FCP only exporting part of a sequence?!?!

[Brendan Donohue]

I' m trying to export a QT reference movie from my FCP timeline and it's only outputting half of the sequence. I DON'T have any In/Out points set, so that's not the problem. I've never had this happen before, has anyone seen this???

I saved the project and quit FCP, then restarted my computer and it's still doing it, I want to export the FULL sequence!!, but it won't, I've tried multiple times. I'm working in FCP 6 on a MacBook Pro. The only thing I can think of is that I'm using a lot of the Magic Bullet Looks plugin on this sequence (I'm new to MBL, this is really the first project I've used it on). The sequence is about 4 mins. long and I'm only getting about 1:45 of the export, weird!! Like I said before, no In/Out points are set, so it's something else going on.

if anyone has experienced this and knows a fix or workaround, please let me know!

thanks,
brendan

[Zach Love]

Now if you're exporting to something like a wmv or flv & you only have the trial version of the software, you might be running into export limits. The only solution to this would be purchase the full version to get the right codecs.

Do you have a full version of Magic Bullet? If not, that might be what is limiting your exports to under 2min.

BUT if you're staying w/ in standard QuickTime formats, you shouldn't be running into any problems. (Shouldn't is the key word.)


First thing I would try is to set your IN & OUT and both ends of the project. That might force FCP to export the entire sequence.

Next thing that I would try is to export through Compressor.

Or export the sequence in the native format & then re-export that file if all else fails.

[Brendan Donohue]

Yeah I was just trying to export a quicktime reference movie

FCP and Magic Bullet are both fully licensed.

I was thinking the same thing, maybe set in/out's at beginning and end to force it, I'll try that later.

will also try straight to compressor

thanks

[Brendan Donohue]

okay, so I tried setting in/out's to force sequence to export as a whole, that didn't work.

I tried sending straight to compressor, and the export fails every time.

I created a new sequence and pasted the contents of the other sequence into it, still doesn't work.

Originally Posted by Zach Love

Or export the sequence in the native format & then re-export that file if all else fails.

Zach, I wasn't too clear on this, what option do I chose to export the native format...is this the same as "export quicktime movie"?? cuz that's what I've been doing.

I'm pretty stumped, I guess I'll try to remove magic bullet from the clips and see if the export works then, but I don't think that's the problem cuz I just used MBL on a 3 min video a couple days ago and it worked perfectly.

is there any chance the project is corrupted or something?? should I repair my disk permissions and so on?

[Mitchell Lewis]

I remember something about this issue. I think it's caused by having a blank space in the sequence. Is this the case?

Or maybe it had something to do with the length. Try adding a short Slug (black) at the end of your sequence.

[Brendan Donohue]

mitchell, I DO have a blank space in the middle of the sequence between two clips where one fades out and there's about 1.5 seconds of black and then another clip fades in. Do you think that's what's causing it?? should I just insert a slug in the blank space??

you know, I seem to remember reading something about this a while ago, but it was before I was even working in FCP.

I really hope that is what's causing it, it makes sense because the exported clip stops exactly where the "blank" space is.

[Mitchell Lewis]

Yep, insert a Slug in the blank space.

This stumped me too and someone helped me with the fix a while back. I'm glad I could help! :)

[Zach Love]

Nothing like "nothing" to give you a major headache. Come on FCS 3, fix these problems!

[Brendan Donohue]

*update*

although the blank space in the sequence was an issue, the main thing that was also causing the export to fail was that I had MB Looks applied to a group of still photos in the middle of the sequence and they were failing to render (wasn't showing this in the Canvas though, they were previewing fine). I removed MBL filter from those photos and the sequence exported fine...I instead used Looks Builder to grade the actual .jpg files and then imported to FCP.

man, what a hassle:), but thanks to y'all for the advice, it always helps me to take a step back and re-evaluate the situation.

~brendan

[Peer Landa]

Originally Posted by Brendan Donohue

I want to export the FULL sequence!!, but it won't, I've tried multiple times.

I had the exact same problem -- however, in my case I found the culprit to be FCP that couldn't handle my overcranked material (30p -> 24p) when exporting it back to 30p. I.e., as soon as I tried exporting to 24p it worked just fine.

-- peer

[Phillip Palacios]

Originally Posted by Brendan Donohue

*update*

although the blank space in the sequence was an issue, the main thing that was also causing the export to fail was that I had MB Looks applied to a group of still photos in the middle of the sequence and they were failing to render (wasn't showing this in the Canvas though, they were previewing fine). I removed MBL filter from those photos and the sequence exported fine...I instead used Looks Builder to grade the actual .jpg files and then imported to FCP.

man, what a hassle:), but thanks to y'all for the advice, it always helps me to take a step back and re-evaluate the situation.

~brendan

You were probably running up against the Memory limit in FCP. You can load your MacPro with tons of ram, but FCP can only use a fraction of it. Lame. When I have a lot of pics in a sequence I've taken to making my still image montages in Motion then exporting that as a self contained movie.