Media Management

Here's some tips for doing media management. Let's start with a basic media management example. In this case, you are done working on a project but need to keep it around for "just in case" type scenarios. For example, you have to make changes or revisions that aren't foreseeable now, or you might want to pull some shots for use in a different project in the future.

First, figure out what you want to media manage. The way that I recommend doing media management, you're going to be make a copy of a sequence or sequences (and their corresponding media) and then put them in a new project. So figure out what sequences are the ones that you want to keep. For example, for a promo, you made a version for air and another version for the web. I'd recommend media managing both of those sequences to a new project. When you manage more than one sequence, Final Cut Pro can figure out which media is used in both sequences. And FCP will only make one copy of that footage and not one for each time that clips is used. So if you have a bunch of different variations on a sequence (like a premiere promo, a repeat promo, a promo for the web) you won't be taking up a lot more space by managing all the variations at once.

Note that you should check for any offline clips before you select media manager. Open up any sequences and scan for any white clips in your timeline. If the clips are offline in the sequence, then they will also be offline in your new media manged copy of your project. Also, if there's media in the sequences that you didn't end up using, then delete those clips. For example, if you stick some shots that you didn't use at the end of a sequence, I recommend deleting them.

So select these sequences in the browser. Then select Media Manager under the File Menu. Here's a sample media management window.
This is from a speech of Robert Reich. The sequence that I selected references 76.6 GB of media. But not all of that media is actually in the final show. By only considering the amount of media that gets used in the cut, then I can make a much smaller copy of the project. In this case, I can copy all of the media I used (and some handles) to a project that only uses 23.7 GB of media. BTW, the "modified" bar will get updated as you change options. For example, try turning on and off the option for "Delete unused media from duplicated items." Hopefully, turning this on will give you a much smaller project.

Let's go option-by-option through this window.

Copy - I almost always use the "copy" option when media managing. This leaves all of your original media intact and in place. So you could keep working in the original project if you wanted (but you usually don't). One reason I do this is because media manager has a reputation of messing up media when using the "move" option. If that happened to you, you could lose some media--the "move"option deletes the original clips. So I recommend never using the move option. The "copy" option makes another copy of your project and its media. So the onus if on you to get back to the original project and delete any media that you don't need any more.

Include render files - Sometimes I check this, sometimes I don't. If you leave it on, then your new project will included any render file for sections of the sequence(s) that you have already rendered. This is good, if you're sequence has lot of effects that are slow to render. On the other hand, if you have a lot of render files, you can be taking up drive space for something that can be recreated without much editor labor. If you don't have a lot of render files, just go ahead and leave it checked.

Include master clips outside of the selection - I rarely use this option. This will take every master clip in the project and put it in your new project--even if it's not used in the sequence(s) that you've selected. I suggest leaving this off.

Delete unused media from duplicated items - Yes! This is where you can use your drive space efficiently. By checking this selection, you will only copy over the part of a clip that you actually used in your cut. So if you made a 30-second promo for an hour program, you don't have to make a copy of the entire show. You just want to copy the bits of the show that you used in the promo.

Use Handles - I usually use a second or two of handles. This will copy any extra footage available before the in point and after the out point on a piece of media. I like it because if I have to tweak something in the cut, then I can adjust my edit point. Or if I want to use a clip later in another project, then I have some more media to work with.

Include affiliated clips outside selection - I frankly don't know what this does. If you leave it unchecked, you'll still get all of the media that's in your sequence. If you select it, then sometimes you'll get some extra media. Let me know if you know what this means. I suggest leaving this off.

Base media files names on existing file names - I never gave this much thought. The media manager in this case is making copies of all your clips. You can change the name of the new files to what the original clip is called or to what the original file is called.

Duplicate selected items and place them into a new project - Yes, I recommend checking this. This way you'll get a new copy of the project. I like it that this new project is very clean--just the sequences that you've used.

Include nonactive multiclip angles - If your selection includes multiclips, then this option is important. I usually do not use this. If you leave it off, you won't be missing anything that is in your sequence(s). If you leave it on and you are managing multiclips, then you get all of the angles for those multiclips. This can add up to a lot of footage that's not in your sequences.

Media destination - Select where you want the copies of all the media to go to. Your new project has a separate save dialog box from this.

Please consider using our new G-Speed XSan volume to store your archived projects. There's a folder called "UserArchives" in there. This will put your copy off the main XSan volume, but still in a place where it's easily accessible.

After you press OK, then media manager will ask you where you want to save the new project file. When you've done that, Media Manager actually starts working. It will make copies of your new clips and save them to the destination of this new media. Then it creates the new project, which will then open up in Final Cut Pro. Check it out to make sure it worked OK.

Remember, you've just created a copy of your project. If the point of doing this is to free up space, you still have to go back to original files and delete them. If you don't, you're just taking up more space by creating a copy of your project.

Tips for Media Management-No Reel Names
One weird gotcha with media management is that FCP doesn't like clips without reel names. If a clip doesn't have a reel name, FCP will not delete unused media. So if you use 30 seconds of a an hour-long clip, FCP will still copy over the whole hour. Not an efficient use of drive space. If you add anything into the reel name of that clip, then FCP will delete unused media.

To edit the reel name of a clip, select the clip, then do command-9. This bring up the Clip Info window. Here's what that window looks like:
Select the Logging tab. The second row in this view is for "Reel". Click on the blank spot to the right of the word "Reel" and underneath the name of the clip. Then you can add whatever you want to name the clip (e.g., "none", "unknown", "Tape 3B", "05May2010")--just as long as it's not blank. In the example image, where it says "001" is where you could click to edit the reel name.

Sometimes, you will know easily if a clip doesn't have a reel name. For example, any clip that was imported into Final Cut Pro (as opposed to captured) doesn't have a reel name. So, for example, clips from Crawford will come into Final Cut Pro without a reel name. Other times, it will be hard to figure out which clips don't have reel names. If you try to media manage a project and it seems like your copy is bigger than it should, try to figure out if you are copying clips without reel names. Usually a copy of a minute promo, will be less than 500 MB. If it's over a 1 GB, then you should definitely look for clips without reel names.

