In FCP, any sequence you have created is a template. A sequence can be dragged or copied from one project to another. Clips in sequences can be changed simply by copying the new clip and control clicking on the clip you want to replace in the sequence template and choosing "Paste Attributes" and "Content". Filters, motion effects, etc. are thus preserved. You do not need to keep the original media on your hard drive as FCP will remember all the attributes for a clip even without the media existing. First time the "Reconnect" dialogue comes up on starting a project, just tell FCP to "forget about it" on the bottom left of the dialogue box.

Do it once, use it forever, hope the clients don't know each other.

Good Luck,

Duane,

Thanks for the advice. I assume you are talking about opening a project, importing over it and using what you have already set up. In this case, the save as command is a life saver.

But, I was wondering about templates that you can change, i.e. an opening wedding picture that you can put the date on with frilly crap around it and their picture or some video can be in the middle of it. Premiere has them built in. Do I just have to create my own in Photoshop? Or, does some third party software company produce something of this nature?

Maybe versiontracker has what I need...i'll go check it out now...thanks Andrew.

Does anyone else know of others?

Clay...

Go to the Education part of Apple.com and her school should be listed. Education discounts are only available through the web store.

<<<-- I assume you are talking about opening a project, importing over it and using what you have already set up. In this case, the save as command is a life saver.-->>>

Well, no Clay, that is not what I am suggesting at all. Sorry I was not more clear. What you are suggesting would result in your having a bunch of unneccesary clips in the browser that are not related to the project you are currently working on.

Have a look at my original posting. Copy your SEQUENCE only from one project to the next. Just the sequence. Try an experiment by doing what you have suggested and what I have suggested and see the difference.

The Premiere templates must exist as a file somewhere. Have you tried opening them in FCP? Sorry, but I am not familiar with this aspect of Premiere.

There are known issues with FCP3 projects being imported into FCP4. One of them is that the project takes longer to load because FCP4 has to do a A/V sync check.

I think you can get around this stuff by making a clean FCP4 project, getting all the edits in (maybe through media manager or copy and paste), and recapturing footage.

Duane,

I will try them both to see the difference. As I said I am new and just learning and expirementing. I see what you are talking about, though. There is all kinds of new stuff to learn! Can't wait. Thanks.

Clay...

I have a video that was cut on Vegas (PC) that I need to transfer over to my Mac (FCP). Is there a way to bring that video into FCP with everything in place (timeline, clips, music, effects, etc...)? What is "CMX 3600 EDL" all about?

Thanks for the input.

When attempting to perform a transition, whether it be a dissolve, wipe, etc., I am, occasionally, unsuccessful. I get a message "not enough content for edit", or I am locked into a one-frame transition rate, instead of the usual one-second rate. I've been told to try it with snapping off, but to no avail. It seems to me that I indeed have enough duration within the clips in question, so why will it not perform the transition edit? Other times it will...

Yes, this can be annoying when starting out with an NLE. Basically you're not leaving enough footage at the head of one clip and the tail of the other for the transition to be applied. A 1 sec cross dissolve, for example, will need at least 15 frames (NTSC) on both sides. If the -out- point of your starting clip and/or the -IN- point of your ending clip are at the clip's boundary the transition will fail.

When shooting a dramatic work always try to overshoot each take by a few seconds at the beginning and end, in part to accommodate such editing requirements.

I don't think there is a direct export or import application between the two programs. CMX is a type of linear editor. Does Vegas support any EDL formats? FCP supports many of the popular EDL formats.

Jeff, I was told by the Vegas editor that we should be able to do this using "CMX 3600 EDL". What way would you suggest trying to do this?

Thanks,

I think the editor was referring to rebuilding the project using the EDL. You will still have to recapture all the footage and many of the dissolves may need to be rebuilt, as well as titles. I would try a small, sample edit and see how well the export/import goes. Avid and FCP play much nicer together. I've not heard of too many people going between Vegas and FCP or Avid. Is there a real reason to do this? Can't you finish in Vegas?

I have a 12" Powerbook that I use with a 15" LCD and I'm running FCP4 on it. The render times seem a little long to me, butmy main editing system is a PC with a DV Storm realtime system, so I rarely ever need to render with that, so I really have nothing to compare it to. But I have to say that I have been very satisfied with ithe powerbook, even though the screen is a little small if I need to edit on it without an external monitor. The portability is great.

