2009

How to Approach Workflow Design
Two of the most important decisions to make are how you want to ingest your media
and how you’ll output it. These decisions are tightly linked and define everything that
happens in between. In general, it’s wise to plan your post-production strategy with the
end product in mind. What do you expect to deliver at the end of the process? There are
far fewer steps involved when you output to videotape than when you output to film,
so this decision is crucial.
When you know how you want to output your program, you can pick an
editing-to-finishing workflow based on the acquisition format that was used. This will let
you know if you need to use an offline-to-online workflow that involves reconforming
the media, or an online-to-online workflow where you output the same media that you
originally ingested for editing.
After these decisions have been made, you’re in a much better position to determine
how best to preserve the quality of your media and all relevant clip metadata, as you
edit, reconform, and do visual and audio effects work.
Acquired on Video for Output to the Web
This workflow refers to programs that are acquired via a consumer or professional video
format such as DV-25, HDV, AVCHD, or DVCPRO HD and produced for delivery via the
web. The results are typically highly compressed and are intended to be watched on a
computer, on a portable device (such as iPhone), or on a television via a set-top box of
some kind.
Types of Programs
Program types include video podcasts and blogs, web serials, educational programming,
corporate communication videos, Internet-distributed features and TV programs, and
music videos. Given the proliferation of video for the web, this category has rapidly
expanded to include just about every type of program.
Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest
Acquisition formats include but are not limited to DV-25, DVCPRO 50, HDV, AVCHD,
DVCPRO HD, and XDCAM, to name a few. What this means for ingest is:
• Tape-based formats are ingested via the Log and Capture window in Final Cut Pro using
an appropriate built-in interface (FireWire) or a third-party capture card.
• Tapeless formats (also called file-based formats) are typically ingested by copying the
native video data from the camera to your storage system and then transferring the
video data to Final Cut Pro using the Log and Transfer window.
15Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy