Best FCP Workflow
 

I am shooting my short on an fx1. It is very FX intensive, so I will be doing a lot of work editing in FCP5 and FX work in After Effects. I want to finish with an HD master.

What is the best workflow?

1. Should I edit in native HDV. Then export it as DVCHD PRO, Apple intermediate, etc?

2. Should I instantly convert HDV to the Apple intermediate codec and then export?

3. Gnomes?



I will be doing extreme color manipulation, levels, and mask work in After Effects. I would like the Actual editing in FCP to be as quick as possible (so I don’t mind converting to an intermediate format).

Any links or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have looked everywhere, but I can’t find a good step by step workflow.

Thanks.

P.S. I’m not worried about 24p conversion. I want to work with 60i and do a smart deinterlace in After Effects (already found a good method for that).

I guess no one uses After Effects?

Guess I'll have to use the Gnomes.

If you're going to do visual effects, get it out of HDV format first. I rendered our individual frames before taking it into after effects. After Effects works best with individual frames.

I would transcode to DVCProHD or something similar. The workflow will be quicker and you don't have to conform.

But you also have to determine what your delivery medium will be. If it is HDV, you will to transcode again.

Query: what is your good method for deinterlacing in AE?

Thanks for the replies.

I think I’m going to capture using Apple’s intermediate codec. From what I’ve read it works very fast and retains the quality.

After I have finished editing, I will export each clip. This is where it gets a little hazy for me. What format should I export? I was considering DVCProHD. Most festivals say they use Digital beta or HDTV. So, I need a master that I can use to convert to both formats and to DVD.

After FX work is complete, I’ll import the clips back into FCP for the final export with the soundtrack.


For deinterlacing, there is a bonus tutorial on DV.com under the “HDV to Film: A Real-World Test” feature. It’s a great article by John Jackman, and I recommend that everyone read it.

It is basically a smart deinterlace. Only the parts that are in motion (showing temporal aliasing) are deinterlaced. This Keeps the rest of the image at full resolution, and puts a nice motion blur on the parts that are moving.

John Jackman gives two methods. I can copy them to my next post, but is posting segments of other articles allowed? If so I’ll post them.