I have a 12" PowerBook hooked to a 17" LCD that I use for editing. Works great for me as it's the fastest Mac I own.

I just got a 15" PowerBook at work, and it is noticeably faster (867 MHz vs. 1.25 GHz), but I don't have FCP on it, so I can't make comparisons.

If screen real estate is important, I'd go with the 12" and keep the 15" monitor. The 12" are at 1 GHz now, and can take more RAM, etc. than my first generation model, so things will be more similar speed wise for you anyway.

Hey everyone. I recently got the DSR-11 dv deck, and so far, for everything I've needed it for, it's worked really well. However, all I've needed it for was importing from my minidv tapes.

Now, I am needing it for playback. What I'd like to be able to do, is watch what I see in my timeline in final cut pro on my TV or a NTSC monitor. How would I go about doing this. Are there any special settings I have to be on, or can it even do that?

Also, I am having some problems recording from FCP onto a minidv tape. Do I need to be on any special settings for that, too? One last thing, do I have to be on any type of settings to record on my regular VCR to put it onto a VHS?

Thanks

With my DSR-11 deck I simply run the Firewire out from the Mac to the FireWire port on the DSR-11 and then run the video and audio outs to my NTSC monitor.

Pretty simple actually.

For some systems, you may need to change the DV input mode on the deck menu system, but as I have not needed to do this, I can't tell you how :)

That's what I thought. And that is how I figured it would work. However, maybe because I have it going into my TV at the moment, it was not working.

Do you have to do anything special in FCP to have the video display on your monitor, or does it just work? Also, what monitor are you using?

Thanks again

I am not 100% if this will work or not, as I have never tried it, but I believe you can use Quicktime Pro to embed a Picture File into your audio to avoid this. If not, just bring it into FCP (Or whatever program you are using) and export your audio with a video track that contains your image. (I am not sure if this will work with an .mp3 though as there is no image information embedded in them from what I know, you will probably have to go with a .mov extension on it)

Make sure of the following:

The deck needs to be on and connected via Firewire before you start up FCP.

View (menu item)
External Video
All frames

Sometimes this is set to "off" and no picture will go out to the deck.

To test the picture from the deck to the DV, just play a tape.

Thanks again. I played around in FCP, and figured it out.

I appreciate the help a lot.

I finally upgraded to FCP 4.0 and DVDSP 2.0 which means I can finally shoot 24PA and do something with it. I have gathered it is pretty involved getting from 24PA raw footage to a Progressive Scan DVD.

If a FAQ exists with some guidelines and someone could point me to it I would really appreciate it.

Greg Matty

Hi Mac users,

If footage is shot with a camcorder than doesn't have true 16:9 but instead masks the footage with black bars above and below the video (letterbox), can the black lines be removed for DVD or web use? In other words I don't want to see the black bars- just video, is this possible within FCP3 or Quicktime?

(I'm aware of the resulting resolution loss because of the smaller video area-)

Also, would it be safe to assume that rendering times (of effects and transitions) would be shorter when using letterboxed footage because of the non-changing black lines above and below the video frames? My theory is that there would be less "video" area as the black lines comprise areas of non changing video- resulting in less calculations for effects or transitions- is this correct thinking? If so- this would be at least 1 positive aspect for shooting in letterboxed mode as opposed to true optical 16:9!

Thanks to anyone who can provide feedback to these inquiries.

If I understand you correctly, you want to take letterboxed 4:3 video and turn it into anamorphic 16:9, right? This is easily done in FCP using the distort property of the motion tab. I haven't tried it myself, but with a little experimentation you should be able to change the y coordinates of the image corners (that default to 240 and -240) such that the letterboxed section fill the full 4:3 frame. After rendering the results you could drop it into an anamorphic 16:9 sequence and you'd be all set.

I'm not sure about your rendering time question. But there is one thing to be careful of when working with letterboxed video. If you apply color correction or make other adjustments to your clips you may also alter the black bars of the letterbox. It will look strange in the resulting video if the black area changes color and brightness. I've had this problem before, and ended up matting off the top and bottom of the finished sequence to make sure the black letterbox bars were consistent throughout the entire video.

