Subclips allow you to break up a longer media file into much more manageable chunks, without needing to recapture. However, creating subclips can be tedious — unless you know this secret technique.
Final Cut does not like, in fact, it HATES, putting compressed audio files (MP3, AC3, AAC) in the Timeline. They sound awful. Instead, you need to convert your compressed audio to AIF before importing them into Final Cut Pro. This technique describes how.
Taking a portion of a 16:9 image and expanding it so it fills a 4:3 screen is called a “center cut.” While taking a center cut of an HD image to fill a 4:3 SD frame is easy, this article describes how, and whether, to expand a 16:9 SD image to fill a 4:3 frame.
Working with video clips in different aspect ratios (i.e. 4:3 and 16:9) can cause headaches for anyone. In this article, Daniel Rain describes his system of working with a variety of different files in PAL.
It’s such a simple thing, but very hard to find. Here’s a table that allows you to convert the word count of a document into how many seconds it would take to read. Very useful.
You may have heard that Final Cut sequences can be customized. But what you may not know is how significantly you can make changes — as long as you don’t want to play the results on a DVD or record them to video tape. In this article, I’ll show you how to change the size of your sequence to any size you want.
Apple now supports creating Blu-ray Discs in Final Cut Studio 3. This support involves using templates to create your discs. However, making changes to these templates is easy to do, but hard to find. This article explains what you need to do to create your own customized Blu-ray Disc templates.
A sequence dragged into another sequence creates a nest – a single item contained in another. However, sometimes you need to deconstruct all the elements of that first sequence. Here’s a quick tip that explains how.
Stuck trying to figure out how to delete audio tracks in Soundtrack Pro. Here’s the answer in about three paragraphs — including pictures!
It’s possible to drag files from the Finder into the Final Cut Browser. But do you want to? In this article, I explain the process and provide reasons both pro and con about doing so.
In the past we obsessed about the rotational speed of a hard disk, how much cache it had, or even the controller chip it used. While these are important, they pale in significance when compared to the impact of how you connect your drive to your computer.
Have you ever wondered why a 1 TB drive never has 1 TB of free space? Or why a 500 GB drive stores much less than 500 GB? Well, it isn’t your imagination, it’s that engineers and marketers use two different numbers – but the same words – to measure the storage capacity of a hard drive.
Barring a hardware problem, dropped frames are almost always caused by a hard disk that’s too slow. But what if the problem is with your render files? In this article we provide some ideas to try as well as references to more detailed articles that can walk you through almost any problem.
A common complaint about matching audio between DSLR cameras and digital audio recorders is that the audio sync drifts. This article provides three references you can use to resolve this problem.
There are lots of questions about using DSLR cameras for video. In this article, we summarize some of the benefits and limitations, as well as add lots of feedback from readers.
The worst time to discover you have a problem is at the end of editing, when you have no time and no money. In fact, the best time to solve these problems is before production even starts. Here’s short article that provides guidelines on what you need to do to prevent problems down the road.
I’ve been writing a lot about HDV recently – and not all of it positive. However, Iain Anderson sent this in with his positive results using HDV. You owe it to yourself to read both side of the issue and Iain does a nice job.
Yes, Virginia, analog video tape still exists. And if you’ve ever wondered whether you can edit to a Betacam SP deck, this article will reassure you that Final Cut Pro works great with it.
Soundtrack Pro is far better at editing and mixing audio than Final Cut Pro is. While this can make your audio sound a lot better, you still run the risk of knocking your audio out of sync. This article explains more about how to prevent this problem.
One confusing issue new editors need to deal with is getting Final Cut Pro to recognize 16:9 (also called “widescreen,” or “anamorphic”) video. As well, if the editor is a new Mac user, they may also have problems with exported file sizes. This article addresses both these issues.
Recently, Euphonix invited me to their LA offices to take a look at a suite of new products designed for video and audio editors. — a series of external control surfaces. Control surfaces have been a fixture in the audio industry for many year, but for video editors, this is a fairly new concept. This article takes a detailed look at each of the four units Euphonix provides, along with thoughts on where they fit into a post-production workflow.
Here’s a simple technique you can use to export all the data in the Browser into a format you can read in Excel, Word, or Text Edit.
Keynote is a very fast way to create bullet slide and animated text for video. However, when it comes time to export your images, this article explains how to do it fast and with the best quality.
The default video transition in Final Cut Pro is a 30 frame cross-dissolve. This article shows you how to change it.
NTSC video, unlike PAL and HD, has two different timecode systems — drop-frame and non-drop-frame. This article describes what they are and when you need to worry about them.
Having problems capturing 24 fps video from the DVX camera? This article tells you what you need to know.
