Using Canon C300 MXF footage in Media Composer v6 and v7

Transcription

1 Using Canon C300 MXF footage in Media Composer v6 and v7 If you are using your own system at home, make sure the C300 AMA files have been installed. Workflow 1: Linking Duplicate your original MXF files by copying them to your editing hard drive. Create a new project. Setup your project format.

2 Name the bin to which you will link your files. With the correct bin active, choose FILEà LINK TO AMA FILE (This option may look different in different versions of Media Composer. The capture below is from version 6.) Navigate to where you have stored your files and select your MXF files. Make sure either ALL AMA PLUGINS or the XMF plugin is enabled at the bottom of the import box. Select your MXF file.

3 Select OPEN. The clip will then be linked to the bin open in Media Composer. The icon to the left of the clip looks like the clip with a small chain link to the right of it, indicating that is linked rather than imported. Double click it, and it should open in the Source window ready to be manipulated in the timeline. You can also rename, organize, and move clips from bin to bin, as you would with any other editing program. *If for any reason your system says MEDIA OFFLINE, you can select the clip in the bin, and choose CLIPà RELINK.

4 You will get to the relink dialog box where you can select the drive where your media is stored. Selecting OK will start the process of MC looking for your file on that selected drive. PROS USING THE AMA WORKFLOW: You can link and edit immediately without having to import each file. You are working with native files. You are working with the original file so sending it to color correction is simplified. CONS USING THE AMA WORKFLOW: To send your sound to a Pro Tools audio session, you will have to transcode at the end. If your system is older/slower, working with native huge files may cause issues.

5 Workflow 2: Importing/Transcoding or MANAGED MEDIA workflow Simple way Create a new project and set the format to match your footage. A new bin will be open when you go into the project. Name it appropriately, and then choose FILEà IMPORT. You will get to the IMPORT dialog box. There are two very important places to check in this space. 1) The DRIVE where the footage is being imported and 2) the RESOLUTION (or CODEC) you want to work with. The RESOLUTION sets the CODEC that will be used for the media as it s imported. Setting the drive is critical so you don t import the media to the wrong hard drive (especially in a shared environment).

6 You have a list of codecs from which you can choose. Pick the one that best suits your project (look at the color sampling and data rate of the original files). For this, I m choosing ProRes HQ but know that may not be what you want to choose for your project. Select the hard drive from the menu to the left of the video/audio icons When you choose OPEN the file will import into the project. This process is creating a new file inside of your AVID MEDIAFILES folder on your hard drive. Once complete, you are working with an entirely new file that is no longer referencing your original file.

7 The following method is more complicated but has the major benefit of easy relinking to original files at end for online editing processes. Begin the project the same way as before. Link to all of your original files. Create a new bin for your transcoded files. Select your original files from the first bin, and from the clip menu choose CLIPà CONSOLIDATE/TRANSCODE. You can also access this by using CTL - click. Consolidate and Transcode do different things, so make SURE you select TRANSCODE on the next window.

8 Select the drive you want to store it on, select the VIDEO RESOLUTION or CODEC you want to use, and convert the audio sample rate and bit depth if necessary.

9 Once transcoded, your file will show up in the first bin, and you can rename it, and drag it to the new bin. Naming conventions are important here for relinking when you are picture locked. It s up to you to know how best to do that, but the transcoded clip and the original clip should reference each other clearly for your own convenience later. PROS USING THE MEDIA MANAGED WORKFLOW: You can send to pro tools sessions easily. You are working with transcoded files so the file sizes may be easier to manage on slower systems. (esp. important when working with 4-5K RED files) You can edit more efficiently with footage from Canon DSLRs that shoot with a native H.264 codec. CONS USING THE MEDIA MANAGED WORKFLOW: You are at least doubling the amount of storage you will need. You will have to relink or reimport to go to the color correction process if you want to do color correction on the native files. (Important when you are finishing a 2K project)