Using Bars and Tone When Importing From Cards?

Question

I edited video for decades, and for years on an Avid, and quit before we started recording onto cards and entirely digital material. I'm used to importing, let's say Digibeta tape, and using the color bars and tone to set-up the picture and audio using the bars and tone the cameraman recorded before shooting. I've been asked to work on some projects shot on cards, not analog or digital tape, and many video editors stare at me when I mention setting up using bars and tone as if that is not necessary any more.
Every camera is going to lay down video with slightly different color and exposure characteristics and I would imagine that footage would need to be adjusted using color bars. Otherwise, wouldn't the colors and exposure from different cameras be inconsistent when cut together?
I understand that waveform monitors are still used to make sure shots are "broadcast legal" if the show is going to be broadcast, but are the waveform monitor and vectorscope not used when importing footage any more? I know that color hue is used by shifting the phase, which doesn't exist on digital, but there still must be a need to tweak the color coming from different cards and cameras. Please help me out on this...
Thanks, from an old analog hacker
Greg

Answer 1

I'm the OP and I'd like to get back to my original inquiry, and thank you all for reminding me that I'm not alone in trying getting blank stares when I ask for bars and tone at the top of the footage. But I'd really like to know how one sets up FCP to run the footage from the digital tape or chip and tweak the video signal before importing, so that all the footage I capture comes in with the video properly set.
For example, today I shot with some fellows rather new to video, but they put down bars and tone. When we went to import the footage (some from tape, some from chip) we couldn't figure out how to run the incoming signal through FCP, see it on the waveform and vectorscope, and access the controls to tweak the exposure and color BEFORE importing a single frame. Is that possible in FCP, would you please tell me how to do it?
We could tweak footage after we imported it into FCP, but when we wanted to tweak it before importing, when we tried to capture we got a dialog box that basically said "Capture" or "Cancel". Is there a Preference or setting to choose so that we can do what I want prior to importing, or am I stuck tweaking each shot after I've imported all the footage?
Thanks,
Greg