Footage out of sync when sent to Color

Why are clips in my sequence changing their In/Out points when sent to Color?

The moment my sequence lands in Color from FCP all of my clips slip approx. a half second forward, thus sending everything out of sync when it goes back to FCP.

I recently upgraded to the latest FC Studio and didn't change any of my FCP or Color settings.

-- Jeff

Mac OSX 10.6.3
2 x 3GHz Quad-Core Intel
5 GB RAM
FCP 7.0.2
Color 1.5.2

What format of footage are you sending to Color? What are your sequence settings? Do you have mixed format/frame rate footage?


www.shanerosseditor.com

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(After posting here I began to wonder if it was a FCP issue so I posted this problem in the FCP forum too.)

I found a solution to my problem but I still don't know what caused it.

Let me preface this by stating that I tried to repeat the problem with 3 other sequences from 3 different projects. I was able to with one of the sequences but the "out of sync" wasn't nearly as off. All the footage in all the projects was captured the same way? Shot on HDV tape, captured as Apple Pro Res 422, edited in a Pro Res 422 Sequence and sent to Color.

A co-worker of mine had the same issue as me with clips loosing sync when sent to Color and his footage was shot, transferred and edit in XDCAM.

The solution to my problem is an adjustment that was made in Color. I needed to add at least 1-second handles to the Project Settings in the Setup tab of Color. And though I didn't need to adjust (Slip) any of the footage in FCP when it came back from Color, it did somehow prevent my footage from falling out of sync.

Now that is not to say the footage in Color was in sync, my clips were still off by different number of frames for each clip but when it went back to FCP it stayed in sync.

To me this seems like a Color bug, but being just a User, I don't know.

I hope this helps anyone who may run into this problem.

-- Jeff

Some small amount of slippage will occur. Occasionally. I get that on a few shots out of 300. I ALWAYS include handles of 1:00, so that I can a) fix this and b) accommodate transitions.

Bug? Maybe if you do no handles. Stick to 1 sec handles and see how things go.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Thanks Shane, I appreciate the replies. One second handles is the way I'll go from now on.

-- Jeff