Here's a tip for finding clips without reel names. This tip uses Media Manger, but in a different way. Media manage the selection that you want to make a copy of, but instead of choosing "copy" under Media, choose "use existing". (Important! Make sure "Delete Unused Media" is not selected. If you delete unused media, then Media Manager will destructively trim footage from your original media. Ouch!) Save a new project (it doesn't matter where, since you are not going to work with this project for more than a few minutes.) This new project will then open up. In the bin called "Master Clips" are all the clips that were in your selection. Open up this bin in the list view, and then find the column for "Reel". You can see right away which clips have reel names and which don't. For some things, like graphics and music, it doesn't really matter if they have reel names.

I often sort the view by the length of the clips. That way I can start by looking at the biggest clips. To sort the list view by the length of clips, find the column for length, then click on the column header that says "Length." If you click again, it will switch from ascending order to descending order (or vice versa.) You can also sort by reel name by clicking on the column header that says "Reel"--that way all clips without reel names will be listed together. Unfortunately, there are lots of columns in the list view. The reel column is usually way off to the right. You can drag column around to place the reel column next to the length column. The handle to drag a column is its header. (BTW, length is different than duration. Duration measures the time between the in and out point. But length measure the total time of the entire clip.) You can edit the reel name in the list view (you don't have to open the Clip Info window.)

Tips for Media Management-Audio Keyframes
One bug in Media Manager has to do with audio keyframes. For some clips, the audio keyframes get messed up in the managed copy of a sequence. This is a pain because it can screw up your audio mix. So here's what I do as a workaround.

I will first do the media management. Then I go back to the original project with my good mix in it and do an export of the sequences that I have media managed. Go ahead and export the video and audio--not a bad idea to do an export of the picture to for reference. But you really will want to have the audio in place and sounding the way you want in this copy. Export these movies to the same folder where your managed media is. Then import this clip or these clips into the media managed project. Then you are going to cut this mixed down audio into your managed sequence. Go ahead and leave in the old audio too--don't delete it. Having both sources of audio in at first will help you to make sure your mixed down audio is in sync with the timeline. Once the mixed down audio is in and synced up, just turn off all the other audio tracks in the timeline except for the 2 tracks where your mixed down audio is. Now your sequence should sound just like it originally did.

BTW, for promos at Link, don't put in any dates or times in the exported audio. Since this voiceover needs to be updated regularly, we don't want that in the mixed down audio.

If you want to learn all the ins and outs of media manager, then I suggest checking out some of the online tutorials at lynda.com. There's a whole section on the media manager in this course Final Cut Pro 6 Essential Training. Let me know if you don't know how to log on using our lynda.com account (these tutorials aren't publicly available for free.)

December Blogwad

I seem to do most of my blogging when I'm at home sick. Well now that I've got a cold, here's a backlog of interesting links on the web.

MacWorld Review: AppleJack 1.5
This is a piece of shareware for servicing your ailing Mac. It's a command-line utility, that helps simplify running some commands that can help fix your Mac. Includes a copy of memtest, which does a thorough check of your memory that helps diagnose bad RAM.

MacWorld First Look: boxee
boxee is an application for accessing digital media that is on your computer and on the internet. It's in alpha right now (I've run into quite a few bugs). But it's a promising concept that illustrates well the future of TV. It's got a 15-feet interface, so you can sit back on your couch and control the app with your Apple Remote. Lets you access Hulu (watch The Daily Show, 30 Rock) and (just added) Netflix support. So you can use the boxee interface to navigate and watch Netflix video that's in your Instant queue (oh, that's something that NetFlix recently allowed on Mac's--you don't need boxee to do that.) boxee runs on Mac's, Linux, and on Apple TV. You can sign up to get into the alpha release or ask a friend for an invitation. I wish Apple TV had this functionality built-in--Apple needs to up their game if they want to stay competitive with hardware and software for entertainment in the living room.

Digital Rebellion: How to keep your job as an editor
This article cover some technical gotchas that will mar your work and how to fix/avoid them in FCP. It goes over my current pet peeve--incorrect field dominance. I've been seeing more and more of this recently. Unfortunately, DV video uses a standard, lower-field dominance, that is very rare in video. Most other formats, like HDV, are upper-field dominant. You can run into a lot of problems when you mix formats in a timeline like DV and HDV. All of this is made more complex because anyone working in HD is probably not using a display that is interlaced--so it's easier to miss these problems. That's one reason why I'm not going to give up on my CRT any time soon--you've got to be checking for interlacing issues.

AppleCare Articles
Convert MP3 and AAC audio files for compatibility before importing
I've run into some weirdness recently with 44 KHz audio files in FCP--if they get rendered then the audio is from a different part of the track then it should be. Solution: convert the audio file to 48 KHz as described in this article.
Creating an Easy Setup for capturing DV with 32 kHz audio
Speaking of audio issues... For those of us still working in DV, once and a while you'll run into some audio at 32 KHz, instead of the usual 48 KHz.
Restoring a DV device connection in QuickTime 7
Can't say I've ever done this, but I've definitely run into issues with DV device connection in FCP. Maybe this will do the trick for you.

A couple of good lists of video tools:
Final Cut User: My Compression Tools
The DV Show: Big List of Video & Audio Converters Mac, PC, and online applications and tools

slashCAM: HD Camcorder Comparison
Looking for a new camera below $10K? This is a great resource. A giant database of specs that you can access in a comparison layout. Also has test shots, and some review info.

Vincent Laforet: 7 DAYS, 7 SHOOTS - EOS 5D MKII
A very beautiful-looking video shot with a Canon digital SLR camera. I haven't been blogging about video on DSLR's--there are a lot of pitfalls to this approach. But check out the video, just to get a sense of how pretty low-cost video could look.

