Logging in FCP

[lalune]

How are people logging their work when using P2 cards and the HVX and FCP? I'm just beginning to put a system together and am wondering aloud how this will happen. It doesn't seem like FCP has a feature for importing from p2 that is like the log and capture window when capturing from tape. Am I missing something?

Also, how are people dealing with eliminating unwanted footage? As a doc maker, I sometimes need very little of what I shoot. If I need 10 seconds of a 20 minute clip, that's a lot of extra media on my drive. I knowhow to eliminate it using media manager, but it seems cumbersome.

Thoughts?

[BenB]

The magic bullet to make a task happen just cause you think about it, well, the telepathic interface isn't going to be out for awhile.

I do docs, I have lots of unused footage, but i also budget for a hard drive specifically for that project. When done, I archive the drive itself with ALL my media, project files, etc.

To ingest via P2 card is easy. File > Import > Panasonic P2. There's nothing the Log And Capture window would do for you, since you are ingesting raw data, not linear footage. You can, if you wanted to, capture the footage via Log And Capture while playing back the footage real time from the camera, but it's MUCH more time consuming (time is money) and cumbersome.

I've not found Media Manager to be too cumbersome once you use it. There's not magical button to delete all sections of footage not used, aside from that.

Just have a 500GB hard drive and you'll never worry about anything eating up extra footage. Not much else you can do about that on any NLE. That's just part of the process.

[MikeCurtis]

But you can always use Media Manager to reduce your project - just be ultra careful doing so. BUT....with P2's as a reusable (and therefore emptied after shooting) media, don't you want to keep it all anyway? And really, two digital copies - one working copy and one backup? This is yet another hidden cost of P2.

[n8ture]

I use P2 Log to weed out all the footage I don't want. I view it right off the P2 card then delete the clips I don't want.
Then I'll copy the P2 card with P2 Genie to a HD for archiving. I also use P2 Log to bring in clips for FCP.

When I'm done with a project, I use media manager to put all the used clips etc in a folder that I then archive incase I need to go back and do something with it in the future.
P2 Log makes life much, much easier.

[lalune]

P2 Log. I'll track it down. Sounds like a possibility. Thanks.

I'm curious if anyone has worked out any workarounds in FCP for logging somehow. I imagine looking at clips in the viewer and using markers might have some possibilities.

BTW: Log and capture offers lots that mere ingesting doesn't. Logging does take time, indeed, but it's often--even almost always--time well spent.