Boyd,

Thanks a million- you understood me perfectly. I kinda assumed this would be easily doable but wanted to make certain.

Thanks again.

I'm a rookie who is using a Sony one chip camera and IMovie 2.1 for editing. Believe it or not, I've been making money with my entry level equip. I'm interested in Buying a 3 chip camera and moving up to FCE for editing. Any ideas as to which 3 chip camera would be a good choice and easy to operate? I prefer a low light camera. I was thinking about the VX2000. For editing it seems logical to move up to FCE and then FCP. How much of a learning curve would I have with FCE compared to IMovie?

Here is my IMovie homepage with samples of some of my work. I have much to learn but everyone tells me I'm ready to move up.

Samples....http://homepage.mac.com/richsheikh/Menu17.html

Hello,
i need to capture some analog footage from vhs, and i'm trying to achieve this with a miro motion dc30 video card and final cut 3.0

The problem: i can preview my footage with log capture, [so i think i have the right audio/video settings], but! when i choose capture now, all i get is a black capture window, with the message allocating disk space.
and the only way to get rid of this message (final cut isn't responding to anything) is a forced quit of the program!

final cut does writes data to my harddisc, but it is a file that quicktime doesn't understands,
I have used final cut and log capture with the canon xm1 and had absolutely no problems at all!

i hope someone can help me or has some advice because i can't find the
solution......
wessel
amsterdam.

_


Phil_A
Re: video capture problem (miro motion dc30) [Re: Validsub_forms]

Hi
If you can't see the footage when you're at 'capture now' then it's not going to disc (least, not in a form that's playable I guess). There was a problem some versions back with capture now seizing if the limit wasn't set, but that I think was for audio only transfers. Can only suggest you check settings, as ever (ie that you've got the correct codec & TV standards, and are set to capture sound and vision), maybe trash your FCP preferences which can cure stubborn bugs that don't make sense.
Phil



Post Extras: _ _ _
Validsub_forms

Hi phil,
I have been changing some settings -[AUDIO/VIDEO]
but it is not going to work!

[those f r's of pinnacle could at least update their drivers, final cut 1 !!, ]

anyway I did some testings:
- first the original dv settings [without the canon xm1] and than capture now. no footage is captured of course but after pressing esc. [final cut still reacts] a message: unable to read the movie file just captured. logical but just to make sure....

- than if i choose digitizer: miro motion. the problem is there!
even if i change the different capture settings or don't play the vhs tape and just press capture now , i get allocating disc space, a freezed fcp. and lots of captured data that quicktime can't read.

It just doesn't make sense, final cut can show me the vhs footage [log capture] but can't capture it.
how wonderful live can be!

If somebody reeds this and has some advice please react. i'm getting a little bit desperate here..............



thanks.

wessel/ [fcp.3, G4 450mhz, OS 9.2.2, miro motion dc30]
amsterdam.

The DVX100 has about the same low light capabilities as the PD150 (pro version of the VX2000- same optics) from the dv.com review. That might be a bit pricey for you (check the bhphotovideo.com prices). It has some film look options, progressive shooting modes, and great audio. The venerable VX2000 is still one of the best for low light shooting.

Final Cut Express is pretty easy to learn. Get yourself a book or read tutorials online at kenstone.net and read the FCE manual (might need to print that out). You're spoiled because iMovie is so easy to use.

There's lots of great advice over at the lafcpug.org forum.

Heres a question

I want to record some sounds playing on my powerbook with my minidisc player, once Ive done this I load up virtual PC to use sony's stupid software to get the track on the computer and I get an error saying it wont check in, after reading the help it mentions items recorded on another computer cannot be checked in. So I'm thinking the software thinks the dvd player on OS X is a different computer than virtual pc and isnt letting me. Is there a way around this? Are there mac resources for minidisc on the web somewhere? Any minidisc/mac related sites would be appreciated

Thanks

According to Think Secret -

(http://www.thinksecret.com/news/fcpupgrade.html)

Apple is working on a major upgrade to Final Cut Pro promising double-digit speed increase to G5 users (I've seen this confirmed elsewhere as Apple has been demoing this version to user's groups).