Larry Jordan: Fixing Fluorescent Flicker
This is a nasty problem that I've seen a lot in footage that comes from developping countries. It's caused by cheap fluorescent lighting (can't say I've ever seen it in footage from the States.) This solution won't fix every bad shot, but it could help.

Kensington Mice and After Effects CS4
Oh, we've got a copy of Adobe Production Premium CS4 in house. I'm excited to check out the new 3D features (including real 3D models). One new 3D feature relies on a 3-button mouse. This article helps you set up your current mouse to work as a 3-button input device.

Studio Daily Blog: Multiuser
This looks like a handy piece of software that will set up different user settings on the same computer.

FxFactory Freebies: Pan and Zoom
A free plug-in for FCP. Looks good for stills. I'd avoid applying this to standard-def footage, as SD footage looks like crap when it gets scaled up (especially if it's interlaced.) But I'm much more open to zooming in on HD footage. Just make sure that you capture your HDV footage as native HDV and that the deck isn't downconverting it over firewire. (Caveat: watch out for our old-frenemy interlace flicker if you put your HDV footage in a DV sequence.)

Is Your Video Looking Rough Around the Edges?

"Am I Rendering And Viewing At The Best Quality With FCP?" By Andrew Balis

This is a very good article over at kenstone.net. This is a topic that I sort of took for granted that I knew everything that I needed to know about rendering--then I find out features that I didn't even know about. One of these is the audio mixdown vs item levels rendering. There was also a setting for HDV rendering that I had totally misinterpreted the meaning of--it would cause me to have to re-render all my HDV footage, which takes a long time.

The article points out that the quality of real-time previews sometimes isn't as good as rendered quality. I used to see this everytime I did Latin Pulse. I like to use dissolves on title clips. If I had a color-correction on the video below the title, then the title would drop to half-resolution even though the timeline said it should be "Full Quality." So I would have to go in and render all of these little dissolves or change my settings to render out everything that should playback at "Full Quality."

So if you want your video to look as good as possible and your audio to sound as good as possible, I recommend this article.

Summer Blogwad

I'm just dumping some interesting links here to check out.

Digital Rebellion: Recommended QuickTime and Mac OS configurations for Final Cut Pro
A list of recommended combos of FCP, Quicktime, and OS versions. Let's just call this why not to update your systems unless you absolutely need to. On the other hand, it sucks being caught in FCP 5.1.4 world while everyone else has moved on. That's more of a money issue than a technology issue though.

Digital Rebellion: List of QuickTime downloads
A continuation of the theme of don't upgrade if you don't have to. If you have to upgrade but it's not to the latest and (ahem) greatest, then this page will help you find the appropriate upgarde for QuickTime. Similarly, the LAFCUP has a wiki page on Quicktime updates.

Little Frog in High Def: APPLE PRO APPS UPDATE 2008-02
Good advice on downloading all updates to Final Cut Pro even if you don't intend to upgrade. The reason is that Apple doesn't make old updates available for FCP (unlike QuickTime). There are situations where you might want to upgrade but not to the latest version--if you don't have the update then Apple isn't going to help you. You can download updates through Apple's Final Cut Pro page--you don't have to upgrade through the Software Update control panel.

Final Cut User: Using FLVs in Final Cut Pro
Some good tips on using video downloaded from the web from sites like YouTube. I didn't know about using the QuickTime wrapper to help the editing of FLV's--sound like a helpful tip.

"Ten Tips For A Better Final Cut Pro Experience"
This is a good read. An experienced editor wrote down 10 good tips. Good write-up on media management. Also some interesting tips on multicam, amongst a number of other good ideas.

kenstone.net: Color Workflows With Different Types of Sources
By Andrew Balis
Want to work in Color? This seems like a good guide for getting footage in and out for your next go as a colourist.

Overview Video on Sony EX3
I don't think I've talked about the Sony EX3 because I think the MSRP was over $10K and that's my cut-off point for talking about cameras. But it lists for under $10K, and it looks like a good upgrade to the Sony EX1. I've been hearing about and seeing folks use the EX1. Seems like the XDCAM format on SxS memory cards could take off.

ProLost: On Clipping, Part 1
Very tech-y. But interesting to get a theoretical understanding of how video works. Folks interested in Red should read. It helped me understand why there is more grain in dark areas of video than in light areas. Also discusses important differences in how film and video represent light.

ProLost: Go Naked pt. 2
A good example of the guerrilla filmmaking model as described in Stu Maschwitz's "The DV's Rebel Guide." More interesting to me is that Vimeo not only streams HD, but allows downloads too of Quicktime movies (the film shown is downloadable at 1280x720). You can upload up to 500MB per week to Vimeo. An interesting way to share footage encoded in h.264--nice that it allows both streaming and downloading.

stockfootageforfree.com
Not awesome but could help in a pinch. I did about 10 searches on foreign countries, and the only video I got was touristy stuff from Cancun. Some OK shots of D.C., SF, and NYC. [via freshdv.com]

Troubleshooting with Activity Monitor

Recently Activity Monitor has been instrumental in troubleshooting problems for me. Activity Monitor is part of the Mac OS and lives in the Utilities folder, which is in the Apps folder. It gives you read-outs on things going on with the computer, including what the CPU and RAM are doing.

Here are a couple of good descriptions of the RAM display in Activity Monitor:
Final Cut Studio - System Memory Usage--Larry Jordan's Tip of the Day
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor--Apple Support

The two pages actually give somewhat contradictory advice. Larry Jordan says that if your wired and active memory is regularly half of total memory then you could benefit from a RAM upgrade. While Apple says that even if you only have 10MB of free memory you don't necessarily need more RAM.

I've been noticing some bad examples of slow FCP that I blame on memory issues. So I think it's important to keep track of your RAM issues. Here some tips to keep your RAM usage streamlined and efficient:
- If you don't plan to switch back to an app, quit it and don't leave it open
- Avoid running multiple apps at once, especially programs that can suck up memory, like FCP, DVD Studio Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop
- Only keep open FCP projects open that you need, same things with sequences
- Restart your computer at least once a day and if your system seems really slow then restart it
- Web browser and webpages can use a surprising amount of RAM--avoid browsing with lots of windows/tabs
Now all of these RAM saving tips can reduce your efficiency in working. So it's a tradeoff. If your system zips along fine, then don't worry about it. But if you notice that your system starts the day zippy and ends up later trudging along, then try to follow some of or all of these tips.

