cinemaloha wrote:
We've had the R6 (18TB) since January when we moved from an old MacPro/LaCi 4Big eSATA to a new 24" iMac. We're still transitioning from FCPX.

Not sure what kind of detail you want on workflow. We shoot on a mix of 5D MkII, EOS 1DC and C300. When I get footage in I copy it to a folder on the R6. Then I make mirrored backup copies on a pair of bare 3.5" SATA drives in a pair of USB3 docks. Then when I ingest the footage I copy the footage to the event folders on the R6 (rather than referencing it). So, I've got a fair bit of footage duplication. Periodically I delete the camera archives from the R6 to free space (always reconfirming that I've got them double-stored first). I back up the completed projects to the same pairs of bare SATA drives, and then eventually to LTO tape.

I keep a folder called "FCP X Job Folders" on the R6 where I store exports, distribution encodes, AE and Motion projects and renders, scripts, music, graphics etc.
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BenB wrote:
Right. So as long as two folders containing an duplicated database UUID don't ever get placed in any "live" folder while FCPX is running (i.e. are not online at the same time) it shouldn't really matter if they share the same UUID.

BenB wrote:
I meant that given the lower cost of physical media and increased data transfer rates, there is a diminished return on the time it takes to selectively remove data from a backup set in order to save space.


BenB wrote:
No, FCPX shows limited metadata. Things like device model name, device ID... There's a field for ISO speed in the EXIF View tab of the Info section of the Inspector, but it is left blank. In Canon XF viewer I can see ISO, shutter speed, focal length, aperture, lens info, etc. This stuff does not show up in FCPX.
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Thanks for the input, Ben.
BenB wrote:
So as long as I'm careful about not ever letting FCPX see both of those folders at the same time (i.e. not letting them both be in "Final Cut Events" or "Final Cut Projects" folders at the same time) I should be fine? My worry is that there is some sort of absolute file path thing lurking that will bite me in the ass down the road when I restore an event/project that was copied off a drive named "15TB Video RAID" to a drive named "3TB Mobile Drive".

BenB wrote:
That makes sense. Wouldn't I have to quit FCPX quickly thereafter to prevent it from starting to re-render those files in the background when idle?

BenB wrote:
So as long as the "Original Media" folder is populated with actual files I'm OK? That would be acceptable. The size difference between h.264 DSLR files and optimized ProRes files is one of the biggest space-savers when backing up.

BenB wrote:
It's all about how easy it is to take the just camera archive and recreate the steps to restore the project to where you left it versus the cost of storage versus the amount of time it takes to back up the data. With a pair of 2TB bare drives going for $180 combined with the increased transfer speed of a USB3 backup interface, I'm tempted to just back up everything.

BenB wrote:
I see your point. Theoretically I could re-import the clips from the camera archives and it should create identically named QuickTime movies that I could then relink to - but that's an extra step. As above, here I'm tempted to just back up both sets of data. I'm not 100% confident about the QuickTime movies that FCPX creates for the C300 media - but it's only a doubling of the storage required as opposed to 4 or 5 times of transcoded 5D footage. And the camera archives are useful if I ever need to check the EXIF data that the C300 records but that FCPX doesn't seem to maintain.
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I'm still wrestling with figuring out the best way to back up my completed projects so that I can restore them at a later date for revisions/updates.

Here's what I'd like to do:

For every project I have the following:
- a number of event folders in the "Final Cut Events" folder in the root of the media RAID of my edit system. When importing, media is copied to the event folder rather than referenced and optimized media is created where appropriate
- a number of project folders for each show/version for the job in the "Final Cut Projects" folder of the same media RAID
- a folder containing what I call "FCP X Job Files"... things like music, voiceover files, scripts, AE and Motion projects, still images, etc... on the same media RAID
- a folder containing raw camera archives of all shot footage (as they were copied direct from the camera cards).

As a rule, I back up my archival files to mirrored pairs of bare 2TB/3TB SATA hard drives mounted in a USB3 drive dock. I keep one drive on site and the safety backup I keep in a secure offsite facility. Multiple job backups are stored on each pair of drives, from multiple clients. Other non-video jobs are also backed up on these drives. I know this is not super ideal as hard drives are mechanical devices and subject to failure/degradation over time and with lack of use, and I want to move to an LTO solution (or similar) as soon as someone makes one that is feasible.

