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Setup/RAID/ProRes422/Help FCP

matteusclement

matteusclement

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I have built up my computer as far as it can go for a while so now i need some help optimizing it along with my work flow. I use a canon HV30 with FCP studio 2. As far as "what I do", it's a mixed can... mini docs, music videos, live music events (dubbing) and weddings. Can I have some help please?

Gear: MacPro Quad (8 gigs ram), ATI radeon 4870, 4-500gig sata HDD, 1-Terrabyte HD, 1-750gig HD, Highpoint 2640x4 raid card. OSX 10.5.8.

1. How should I set up my raid and media? two RAID 0 set up with the 500gig HDs, OS on the 750gig and use the one terrabyte for storage?
1a. if yes to the above, what should i place on each RAID drive?

2. ProRes422... when and why? The HV30 wraps the 24p into a 60i format which apple suggests that I convert right away into ProRes422 24p. Is that good?
2a. Should I do that in the second stage after I have done my initial sequence work (i.e- live music event and dubbing) then go to Prores?

3. Rendering. I thought that dropping the clip into the sequence and agreeing to YES when asked if I should change it to that codec was the way to speed up rendering, but a recent forum subject said that it was best to go to ProRes. True or False? And that's just for the video. What Audio codec do you want to use?

4. Back to the RAID. Seeing as I use COLOR as well, what step do I want to do that?
Would my workflow look like:
import from tape (HDV) > work on time line editing and dubbing > color > export to prores? Or do I import as PRORES and go through the steps?

5. when and where do you fit in:
- motion templates (like name tags and supers)
- soundtrack pro (making it sound better)

thanks for anyone who replies...
 
I'd put the four 500GB drives together in RAID5.

For simplicity's sake, I'd recommend you edit in ProRes. With the way your HV20 handles 24p, I don't think you can capture straight to (24p) ProRes. You're probably best to follow this advice.

ProRes is optimised for editing in several ways, one being it scales well, which helps with RT previews. Set your RT to Unlimited and many of your filters will preview without having to render.

AIFF for audio codec — you don't really have a choice.

Color refuses to work with HDV, but if you follow the above workflow you'll be in ProRes at this point.

If not too complex, I'd probably leave titles and sound till last.


Have a good look through the FCS manuals. They'll give you a good sense of what's going on and why.
 
Thanks Keith.
That apple advice is what I do follow... Kinda.

I will check to see if my card can do RAID 5.
WHy do RAID 5 and not RAID 0?

Will I want to place all my footage on another drive or on the RAID5 drive?
Cheers!
 
RAID5 offers redundancy so that if one of your drives dies, you won't lose the data on all drives in the set. Place all your footage on the RAID, and keep your project files on your OS drive.
 
On point 5, I would just note the following:

i. Titles, overlays, and the like: lots of fun, can add double-plus-😎 to your piece, but no one -- and I mean no one -- ever won [an Academy Award / a Palm d'Or / the award you care about] because they had the sweetest credit roll. This is pure fun, so leave it for the end when you either (a) need a enjoyable part to motivate you to keep working or (b) have no time left and you're thankful that all the substantive parts got done.

ii. Sound: Soundtrack pro, Soundbooth, Garageband, [whatever] can't fix bad sound. If you have any production input at all, push for good sound. If not, pray for it. Unlike titles, think about this from the beginning -- and that's before you start thinking about camera angles, lenses, or how you're going to shoot your whole feature film during the magic hour. Remember that your film will generally make much more sense with only good sound and no picture than the other way around. Soundtrack can make good sound great, but it can't cure crap.

Oh, and sweet rig! Is there an emoticon for :drool:? 😀
 
matteusclement said:
2. ProRes422... when and why? The HV30 wraps the 24p into a 60i format which apple suggests that I convert right away into ProRes422 24p. Is that good?
2a. Should I do that in the second stage after I have done my initial sequence work (i.e- live music event and dubbing) then go to Prores?
Click to expand...
If you want to work in a 24p timeline you have to reverse telecine and convert to ProRes after you've captured your footage but before you start editing. If you are going to master back to HDV tape though you should just edit the HDV natively.

3. Rendering. I thought that dropping the clip into the sequence and agreeing to YES when asked if I should change it to that codec was the way to speed up rendering, but a recent forum subject said that it was best to go to ProRes. True or False? And that's just for the video. What Audio codec do you want to use?
Click to expand...
If you are working in a Long GOP codec such as HDV or the XDCAM family you can change the setting in the Render Control tab of your sequence settings to ProRes. This will speed up renders and keep the rendered sections at a higher quality.

4. Back to the RAID. Seeing as I use COLOR as well, what step do I want to do that?
Would my workflow look like:
import from tape (HDV) > work on time line editing and dubbing > color > export to prores? Or do I import as PRORES and go through the steps?
Click to expand...
If you want to edit 1080i60 I would keep everything in HDV, edit, go to Color, and have Color render your files out as ProRes.

5. when and where do you fit in:
- motion templates (like name tags and supers)
- soundtrack pro (making it sound better)
Click to expand...
Those will be the last things you do.

KeithPratt said:
Color refuses to work with HDV, but if you follow the above workflow you'll be in ProRes at this point.
Click to expand...
One of the early Color 1.0.x updates added support for HDV. Color won't render to HDV but you can bring HDV into Color and it will render out ProRes or Uncompressed.


Lethal
 
Thank you Lethal & Keith

Hamster, it took me a lot of patience to get that rig as a student in a media program. Thank you. Also, thanks for the tips.

Lethal...
More or Less you are saying keep my files in HDV and render in ProRes?
 
matteusclement said:
Hamster, it took me a lot of patience to get that rig as a student in a media program. Thank you. Also, thanks for the tips.

Lethal...
More or Less you are saying keep my files in HDV and render in ProRes?
Click to expand...
It depends. Are you going to master back to HDV tape? If so, just keep your files HDV. Although, if it was me, I wouldn't master back to HDV tape I'd just export a high quality QT and store it on a couple external HDDs or burn it to a couple of BR discs or something like that.

If you want to shoot and edit in 24p you need to reverse telecine and transcode to ProRes right off the bat. If you want to edit in 60i you could edit in HDV (don't apply any filters or FX yet), send to Color for CC, have Color send ProRes files back to FCP, then apply any filters/FX you want on the footage as well as your GFX. This would save you time and space because they only things that would be getting converted to ProRes are what you are using in your edit.


Lethal
 
I want to soundlike a NooB!!

At at the expensive of sounding totally thick...

This means that I use 24p for my slower, talking, panning/gliding shots and use 60i for action....

So that's how you have mixed frame rates....

*lightbulb*
 
what about RAID set up?

Thank you lethal and gang.

I have one last optimizing question:
my riad card can handle 4 drives of which I have 4 -500gig WD 7200 rpm drives. Do I want to:
1. make 2 -RAID 0 drives. one hold my media and the other is a scratch disc
2. make all 4 into a raid 0 and make it the sratch disc with the media on my 1tb drive?

thanks
 
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