I also uncovered a problem recently with Mosaic where the Mosaic project file had become huge even though there didn't seem to be that many clips or edits in the project. The size of the project file can give you an idea about how much memory an FCP project will take up in your RAM and how many resources the computer will use to work with the project. I'm not really sure why the Mosaic project file got so large--over 300MB. But I think it hurt that the editors were just adding stuff into the same project file day after day--even if they were deleting old clips and sequences regularly. I think the Mosaic project seems to have retained data from old clips and/or timelines that had been deleted and didn't appear in the project view. So I created a new project and just copied the timeline and clips that were visible in the project window--the new project was something-like one-tenth of the size, and the system got much quicker. I also read recently that clips that are really long are more taxing on the computer than more shorter clips that have the same amount of media.

Another things that Activity Monitor does is measure CPU usage. This was helpful recently when I was having problems with the single processor G5 computer. An intern was having problems capturing DV footage from a DV deck. I had set up an unusual firewire cabling setup, so first I tried changing that--no luck. Then I brought in a different deck. No matter what I did, I was still getting dropped frames and funky audio dropouts. I noticed that the intern had Firefox running, which I didn't think was I big deal--she was checking her Gmail. Then I opened up the Activity Monitor and I saw that Firefox was quite active. It's CPU usage was hopping all around, peaking at up to 15% of the computer's CPU usage. And it wasn't even like she was actively browsing--that's was up to 15% of the CPU just to keep up with Gmail. Well I quit Firefox and the computer started capturing fine and did about 5 hours of capture with no problems.

Now I'm lucky to have a four-core G5, and I regularly have multiple webpages, email client, and even iTunes running all while I capture from DV. But for a single-processor G5 the demands of running FCP, capturing DV, and having Gmail open were too much. So it is important to know your computer. Also remember that laying off is at least as demanding on your system as capture and almost always much more. You are almost always playing back multiple clips at once (remember all your audio tracks) and your system is probably trying to apply some real-time effects to the video and/or audio. So be even more conservative about what your computer is doing when you lay off to tape.

BTW, I recommend Larry Jordan's Tip of the Day. I don't want to visit his website everyday, so I subscribed to the RSS feed and check out the tips when I have time.

Final Cut Server--Extra Credit

I did a big post on Final Cut Server last month. If you have not read it, please do. It covers what FC Server is and also lays out how we could use it at Link. This article is extra credit for folks who are really interested in the software.

I went to a presentation on Final Cut Server. It was hosted by Advanced Systems Group. They had a guy from Apple there to talk about the software. Then another guy gave a spiel about how you really want an expert to set up and customize FC Server. They gave some examples where you'll want an expert--setting up a web interface to videos, interacting with automation/playout servers.

One thing I realized at the presentation is that our metadata situation with our Final Cut projects is poor to useless. I know I rarely label clips with helpful info. I try to name projects accurately with the title of a project, but sometimes I don't get it right or the project name changes. Even tape numbers are not always entered or done so accurately. What's the point of having a giant database if you can't search with confidence that you'll actually find what you are looking for? Not to mention an ideal functionality like having files indexed with useful metadata so you could do keyword searches, say "insurgent attacks" and get some dramatic footage from Mosaic.

At our office editors usually haven't collaborated. I usually took an attitude of "if I can find it/figure it out, that's all that matters." But that kind of attitude is the opposite of what's needed for asset management. Extra work needs to go into getting good metadata with your media. Since we don't have the option of hiring a librarian to organize things, that means more work for the editors probably who have to have bought into the process. If they haven't then things will slack off and the metadata won't get entered.

While Final Cut Server does everything that I wrote about in my last post on it, the Apple guy and the ASG folks were really pushing that you have to have an expert to set it up. I think I could get it to do everything that I discussed in my last post with the caveat about searching through poor metadata.

We've talked about hosting media from Mosaic on the web. Again, FC Server won't do this on its own. But it seems like it would be a good spot to organize that media. Then with automation scripting in FC Server, you could hand off the media to a website that handles the front-end, movie hosting, etc. FC Server would be where staff would import media and attach metadata to make it useful for users. FC Server could automatically hand it off to a system to handle the web part with scripting done by somebody knowledgeable.

Below are the notes that I took at the session:

Once a project is imported into FC Server you need to check in and check out. If you keep a copy locally and work with it again after import, then FC Server will think it's a new file when you try to put it back into FC Server. So basically it adds an extra step to opening a project--you have to check it out of FC Server first. Then you have to check it back in to get it to FC Server to update the media for it. Looks like more work for the editor, who has to have bought into the process--otherwise, he or she will just keep everything locally.

Showed a cool video about Radical Media
Translation done in China and FC Server handled ftp for cutting in New York. Complex workflow with steps and notification automated. Required scripting to make FC Server work with ftp server. Process also described in this white paper called "Final Cut Server in Depth" (PDF download.) Translation was added as subtitles using the title tool in Final Cut Pro. BTW, that's extra work for the translator. For Latin Pulse we do subtitles and it takes a lot of time. Translation is done first by someone with good Spanish and English, then spotting and creation of titles is done afterwards by someone who doesn't need language skills that are that strong. (Another step is me reviewing all of the subtitles, suggesting rewrites, adjusting the layout of the titles, and editing if the translation is too long to get read in real time.)

Check out Final Cut Pro projects from Server
Options to handle media when you check out a project
-Edit in place (doesn't do anything really)
-Edit proxies (good for taking a project home for the weekend or on the road)
-Disconnected use (makes a copy of the project and its media, like media manager)
Can't use project until it is checked back in. That is folks can't work on the same FCP project at the same time.

