Sending GH1 footage from NYC to LA to another editor - questions

Blackout

Blackout

Veteran
So I do some work for some folks on a documentary they are doing. I gave them the run down on shooting styles and editing requirements and they were very happy with the GH1 footage but they are not too knowledgable and they are not hiring me for the editing they have an editor in LA. They have been traveling and hiring all sorts of different freelancers so they have a mishmash of footage from different camera types. I suggested this was going to be an issue and matching was going to be difficult if not out of the question but they had already begun and were into the project so they said they would just deal with it.

Anyway I spoke to their editor and he didn't seem too bright. I got a lot of "uhhuh uhhuh, yeah that.. yeah prores.. oh yeah usb 2.0" when I could could clearly tell he didn't know what I was talking about. I am PC based and sending them the raw AVCHD files on a little portable hardrive wrapped in 15 layers of bubble rap. It is usb 2.0 formatted for windows though and I think this guy is mac.. will he be able to get into the drive? I think so but I forget. I know macs don't play the raw avchd footage right. Is there a simple mac player that correctly plays the avchd footage just for review before transcoding?

I also tried to explain mac workflow to him and transcoding the GH1 avchd files to prores but again it didn't seem like he was getting it.

I want to include text file on the hard disk with some workflow information just to cover myself. What condense thread to you suggest?

The footage is all mostly 720 60p avchd that I think they want to conform to 24p or 30p but they want to be able to use slomo on some clips.

There are a few 1080 24p establishing beauty and city scape shots that may be wanted to be used to... I imagine they will be downrezed to a 1280 720p project timeline. Again, I don't know jack on mac. They are original .mts files I have not removed the pulldown I'll let their editor do that.

Any notes you think I should include in the text file - pointers to workflow threads on here.. ect?

- Blackout
 
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Macs need the full private directory structure they can't read just the MTS files. If the drive is NTFS he'll have a hard time, if it's FAT32 (which works fine cross platform) make sure he knows that so he doesn't try to transcode footage onto it.
 
Well I think I will tell them to copy the whole drive to a win machine which I know they have, then the mac guy can bring his own hard drive or whatever. They really were not getting the 'you must transcode to a digital intermediate and decide on if you are going to stay 60p or go to 30p or 24p"
 
"Just dealing with it" is going to be their downfall... especially with an editor who doesn't really know much about codecs and such. They are going to end up with a big mess and they'll be totally confused if they just start editing footage together and wonder why there are problems in the end. I've worked with editors who told me I was wasting their time trying to nail down the format and workflow up front... in the end they wasted my time re-running footage through Compressor.

You probably have two options:

1) Copy the whole AVCHD folders preserving the file structure, and rename the parent folder for each using a good naming convention -- let them worry about transcoding, etc. - If you don't want to become their go to format conversion guy, I'd just point them to a few online resources on how to get their GH1 footage into what they need (sounds like they aren't even sure).

2) Ask them what format they'd like the footage to be in for editing, and do the conversion for them. (this will take a lot more drive space, so it depends on how much footage you have). This way you can give them what they ask for and be done with it.

They'll be able to access a Windows formatted drive and copy the files with most newer versions of OSX. I think NTFS might be the way to go because of the file size limitations of FAT32, but they won't be able to use an NTFS drive for any editing work (they will just need to copy the files to a OSX formatted drive).

Good luck!
 
SD cards are relatively cheap these days so just send them the SD cards and bill them to buy replacements or have them send the cards back. SD cards = DV tape these days. Hell, I still spend $30 for Sony DVCAM 184 tapes that have a 3-hour DV video capacity. What is it, $35 for a Class 6 16GB card currently that holds 2 hours of HD video?

Time is money and I'm sure they won't pay for your time to do the other ideas suggested. You're the shooter and they're editing it so let them deal with it.

Randy
 
If he's running snow leopard he'll be able to see a windows formatted drive NTFS, if not you need to send as fat 32.
 
Again... I copied everything to the windows drive. I suggested that they stick with one person for the whole project but they already have an editor who I suppose is their friend or what not in LA.

I'll send them the whole drive, with text file instructions on workflow in each directory. Thats the best I can do.

If it bombs, they can hire me to do it right.

But you don't want to come off pushy.

Let them ride the bike and have the wheels fall off themselves.

I also included a directory called 'VARIOUS looks' that shows the same clip from it's 60p original, then transcoded to 30p, 24p, 24p with blur filtering. 24p slomo... then a true 1080 24p clip. So they could see.
 
the best quality will come if the editor transcodes.
i've encouraged fcp editors to use the $35 shedworx utility if they're on an older version.
otherwise, i include links/text that explain the log and transfer process to prores.
with this approach, i can buy a fat32 formatted external drive because files will be clipped to 4gb on the sd cards you're transferring to it.
but i agree, that if you only have one card filled, cheaper to mail that to them (too late for that, eh?).

when avchd first came out, i used to feel more pressure to do the transcodes myself.
but now its standardized/common enough that i feel ok forcing them to handle it.
 
It's more than would fit on one card it's about 100 gigs of raw avchd footage... so if I were to neoscene that to a 23.976 .avi we would be talking a 1000 gigs.

Not too mention neoscene desn't want to work on Win 7 64 bit which is making me have a panic attack.
 
How about VoltiacHD? I have heard good and bad things. Some say it is horrible compared to neoscene but I see artifacts introduced by neoscene right off the bat in the medium quality setting, yet I have seen Gunther's work and he uses VoltiacHD and it looks stunning.
 
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