So, now the project is in the can. What I'd like to do:
1: Copy the event folder(s), project folder(s) , FCP X Job Files folder and Raw Camera Archives folder to the backup HDDs using the Finder. These files would all be stored inside individual folders on the root of the backup HDD that are named according to the job.
2: Do a comparison of the checksums on the backed up files and the files on the media RAID to ensure the copies were clean.
3: Mirror the backed up files to the 2nd backup HDD.

Now, the issue here is file sizes. For larger projects, especially those shot with cameras that require media optimization, I'm backing up a lot of data that could potentially be recreated by FCP X should I ever have to restore the project. So, here are my questions:

1: I see that many tutorials recommend using the "Duplicate Project" command from within FCP X to copy the project files from one drive to another. What is the danger of manually copying the appropriate Project and Event folders to a subfolder on another drive using the Finder (not the Final Cut Events & Final Cut Projects folders)? Is it an issue of absolute file paths? It's messy to keep all of my project/event files backed up into single Final Cut Projects and Final Cut Events folders on the root of my backup drive. And besides, when I need to restore the project down the road, the files will need to be re-copied to a working media drive from the backup.

2: Can I safely delete the contents of the "Render Files" folder in the Project folder on my backup HDD?

3: Can I safely delete the contents of the "Transcoded Media" folder in the Event folder on my backup HDD?

4: For DSLR footage (Canon 5D/1D), can I delete the contents of the "Original Media" folder when I have the raw camera card archives backed up? For files like this, should my best practice be to NOT copy these files to the Event folder upon import (i.e. reference them as aliases) to avoid creating the redundant set of original h264 media files in the first place? I'm worried about ease/reliability of relinking here when the project is restored.

5: For MXF footage from a Canon C300, can I delete the contents of the "Original Media" folder and expect to be able to relink/regenerate the files later if the project needs to be restored? Unlike DSLR files, the name/structure of the Original Media files are created upon import and do not directly correlate to actual files contained in the raw camera archive backup.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. The whole backup/restore issue is a major pain point for us after having gotten it down to a science in FCP 7.
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MMedge wrote:
Hi. I think I can help. The trick here is to make sure the car is on an even, flat surface. I would suggest a parking lot or perhaps a driveway (if it's not too steep). Place the computer on the ground behind the left rear wheel of the car, about 4 feet from the wheel. Make sure the car is in neutral and the parking brake is engaged when positioning the computer. Now enter the car and ensure the steering wheel is positioned so that the front wheels are pointing directly ahead. Now, carefully disengage the parking brake and place the car into reverse. Apply light pressure on the accelerator and allow the car to move slowly backwards until you can feel the rear tire crush the computer. It helps if you can have a friend monitor your progress and call out any required course corrections to you.
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720p WMV is what i would do, unless you knew there were potential viewers who have outdated hardware - in which case I would scale back to 480p.
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mistermattsmith wrote:
If you feed compressor the raw camera clips (or the transcoded media for each clip) then it will burn the original source clip time code. Keep in mind that it will not place a semitransparent box behind the TC burn - which is a problem if you have varying luminance values in your shots around where the burn is. You can insert a semitransparent black box as a watermark in Compressor and get it to layer underneath the TC burn, but it's pretty finicky to set up.

Our transcribers require visual burn if we want them to insert time code into their transcriptions. We have one guy who is willing to use embedded TC displayed by QT layer, but he needed a lot of handholding to ensure he was displaying the actual TC track and not the running time. This is when we were able to feed him the raw proxy files from XDCAM-HD. This is less of an issue when using 5D DSLR footage as every clip resets itself to 00:00:00:00. However in instances like this, you need to direct the transcriber to insert the clip name (i.e. MVI_9275) every time they make a TC reference in the transcription.
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Still not having luck. I was using the "Mask" effect from the "Keying" section of effects. I also tried it with the "crop" tool in the video inspector. Same results.

If anyone is interested in trying it out themselves, I have zipped up a sample clip in an event/project. Please feel free to download it and figure out where (if) I went wrong:

we.tl/seqs57sQ45

Thanks for any assistance.