Media manager only recommended if you are creating a whole new version of a project. Again you have to play by FC Server's rule if you want it to track your stuff well.

Demo'd a web interface to log and annotate clips. But this was only a demo version and is not part of the softare. This was a "what you could do" if you are web developer or could afford to hire one. Hmm, well I'm not and we can't for what I do.

FC Server Strategy Meeting--topics for discussion
-Storage plan (for proxy files)
-Type of proxies
-Workflow strategy (what do you do with your media, where does it go, how does it get there, who does what with the media, aka Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How)
-Users
-Advanced automation
-email notifications
-Compression & distribution
-Web review (again not part of the product)
-"Customer" access to FCS

Automated backup can be done--setup rules for when to backup
For example: if file hasn't been touched in a certain amount of time, move to backup storage

Don't have to do an initial scan that sucks in all of your media, it may be better to add project by project. That way, you can be more thorough with metadata.

Annotate is where you can tag in and out markers and comments on clips. Apple guy said that this is supposed to be for transfer of this info back to FCP, but he didn't know how to do it/if it could be done now. Originally, there was going to be similar functionality to make simple edited sequences--I think those would have been transfered back through XML files. But Apple guy said no editing functionality but he "hoped" that they would add that feature because they touted it last year. Annotate is where producers could check out clips for editing and mark ins and outs for editors. It would be great if that could get into FCP. It would still be great for the producers to mark ins and outs on media directly on the clips as opposed to making notes on paper based on time code from a Beta or DV or timer from DVD. But without sending that info back to FCP, editor has to manually transfer in and out points.

Does it work with stills? Sure. FC Server is based on the Artbox software, which was originally written for still images. Also useful for getting producers to sign off on graphics. No need to drag Wendy into the editing room for her to look at something, which (I hope) she will just say OK to anyway. Yeah, for real collaboration you have to be in the same room but for quick and dirty this would be really nice to speed things up.

Suggestions from presenters that FC Serve can read After Effects files to get the links to the media that the project uses. That would be cool.

24p vs. 30p

So we are moving away (slowly all be it) from interlaced video to progressive video. There are a number of framerates common with progressive. Here's a brief breakdown
24 fps--what's used on film
30 fps--half as many samples per second as regular TV (e.g., 60 interlaced)
25 fps--half the frame rate of regular TV in Europe (e.g., 50 fps)
50 fps--the samples of images per second used in European TV
60 fps--the samples of images per second used in North America TV ( which is usually interlaced)

So people generally prefer the slower frame rates in documentaries and dramatic material because it reminds people of film and the cinema--in short it looks classy. The faster frame rates look like TV and are a must have for sports where things are moving fast.

This post is primarily concerned with the technological differences (and not aesthetic) between different frame rates. (If you want to brush up on your basic knowledge of interlaced versus progressive, check out their definitions from this glossary from Quantel.) So let me outline a couple of the technical advantages of progressive video versus interlaced video:

1) Monitors are rapidly turning progressive--LCD's (both TV's and computers) and plasmas. These monitors can't natively display interlaced video. So some processing has to be done to de-interlace, and very often you end of losing resolution (and lots of it) when the de-interlacing happens. It depends partly on how good the hardware is that does the de-interlacing, but this happens at the consumer's end--so you never quite know how it will look. In short, a cheap TV will do a bad job of this.

2) Better effects work on progressive footage. Lots of effects, including scaling, require the video to be de-interlaced. Final Cut Pro does a lousy job of de-interlacing. If your footage is progressive (and FCP knows it), then it won't de-interlace to do simple things like scaling up the video. This past week, I had to include some letterboxed standard-def video in a high-def show. It looked super soft in FCP. So I used Compressor to do a very slow but very good de-interlacing of the footage, which I then scaled up (but again I didn't even scale this footage in FCP). It looked a lot better with the de-interlacing that Compressor does than the de-interlacing that FCP does.

3) Progressive distribution of video. Computer monitors were never interlaced--so anything for distribution on computers benefits from being progressive. Also DVD's will handle 24 fps. This is great if the video is going to a progressive display, e.g., LCD or Plasma. As mentioned above, interlaced footage needs to de-interlaced to be scaled, but progressive doesn't. So a 24fps DVD will usually look much better on a high-def display than a comparable 60i video.

Important note: DVD doesn't have a standard for 30 fps--it's either 60i or 24 fps. So your DVD player and your TV treat 30 fps just like 60i--if it gets scaled up then you could lose resolution (but not always--again it depends on the display.)

Now let me move on to outline some advantages and drawbacks of different framerates:

24 fps: So if you're going to make a film print, then you should shoot in this framerate. OK .001 per cent of anything shot by professionals will ever end up on film. But because 24fps has been very hot for many years (essentially the Panasonic DVX-100 set that off) there are a lot of post workflows for working with 24 fps. 30 fps is gaining ground though--there are now lots of setups in FCP for it.

24 fps is very close to 25 fps. So a general option for converting for a European master is to just speed up the movie by 4%. No elaborate and/or expensive standards conversion. I think Compressor will handle this 4% speed up for you. I recently did a post of a technology guide from Quantel and they recommend 24fps as a universal format because it is so easy to transfer across the Atlantic.

And it's important that your software knows that you want to work progressive. You can put 24fps or 30fps in a 60i timeline, but then you've lost all of the technological advantages of working progressive. Your editing software, your computer, your DVD player, your TV will treat it like interlaced video. So as a general rule, pick a frame rate and stick to it throughout post and distribution. Obviously this can sometimes be really problematical--what about archival footage that's 60i? Or you want to work with a shooter and they don't own a camera that shoots progressive. You can convert that to 24fps using Compressor, but it's a real pain. No easy answer for this one.

As or 30 fps, one advantage is that is has more samples per second than 24 fps. 24 fps can look kind of choppy--you especially have to be careful with panning quickly. 30 fps is no walk in the park in this regards, but you have 25% more samples of the image per second than with 24 fps--so definitely less choppy.

