workflow Sony fx9 final X

proxys, or I don't know what im doing wrong. thank you!

Can you repost the full message. The pasted text doesn't appear properly in the forum.

You can import MXF from an F9; you just cannot import it directly from a camera, a camera card, or archive.

This is what was said...

hi, how are you? I have a doubt with this. when i import the xmf files from the camera even though I use " leave the original media in place". It generates new original media in .mov. I understand that it is because final should not be able to work with the mxf without doing that. But it strikes me that if or if you do something that takes up so much space. Maybe I have to work whit external  proxys, or I don't know what im doing wrong. thank you!

I import it from a disk, to have the "leave files in place" option enabled, I have to choose the entire folder, if I choose a single file it does not allow me. Even so, the end generates new media in .mov very heavy

I think I've run into this before. In my testing, yes, FCP can in fact import FXP .mxf media files without creating optimized or proxy media. However, there seems to have been an issue in the past when in-camera stabilization was used, which is metadata embedded into the file. IIRC this was fixed by rewrapping the file using Sony's Catalyst software, before importing into FCP. But as I recall, Apple fixed this issue, so are you on a current version? Sony software would be the free Catalyst Browse app at SonyCreativeSoftware.com.

"I import it from a disk,'

Disk, as in from the camera card or using the card's folder structure? If so, don't do that. Copy it to a hard drive first and pull out all the actual camera clips from their folder first. Trash everything else. Then import the files.

The way we are able to import our FX6 media without it being copied into the library is to drag the folder (that's been copied to a hard disk) into an event. FCP will complain about the XML files, but tell it to ignore them. We found that even with the Leave files in place setting enabled, importing via the import dialog copies to the library. Optimized and Proxy are unchecked.

thank you very much!. and if  I pull out all the actual camera clips from their folder structure and drag that folder, then when you export a xml for davinci for example, you can relink to the online media well?

I think the OP's issue is the usual one of FCP importing tree-oriented media only with "copy to library". The MXF files can be removed from the folder tree on disk and imported "in place" but there is always risk of metadata being needed for something and it doesn't manifest until later. It may be safer to externally re-wrap the media with EditReady (which is very fast since it's not transcoding):  hedge.video/editready/

The trick about using Finder to drag/drop the entire disk-based folder tree to an FCP event is interesting. That seems to import them "in place". The problem with all these methods is you never know whether that causes a problem. For years importing bare AVCHD files in place would cause major I/O problems for FCP, but I think that is fixed now. Sometimes the issues can be non-obvious such as clip spanning, color profiles, or interpretation of legal vs data levels.

The FX6 and FX9 do not have in-camera stabilization, however they can record gyro metadata that helps post production software stabilize the image. To my knowledge no NLE supports this, only Sony's Catalyst software. It works quite well at 60 fps; less so at 24 or 25 fps due to frame blurring (assuming 180 degree shutter rule is used in each case).

Here are some stabilization tests I did on the FX6 comparing various combinations of optical, Catalyst and FCP stabilization. All these used 4k 10-bit 4:2:2 XAVC-I. Those using gyro metadata for stabilization were first imported to Catalyst Browse, stabilized then transcoded to ProRes 422 before importing to FCP. I think I imported the others via copy to library, but I've also imported MXF files from the FX6 "in place" and it seemed to work.

Sony FX6 stabilization tests, hand-held, 200mm @ f/2.8. Lens: Sony 70-200 2.8 GM Mark I:

"and if I pull out all the actual camera clips from their folder structure and drag that folder, then when you export a xml for davinci for example, you can relink to the online media well?"

The short answer is that Resolve will have no problems, as long as you give the colorist the same files that you are working with.

The longer answer and explanation is that almost no camera manufacturer organizes their files in an NLE-friendly manner. All of those Private, DCIM, Clips, etc folders are useless junk. They do nothing for you in the NLE and just cause problems. ARRI is the exception, because they designed the Alexa recording scheme with FCP (legacy) in mind. RED also sort of works, but only because RED created its own importer plug-in for different NLEs. RED's complication is that the original design took the camera card format into consideration, which was limited to 4GB for each individual file. Therefore, RED clips that exceed 4GB have to be spanned across multiple files.

Follow this process and should have no problem. First, copy your cards as they are to two locations - your main working drive/RAID/network volume - and - a cheap USB removal drive. Park that second drive is a safe place for back-up and never return to it, unless needed in the event of failure. Then on the main drive, pull out all of the video clips and arrange your material in a job-oriented folder structure. Trash all the extraneous junk. It's backed up anyway. Within the job folder create a MEDIA folder (or called Rushes, Dailies, Footage, etc). Inside that create folders and subfolders for DATE/DEVICE/REEL. DATE = filming day. DEVICE = camera or device name (A-CAM, B-CAM, SOUND, etc). REEL = card (A001, A002, B001, B002, etc).

