For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

For those shooting in AVCHD and transcoding to Apple Pro Res (or whatever codec you use), do you keep your Capture Scratch Folder/Pro-Res files indefinitely? Or do you scrap them after so long and just keep the source files?

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Why transcode to ProRes?
You didn't mention what NLE you are using, but we drop RAW AVCHD files right into Adobe Premiere CS5 and right not the timeline...
No extra transcoding steps needed!

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Obviously if I'm asking about transcoding I am using a platform that requires it. FCP does not work with the AVCHD files natively.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Katie, I would guess that depends on you. I keep my Cineform files for a couple of weeks until I feel confident that I do not need to re-edit the video for the customer, but I then delete them. They are huge, 3x or so larger than the originals. I put all of the files for the project on a single external 1TB hard drive (I happen to have about 4 of these single drives floating around) and then put the drive aside. So I will have complete files for about 4 completed projects at any given time, and I recycle the drives as needed.

You'd probably do something else, but you get the idea. I just use the 1 TB drives cause they are extras I don't need or use for anything else.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Katie, sorry for ruffle your feathers, but actually it was not obvious, or the question would not have been asked?

Please remember when asking these kinds of questions... There are tens of thousands of videographers and the bulk of them paruse these kinds of boards. Not all of them have full knowledge of EVERY NLE or even different versions of the NLE you may be using. Therefore if you want the most correct answer, it is best to be as clear as possible when asking a questions regarding "very specific" NLE process; and i would also include version as well as OS.

There are a lot of people that have jumped shipped from FPC to Premiere because of the many limitations in FPC (including X), but a lot of them are still using their old worklfows, well, until they ask similar questions to yours and learn otherwise. So again, the question is very legitimate.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Chris, if she's using ProRes she can only be using FCP. You might not know that, but it is pretty well known. She asked the question directly to those that use ProRes. She didn't ask if she should be using ProRes, so to ask her why she uses it was completely off target.

She phrased her question perfectly. You jumped in and simply didn't know what she was talking about. No offense. I've done the same thing as you've done. In your shoes I simply say sorry, never mind, my mistake. That's what I do when I step in it. And I step in it a lot.

Edit, I stand corrected, didn't know Premier users also use ProRes. Thanks for explaining that Chris.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Jeff...exactly what I'm trying to do is get a system down. We very rarely go back to a video once it's complete, and it's easy to re-transcode if we ever need to, as long as we still have the source files. So you're saying you keep your larger files on those 1 TB drives, and then reuse the drives as needed...or are you talking your source files?

Chris, no feathers ruffled, I just thought it would be obvious. I personally wouldn't ask a question like this if I wasn't seeking advice on my own work flow, and I wasn't thinking of others just parusing for general information. I was already fully aware that other editing systems can work with AVCHD natively, but you're right, to someone out there that doesn't know that, your post is very helpful. Sorry if I seemed agitated.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

We do exactly the same thing as Jeff... well we did before we went Vegas 10 which can work with the native files now. The original files are just so much smaller and thus saves on ever increasing disk storage costs.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Jeff, just snoop the Premirere CS5 boards - you'll see that there are a lot of FPC folks that have jumped ship to Premiere (on the Mac) and still using ProRes - because they didn't know they didn't have to. I have even seen on these same boards, where even some new folks to Premiere (on the Mac) think they have to use ProRes because that the way it's always been done.

I was just trying to help clarify things, thats all...

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Well, Chris, I didn't know that about PP and Pro Res, so maybe I stepped in it instead of you. If so, sorry, my mistake, never mind.

Anyway, Katie, my whole process is a bit weird.

I start with drives that are named Pending I and Pending II. (2nd drive is backup) These 2TB drives hold my videos awaiting edititng. When I am ready to edit, I move a copy to the scratch drive and work from there.

When I'm done, I then move the files (less the Cineform files) to another set of drives named Storage I and Storage II. Because they are usually less than 100GB, I can save video for a good while before I have to make room for others.

I then move the Cineform files and everything else to the external, in case I have to re-edit. Cineform takes a long time to do, like at least overnight, so I don't want to have to re-encode if I don't have to.

If you have no trouble re-encoding, and don't expect to go back, get yourself two drives whatever size you need, and save it all there, and when you reach capacity, you can just delete the older videos. That's what I do anyway.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

As this question by no stretch of the imagination comes under the heading of "Wedding / Event Videography Techniques" it would have been preferable to ask it in the specific FCP forum where no confusion would have arisen & a larger readership more au fait with FCP would have been able to contribute. Final Cut Suite Forum at DVinfo.net

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

It doesn't belong in the Final Cut forum because it's not a question about Final Cut....it's a question to other wedding videographers using the same workflow as myself.

Regardless, Jeff thanks for defending my original post :-) and thanks for the advice as always.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Hi Katie, what version of FCP are you using? Im using FCP 7.03 and I don't need to transcode, after log and capture it's ready to edit in real time.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Ricky, when you say 'Log and Capture', do you mean Log and Transfer? The Log and Transfer tool in FCP does transcode the footage.

Katie, I only plan on keeping the files to the extent outlined in my contract - 2 months. I will always keep a copy of the DVD, so I can indefinitely burn extra copies if necessary. I'll keep the project on my timeline for the 2 month period, but once the "satisfaction timeline" has expired, I will delete all raw footage.

Re: For those of you that transcode your footage...
 

Oooops! Yeah, it's log and transfer.