In general for cameras, especially with CCD chips, it is easier to create 30 fps than 24 fps. CCD's have been doing 60i for so long that a lot of cameras out there are still based around that technology. Namely, the Sony HVR-Z1, which Link owns. The Z1 doesn't do real progressive imaging, but with the Cineframe modes you can get video that has 24, 25, or 30 images per second. Basically the camera blends the interlaced video to get progressive-looking video. Apparently, the Cineframe 24 with the Sony Z1 is supposed to be really crummy. The Cineframe 30 is supposed to be better, as is the Cineframe 25. Basically the camera is capturing video in an interlaced manner 60 time per second and has to figure out how to make progressive frames with it. With all Cineframe modes, this means tossing out some resolution. The Canon XL-H1 also does a similar process to get progressive frame rates. But going to 30 fps from 60i is easier--basically is the image is moving than you throw about every other field. And the Z1 does Cineframe 30 reasonably but fails with Cineframe 24 (Caveat: this is definitely true for HD, but if you are downconverting to SD it might be OK.)

One option I saw discussed over at a great post and discusion, which talks about frame rates, at HD for Indies is to shoot with the Z1 Cineframe 25 and then slow it down to get 24 fps. I think the easiest way to do this would be with Compressor, but these Compressor workflows are a hassle. However, if quality is important than this is an option.

By the way, Sony is moving from CCD's to CMOS, and the CMOS sensors are much more versatile with frame rates. So the HVR-V1 chips natively captures at 24 fps, as does the new EX-1, the HVR-Z7 and HVR-S270.

One problem is that even if the camera can capture images at 24 fps (or 30 fps), the camera often actually records in video that is actually 60i. With 24 fps that is recorded in a signal of 60i, the camera adds pulldown (see the definition in this Quantel post I did). In post you need to remove the pulldown, otherwise your editing software just treats it like 60i and you lose all the technological advantages of working with progressive video. So to post at 24 fps, you may have to convert the footage to remove the pulldown. This can make post-production very complex. FCP has added a setup for version 6.0.2, which is supposed to automatically remove the pulldown from the V1's 24 fps footage. Newer gear from Sony like the Z7 and S270 are doing a native framerate of 24fps recording in HDV. Tapeless cameras like the Panasonic HVX-200 and the Sony PMW EX-1 handle progressive footage in a much more straight-forward manner.

One drawback with 30 fps is that it doesn't convert well to 24 fps or 25 fps. 60i is easier to convert to 25 fps because it has a lot more samples across time to work with. Basically when you are doing a major standards conversion, a computer needs to generate frames that don't exist by analyzing the image information that is available. The more samples of images, the better that this process can be handled. In short if you have to make 25 fps video or 50i video, than 60 images per second is much better than 30 images per second. (Remember that going from 24 fps to 25 fps can be done in a much easier way by simply speeding up the video by 4%.)

UPDATE
I thought I should add a caveat about the above comments on standards conversion. The workflow that I desribe for speeding up 24 fps to make it a European-friendly 25 fps is a workflow that I've only heard discussed as a step done in a computer, e.g., Final Cut Pro or Compressor. So you could convert the footage on your Mac--but you'd still have to make a master on a 25 fps or 50 fps format, usually tape like DigiBeta or if HD, HDCam or DVCProHD. The traditional way to do standards conversion is that folks just make an NTSC master of their program and then send it to a high-end dub house to get a PAL copy done. This is obviously easier than having to make a master on your own for formats designed to work in Europe. I don't know of a dub scenario that exists for taking a 24 fps master and speeding it up during a transfer to make it 25 fps. If you want a standards conversion done during a dub, then 24 fps may not be any better than 30 fps.

In short, there is no easy answer to this question. First you got to know your camera, know your post options, and know your distribution plans. From there, it's a matter of trade-offs, for quality, time, and money.

Apple Rumors (and a little news)

I try not to pass along rumors, but there's a scary one that's been floating around enough that I thought I'd mention it. I think it started around the time that Apple said that it was going to skip NAB. The word from the grapevine is that Apple is going to sell its Pro Apps, which includes Final Cut Pro.

The rumor has been pretty persistent, enough for Apple to officially deny it. In Robert Cringely's latest article he says that Apple spent the NAB conference looking for buyers for their Pro Apps. He's been saying for a while that Apple will buy Adobe in order to get Flash. If that's the case, then Cringely thinks that Apple can't keep both their Pro Apps and Adobe's competing products, like Premiere, After Effects, and their other audio-video apps because of anti-trust concerns. He's more convincing than any of the other sources that I've heard with this rumor or similar ones, so I'm a little more concerned about it. Although, Cringely goes on to to suggest that if Apple really did buy Adobe, then it would sell the Adobe apps that compete with Apple's.

I still think it's unlikely that Apple would sell Final Cut Pro, and for that viewpoint there's a short blog at Final Cut User.

For a bit of official news, there was a statement from an Apple employee on why Final Cut Server took so long to appear on the market--nearly a year after it was announced. According to this interview at TVBEurope, Apple went back to the drawing board to make Final Cut Server easy to administer. Apple's marketing director for professional video apps said that they were reworking Final Cut Server so that it could run "without an IT department to support it." Final Cut Server seems to have been based on asset management software that Apple acquired late in 2006 from a company called Proximity. If they were simplifying the software, I can appreciate that. I'm not interested in becoming an IT professional, but I'm the most likely person to set up and run Final Cut Server at Link TV.

In the same article, Apple's marketing guy says that they have sold a million licenses of FCP. He also said that FCP had 49% market share in 2007 versus Avid's 22% share.

Interlacing

I spent 11 hours on Friday fixing a show, which was cut by an editor outside of Link, the day before air. One of the big problems with the show is that the editor didn't seem to have any concept of interlacing. For example, HDV and DV have different field order--HDV is upper field first, and DV is lower field first. You can't just throw them together in the same timeline without some processing. That processing is namely the "Shift Fields" filter. When editing HDV that's in the viewer into a DV sequence using the overwrite or insert command, FCP will automaticaly apply the Shift Fields filter with the correct setting--it also scales and distorts the video so it looks proper. However, I think if you just drag an HDV clip into a DV timeline, then FCP does not apply the filter, scale, and distort settings to the clip.

