A few Log & Capture Q's

OK....
So I'm past Firewire jobs on FCP and into AJA io & Kona clients.
With AJA, RS422 machine control is very smooth with all broadcast decks.
I've now posted quite a few jobs and really digging the whole studio interface.

Q1. With the Log & Capture open can I "eject" the tape through the interface?

Q2. After Batch Capture is complete can I "auto save"?

Q3. When shuttling tape, can I "sticky" the remote?

Read about my switch @ AVID2FCP

Slick website.

1) No; or at least I haven't figured out how.

2) Auto-saving is a continuous process. Your auto save will probably be held up by the batch capture process, and you will likely auto-save as soon as batch capture ends. You would be best served to also "Save All" at this point, and some folks recommend saving to a new project name at this point, and then a few times per day until your project is complete.

3) I'm not sure what you mean here.

> and some folks recommend saving to a new project name at this point, and then a few times
> per day until your project is complete.

I wouldn't quite recommend that. Having the name (and therefore location) of your project file change a few times per day would drive me batty.

What I use is a file-management and file-naming system that separates the current project and backed-up ones:

[MASTER FOLDER] Titanic Master Folder
L Titanic Archive - Titanic.proj (01-20-06 1530), Titanic.proj (03-25-06 1800)...
L Titanic Project - Titanic.proj

The single project file under "Titanic Project" has no date on it. It is always going to be the latest version of my work. When I do a manual backup, I duplicate that file, add a date/time stamp onto the copy, and then move the copy to the Archive folder.

I never open any project file in the Archive except to retrieve older or missing materials. I never resave the project files under the Archive folder.

The reasons:

1. I never have to wonder which project file is the latest -- I don't even have to read date/time stamps, normally. It's always going to be "Titanic.proj".

2. The last copy of the project file in the Archive is identical to the current version. My work is backed up.

3. The date/time stamps will much more likely stay accurate. People who date/time-stamp their current active project file risk the date and time being inaccurate as they continually resave the project file. The prospect of having the active project file be called "Titanic Rough Cuts January 2006", when it's currently on the 12th cut and April 2007, has never made sense to me. Also, if you use this system, January would come after April by Apple's alpha-numeric arrangement system. Finally, you still have to differentiate between the "Titanic Rough Cut January 2006" from this morning from the one you have at the end of today.

4. When I backup, I leave the current "Titanic.proj" file alone; I only have to backup the Archive. The Archive contains a date/time-stamped duplicate of the active project file, so I'm covered, and I never have to wonder whether I'm backing up the right project file. If all else fails, I back up the entire Archive folder and I'm all set.


www.derekmok.com

Q1. With the Log & Capture open can I "eject" the tape through the interface?

A: no

Q2. After Batch Capture is complete can I "auto save"?

A: you'll find that if FCP has missed it's last auto-save due to the length of the Batch Cap,
it will launch right into autosave as son as Batch Cap is complete.

how long is your autosave set for?
the default 30mins?
i prefer 15mins

Q3. When shuttling tape, can I "sticky" the remote?

A: are you using the shuttle slider in the L&C window?
Use JKL keys.
LL and JJ are double speed, LLL & JJJ triple, and i think LLLL & JJJJ are quadruple

also...
Control + Fkeys (F1-F12) can control the playback speed of your deck, (or playhead in FCP)
the fastest forward is Control + F12
Control F1 is fastest backward, but this and some other Control+F keys conflict with some System wide controls which can be turned off in your system prefs > Keyboard

i dont know if Control F12 is faster than LLLL


nick

"3. The date/time stamps will much more likely stay accurate. People who date/time-stamp their current active project file risk the date and time being inaccurate as they continually resave the project file. The prospect of having the active project file be called "Titanic Rough Cuts January 2006", when it's currently on the 12th cut and April 2007, has never made sense to me."

nor anyone, i imagine!
if you decide to work this way, you should of course stick to your system, and call the project April, or whatever


"Also, if you use this system, January would come after April by Apple's alpha-numeric arrangement system."

which is why you wouldn't use this system but one that DOES keep the projects sorted.
on RAMPAGE we used a number+name to indicate month.
01Jan would sort before 04April

the perfect system would have a reverse date: Year/month/day
A Night To Remember_2007-04April-12
(this also allows for international co-operation as the month/day order is clear)


personally, i also prefer to keep the master project with the simple all-inclusive name (no dates)
and to date the archives, which i only do after what i call mile-stone or landmark versions, generally based around certain screenings
on RAMPAGE i opened up the "Comments" column in the finder, and added details about the screening.

but just to throw a spanner into the works...
Actually this probably deserves a separate post:
look here:
[www.lafcpug.org]


nick

[i dont know if Control F12 is faster than LLLL ]

Yeah, I think so, it's a wicked fast scan in the timeline.

Also, don't forget, Shift-I and Shift-O take you to your last logged In or Out point.

And if you're not gettinginstant deck control from JKL, press TAB to cycle out of the scene text fields to the NCR- Netherworld Control Region-- before you cycle around to highlight timecode fields on the left. That's your JKL deck control region. Or just click anywhere on the L&C window outside a text field if you insist upon using your mouse ;-)

- Loren
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