Other fixes/improvements are mentioned in the article.

I just hope this upgrade will:

1) fix all the bugs in 4.02
2) run on Jaguar
3) not be a paid upgrade

Come on Apple, help us remember why we love you!

Hello FCP'ers.....

I'm a little confused and would like some clarification on audio when using DV cameras and FCP3.

I often use SP mode and 48khz Rec modes which allows for 2 audio channels....but when working on footage in FCP I can add as many tracks as I'd like- so I'm alittle lost as to the 2 channel/stereo limit when using 48 mhz rec mode...I'm aware when using 32 khz we can dub an additional 2 channels--- is this feature strictly for mic use.....does that mean I must use 32khz mode if I plan to use an onboard mic and plug in another mic? Will the audio show up in FCP as 4 tracks which would be 2 stereo pair per mic input?

...what about when i output back to dv tape and i have 10 audio tracks- what goes in what channel as i can hear all the audio back onto the tape??

I hope I am getting my question across the right way......can someone shed some light on audio? Thanks.

Hi Rich,
I started editing with Final Cut Express not too long ago. It was easy to figure out the basic functions and get by without any problems. About a month ago, I bought a very good book called Final Cut Express Editing Workshop by Tom Wolsky. This book is designed specifically for the folks making the move from iMovie to FCE. It starts out very simple, defining every little setting, and even contains a dvd video and sample projects that coordinate directly with the lessons of the book.
I found my copy at a local Barnes and Noble, so you should be able to find one too.

nicholi

Jeff if your out there I need your help. I'm having latency problems with long captures. I'm using FCPX with a MAC G5. Any Suggestions would be appreciated.

Can you describe your problem in a little more detail, please.

Picture and audio capture out of sync.

The quick fix (in most cases) is to export to QT then import into FCP. But there can be many causes. Hard drive getting full, not enough memory, audio at wrong rate for FCP capture settings (set for 32 kHz and capture at 48 kHz or vice versa), audio in timeline set for too high quality, trying to playback too many audio tracks for resources available.

What version of FCP, QT and Mac OS are you using?

Hi, just a quick request: can anybody please comment on the Matrox RTMac card? A friend and I are considerning investing in an RTMac to beef up his first-generation dual G4, NLE would be FC4. Is this a good idea? If it performs as advertized, it seems a good deal for US$600. Any happy/unhappy experiences with the product?

Steve,

Dubbing features are dependent on your camera.

As for the ten tracks, you'll have to specify what is each source and how you want it mixed. Creating a stereo field from multiple sound sources is an art.
But generally, monophonic microphone source tracks are panned to the center (equal amounts in each output channel),
stereo microphone source tracks are panned with left channel going to left output channel right to right. A nice method to generate stereo on voice tracks is to record them with stereo ambience, or even better, record them without any ambience and use one of the small room reverberation presets to generate stereo ambience.

Sometimes, mono microphone sources are definitely directional (such as in an interview that are on two sides of the screen), so you'll want to put the left interviewer mostly in the left output channel and the right interviewee mostly in the right output channel.

And hopefully it will fix the problem with Timecode Output via FireWire (Not sure how many people are having this issue, but I know somebody that this is happening to and drives him up the wall!)

In the timeline my scrubber bar is jerky and seems to jump in 2 or 3 sec intervals. My footage on the canvas is also jerky, but all plays fine on the viewer. There is a green circle with a black tick on the canvas window..what have I pushed?

Regards
Rick Banfield

You'll at least need to tell us what editing system and version you are using.

Sorry,
FCP 3 on g4 twin processor, 1gig ram

Rick Banfield

Rick,
Hard to know the cause of your scrubber jerkiness. Here are the two thoughts that come to my mind.
- Un-rendered footage effects?
- Your capture/scratch drive (i.e. where the footage and/or rendered footage is located) is getting full or is badly fragmented.

Re: the green check mark, it sounds like you may have turned-on the broadcast-safe checker, which will indicate the status of footage with such marks.

Turn off range check.

View--> range check I believe.

Steve, only some cameras support recording all 4 channels live. The XL1s comes to mind. Other cameras will only let you record 2 channels at once and the other 2 channels are for dubbing over later (kinda useless).