If you don't apply the shift field filter when you are mixing footage with different field orders, then you will got stuttery playback. Chris & Trish Meyer have a good write-up on fields along with all the particulars you need to know to handle interlacing in After Effects. Check out this article from ProVideo Coalition:
Field Order - Who’s on First?

I suspect that the show that I fixed was edited on an LCD monitor. FCP makes it easy enough to use a computer LCD to display footage that I think more and more people are doing without a video monitor. Some might even say that interlace is dead because 99% (not actual number) of new TV's are progressive anyway. Well, as long as you are delivering for standard-definition, then I think you have to got to look at your show on a CRT monitor that can properly display interlace (except for those rare cases, when you have a 24p show that is only going to DVD in standard-def.) There will be plenty of CRT TV's around for a long time, and plenty of broadcasters using 480i or DVD video encoded as 30i.

Capture HDV as ProRes 422

"Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!"
This is a short tutorial over at the Creative Cow about converting HDV to ProRes 422 during capture. Will give you an idea about how to do this and how it works.

Note that in the comments section, the author advises against reimporting the clips from the finder in order to rename them (something that is recommended in the article itself). The reason he changed his mind is that FCP 6 lets you rename clips and then changes the name of the media files to match--pretty cool.

More notes on this process here at Little Frog in High Def:
CAPTURING HDV AS PRORES...VIA FIREWIRE

Utility Offers Import of AVCHD on G5's, G4's

I read about a nifty looking utility in a Final Cut Express review at macworld.com. Voltaic is the missing link for PowerPC users who want to cut AVCHD footage.

The need for this utility arises from Apple's refusal to support AVCHD on PowerPC Macs--only newer Intel Mac's can convert AVCHD footage to something that you can edit. This applies to both iMovie '08, Final Cut Express, and Final Cut Pro. Voltaic lets PowerPC users convert their AVCHD footage to AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec.) AIC is supposed to be similar to ProRes 422 with the main difference being that AIC is 8-bit and ProRes 422 is 10-bit. Also, Voltaic offers a workflow for cutting AVCHD footage recorded onto DVD's, which Apple isn't supporting now.

So what's AVCHD? If you don't know, you can check out these older posts:
AVCHD Support in FCP
AVC: More Format Wackiness
AVCHD Is a Pro Format

While we're on the topic of AVCHD, Canon has announced a couple of new camcorders, which record in AVCHD using flash memory, as well as a replacement for the popular HV20. Here's the news on that:
"Canon Debuts First High Definition Solid State Camcorders: HF10 and HF100"
"Move Over HV20, Here Comes the Canon HV30"
These flash memory camcorders are really small, and I have hopes that Canon's new camcorders will produced some good looking high-def video. I got to play around with Sony's AVCHD flash memory camcorder the HDR-CX7 recently--could be a decent B-Cam and its size makes it inconspicuous and good for travel.

Camcorderinfo.com's annual list of the best consumer cameras CamInfo Selects 2007 saw Canon take home the top honors. The HV20 was the best camcorder, and the HG10, which records AVCHD to a hard drive, was also honored. Apparently Canon's cameras do a better job of encoding video into AVCHD than either Sony's or Panasonic's camera. This isn't good news for Panasonic because unlike Sony and Canon, Panasonic is trying to use AVCHD in cameras marketed to Pros.

Upscaling Software Comparison

"Integrating DV Source Footage into HDV Projects, Part 2" by Jan Ozer

Need to incorporate some standard-def footage into a high-def project? Then check out this article. It compares results of upscaling standard def footage to HD with 5 different packages, including FCP. The long and short of it is that it looks like spending $99 on Red Giant Software's Instant HD provides some nice improvements over the built-in scaling of FCP and Premiere Pro.

The article has some very handy comparison shots of the results from different packages. Click on the image with this post to see a larger view of a comparison of Instant HD and FCP. The image shows at the top, Instant HD, and below it, FCP. The handy red circles gives you points of comparison. Instant HD doesn't help with every shot though, and it doesn't create miracles, i.e., make your SD look as sharp as if it was actually shot in HD.

Not included in the comparison is a workflow mentioned by the author in another article that I posted about earlier--using Compressor. I think a good deinterlace from Compressor would have helped with some of the jaggies that showed up in all of the FCP examples of up-rezing. On the other hand, Compressor's good deinterlacing is very slow and the workflow is more complicated than just popping on a filter, like Instant HD, right in Final Cut.

The clear winner in the comparison, Algolith by AlgoSuite, is no longer available. The company has decided to discontinue the software to focus on dedicated hardware that does real-time processing. Not tested in this article is hardware-based upscaling like the AJA Kona 3 does or the Terranex.

Scaling Up your Video

Integrating DV Source Footage into HDV Projects, Part 1 By Jan Ozer

This is a good article on the basic issues on scaling up footage for high-definition video. Goes over frame resolution, pixel aspect ratio, and interlace. One good tidbit mentions an advantage to using Compressor with interlaced footage:

On the other hand, when converting from interlaced DV to progressive HD, deinterlacing is a huge component of the quality equation, which could and perhaps should change your workflow, particularly for Final Cut Pro editors. That’s because Final Cut Pro deploys different deinterlacing algorithms than Compressor, which uses the glacial but ultra-high quality Optical Flow algorithm from Shake. If converting from interlaced source to progressive, you may produce noticeably better quality by scaling and particularly deinterlacing in Compressor. This means creating a separate sequence for your SD footage, rendering it out through Compressor, then re-importing the file back into Final Cut Pro. On the other hand, I found scaling quality relatively close between Final Cut Pro and Compressor, so if you don’t need to de-interlace, scaling in Final Cut Pro should work just fine.

