Comments on: Final Cut Pro/Quicktime Hell!

By: squire

squire — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:09:18 +0000

WE HAVE A WINNER! Chris Boulton, Come on down! We’re going back to our original system of having Suman use our second camera, and HV20. It’s not ezzackly cheap ass (but it is a lovely little camera that makes brilliant HDV images, and is only a little hobbled by the cheap-assiness of being a consumer palmcorder).

We thought of using just the Quicktime audio files, and this seemed somewhat sensible. But then we looked over the transcripts and saw just how much illumination his notes on the visuals were providing the log (and how much they were helping him to grok the context) and thought better of it.

On the quick-pass paraphrase thing? Love it, in theory. However…1) Translator doesn’t really know what’s interesting; 2) We’re down to the wire, timewise; 3) Any ‘later’ options will likely involve retaining someone in the states, which will be far more expensive than here; and 4) Brother, thank you so much for your thoughtful reply!

By: Chris Boulton

Chris Boulton — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:10:05 +0000

I wonder if there is a low-fi solution? Like buying a cheap-ass consumer grade HDV camcorder and converting it into a deck? Or renting a camera and dubbing to VHS–later converting the deck counter times to timecode (assuming of course that your timecode runs continuous from zero)? Or perhaps, and I cringe saying this, accepting the fact that you will have no picture and just exporting the tapes as audio files? Surely this will be quicker, no? Far from ideal, but at least a quick fix until you narrow down your soundbite selects. No matter what you choose, you might consider encouraging your translator to do a quick pass of paraphrases or thematic summaries first, noting the location of things they find particularly interesting. This way, you can chat about what you’ve got so far and what this might suggest about things you still need to get. The more specific word-for-word uber-accurate translation can wait till later. Maybe until the selects stage, or at least until you get a better look at the picture.

My 2 cents,

By: squire

squire — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:35:37 +0000

Trip–
Yeah, it’d be a cinch to drop a timecode overlay on the timeline for each tape, and output it in a fashion that would be readable by any number of players…

…only trouble is we have some 20 tapes, and no matter how I slice it, re-encoding each of these would require 2-4 hours each (exactly what I’m trying to avoid).

It’s a lousy craftsman that blames his tools, but I’m not in love with HDV either.

By: Trip

Trip — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:51:30 +0000

Yes, I HATE HDV.

You could also just compress the files to SD using Compressor and then export as a Quicktime file right? The footage will most likely look terrible but if all you need is for your patient friend to view them, that should be fine right?

You can also burn a time code onto that footage in FCP. Just make sure that 00:00:00 lines up on the tape and the burn.

I’ve been struggling through HDV woes recently, feel free to email me if you need advice.

Good luck!
Trip

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:25:53 +0000

OK, this is probably a dumb question…but can you let him use one of your macs? Or somehow find him a mac to use?

Amy I wish I was at your sleepover party. Wow.