Workflow: from shoot to FCP

I seem to have found a "smart" client - so far: he agreed to have me speak with the DP and the sound guy who'll be shooting the material I'll edit!
In this pretty ideal scenario, what would you guys request?

It's a 2 cam shoot in a live event: A cam follows a host who'll talk to people in the venue - B cam only Broll. We'll have a boom.

Here's what I want to talk about with the DP:
1) Make sure both cameras have the same settings as far as frame rate (29.97) and resolution (HD 1920)
2) Sound wise: I am not familiar with live shoot... Not too sure if a slate can be used... But definitely ask that the host has a lavaliere on and anytime possible that the interviewee has one on too.

ANy thoughts?

Thanks

you definitely want 2 lavs in a live venue. A boom mic will pick up to much room and crowd noise. You can also use a regular hand held mic, having the interviewer move the mic from in front of their mouth to the interviewee.

Format AIFF@48/16, mp4 or wav ( you could even use a bwav )

be careful to get 15 second clips or longer for each angle the b-cam decides to use. Use a cam light on the cam maybe a wide led light with some amount of blue in it. The b-roll does not necessarily have to match timecode of the interview. you can also use and actual clap where you can see the hands in the video. i have use 2 claps to sync a music video so its not that hard.

Instead of a clap board you can use a verbal count to sync the audio count while using fingers to show the 1,2,3, Go. Doing it this way at worse you will be 20frames of and you can just old fashion sync that by +/- frame X increments.

tell them to use 1080p60, 1080i or 1080p30(29.97)
I personally use 720p60 for live events that i do not want to be interlaced video. A performance looks good in that format and its easier to color progressive scanned footage.

this is just my way others may have different ways.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

J.Corbett Wrote:
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> be careful to get 15 second clips or longer for
> each angle the b-cam decides to use.
why?



Thanks for the awesome tips!

Once in FCP how do you "marry" the wav file to the video while editing?

try this as a test.
find a old 10sec video clip with sound and put it in fcp on the time line.

select the clip and hit opt+L this will unlink the file.
You can tell because there are little arrows on the video that points down to the audio and in the audio file the arrows point up to the video. These arrows says that they are linked.
The opt+L will add or remove the link.

move that audio by 2 secs. when played you will see/hear that the audio is out of sync.

Now try to move it back into sync.

======= Create a SEQ called Media Sync (for you real project)

This is how you will sync your audio. So after they give you the video and audio import them into FCP.
Now that clap or the verbal 1,2,3,go is in the audio file, so just listen to the audio till you find it and mark it with a CLIP marker on the 2.
with the video find the fingers going 1,2,3 and use a CLIP marker to mark the 2 you can see.

Then move the clips so that the 2 markers are even. This will get you very very close to sync.
the rest is just tweaking the placement to get it exactly right.
If you choose a clip in the TL and just type a number like 4 the chosen clip will move 4frames down the TL or 4 frames later in time. If you type -4 it will move 4 frames earlier in time.

Once you have it synced and the subjects lips are moving correctly to the audio. Export that SEQ as a SCQT, naming it something that ends with "full sync" and reimport it.
Now you have a normal clip.


NOTE:

The video and audio must be started at the same time +/- a few secs and stopped at the same time.
If the audio is stopped but the video is not you will have to find the point it stopped and go thru the syncing process for every non-simutaneous stop/start.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

awesome, thanks!!!

"Once in FCP how do you "marry" the wav file to the video while editing"

if you get the crew to shoot with time of day timecode, your life will be much easier.
make sure the cameras and sound all have EXACTLY the same TC
that way you can use the TC to sync all elements, both cameras and audio.
honestly this will save you hours and hours.

(even if the TC is very close it will save you time, but if all the crew jam sync their TC, and get it matching exactly it is so much better)

Spherico filmtools free app "Sequence liner" can line all of the elements up for you in a timeline.


"The video and audio must be started at the same time +/- a few secs and stopped at the same time"

nice, but not always possible,
especially if the sound recordist is doing their job and recording wild sound like atmospheres, etc.
that might not be applicable in an even, although i'm not sure why they shouldn't do that stuff,
on the other hand, in an even situation sometime audio might just never turn off.


"choose a clip in the TL and just type a number like 4 the chosen clip will move 4frames"

also the "Chicken beak keys < and > OR the square bracket keys [ or ] will also nudge selected items 1 frame at a time.

"Once you have it synced and the subjects lips are moving correctly to the audio. Export that SEQ as a SCQT"

that's definitely the simplest approach.
but you will not be using the original clips in the work that you do.
quality should be identical if your sequence and clips match,
but you won't be working with the original clips and their timecode.

in some situations that's desirable, but it can be a lot more work to link the clips and subclip,
and make multiple multiclips.

you can set the sequence TC to match the clips' TC, and if you recorded time of day it should all match.
might be of some use.

if you have more than two tracks of audio you will need to go into your sequence settings > audio outputs,
and create more audio outputs,
then route each audio track to a discrete output.
that way your exported timeline can have as many audio tracks as your original audio.



cheers,
nick

Btw, nick, have you ever tried subclipping with multiclips? Does it work?



www.strypesinpost.com

i haven't tried it in a long time, but i still think using subclips inside multiclips is just too risky.

i know of a film that tried it a few years ago against my advice, and they had no end of problems.

i DO use sub-cliped audio in multiclips.
this is actually a necessity, as audio extending beyond the boundaries of video in a merged clip did weird things in the multiclips.
basically pushed the clips out of sync with each other in the multiclip.

this is based mainly on my experience with merged clips in multiclips back in FCP5 when i was on "Where The Wild Things Are"
i'll admit i haven't been game enough to try re-experimenting, as what i do works for the most part.
i've ben working with multiclips again today, and it's working.

even today in FCP7 we are STILL getting issues with subclips.
it's the age-old FCP subclip issue where there is some frame-count confusion between the start of the master file and the start of the subclip.
the current issue is that we put markers on the slate, picture and sound, as part of our syncing process.
we link the clips, and make subclips of them to trim the audio level with the picture.
after we make the subclips the markers have moved by the same amount as what was trimmed from the audio. (hope that makes sense)

anyway, given that subclips are still flakey in FCP, i would say using them in multiclips would be "an interesting experiment"

or do you mean making a subclip from a multiclips?
no i haven't tried that.


nick

thanks

Nick, yea, I don't think it will work. I encounter issues working with multi cam, especially when you have to go the XML route for any part of the project. On importing from XML, it creates a media or master clips folder (can't remember what it is specifically), and a separate folder for your project. Not sure if the issue is addressed in FCP 7. Given the problems with both features, I won't do both. Although I would like to hear from guys who have shot multicam with 2 system sound (eg. DSLR on multicam, or RED on multicam).



www.strypesinpost.com