Now move each of the video clips into their corresponding subfolders, like A001. Make sure all clips have UNIQUE files names. It's a no-no to have multiple clips labelled C0001, for example. If they aren't unique, then use a batch renaming app to create unique file names by appending a prefix or suffix to the name or completely renaming it.

If the codec is one that FCP (or any other NLE) doesn't handle well - transcode it. This applies to a lot of H264 and HEVC codecs and most drone footage, in general. Use an encoder like Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, or EditReady to do that. If you do that and convert these to ProRes, for instance, then within your REEL folder (like A001) create 2 subfolders - ORIG and PRORES. Sort the original H264 files into ORIG and don't use those after that. Place the transcoded files into the PRORES folder. These will be your camera media files going forward throughout the rest of the process.

This is now an easy system by which you can import into FCP and "leave in place." The subfolders you created, such as DATE or REEL can also be used to generate useful keyword collections automatically as you import these files into FCP.

When you hand off the project to the Resolve colorist, make sure to include the FCPXML, as well as a copy of your media folder from your main drive contains the media. That way you are both working from the same originated structure.

HTH.

thank you very much! I did this and it worked

Thank you so much for all this info!
it helped a lot

Glad to hear that it helped. Good luck.

Oliver Peters wrote:

"
Now move each of the video clips into their corresponding subfolders, like A001. Make sure all clips have UNIQUE files names. It's a no-no to have multiple clips labelled C0001, for example. If they aren't unique, then use a batch renaming app to create unique file names by appending a prefix or suffix to the name or completely renaming it.
HTH.

If you rename the clips -- e.g. C0001, C0002, etc. -- how do you link to the footage in the cheap USB drive if you need to later? I name the clips in-camera (with unique identifiers) and keep the same name for all original clips and backups.

MidNorth: “If you rename the clips -- e.g. C0001, C0002, etc. -- how do you link to the footage in the cheap USB drive if you need to later?”

Let me clarify. First, this cheap drive back-up is to be parked on the shelf and only used in an emergency. It’s not for later relinking unless your main drive dies.

In my normal workflow, I receive a drive from the videographer that’s usually a fast SSD or similar and the cards have been backed up using Hedge or Shotput or something like that to it on location. This drive is copied to my RAID and/or NAS and also backed-up to the cheap drive. Then that SSD is reformatted and reused by the videographer. At this point I have two copies of the media.

The next step is to re-organize the media on the RAID/NAS - move around files, delete junk folders, transcode, as needed. I then back that job folder up again from the RAID/NAS to a removable SATA hard drive. I now have 3 copies of the media (2 of the transcoded files)

When you have files labelled C0001, etc. it’s usually from a format that needs to be transcoded anyway. So I’ll transcode that media to ProRes. On the RAID/NAS and the SATA drive I have both the transcoded and original media. The original files get tucked into a folder and never used again.

When I rename the files, I usually add a prefix to the C0001, not get Reid of C0001. If it’s A-Cam, first card, shot on March 22, then the new file name might look like this: A001_0322_C0001. The next C0001 clip will be a different card, camera, or date, so the names stay unique. While I wouldn’t be able to batch relink to the original C0001 files, I do have a trail by which I could reconstruct the media folders. Again this would only be for emergency, since the transcoded, renamed files are now the OCN (original camera negative).

When I’m completely done with the job, I update the SATA back-up and move the job folder to a “backed up” folder on my NAS. Until I run out of space, I still have 3 copies of the media. When I do need to delete the folder for space, then I have two copies.

HTH.

MidNorth wrote:

...If you rename the clips -- e.g. C0001, C0002, etc. -- how do you link to the footage in the cheap USB drive if you need to later? I name the clips in-camera (with unique identifiers) and keep the same name for all original clips and backups.

Ideally, the goal is do all renaming before ingest to FCP. You can do that in camera or after offload or some combination, but it's best if all clips to have persistent, globally unique names. That means unique for all time across all productions. Otherwise if you later grab b-roll clips from another production, then they are no longer unique.

FCP has some limited ability to relink to renamed files. It appears if the end of the filename is changed and all other relink criteria are met it will relink. IF any renaming is done after ingest, this implies a "trailing filename" renaming scheme might be possible. See item 5 on the page "Relink clips to media files in Final Cut Pro". Obviously that should be well tested before committing anything. support.apple.com/guide/final-cut-pro/re...iles-ver26f5c8c9/mac

However to even test that you must move the files to another drive. If the files stay on the same drive volume, FCP will use inode pathname resolution and automatically relink the files no matter what the name or where they are placed. I haven't tested how well inode resolution works on a NAS.

One way to rename files is appending an underscore character "_" followed by an incrementing 5-digit serial number to the filename before importing. Finder can batch rename files and append a serial number, as shown in MacMost "Batch Renaming Files in Finder":

One purpose of globally unique filenames is to provide a durable convenient reference for post production. It can also avoid spurious duplicate clips when loading XML.