S
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anickt wrote:
There's garbage along the edges of the camera shots - the white backdrop does not go edge to edge. So, even if I did a luma key I would still have to do a garbage matte.
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Jimmyfinn wrote:
I've used an eyedropper tool across the entire clip and all of the samples I took of the white (both from the BG and the colour corrected camera clip) are at RBC 255/255/255.
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Hi. I've got a simple project of a talking head shot on a white BG. There are some bits along the edges of the camera shot that need to be masked out.

So, I dropped a white Custom Solid Generator on the Primary Storyline. Then I added the camera clips as Connected clips. Then I masked them (and colour corrected them). All was fine. Now I just need to add a simple 20 frame fade up/down from 2 second black slates at the top and tail of the piece.

I approached this as i would in FCP7 (or AE) - I dropped a black Custom Solid Generator as an attached clip on top of the white BG and the camera clip. Then I tried to add a dissolve to it to fade in from black.

But when I do that, the mask that I placed on the camera clip becomes visible midway through the dissolve. That seems wrong to me. I'm sure there are other ways to do this (and I'd be happy to hear suggestions).

Here is how the timeline looks:
05RpN93.jpg

Here is what the camera clip looks like when masked without the white BG underneath:
HMKnLhO.jpg

Here is what the shot looks like in the middle of that dissolve:
j5vM7ih.jpg
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Madnix Tave wrote:
I'll echo the comments of others here. Your story may (possibly) be an accurate portrayal of what went down, but the whole thing does smack of "the dog ate my homework". Szymon contacted you on the 8th and posted his blog on the 12th. Are you claiming that during all that time you had no luck in getting your "employee" to fess up? Did you not immediately speak to this employee and ask "Hey, did you by any chance happen to use footage from our direct competitor in the files you produced for us?" Were you lied to by this employee when you (surely) asked this question? It took them until today to finally break down and admit guilt? That's some Jack Bauer type interrogation resistance right there. There appears to be a dog somewhere here that is unable to hunt. And the issue of the use of your wife's credit card to purchase the competing product would need to be adequately explained before you get anywhere near any kind of absolution.
Madnix Tave wrote:
You need some work on your mea culpa there, pal. "Capitalized?" "Ruined competition?" Your contrition is getting served up with a side order of sour grapes. Szymon gave you ample time to address this and you replied in a glib manner (including the crack about his command of the English language) and denied culpability before confirming the facts. You apologize, but you poke the guy who you've wronged with a sharp stick along with your apology.
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I have a project that was edited by someone else. I sent him an external drive with the footage. He used that drive to create, edit and complete the FCPX project and then he returned the drive to me. I wanted to do a test to see what was involved in taking that project from the backup drive and copying it to the RAID of my main edit system.

I copied the event folder and the project folder to the appropriate folders on the root of the RAID. I also copied the supplemental job files (raw camera files, motion files, motion renders, music, stills) - when these files were imported into the event they were linked as opposed to copied to the event folder.

When I fired up FCPX the project and event showed up with all of the media missing. I was able to successfully relink the media. He had several timelines/projects (rough cuts and a final cut) and the early rough cut files play back fine.

On the master project the editor had added effects to pretty much every clip on the timeline - usually it was CrumplePop ToneGrade and Alex4D Smooth Move. I didn't have these, so the clips all played back as a "missing effect" slug. So I quit FCPX, and downloaded/purchased and installed the effects. But when I crack open the project, the effects all still appear as "missing". Inspecting the project shows an alert for missing effects and the clips still play as the red "effect missing" slug. But when I look in my list of effects those two effects are there. I can take each of them and apply them to a new clip in the timeline and it plays/renders fine.

Any idea what's going on here?
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BenB wrote:
Here's an interesting link from the guy from Juiced Link. Take it with a grain of salt, but i'd say his product sounds on par with the MixPre... at least when it comes to preamp noise.
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BenB wrote:
That may be, but I'm telling you why people do it. Google "Canon 5D hiss" and you'll see what I mean. I've done the tests on our own rigs and the difference is undeniable. With the right microphone (and for the right content) it is definitely "acceptable". If you feed a loud signal into a 5D, the difference between the his and the recording is greater, so the hiss is not as apparent. But there is a difference.

Another popular reason for DSS on a Canon 5D is the absence of a headphone jack (without custom firmware) and on-screen audio meters. Not monitoring the recorded audio at the end of the chain is risky.
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