How would you do it- Screening from FCP

So how would you do it?

I'm taking my MXO2 over to the theatre and playing out of FCP for a mini screening.

I've decided to export it into 5 reels for video, and one long piece for audio. I then plan on just playing off the timeline.

I also have an export of one long piece I could use.

Feature is 1:40:00

How would you do it?

Just make sure the drive for your media is fast enough not to drop frames during playback. As long as your files don't need rendering, you should be fine.

However, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention that it's not the best idea to use FCP as a playback device since there are many things that could happen to stop playback. For example, if another program opened up in the foreground while FCP was playing, playback would stop. Also, if the OS does any kind of housekeeping while playing, FCP could drop frames.

Perhaps the safest thing to do if you play out of FCP would be to set it up as a Print To Video.

Andy

>Perhaps the safest thing to do if you play out of FCP would be to set it up as a Print To Video.

Nonono. Print/Edit To Tape doesn't do much to prevent dropped frames. In fact, it's worse... I'll rather drop frames in a screening, than have Edit to tape abort because you are dropping frames, and you don't know exactly where to continue playing once it stops. Also, I don't think you can Print/Edit to tape if you don't have it hooked up to a deck.

If you need to do it off FCP, export a self contained quicktime movie. It simplifies matters for machine. You do NOT want a misplaced render file to botch up your playback.



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Quote

Also, I don't think you can Print/Edit to tape if you don't have it hooked up to a deck.

I specifically mentioned Print to Video, not Edit to Tape. In Edit to Tape, you need deck control. In Print to Video you do not.

I know that PTV will abort if frames are dropped, but it will also prevent the OS or any other program from jumping into the foreground and stopping playback.

If you don't mind if you drop frames, then make sure the warning is turned off in your preferences, because dropping frames in the timeline will stop playback otherwise.

Andy

The drive thing is the only thing I'm a little concerned about actually. The downside of the MXO2.... it takes my express card slot. I'm running off a Graid 3 via FW 800 getting roughly 48mb/s according to Kona System test. Should be enough to handle the 1 stream of ProResHQ 1080p 23.976.

Biggest whoopsie so far is I made my 5 reels, and forgot to put the matte on. Basically now I have to convince projectionist to matte projector (it's a freebie and they are squeezing us in, so no setup time!). If he can't do it, I'll just throw the widescreen filter on, and let it play back "dynamically". Gets a alittle bit softer, but at this point......

I've been playing it for the last 20 mins with no dropped frames, with the widescreen filter on in dynamic mode. Before the screening I'm going to turn off "stop playback on dropped frames", and just let it roll from the timeline now.

Worst case I have a SD dvd for playback.

>but it will also prevent the OS or any other program from jumping into the foreground and
>stopping playback.

Okay, i rarely PTT. In fact, I can probably count the number of times i've done PTT. It's always ETT, but on the occasions that it'll drop frames, it won't be a pleasant time for the audience.

There are quite a few variables. There's the MXO2, which runs off the express card, then the FW800 RAID. A RAID 0 FW800 drive can handle full raster ProRes HQ without problems. I've gone to tape off that. I'm just wondering how fragile the express card connection may be.

And yes, do render the entire thing before you screen it. If you don't render and you run PTT, the audience will wait for FCP to render.



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Yea, I'm going to avoid the render, as I just don't have enough time now. They sprung this on me this morning. Was supposed to do an HDCAM, with projector matte. Now it's out the MXO2, no projector matte, and only AES/EBU for audio so I lose my 3 channel mix, as the Matrox only does 2 channels of AES/EBU. Anything to save a buck I guess.

Fortunately this is just a screening for producers of the director's cut, and they all know the ramifications going in.

Always fun with experimental last minute things. At least I had time to render out in reels, and have time to play it continously.

Instead of using the widescreen filter, why not just crop or throw a widescreen matte PSD on your timeline? Those can be viewed in Full Preview without a noticeable loss in quality whereas the widescreen filter will lower quality quite a bit if you don't render.

Andy

Blu Ray?

This is why we still have videotape.

"5 reels for video, and one long piece for audio"

too complicated, takes too long to do, and no real benefit, IMO
5 reels, v+a, is simpler

i'll second cropping or PSD mask rather than wide-screen filter.


nick

Well pulled it off without a hitch. No dropped frames. It took roughly the same amount of "export" time to do it in 5 pieces as it did to do as one long piece for video. Playing the single long piece probably would have worked fine, I just was nervous attempting to play a single 160gb file vs 5 30gb files. The audio export was about the same also, so time creation wise it was a wash.

In terms of cropping vs. widescreen there was no noticeable difference between the two when projected. In all honestly, the slight buzz actually helped the overall look, as it just took off some of the harshness/crispness that tends to occur with overlit/un-colorcorrected Red/HDCAM shot footage.

Definitely wouldn't use this method for a real audience preview, I would go out to tape, as just too many things can go wrong with file based stuff. Though this certainly is not a bad option to see it "free" as opposed to deck rental + stock.

Cool. Glad to hear it worked out.



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