What do you do when your client requests a video that’s almost 13,000 pixels wide? (Well, after panicking a bit first…) Steve Sebban took on this task for a museum. Since then, I’ve heard from other editors who need, or use, this technique for the chasing lights around the edges of stadiums. Fortunately, Final Cut Pro makes this easy… if you ignore render times.
As Eric Mittan writes: “My favorite keyboard shortcuts are those that are contextual. The function of the keys in question change in the context of what task is being performed, or what item is selected, or what tool is chosen in order to get a different, if slightly related result.
Asymmetric trimming allows you to trim the audio and video in opposite directions at the same time. I’m still not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Here’s how it works.
Final Cut expects all cameras to shoot audio at 48 kHz. But, what happens when they don’t? Well, you get audio drifting out of sync, or no audio at all. Many low-end cameras record audio at 32 kHz. This technique shows you what you need to know to capture your audio accurately.
There are very few things that cause as much confusion to video editors as working with audio. In this technique, I show you a very efficient technique for structuring where to place audio in your timeline and suggest audio levels that can make your project sound GREAT! If you read only one audio article this month, this is the article to read!
Audio in FCP is clip-based, rather than track-based. This article describes a variety of ways to change the levels of more than one clip at once.
Final Cut Pro hates compressed audio. This article explains the problems you will having working with it, as well as providing a simple conversion process that solves the problem.
It’s easy to create burned-in timecode for video clips. But what about visible timecode for audio clips? The answer is “maybe,” but probably not.
Understanding how auto-render works can save you hours on each project. Here’s a step-by-step that explains it.
With FCP version 4.1, Apple changed the rules on how copy and paste work. You now need to know about “auto-select.” This article explains it.
Every clip in Final Cut supports up to three timecode tracks — a primary and two auxilliary tracks. This article describes how to access them, change the timecode they contain, and idea on what to use them for.
Faster is always better, when you can maintain control and quality. Here’s a VERY fast way to reset clip durations in the Browser that can save you tons of time, when compared to doing it one clip at a time.
I have a client who’s beginning to edit to documentary that has over 100 hours of material to be edited into a 30-minute documentary. What he wants to do is log each clip, then copy that logging information out of Final Cut so he can load it into Excel. The advantage of exporting all this data is that he can think about his clips, and share this information between producers, without running Final Cut.
There are two questions I get asked a lot: what’s the best camera, and what’s the best hardware. This article explains why answering the hardware question is so difficult. It isn’t that there’s no answer, its that the answer is TOTALLY dependent on what YOU need. Take a look here at why.
We toss around terms like 8-bit depth, or 10-bit depth, even 12-bit depth. But what do those terms actually mean? Does it make a difference what bit depth we work in? The answer is yes. Bit-depth determines how accurately we can digitally represent an image, compared to reality. This article provides more detail without going into too much tech.
I am not a testing organization, but, recently, Jon Schilling over at CalDigit (www.caldigit.com) sent me a 500 GB SATA RAID to examine (Model #S2VR Duo).
HDV is the latest video format craze, but it isn’t like DV; or any other video format we are used to working with. This article explains how HDV is different and what you need to know to use it successfully.
Final Cut Pro is, most often, used for editing after the recording is complete. However, there are some situations where you need to record live and edit as soon as you can. This article talks about that and provides options to consider. There’s also some relevant reader feedback.
The problem is that both 16:9 and 4:3 SD video have exactly the same number of pixels. This is true in both NTSC and PAL. And, sometimes, you need to convert from one to the other. What’s the best way to do this? What’s the fastest? Why is it necessary? This article answers those questions.
One of the common problems that inexperienced Final Cut editors run into is audio that slowly drifts out of sync. While the problem may appear to be within Final Cut Pro, the cause is actually due to mismatched audio sample rates between the video you shot and the way you are capturing it. What makes this worse is that many consumer cameras default to an audio sample rate of 32 kHz, while Final Cut expects 48 kHz. In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll explain what an audio sample rate is and how to change your Final Cut settings to capture your audio accurately.
Stereoscopic 3D video is not just for theatrical release. Cable and satellite channels, even YouTube, now display images in 3D. In this musing, I reflect that even if 3D isn’t the future, we can make money on it now – without spending a ton of money.
64-bit memory addressing is new with OS X 10.6. But what does this really mean? And what does it mean for Final Cut Studio (3)? In this short, moderately technical, article, we take a look a this new term and what it means for the future of video editing.
It’s late at night, you are wrapping up a project. Just when you think you can go home, you discover that your final export from Soundtrack Pro, doesn’t sync with your final export from Final Cut Pro. Grrr!! Now what? This article explains a very nifty technique that solves that problem in short order.
Soundtrack Pro does not create audio CDs automatically, but you can still do so, if you know how. This article explains the steps. Also, Peter Neil, from the BBC, suggests another program that makes this process even easier.
