Multi Camera Multi-format Workflow 101 Help Needed

Crosby!

Crosby!

Active member
I have Final Cut Studio 2 and have been mostly using Final Cut Pro and haven’t even looked at Color, Compressor, Cinema Tools, or Motion yet.

I want to learn to create and edit multi-camera shoots but have the added complexity of my cameras having differing frame rates, sizes, and codecs. My Sony FX7 shoots at 1440x1080 @ 60i only, Canon HV30 shoots 1440x1080 @ 60i, 30p and 24p, and my Panasonic GH2 shoots at 1920x1080 @ 60i and 24p. I ran a test shooting with all three in various modes to see what I'd get. Log and Captured/Log and Transferred the files into FCP (6.0.6) and when I select Item Properties -> Format I get a Vid Rate for 29.97fps for all three. What happened to 60i? And how’d the GH2 get a 29.97? Capture settings wrong?

When I selected the clips shot at 60i and tried to create a Multiclip I got a codec mismatch error. So, I assume that I either need to change how the clips are loaded into FCP or use something else to convert them so they’re all to be the same codec. I searched the net and found several messages with bits and pieces of the answer but nothing detailed enough or down to my current level of understanding. If you can give me some basic steps or a link to solve this I’d appreciate it. Thanks.
 
First, I'd recommend that you read everything about multiclips in the FCP manual. It will tell you that your clips need to match everything- codec, raster size, frame rate, etc.

Second, you can use Compressor or FCP's Batch Export function to conform all the shots to each other before you make them into a multiclip.

Finally, 60i (actually 59.94i) fields per second is 29.97 frames per second. Look up "interlacing" in your FCP manual. Also, this article is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaced_video
 
Thanks for the reply. A longer process than I'd hoped. I've done a few multiclip tutorials in the past but they were smart enough not to mix things. I'll look at Compressor and Batch Export. I may not go this complex in any real project but it will be nice to know that I can. Also, this has made me aware of yet another thing to look for in future cameras.

Smacking self on the head on the interlacing part. Duh. Thanks again.
 
Crosby! said:
I may not go this complex in any real project but it will be nice to know that I can. Also, this has made me aware of yet another thing to look for in future cameras.
Click to expand...

If you're serious about pursuing multi camera setups (and it can be a very good thing for some types of projects), then it's really best to start out with all the same cameras. It avoids a lot of these hassles in post. At least make sure that they shoot the same frame size & frame rate. It makes for a much easier conform.
 
Yeah, kind of figured that. I could probably use just the Sony and the Canon, or two GH2's, but since I have the mixture I figured I'd see what could be done and the results.
 
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