Blog Archives

A quick technique to create subclips in the Event Browser of Final Cut Pro X.

A step-by-step tutorial on how to compress video and audio for the web.

An analysis of the Mac Pro “sneak peek,” with thoughts on what it means for video editors.

A step-by-step tutorial on converting frame sizes and frame rates from HD to SD video using Compressor.

Here’s a quick tip to move clips in Final Cut Pro X.

Four light effects in Final Cut Pro X to add visual interest: vignette, spot, shadows, artifacts.

Welcome to the latest edition of my monthly Final Cut Studio newsletter for December, 2011. This newsletter provides tutorials, tips and other information essential to the interested user of Final Cut Pro.

A solution for dual-channel mono clips, or single track mono clips displaying audio as a single waveform in Final Cut Pro X.

Roles are new with Final Cut Pro X (FCP X) and can help manage complex projects through keywording your audio and video clips.

This is a better, faster, and more flexible way to create audio transitions in Final Cut Pro X.

Thanks to the generous raffle donations of our media sponsors for Larry Jordan’s Live FCP X Training in Washington DC!

Changing the color of a gradient in Final Cut Pro X requires opening it in Motion and making changes. This article describes how.

What happened to Background Sound in Final Cut Pro X?

An overview of working with proxies for your media in Final Cut Pro X.

Alex Gollner has posted a new, FREE, effect for Final Cut Pro X — it’s an eight-point mask.

The latest version of OS X — Lion — is now shipping. While many people are excited, I recommend taking a cautious approach to upgrading any systems that you depend upon for editing.

One of the limitations of FCP X is that it only allows one sequence per project. Here is a simple workaround you can create that may do the trick.

Cheryl Foster sent me an email recently asking about archiving.

Mark Whalen sent me his thoughts on Final Cut Pro X that I wanted to share with you.

Final Cut Pro X was released just over 30 days ago — seems longer than that somehow…

Discover the Power in Final Cut Pro X with Larry Jordan’s Live Training in Gallaudet Universit, Washington DC. Free Bonus for attendees, plus raffle prizes!

For people pushing pixels (or waveforms) Thunderbolt is a high-speed, data storage birthday present.

For those of you interested in a more technical look at the Broadcast Safe filter, Dennis Couzin, technical assistant to a video documentarian based in Germany, sent me the following article that he wrote.

Deciding whether to upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2? Read this short note first.

Not all software updates work the way they are advertised.This article describes an update approach you can use to make sure all software updates go smoothly.

Snow Leopard, Apple’s latest operating system, is not for everyone. But it may be for you. This article describes what you need to know in deciding when to upgrade your system.

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.

Addressing the problem of digital media “evaporating” when a hard drive is powered down and stored on a shelf, with additional advice from Bob Gobeille, who originally provided the terminal script to fix this problem.

Apple, on April 18, 2004, announced the latest version of Final Cut. Larry attended the event and files this report, then updated it in June with more information direct from Apple.

Apple has announced their new iPad, though as of this writing it has not yet shipped. What is the iPad good for? Should video professionals pay attention? In this article, I share some of my thoughts on where the iPad fits in.

Gamma settings control the gray-scale midpoint. The reason this is significant is that Macs, video, and Windows all use slightly different settings. This means that video that looks good on one system, may look washed out or too dark on others. Snow Leopard, however, has changed the rules. In this article, I explain what gamma is, how to use it, and where to set it.

Apple released Final Cut Studio (3) on July 23, 2009. This is a quick look at the announcement and an exclusive interview with Richard Townhill, Director of Video Application Marketing for Apple, about the new software suite.

You know the drill. Someone at Apple coughs and suddenly the rumor mill is filled with frenzied statements that the doom of Final Cut Studio is at hand. “The Death of Final Cut” rumors have gotten to be as regular as spring floods or a plague of locusts.

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.

As 2010 draws to a close, three quick observations on technology for the coming year.

There are four ways inside DVD Studio Pro to control how 16:9 video plays back on a 4:3 monitor. This article describes what you need to know and provides suggestions on which one is best to use.

Even an iSight camera can be pressed into service for capturing video when nothing better is available. This tutorial shows you how fast and easy this can be.

A while ago, I wrote about how and why to create submixes in Soundtrack Pro. While submixes can be used for reverb, a better way is to use Sends and Busses. This provides greater control and more flexibility than a Submix, but it is a bit trickier to understand.

Sometimes, the best of plans suddenly go awry and you need to remove plug-ins from your FCP 7 system.

In this article Larry exhibits how to maintain better control over your clips with QuickTime.

I want to share with you something I discovered while working with an AccuSys RAID that totally surprised me. This has NOTHING to do with the RAID itself, but having the RAID made it possible for me to discover this.