Blog Archives

With the release of Final Cut Pro v5.1.2, Apple added 53 new filters. Here’s an article that shows you how to create interesting “trail” effects.

Travel mattes are a fascinating multi-layer effect with countless uses. Here, we use a travel matte to blur portions of an image to prevent identification, or to draw attention to the portions that are in-focus.

This is a great technique when you have a large image, but only want to display portions of it moving around the frame.

You can trim everything using the Arrow tool. But you can trim faster and more accurately using the Roll and Ripple tools. This article shows you how.

Having problems with Apple Final Cut Pro 7? This article provides dozens and dozens of techniques you can use to optimize your Final Cut 5, 6, or 7 system; plus trouble-shooting tips to prevent problems.

Here’s a great technique you can use if your camera only shoots 4:3, but you want it to look like 16:9. This works for any standard-def video format; you don’t need it when shooting HD, because HD is already 16:9.

Handles are critical for transitions and trimming. In this article, discover what handles are and why they are necessary.

Nothing causes more confusion for video editors than trying to figure out how to size still images for video. I’ve written extensively about this in the past — which is referenced in this article — this is an additional follow-up.

Unlike video, which has a fixed duration, still images are assigned a duration when they are imported into Final Cut.

Way over on the left side of the Timeline are a set of gray buttons that very few people understand. However, when you know how to use the Patch Panel properly, you’ll be able to edit any clip to any track instantly. I use this ALL the time and can’t imagine editing without it. This tool is also essential when you want to make a video-only, or audio-only edit.

Track gaps are pesky things that sneak around and flash black at the worst possible moments. This article shows you how to find and delete them.

Transcoding is the process of converting video (and/or audio) from one format into another. Generally, compression is done for final delivery, while transcoding is done from one editing format to another editing format. In any case, when should you transcode? This article explains the three options and provides suggestions on which one you should pick.

Final Cut does not like editing compressed video. However, what’s the best way to convert MEPG-2 video, which is compressed, into something Final Cut likes? This article tells you what you need to know.

MS microphones are popular in documentary recording because they avoid problems with phase-cancellation. However, there is not an easy way to use them in Final Cut Pro — until now, that is, using this very simple technique.

Whenever you trash or delete Final Cut preference files, FCP will reset back to NTSC DV 48kHz audio. This reset happens whenever your preferences get trashed. I don’t think Final Cut inherently thinks NTSC, but that when things reset, FCP resets to its default settings which is NTSC.

The lighting is perfect, the acting superb, the audio flawless — except the boom mike has crept into the top of the frame. Here are several quick techniques you can use to get rid of it — without reshooting.

In this article Larry answers a subscriber’s question about how to locate a missing file in FCP.

I am getting periodic reports of missing render files inside Final Cut Pro. This short article may give you a hand in tracking down the problem.

Does this happen to you? The audio waveforms don’t display in a Final Cut Pro 7 sequence when they should. Hitting option-apple-W simply brings up a series of Xs instead of a waveform. How do you get these back? By reading this article, which explains the problem and what you need to know to fix it.

Normally, audio is monitored off your deck or camera. However, if you need to listen to the audio during capture, Final Cut turns it off by default. This short tip shows you how to turn it on.

Final Cut makes it easy to move files from one place to another — provided you have your files and system setup correctly. This article explains what you need to know.

Final Cut Pro is two audio channels in, but up to 24 audio channels out. This article shows you how to get more than stereo from FCP.

By default, Final Cut outputs all audio as a stereo pair. However, Final Cut supports up to 24 discrete audio channels out — provided you know what to adjust and where to click. This article shows you how.

Probably the most reqested technique in my classes — how to add the same transition to multiple clips at once. Here’s how.

Multicam clips are new with FCP 5 and provide the ability to see multiple camera angles at the same time. However, while they are easy to use, they can be tricky to set up. This technique explains the steps you need to follow to get everything working smoothly.

In order to create a multiclip in Final Cut Pro, all the clips in it MUST match for codec, frame rate, and image size. They must also contain continuous, uninterrupted timecode.

Multiclips are new with Final Cut 5. This article explains how to use markers within a multiclip.

One of the more useful new goodies in Final Cut 7 is all the new functions that markers now support. Since we are talking about multiclips, I wanted to mention a specific marker feature you may not know about.

As you move into editing HD footage, you will quickly discover that there are many, many, MANY different HD formats. This article describes what you can do when you are forced to work with more than one HD format in a project.

Wendy is searching for a universal HD output format to simplify distribution of her projects. In this article, she discovers that’s easier to say than to do.

Nesting is the process of placing one sequence inside another sequence. There are many reasons why this technique is useful. This article highlights several of them, including ways to fix problems when your nested audio does not appear.

The debatable “nightmare” of offline editing is discussed, with Larry strongly recommending the creation of DVCPROHD 23.98 fps masters to keep the frame rate and image size constant and greatly simplify the final on-line edit.

Understanding the Media Manager is critical to successfully recapturing media, whether for creating the highest quality final master, or for resurrecting an old project. But the Media Manager is not that intuitive. This article walks you through what you need to know for successfully recapturing your project.

Here’s a quick tip on how to create still images so they can display in a PAL 16:9 sequence.

Panning balances audio playback between the left and right speaker to position the audio in space. In this quick technique, learn three ways you can pan multiple clips in Final Cut Pro.

Paste Attributes is an extremely flexible tool that simplifies copying settings from one clip to another. This tutorial shows you how.

Since its first release, Final Cut Pro has integrated effects with video editing. In this tutorial, I show you how to create a picture-in-picture effect, then make it move using keyframes in the Motion tab.

Creating keys on the computer is easy – and they look great. Where problems occur is when those specials effects are shot with interlaced video and displayed on an interlaced TV set or monitor. This article describes how to avoid suddenly discovering that all your effects look out of focus.

What’s the best way to position text in Final Cut Pro, and why does the position shift as you change justification? This short article explains the why and how.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to position text in Final Cut Pro to get the highest quality. This article explains what you need to know.

Not all video is, um, video. In many cases, we need to integrate PowerPoint or Keynote slides into our video projects. This article explains what you need to know to make this work successfully.

Judging by my email, handling still images is by far the most confusing part of editing video — especially because the computer creates images using square pixels and video uses rectangular pixels, in a variety of shapes. This article explains everything you need to know to create great looking still images for your next video project.

You have probably used Final Cut’s audio mixer to mix your audio tracks in real-time. Did you know you can do the same thing with audio filters? This technique shows you how.

Sometimes, especially when merging clips, you get more audio tracks in a Final Cut Pro timeline than you want. This article describes a couple of different ways you can get rid of them.

Final Cut creates render files for all transitions, effects, and audio mixes. This article explains what you need to know to keep these files under control and recover hard disk space at the end of a project.

I ran into an interesting problem over the weekend that I want to share with you because the solution is more complex than at first blush. Here’s the problem: I was asked to create a video for posting on line. The video had two components: me on camera talking, and screen shots, both of which were different sizes and formats. This article describes the process of creating a single, compressed file composed of multiple format video.

When you are working with multiple tracks of video, trimming clips on several tracks at once is essential. This article shows you how to trim multiple tracks quickly and accurately.

Steve Gagne sent in a question that sparked this tutorial. He was dissolving between chroma-key shots and in the middle of each dissolve, the foreground clip color-shifted to green. He thought this could be fixed using nests, but needed some help in figuring out how.

Confused about what size to create your images? This article explains what image size to use so they import correctly into Final Cut Pro HD.

In this article, various problems with playback are addressed and answered.