This article says that FCP and Compressor do an equivalent job of scaling-up video. But early this year I wrote about a tip for getting better-quality uprez with Photoshop. A tricky workflow, but if quality really matters then it's doable.
[via FreshDV]

Final Cut Studio Gets New Features, Leopard Support

Apple updated all of the apps in Final Cut Studio with official support for OS 10.5 today (the updates also work with 10.4.11, also out today.) But wait, there's more! If you call now, you'll also get support for some of the new high-def cameras.

The XDCAM EX format is now supported under FCP 6.0.2. So footage from Sony's PMW-EX1 is now supported. AVC-Intra, which Panasonic is using on its high-end cameras, is supported. And JVC's HDV recordings in 720p60 and 720p50 are supported. There looks like there is also more support for progressive recording from Canon's cameras and Sony HVR-V1. Check out the release notes for all of the details.

I looked at the release notes for the other products and nothing jumped out at me. It looks like Color got a lot of bug fixes based on the release notes.

Mike Curtis offers more detail and some commentary on the new features at HDforIndies.com.

Codecs and Editing

"When to stay in the native codec of the source, and when to convert to something else."
by Philip Hodgetts

Good article by Philip Hodgetts over at kenstone.net. A pretty thorough run-thru of recommendations of what codec to edit in based on what codec you shoot on. Also talks about how to convert to other codecs using the batch export command.

I wonder about his recommendation to convert HDV to ProRes 422 though. The article says to convert HDV to ProRes 422 either during capture if you'd got the hardware or by converting in FCP after capture. I would probably edit in the native codec, but render to ProRes 422. I've never been through the lengthy conforming that he describes HDV requires when you master back to HDV. Then again, I've never even posted in HD. But my thinking is that I'd rather save the storage by keeping footage in the more compressed HDV codec. (HDV is 25 mb/s while ProRes 422 for 1080 footage goes from 140 mb/s up to 220 mb/s.)

The article doesn't mention a workflow that we use at Link TV. Shoot on HDV, but use the deck to down-convert to DV. I think Sony's gear does a really good job on the down-conversion. I think it's better than what FCP does. I've captured some footage at HDV and then scaled it down in FCP to standard-def, and I don't think it looks as good as HDV down-converted in the deck. The article also covers the problems with DV in respect to color space.

[via StudioDaily Blog]

AVCHD Support in FCP

The 6.0.1 update for FCP back in June added support for the AVCHD format. There's a document out now from Apple that describes all of the limitations of support (e.g., doesn't work on PowerPC Mac's.) Here's a good write-up on the current status of AVCHD support for FCP.

AVCHD is mainly a consumer-oriented format. Panasonic has actually used AVCHD within its pro line of cameras with the small AG-HSC1U. According to Digital Camcorder News, the Sony HDR-SR7 and HDR-CX7 AVCHD cameras are the most popular camcorders among its visitors. Canon recently introduced a tapeless camcorder HG10 that uses AVCHD to record.

Canon's 24F Format in FCP

"Final Cut Pro 6 Techniques: Editing with Canon’s 24F"

A short article on dealing with Canon's flavor of HDV at 24 fps and cutting with it in FCP. Canon's A1, G1, and XL-H1 all have this mode as an option, as well as 30F and good-old 60i.

But editing in 24 fps video isn't right for everyone. If you are going for a filmic-look and you're not mixing in footage that's 60i and and your distribution format is DVD--then 24 fps makes total sense. But 24 fps and all its various flavors that manufacturers have created, can cause lots of headaches in post. Here's a commentary on trying to work with 24fps for broadcast purposes over at Little Frog in High Def.

[via Digital Camcorder News]

Backing Up Projects

"DVD-Rs for Media Back-up in FCP"
This is a good article over at kenstone.net that I found over at freshdv.com. Good tips on archiving projects.

There's a lot in the article about what's the biggest size file that will fit on a single-layer DVD. I guess that's important if your project has long, uninterrupted footage or your dealing with codecs that are more data-intensive than DV. Usually I find in my project that the media manager will cut my media files down to size. However, sometimes I'm preplexed when the trim clips feature doesn't work with media manager and I think it should.

Impressive SmoothCam Example

This is a cool example of what SmoothCam can do. Before, shooter handholding a Sony Z1 while walking backwards as actors stroll. Afterwards, looks like it was shot on a dolly. Very impressive. Scroll down the page to see the before and after movies.

My concern about SmoothCam is that the footage must either be progressive or high-def. Standard-def, interlaced video would take too much of a hit from the processing that SmoothCam would have to do--namely deinterlacing and then scaling up the video.

If you didn't know already, SmoothCam is a new feature in Final Cut Pro 6 and Motion 3.

Macworld Reviews Final Cut Studio 2 (Updated)

UPDATE: Macworld added their review for Compressor. Highlights of Compressor 3: Optical flow does good job frame rate conversion (e.g., 60i to 24p), easier clustering (including on one system), streamlined interface (oh no, does that mean we have to bid adieu to Batch Monitor!?), watermarking, more formats supported.

MacWorld has revews of all the new apps in Final Cut Studio 2, except for Compressor. Worth a read, especially if you haven't been keeping up on what's new in these Apps

Motion 3
I think the first paragraph really sums up the value of Motion:

Motion, Apple’s motion-graphics and video-processing software, has always stood apart not so much for what it does but the way it does it. In many visual and video tools, you spend much of your time preparing graphics and then watching rendering progress bars, but Motion’s workflow is built around real-time adjustment and experimentation. With Motion 3, Apple has focused on the major capabilities previous versions lacked: motion tracking and stabilization, painting tools, and a true 3-D graphical environment to augment speed and easy, improvisational control. Motion may not become your only motion-graphics program, but it could easily become your favorite tool for quickly creating visuals

Color
Caveats galore for Color--just because you edited something in FCP doesn't mean that it will work in Color. This article doesn't even mention the problems with the HDV format that the Creative Cow mentioned. I imagine when I start using Color, it would just be for a shot or two at a time and not taking in a whole project. So far, this is how I've also used...

Soundtrack Pro 3

Final Cut Pro 6
Review by Mike Curtis of HD4ND's fame.