FCP Movie Files looking for "Untitled" file

I've got two FCP Movie files, "sequence 2" and "palomar". These files were captured on FCP by another editor from tape. I had him test them on his machine and they worked fine.

He burned them to CD and I copied them to my MAC. When I try to open them I get the error "searching for movie data in file "untitled" ". I hear the optical drive spinning too. Both files are identical in size and say they're FCP Movies.

On deadline, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

Sounds like the other editor screwed up -- made "reference" movie files instead of "self-contained". Those files are just markers pointing to media that are still likely on his computer. The fact that he burned the movie files to a data CD was also a clue -- data CDs only hold about 700MB, which is about three minutes in DV NTSC time, and it's not likely that your two movie files would have fit.

Gotta go back to the guy and get him to do it right.


www.derekmok.com

The media files should be QuickTime files not FCP movie files. Sounds like you've got the project file and not the media, which was not properly captured and all called "untitled." This is not a competent editor.

Agree. Make him load the video onto a timeline, then go to Export > Quicktime Movie and make sure he ticks the 'self contained' box. If he doesn't make it self contained, the file will be constantly trying to reference files that don't exist on your computer.

For reference, 5 minutes of DV is around 1 GB.

> The media files should be QuickTime files not FCP movie files. Sounds like you've got the project
> file and not the media

I disagree with Tom on this one (blasphemy!) -- an FCP project file wouldn't give you "searching for data". If it were a project file with no media detectable, the project file would simply open up in FCP with all the media disconnected. The Final Cut Pro icon could be due to how your system or the other editor's system was set up (to open QuickTime movies -- reference or self-contained -- with FCP instead of QuickTime Player).

"Final Cut Movies" haven't really existed since version 4.2, I don't think. The option's changed to "Export - QuickTime Movie" for four years or so.


www.derekmok.com

You may be right. I thought perhaps the error message was not accurately reported. Normally when a reference movie doesn't open, it doesn't come up with a benign message like it's missing something. It's usually a fatal error message and no warning about why.

Final Cut Movie export disappeared well before 4.1.2, however the creator type used by QuickTime Movie export is still KeyG (and not QuickTime) and still produces a Final Cut icon and not a QuickTime icon, despite its name.

I was guessing it was a project file, but it's equally likely it was reference movie. In either case it was a stupid error, compounded by the material not being properly captured in the first place.

Just to confirm Derek's comment.
If a part of a referenced movie is missing you'll get a "searching for data" and all the other dialogs in any normal QT aware application even in FCP.
It even doesn't matter whether the "missing part" is somewhere, if it is not in the saved structure you'll never have the chance to fix it (as you can't select the file from the "select" dialog) - expect you're a QT hacker.

A FCP movie file is "data wise" the same as a QT movie file, only the preferred app to open is set by the "KeyG" - this doesn't mean a QT export from any QT capable app would look as same as a QT export from FCP (I love this gamma issue).

But the final conclusion is that this editor doesn't know about how QT and FCP works. And as Jude said he should learn what the "self contained" check box does mean.

Andreas

I get this some times from Quicktime movies that are NOT selfcontained.
Its been annoying me for quite some time now.

I render them out as just quicktime movies, they are exactly the size they are supposed to be and then I move them to another folder and they dont play. I also get the "searching for data in movie file" box and then I get the wheel of death.

Could there be a bug in Quicktime?

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com