Finally after a lot of investigation it looks like we are ready for our first Euro 2012 web insert tomorrow. The Canon C300 will shoot the chroma key inserts and Final Cut Pro 10 will be used to edit various footage from multiple sources. Due to using Matrox MX02 FW 2.5 I have had to forgo external monitoring.
The graphic above is 4 layers, the Euro 2012 logo, the blue background, iPad coaching App insert and Scott the presenter via chroma key all done with FCPX.
I had to re-install the software for my Matrox MX02 back to version 2.5, this gave me the final version of Matrox Vetura Capture which by-passes the need to use log and capture in FCP-7, the iPad works a treat with the special dock cable to HDMI out which plugs straight into the HDMI on the Matrox MX02. You can choose how many audio tracks you need from 2 to 16.
This is a very simple but effective interface if you need to get live footage into FCPX, you must set up your preferences to 720p in order to take iPad footage live into your computer which is fine as I am editing in 720 50p HQ, all you do is import the footage into FCPX and your sorted. Why HQ, Alan Roberts an ex BBC research engineer wrote a white paper on the Canon C300 footage and if you treat your footage as 10bit you get a better result from your 4:2:2 8bit signal.
The Chroma key is exceptional, very fast and very clean in FXPX which is why I have plumbed for it with the 10 minute Euro 2012 inserts though speaking to a few editors yesterday for long hall projects they advise Premiere Pro CS6, one editor Rick Young told me he has over 50 hours of footage to ingest into FCPX as he thinks FCPX is more than capable of long hall work.
We are living in confusing times, there seems to be a general consensus that no one edit program serves all needs, many broadcast work including the official Euro 2012 edited in Warsaw will be cut on FCP-7, I personally would have stuck by FCP-7 if chroma key had not been an issue but having struggled in many occasions with 4:2:2 chroma key footage in Final Cut 6-7, it was a joy to swap over to FCPX if somewhat late in the day.
Apple need to address the live ingest with FCPX as many post houses will not consider an NLE without the ability to ingest live footage from various sources, especially tape.
The 10bit vs 8bit mirrors the practise in the stills world of editing at 32 bit or audio’s 24 bit. Even if the source material is not at that resolution it makes sense for the editing actions to take place at higher resolution so you only have to reduce the resolution once. If you work at lower bit depth then the results of each editing step have to be rounded to fit in with the lower bit depth and the cumulative effect is a loss of quality.
While the FCPX application can’t ingest live footage there is a very slick way of doing this via Softron’s MovieRecorder Pro software. This combination allows FCPX 10.04 to edit while ingesting from live sources and also works really well with FCPX’s multi cam features.
We’ve put together live ingest / editing solution for clients using this combination with great success.
You can check it out at: http://www.softron.tv/products/movierecorder.html