Workflow for HD editing in FCP

This may have been covered somewhere, and if it has, forgive me;

I am about to buy a Sony HVR Z1U camera and I cannot find any intelligible
information on what the specific workflow to edit (Sony's) HD in FCP is.
Can anyone kindly either refer me to a site to find this information,
or, give a short primer on just how the workflow should go?

Thank you for even considering this.

David



Post Edited (06-21-06 10:06)

there really is no difference from normal DV editing.

just select the 1080i hdv sequence setting and off you go.

Have you even checked the manual?



Kevin Monahan
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Kevin,

If you mean the FCS manual(s), yes.
I do not own the Sony yet and have only read that down-converting
to DVCPro50 was a way to go the ZU1.

I wasn't being lazy about it, just alittle lacking in where to read up
more deeply.

(I actually just finished your book two days ago, "Motion Graphics and Effects
in Final Cut Pro"...very clearly and lucidly handled).

I will continue going back through my (many) books.



Post Edited (06-21-06 16:43)

you havent bought the camera yet? GOOD. have you done research on the pros and cons of HDV. like i said, editing straight HDV 1080i out of the z1 is just like standard DV in FCP, just pick your appropriate preset and away you go (aside from a headache or two here or there).

but there are things that HDV is good for and things that its not...

I am helping on a documentry that was shot on the sony HDV hdrFX1. I am capturing using the DCR HDV 1080i60 preset. And from what I can tell the sequence preset that works is the NTSC48khz. I thought that the HDV1080 sequence presets would work but the image is way too small in the canvas space. I guess what I am asking is if I am going to finish the project on true HD by bumping it up what sequence present should I use the NTSC or the HDV preset. Also when I capture the footage it is captured at 720x480. I thought it would capture 1440x1080. The pixel aspect ratio changes as well to NTSC CCIR 601 after capture. Before capture it is 1280x1080i. What are the proper presets for capture of HDV footage.
Thanks,
Noah

Yes, Noah, that is one of the issues that I have been trying to
research too, but sofar the best and clearest workflow has been this
url:

[www.hdvinfo.net]

But it's dated now I think (jan '05).

best of luck on it,
If I find anything that might help I'll post.

David

Hey David.

My experience has taught me to take an unusual approach: I do an 'offline' first, then 'uprez' the sequence to full quality. I do as follows: 1. Capture the footage in native HDV, from the deck or camera. DON'T ask the deck to 'downconvert', cause that's just going back into the straight DV world, which you don't want. 2. Open a DVCPRO50 sequence in your project, which, in theory should work at 50Mbps. (Great quality here, which will finally keep the great quality of your footage too.)
3. Click in the sequence to highlight it. Then go 'Command-zero', which brings up your sequence settings. Under Render control, change the FRAME RATE and the RESOLUTION to 50%. (This is now your OFFLINE Timeline. It will enable your machine to render about 4 times faster! ) So now go ahead and edit away.. realizing that the quality looks pretty ropey, but you'll fix that! 4. At the end of the process, DUPLICATE the Sequence, then go back and change the Render Control back to 100%, as well as the Resolution. Then go into Render Manager and delete the render files, causing FCP to have to re-render, only now it's at HIGH RESOLUTION. Voila! One beautiful programme! This sounds long-winded, but it achieves fantastic results. It also allows you, since you are in Native HDV, to ZOOM IN 100% | PAN etc, on your raw footage! Great fun!



Marcus T
iCreate! digital|post
12 Core Mac Pro, Snow Leopard, FCP 7.0.3, 8Gb Memory.

Marcus,

THAT is a lucid and workable explaination that anyone, even me,
can understand.
(a bow in your direction)

thankyou for taking the time to explain.
I can't wait to try it.

regards,

David

At this point, none but the highest end machines have the firepower to give you smooth, quick-edit-response full-rez multistream HD, and they require fast RAIDs, so the easiest, simplest affordable workflow is offline from the Sony camera.

Which means you *do* want 720 X 480.

The ZU1 excels at live downconvert via deice-controlled FireWire. Even gives you anamorphic if you like. No fancy HDSDI needed. Brings over the timecode too. I tested this and found it attractive, and the DVCAM actually looks better than native shot DVCAM!

IMHO, unless you have a G5 Quad, high RAM, fast and copius RAIDS, at least two 23" flats (oh, yes, you must! Because) and a proper bottle for color correction, do a DVCAM offline and conform at a supersuite which does have the highest end machine, the fast RAIDS, etc. You are future-proofed for when you need an HD version and your legalized SD product is perfect for broadcast, web and iPhones.

Of course, the future subject to change at any moment.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Preview effects sections with Option-P or Option-Backslash!

The FCP 5 KeyGuide?: a professional placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central:
www.neotrondesign.com

Marcus
nice worflow but, ...

Don't you have in this case to render EVERYTHING, I mean even a single clip with nothing applied on it (fx, CC...) as soon as it is edited on the TimeLine ?



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