Re: Metadata, P2CMS, P2Log Pro, LogAndTransfer, Raylight and You. A journey into the unseen.

Had to come up with a feasible workflow like this for a big, fast turn around, multi P2 Cam shoot in New Zealand earlier this year.

After much testing the best workflow I could find involved;

Using P2 Log Pro to create metadata to load via SD Card to each of 7 Cameras (HVX's and HPX500's).
Metadata included Camera Op name, Description of what they were shooting that day but most importantly a UserClipName that ID'd each camera and created incrementing UserClipNames in camera, ie A CAM TUES 001, A CAM TUES 002...
I would do this for all the cameras before the beginning of each days shoot.
( I think there's also now a free Panasonic tool for creating and uploading metadata to camera so don't go out and buy P2 Log cos it's day is done! )

Next step were the Logging and Transferring stations ( PowerBook G4's ) where full P2 Cards from the field were copied to the edit machine. For this we used P2CMS - this is the one thing it does well and relatively simply, a verified copy of the Contents of each card.
( It does a whole lot of other stuff involving a database or something but forget about all that, it's confusing as hell.)

Raylight for Mac was installed on the edit machine, you only need it on one machine.
This was setup to scan the edit drive and create Quicktime Ref files for any new MXF files that arrived. It was also set to create new names for these QT Ref files based on the UserClipName from the metadata and the actual MXF file name, this is great, in a matter of seconds Raylight will generate QT Ref clips with meaningful names that are ready to edit in FCP and that you can track back to original material if necessary.
I set it to make these QT ref clips in the same folder as the original MXF Video files so each card still exists as a self contained Folder that could be moved around and still be Imported into FCP using Log and Transfer or can be edited immediately using the Raylight QT Refs.

We actually had another step here where we would open the Raylight QT Refs up in FCP on another networked Logging machine. Here a Logger would make logging notes to help the editor and then save a Batch List back to the CONTENTS Folder of the card in question.
At this point we would use Finder to Label the Folder Green for Go and all the editor had to do was open each Batch List in each Green Folder and do a quick reconnect to the Raylight QT Refs and away he went. Hundreds of Logged, HD Clips with meaningful names in FCP.

Say you transferred a Folder representing a complete P2 Card from one drive to another, the clips would appear as offline in FCP but all you have to do is reconnect to one Raylight QT ref file in the new location and FCP will connect all the files in that folder.
It's just if you started moving the QT ref files in relation to the MXF files that they are referencing that you would have real problems.

It worked pretty damn well. Occassionally the Raylight clips would open in FCP sans audio. When this happened it was a simple matter of deleting the QT Refs for that card and on it's next automatic scan Raylight would recreate them and second time round the audio came thru in FCP. ( I think this was due to the network traffic and activity on the drive rather than a Raylight flaw. )

At the end of the job everything was relocated to San Fran for a seperate edit and they did have trouble reconnecting all the QT Ref clips in FCP - In New Zealand we were doing Daily edits with no problem but in San Fran they were dealing with all the media from 7 days so i think it was just too much Quicktime Referencing going on!

I think the answer to my prayers might be just around the corner though...This looks like the business, superceding Raylight, especially if it integrates the camera metedata into FCP the way FCP should!!!

ttp://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/973195

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