to be taking a sip of wine") so that I can intercut takes. Noting on the script what character is on camera for what take. This is done by drawing lines on the script...down the page vertically...a straight line if they are on camera, squiggly if they aren't. So I can, at a glance, note what angles have a certain character on camera. They also make notes about the take...like the director liked the first half of the take, but not the second half. Or that there was discontinuity of action at one point.
ANYWAY...I am straying from topic. I just wanted to say that the pressure is off...I can edit at a more leisurely pace, and I will be getting notes from the producer and director as to what takes to pay attention to, and which ones to ignore.
Ahhh....my old friend SLEEP...how I missed thee.
And time off...I got to put in a post for a clothes line, and play chess with my kids. Just what I need to relax the mind.
OH..and I watched BIONIC WOMAN. GAH...what a mistake. Stupidest new show of the year....
Posted by: Shane Ross on Oct 1, 2007 at 6:42:29 pm
OK...I haven't posted anything in a while (although I have a LOT to say) because I am busy. And I mean...BUSY. I am working on three projects at once: 1) Discovery Channel show (day job that pays the bills), 2) Short film that I am color correcting and prepping the audio for a mix, and 3) A short film by the same director that I am editing.
On the Discovery show, I am entering editing territory I am not too familiar with. CHARACTER driven show...they want to focus on the doctors and their motivations...how life in the trauma center affects them and how they deal with death. Different from the process shows I am used to cutting. This isn't TOO unfamiliar...I have done this before. But I have done it with constant help from a producer or writer...someone to either write a script, or sit with me and figure out what goes where and assemble the show. A creative collaboration. Someone who has seen ALL the footage...who was on the shoot, and knows it. Because I haven't seen it all (shame, but that would have taken 5 weeks of solid watching, and I didn't have that much time...yes, it is that much footage), so I look at certain things and am given direction on what to look at or look for, and we talk things over and lay out the show.
That is not what I am getting lately. We did have a writer, but he wrote traditional surgery stuff...stuff the network doesn't want...and he had to leave the show for health reasons. Then I had another producer, but she was overwhelmed. Doing all of the busy work on the show, and assisting on two more, so her attention was divided and unfortunately she could offer little guidance. Typically I should have a Producer and then an Associate Producer...the producer collaborating with the story and the AP doing all the busy work. I didn't get that until the week before I left for Amsterdam. I got full time attention in the bay and we cranked out a good show.
But, not the show the network wanted. MORE on the docs, LESS on the mechanics of dealing with patients. More here, less here. And when I returned my producer was gone...as was half the staff. Shooting was over...it was all post now. And my producer had another project...so...I then had my EP who helped during the last week before I left. Now I return and his attention was divided on three shows (as it should be as EP), getting one ready for online, another fine cut, another rough cut. So I was left to my own devices to figure out how to reorganize the show, and how to get more character into it. I had become a producer/writer/editor.
I edited Act 1 four different ways in 4 days. None of which worked out. Then the weekend...and then tackling it again on Monday. 6th day I get something that looks good...but then I see the rough cut of the first act of the second hour of the show and see where it is going...and it is BRILLIANT. The other editor knocked it out of the park. BANG ON what they wanted. Her and HER PRODUCER did a great job. For the two weeks I was gone the other editor was assigned a producer/writer who helped figure out the voice and theme of the show...and they just nailed it. But now he is done and off to another project. So the other editor and the EP flush out the remaining Acts. All good....all GREAT.
So...OK then...my cut is very lackluster in comparison. What to do to...make it better? What to do? I stare at the scene cards...re-arrange them. Then tackle the cut on the system...play it. Shake my head and re-arrange the cards again. Stare at them. Pound my head on the wall. I simply do not have what I need to have to process this. So I start watching interviews...FULL interviews. Pulling selects that I thought were good statements. Exec Producer popped head in to ask progress. SLOW...but getting there. He tosses out ideas that I decide to tackle to clear my head. 2 work, 4 don't. But, the two are good. So I look at the cards again...think think think...how do I...
INSPIRATION! I break up Act 1 so I build tension...start to know a character, lead that into a trauma...a tense one...then I end the act halfway thru. Open the next act with more on the doctor...more reason why he does what he does...finish on great statement that leads BACK into trauma bay. Wrap it up...good ending statements. But then...how do I intro the NEXT doctor? I gotta make it smooth. The show has to flow...can't be small individual story "pods" that I then slam together with a fancy quick flashy transition (what I am used to doing on process shows). I have to flow from one character to the next...a stream...not a bunch of puddles. Man, what is happening to my mind...puddles?
