MPC has added a new service to its Data Lab to make it easier to work with HD video from Canon‘s increasingly popular digital still cameras, the EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D Mark II.
Both cameras shoot high quality HD video but the footage doesn’t include timecode or metadata information so things soon get complicated when it comes to conforming edit-decision-lists.
To address the problem, MPC creates new masters by renaming the Canon clips and striping them with continuous timecode and "intelligent reel ID", meaning all source footage is uniquely identifiable. The clips are then "transcoded to the native format of the required editing platform", be it .mxf files for Avid, ProRes QuickTimes for Final Cut or whatever.
Following the edit, the edit-decision-lists are "guaranteed to give a trouble-free conform," says MPC.
The process of prepping Canon 5D and 7D footage is reasonably speedy, and considerably faster than real-time. MPC processed over 21 hours of footage for a recent UNICEF campaign for RSA Films in less than six hours "from receipt of the drive to delivery to the edit house".
Staff Reporter
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