Canon 7D H.264 workflow

Hello,

I'm testing workflow for a Canon 7D through FCP.

I recently imported the H.264 clips directly into FCP, and edited a test sequence from that. I then exported a quicktime to send to the lab to be transferred to HDCam SR for a projection test.

When I exported this quicktime (current settings, trying to keep it all native) I noticed it was only about 500MB for a 12 minute sequence. However, if you look at the individual clips, a 60 second clip is about 400-450MB. Why is the exported Quicktime so small? I was expecting it to be at least 6 or 7 GB based on the size of the files created by the camera. Is this an H.264 thing? Where is the extra data going?

In the future we will be converting to pro-res for the edit, but I wanted to try and keep everything native for the test in case converting to pro-res adds any kind of additional compression to the footage. (does it?)

Thanks for any insight you might have!

-K.

2 x 3Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Nov 4, 2009 10:36 AM

Reply
11 replies

Nov 4, 2009 11:08 AM in response to Lawrence Edmands

what are your sequence settings?

I would suggest getting the h.264 clips on your hard drive, then bringing them into Compressor and converting them to ProRes and working on a matching ProRes sequence in FCP.

h.264 is a delivery format, not an editing format. In this case, you definitely do NOT want to keep your footage native, as it will slow down and mess with your editing process.

Message was edited by: thrillcat editorial

Dec 30, 2009 6:27 PM in response to Nick Holmes

The thought is;

1. Key a greenscreen shot (in SHAKE or MOTION) and export the shot with an alpha channel in 4444
2. Color-correct the shot in COLOR and render this out
3. Take the color-corrected shot into SHAKE, where I re-create the clip with alpha using a channel copy
4. Use the now color-corrected keyed shot and do a bit of comping... 🙂

Can this or something similar be done in an other format, or is this the exceptions where using ProRes 4444 is a good idea for a 7D user?

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Canon 7D H.264 workflow

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