OH...it must be the lack of sleep. Because while I am doing all of this, I still have those TWO OTHER PROJECTS I AM WORKING ON TOO! Sleep? Well...yeah...kinda.
Side Project one is semi on hold. I had to work on it for a day...color correcting a few shots from different scenes so I can talk to the director about what I wanted to do and convery, and get her input as to what she thought and what changes she'd like to do. Ok, that wasn't bad.
But that is something I need to backburner for now. She (the director) just finished shooting a majority of her SECOND film, and she wanted a rough cut so they could see if they needed reshoots, and see how to film a few key scenes. So I tackle this....and initially I am given a WEEK to do this. OK...this is a short film...targetted at 30 min. When I worked on a 30 min kids show, we had a week to do the rough cut...but I was able to work 9 hours a day. Now? I only have 3-4. Why?
Well, I work all day on the paying gig...then home for dinner, play with the kids...get them to bed. Dishes to be done. Quick chat with the wife about affairs of the day...start work at 9 PM or 9:39 PM...work untl 1 AM or so. Go to bed. WAKE UP AT 6 AM TO GET THE KIDS READY FOR SCHOOL! That's right...5 hours sleep. Maybe four if I didn't get to sleep right away. This happens for a week. I am DEAD ON MY FEET...er...in my edit chair. NO WONDER I can't think straight in the edit bay...can't get Act 1 to work. Mentally wiped...physically sleepy.
Call from Short Film Producer...can we see it? Nope...I only edited 3 scenes out of 9. I may need another week, and even then I won't be done. Because there is SO MUCH FOOTAGE. Shot DVCPRO HD on the HVX-200. I finally figured out tonight how much footage I am wading thru...NINE HOURS. Why nine hours? Well, this film utilized TWO HVX-200 cameras...Multicamera shoot. So EVERY scene was shot with two angles. Footage doubled. And another reason I have so much footage? I am looking at EVERY TAKE. Not only was this ultra low budget...so they didn't have all the key crew...but when the did have the key crew (Script Supervisor in this case), they didn't do key things...like say "that take was no good...try again. Ok, that was good, print that. OH...Genuis! Print that!" On a narrative TV series shot on film, they wouldn't print every take. Some takes were OBVIOUSLY bad. So they didn't even have the editor look at them. HERE? I see EVERYTHING. And there is no indication in the script notes as to what was good, what wasn't. Key time saving technique. Also, the script supervisor pages weren't formatted properly...lines indicating what character was on camera for what take. So I have to search and search to find it.
I get calls all week on when can they see the cut? I tell them (producer, actor, director) that I will be lucky to be halfway thru. My day job comes first...family still needs to see me. And who doesn't need a LITTLE sleep. OK, they'll watch what I have on the weekend. During our many conversations I realize something...no one on the crew has even SEEN the footage! Not one second. NO WONDER they are clammoring to see a cut. They haven't seen ANYTHING. OK. We'll watch what I have, then I'll give the director the drive they gave me with all the footage back to her. I copied over everything to my main RAID drives. SO she can look at what she has. But the producer, saying "in all your wonderful free time (ta ha ha) can I burn DVDs of the dailies for her? Ooookay. Good thing I have a capture card and DVD recorder so I don't have to go through AUTHORING everything. But...time time time...
This is when I figure out that I have 9 hours and 20 mins. Stringing out the dailies for output. LAND SAKES ALIVE! How long will this take me? I can't keep this schedule up...
And all the while I am working on two different edit systems. Avid for the day job, FCP for the side projects. So I have to mentally shift gears and get my head in gear to work with each system. Another mental juggling act.
GAH! It is 2:45 AM...why am I NOT in bed? stupid stupid stupid...
Posted by: Shane Ross on Sep 29, 2007 at 1:57:25 am
I have become the type of editor that I used to make fun of as an assistant. In fact, I am sure the two assistants we have on this show are making fun of ME as I write this.
What is that kind of editor? The one who doesn't pay attention to what drive they are rendering to, or capturing to. The one who when something bad technical happens, is pretty much useless in terms of figuring anything out.
How did this happen? I was the assistant who figured all of this stuff out. I knew all the tricks to get the Avid working again. How to locate the CREATING files and TEMP files and trash them...that to fix media linking issues you trash the media file databases in the OMFI folders on the drives. That...
Wait...have I told you what happened yet? Oh, I see I haven't.
I lost 80% of my temp VO. And I was too...SOMETHING...to figure it out for myself. I dunno...stuck in my "creative" editing mind that I couldn't figure it out. Or daunted about working in OS9 again...something. Dunno...but I couldn't figure it out myself.
