FS5: FS5 Workflow and filenames

[takeiteasy13]

The Sony cameras aren't SLRs or consumer cameras and require a more sophisticated workflow. The contents of the Private folder (or XDROOT folder on other cameras) should be treated as your priceless negatives and never touched or modified. If you do, you risk corrupting the contents of the card and no longer being able to view the clips in Sony's Catalyst ultility programs, view metadata, or in some extreme cases, not being able to import the clips into an NLE. Also, renaming the clips complicates the workflow because if you have already made two or three archive copies of the original clips before you start renaming clips (as you better have done), now the names of your archived clips won't match. So are you going to now waste time making another set of archives that have the new clip names? That is a waste of time. If you want to rename the clips and you think you have figured out a way to do it safely, go ahead, but you are playing with fire and at some point you will get burned. I would advise anyone reading this thread to not follow your example.

Oh.. Sounds spooky. Thank you so much for your kind answer and invaluable advice.
I just don't get it why Sony didn't emphasize that in manuals and why fs5 workflow has to be so much more complicated than dslr workflow.
I got my fs5 to add it to Canon dslrs for quality boost of my frequent run&gun shoots but didn't expect that the workflow will get more complex and time costly.

I'd also be happy to find a way to convert to ProRes on my PC. Seems to be the best editing format and only available to Mac users.

 

[mattjeh]

It is very easy to batch re-name in MacOS. You can do a simple select all and rename, then use find and replace. Just replace 'Clip' with the date, reel number or project name, and it'll make the change and retain the clip numbers.

Ok it's not as good as having all of the clips sequential out of the camera, but it makes things easier on big projects with multiple reels.

 

[patrickbaldwin]

It is very easy to batch re-name in MacOS. You can do a simple select all and rename, then use find and replace. Just replace 'Clip' with the date, reel number or project name, and it'll make the change and retain the clip numbers.

Ok it's not as good as having all of the clips sequential out of the camera, but it makes things easier on big projects with multiple reels.

Doesn't that cause trouble within the private folders structure/metadata? I thought it was a no no but I am new to this so I am happy to be corrected.

 

[mattjeh]

Personally Ive never bothered with the metadata, but I dont see any reason you can't just rename the .xml files in the same way.

 

[davidp158]

re-wrap process?

re-wrap process?

I rewrap to .mov (not transcode) via importing to FCPX. Then I batch rename the resulting .mov clips to a unique file name with a date as appropriate. The XAVC-L files drag and drop into Final Cut and also play back using quick look in the finder.

Nate - Can you explain the "rewrap" process? Do you just replace .mxf with .mov, or is there more to it? I've heard of re-wrapping before, but don't know the steps involved and don't want to trash my files.

 

[deltoidjohn]

Is there any program available for XAVC that will do the same thing Sony Content Management Utility used to do for AVCHD files?

ie: While transferring the files from the card, re-join all the bridged files and spit out individual files with individual names based on date/timecode. Once they're transferred in this way you can freely copy/move/rename the files in any way you want.

This process is essential to me with my FS700 for many projects. The times I've used FS5 or even FS7, I've just done the standard whole-card copy, but this was for smaller, one off projects where it was easy to manage logging everything inside Premiere. With some of my other stuff, it's critical that I can re-name individual files on the drive rather than in the NLE, as I need to re-use it again and again in different projects throughout the years.

I'm probably getting a Shogun Inferno soon and one of the big attractions vs upgrading to an FS5 or FS7 is the individual ProRes files. No complex file structures, no split files, just single self-contained video clips that I can archive however I want!

And to answer Doug's questions about re-linking media that has been renamed: My main and backup drives are exact mirrors of each other, with all files named the same. I log/rename my footage on the main drive then copy it to the backup. My C-drives have copies of the original files straight off the card, arranged by date & client so if anything did get lost or deleted during the logging process it's easy to find it. I've only ever needed to dig something off a C-drive once, and that was because of a corrupt file, not a renaming/user error.