Final Cut Pro Q's

Some things that I am sure I should know about FCP but have confused the hell out of myself.

1)If working with a project in straight HD 1080i 50 as the project setting; is the actual captured footage the same as if you capture in the AIC? Can you set up another project with different settings and still import the footage from file? On a previous thread AIC was suggested as the best option as project setting, is that better than doing the project in HD and then chucking it through compressor?

2) Can you convert a HD timeline into an AIC timeline?

3)If I try and import footage from file .avi which had been captured via Premiere Pro causes all sorts of issues, (i.e. it just closes FCP). Is this normal?

Am I trying to push a square block through a round hole!!!

Jon

Jon,

Let me see if i can help you out.

1)If working with a project in straight HD 1080i 50 as the project setting; is the actual captured footage the same as if you capture in the AIC?

That depends on your capture settings. Probably you captured as native 1080i50. You need to change your capture settings to capture in AIC if that is what you want. You can also use Media Manager to covert HDV files to any other format.

Can you set up another project with different settings and still import the footage from file?

Not sure what you are asking? Let me give it a stab. You can bring virtually any format into a given FCP timeline. If the format is different the sequence/timeline setting, you will need to render in the timeline.

On a previous thread AIC was suggested as the best option as project setting, is that better than doing the project in HD and then chucking it through compressor?

Depends what you are doing. Just remember, HDV is a very poor HD proxy. It is Mpeg2 encoded (massive compression and very lossy), uses intra-frames (vs. true frame based) and is 4:2:0 so only every other intra-frame stores red gain info. AIC is far more robust (as are other quality intermediary codes such as Cineform, or Canupus). Since it is natively supported in FCP, it is a really good option. If you are doing more than very minor color correction, using render intensive effects, transitions etc, AIC is definitely the way to go.

2) Can you convert a HD timeline into an AIC timeline?

Yes. Just go to 'Sequence Settings' and change to AIC 1080i50. You can also use Media Manager and export it to seperate project with the new settings.

3)If I try and import footage from file .avi which had been captured via Premiere Pro causes all sorts of issues, (i.e. it just closes FCP). Is this normal?

Not sure about closing FCP...but you will not be able to directly import such files....windows format. If you pick up the Flip4Mac plug-in ($100 i think) you will be able to use these files. Other more expensive converters exist as well. Other may know more about this.

Am I trying to push a square block through a round hole!!!

You'll have to answer that one for yourself buddy!

-shawn

thanks mate, just had time to go through what you suggested worked a dream. Not too worried about the PP files as I can just re-capture.

Jon