This happened before. The media was offline. BUT, it was there. I saw it. It didn't say OFFLINE in the bin, it just wouldn't play. Now, I did look on the drive I recorded it on and I saw it (Audio files have the name you give them in the Avid project, thank goodness)...but it wouldn't play. The Avid techs were called in (Assistants not on during the day) and they looked at the Unity, found the error, trashed the CREATING and TEMP files and BOOM, the audio came back. I felt a little stupid...but was happy to have the audio back.
Then on Friday the audio went away AGAIN, and I needed to do an output. So I was trying to be all "technical" and trashed the CREATING files, and TEMP files, and media databases and still...nada. Well darn it. And THIS time they said offline. So I was at a loss. Before I started recording the VO again, the assistants arrived and I asked one of them to look into it. HE did and said, "well, they're offline. They aren't here."
Uh...what? I look...the drive is EMPTY. Well, it has the database files, but NO MEDIA. Did I NOTICE THIS when I trashed the database files? No. How did I miss that there was NO MEDIA on the drive? Got me...I have no excuse. Buried in my creative mind. I had to laugh at myself for that. "Yep," the assistant continued. "Looks like this drive is corrupt. This is why you can't render to it either." I had beed getting an error when trying to render to the drive too. Forgot to mention that. And I got an error (FATAL ERROR) when loading the Media Composer software with that drive mounted. He took the drive offline, loaded MC, and no problem. "Yep, corrupt sector. We are replacing the Unity this weekend, so just do without it for now."
And while I feel like a BIT of a heel here, not remembering all this techie stuff, my job is to pay attention to the creative, so that is where it all lies. Working with FCP and working WITHOUT and assistant and building my own system has kept me in my tech head that I had as an assistant. But now with two assistants I guess I am getting spoiled.
I can get used to being spoiled. I like this. And if I provide a little amusement to the Assistants...it is well worth it.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Aug 25, 2007 at 10:11:26 pm
I was chatting with an editor friend of mine the other day about this and that...installing updates that won't break FCP, our various experiences with shows that we were/are working on, network nonsense...when the conversation turned to "transitions."
We were just talking about editing and concentrating on a good story were key, and how many productions/networks try to make shows better by adding fancy transitions. Complaining more like it. We are always asked to "make it better" or "more exciting" with "cool" transitions But, does it really? No...well, they may LOOK cool...I suppose...but does it make the show "better?" Or are we trying to fool people into THINKING it is better by adding the cool transitions? The latter is the case. If you don't tell a compelling story, then no amount of FANCY TRANSITIONS will make it better. But sometimes what we work on isn't exciting, so we are told to liven it up.
I see this on the forums too. People asking where they can get "really cool" transitions so they can make their project better. These same people think that adding the "film look" will make their projects better. That a CUBE SPIN will somehow make the story more compelling. Sorry guys...it doesn't.
My buddy commented how he was watching "housing porn" (home decorating show) on HGTV or somesuch network and in this show was a SPARKLE TRANSITION! I guess they thought that just the fact that you are showing off nice decorating tips wasn't enough. They wanted to GET YOUR ATTENTION..or "make it cool." I know this transition...it is part of the SAPPHIRE set that is available for Avid and FCP. I had the...pleasure...of using these on a VH1 show about a young female pop star. In fact, I used a bunch of these odd plugins, including that sparkle transition. WHY? Because I was told to. I didn't want to, but they wanted to ROCK the show and "liven" it up. Was the show good? No. It was all flash and no substance.
What transition do I use the most? Which is most effective? THE CUT. Simple cut from one scene to another. Sometimes a dissolve, to denote passage of time. The basic tools. Although I will admit that for Andrew Jackson I did a BLUR DISSOLVE (part of the <a href=http://www.nattress.com/Products/BigBox/Bigbox.htm target=_blank>Nattress Big Box of Tricks</a> instead of a regular dissolve. Because I knew the network would want something new...preemptive strike. I also added another cool transition that I discovered in FCP 5.1.4, the LIGHT ZOOM. I thought it was very cool, and used it as a transition to signify a flashback. It had a specific purpose. But then the network exec saw that, and REALLY liked it. "I want to see this transition used more!" I dug myself into a hole on that one. I wanted to use it ONCE as a flashback device, and now I had to "sprinkle" it about the rest of the show.
And I am ashamed to admit that I have worked on more than my share of no-substance-all-flash shows. Par for the course for the freelance editor. But in working on those shows, and employing all sorts of flash and trickery to try to make them better, I know that it is pointless. That without a good story, no sort of "plugin window dressing" will make it better.
Nothing beats a good story.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Aug 25, 2007 at 10:06:05 pm
