Post Workflow – Page 3 – Post Fifth Pictures

I Will Judge You By Your Sequence

This is the sequence that inspired my post. It isn't the worst I have ever seen, but you get the idea. — This is the sequence that inspired my post. I should add that there is no compositing on this timeline and most of the titles are included in the after effects rendered movie files. It isn't the worst I have ever seen, but you get the idea.

As a freelance business, I visit many offices from which I have received a problematic phone call. “Our in house editor is sick/vacation/doesn’t work here anymore/gave up/ran away and we need someone to come fix, um, I meant finish our production/broadcast/video for us.”

Learning on Avid and Final Cut Pro nearly at the same time taught me a very important lesson about video tracks. Get rid of them. If your show is going to color correction especially you don’t want to send an EDL to the colorist with 6 tracks of video with 70% clips that don’t need color. It’s a bad habit.

Making a Music Cue Sheet

As an editor, you may or may not deal with a music…

Compressor Repair: Still Haven’t Heard of It?

Some people still haven’t heard of one of the most useful programs around for the most problem filled application in Final Cut Studio. Compressor Repair will go into your system, do what it does and either fix your QMaster, tell you if you simply need to re-install Compressor, or whatever it is to get your Compressor application working again.

Here is the link to Digital Rebellion’s application:
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/compressor_repair.htm

Compressor is one huge reason I like Final Cut Studio. I am able to track multiple render times and now with Final Cut Studio 3, I can render out a project while editing another. How fantastic is that?

Stop Ignoring Automator

For a long time I considered Automater as a program that wasn’t intended for normal person usage. In fact whenever I am using it at home, I have to tell my son that it is not in fact some sort of Wall-E application.

Automator is for taking lots of files, using a work flow to change something with those files and then giving you a file you can work with. For example, let’s say you get four days worth of XDCAM files from your producer. They may be on different cards, but messy file names don’t help you differentiate sometimes. Open up Automator and use it to make unique file names to each day.

You do this by;

My Avid Influenced Final Cut Pro Keyboard

f you are like me, you edit with both Final Cut Pro and Avid. I did learn Final Cut Pro about a year before I started editing on Avid, but now hold Avid a tiny higher than FCP. For what? It all depends. But the one thing I like to keep the same (or close to it) is the keyboard. This makes switching between systems much easier.

One of the best compliments an editor can get (when you already know that the client actually likes your cuts and your workflow) is that you are fast.

This is one tendency that will brings clients back again and again. The more directors and producers start to edit their own material with editing suites coming down in price so much, the less work editors have. One way to let them leave the edits to you is to show them you are going to get their job done faster.

If you are like me, you edit with both Final Cut Pro and Avid. I did learn Final Cut Pro about a year before I started editing on Avid, but now hold Avid a tiny higher than FCP. For what? It all depends. But the one thing I like to keep the same (or close to it) is the keyboard. This makes switching between systems much easier.

Changing Timecode / System Frequency on the Sony HDW-F500

Here is a walk through on resetting the timecode on the Sony HDCAM deck to match the frame rate on your HDCAM tape.

A few years ago I took a freelance night shift as an assistant editor at production company in North Hollywood. It was a short gig, but overall it was a good learning experience. I utilized about 4 Avids at a time, outputting to DVCAM, BetaSP and Digitbeta. Every once in a while I would freak out because I had a small question about their specific configuration and it was 12 AM. Who wants to get a call from the new guy at 12 AM? Nobody. Going from office to office over the past couple years, it takes a while to get used to everyone’s specific setup. One of the places I work at the most has a great machine room full of great HD equipment. It took me a while to remember tasks like resetting timecode on the Sony HDCAM deck though.

Here is a walk through on resetting the timecode to match your HDCAM tape. (Forgive the iPhone 3G camera resolution)