With most cameras the on-board mic is disabled when you have an external mic plugged in. There is an exception including the Sony zoom mics (which aren't very good).

In FCP you can have lots of tracks but the output is ultimately stereo sound.

Matrox has been very late in coming up with drivers for OS X and Panther drivers are not out yet. The card's RT abilities weren't very useful when FCP*3* came out and even less useful now that FCP4 came out.

I definitely wouldn't pay $600USD for one. There are a lot of folks trying to ditch their cards- just get it used if you really want one.

You might want to look into the Powerlogix processor upgrades for your Mac instead although your Mac may not be as fast as the latest G4s of same processor speed.

Just wanted to let you guys know how my situation turned out. I have my PC, iMac, and G5 networked together. I dragged the FCE project file from the iMac to the G5 and 2x clicked on it. FCP 4 opened and said "File format is outdated, would you like to update?" I clicked yes, and it opened the entire project, sequences etc. in FCP4 and AUTOMATICALLY changed the target path of my source footage over the network to the iMac. I played my footage in the timeline, and the freakin thing played back in realtime, with the effects! You gotta love the Mac's. Keep in mind I never copied the source files over from the iMac, and I can even export with the files still on the iMac w/ no dropped frames.

Michael

Hello, all! Just a quick question about this monitor:

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=248019

I found this monitor on sale at PCMall, and it looks good on paper (DVI connection, good contrast & viewing angle). Right now, I have about $750 to spend on a monitor for doing heavy video editing on Final Cut Pro 4. I had been thinking about a 22" CRT, but now I'm wondering if a dual display setup with the Sony monitor above would be better. Here are the Pros & Cons of each, as far as I can tell:

22" CRT (Mitsubichi Diamond Pro 2070SB):

Max resolution: 2048 x 1536 @ 85 Hz (recommended 1600x1200)
More accurate color
4 Port USB hub
Weight: 65.7 lbs
Takes up a LOT of space
Not energy efficient/lots of heat output
VGA connection
2 gray horizontal lines across the screen (Wires for the aperture grille)
About $700

2 15" Sony LCD monitors (SDM-S53/B ):

Max resolution: 2048 x 768 widescreen (both monitors combined, I think)
DVI connection for both (adding 1 ADC-to-DVI connector)
Weight: 10.1 lbs each
Energy efficient/little heat output
Takes up VERY LITTLE space
Not as color accurate as a CRT
Possible dead pixels
About $700

So, there you have it. Believe me, if I could afford a 20" Apple Cinema Display, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. But I just can't. I've heard of a lot of people using a dual display setup and loving it, but it usually involves 17" LCDs, not 15" ones. I'm guessing the widescreen nature of the dual display is good for video editing timelines, bins, etc., but maybe one BIG desktop without a split in the middle is better for that.

I'd really appreciate any feedback on this, as I'll be making this purchase later this week. Thanks!

I can't comment on these specific monitors, but I do use both a 15" Samsung SyncMaster 151MP LCD screen and an Apple 21" (CRT) studio display. I think the Apple screen is actually a trinitron. I run the CRT at 1600 x 1200 and the LCD at 1024x768.

All I can say is that the image on the Apple 21" CRT is way, way better than the 15" LCD. And for the sort of things I do (like CAD, 3D modeling, etc) I find the 1600x1200 screen much more productive. I wouldn't consider swapping my 21" screen for 2 cheap LCD's, but that's a personal preference.

My CRT also has those faint lines, but I thought only the Sony Trinitrons had that. Am I mistaken, or does Mitsubishi get their screens from Sony? And yeah, those big CRT's are large and HEAVY! Had to send mine in to repair a bad power supply a couple months after I got it, and when it came back from Apple all the paperwork refered to it as the "Moby Display". Apt name. ;-)

I used a DVX-100 to make my short film. On the advice of people on this board, I record to both channels, but kept channel one a bit lower than channel two so I could pick and choose which one sounded better (just in case the audio popped on channel two during a take).

I noticed that when I play it back, the audio pops a lot and I assume it's because they channels are slighlty off and one of them gets a bit louder.

So I assume I should pick either channel one or two and get rid of the other one?

then should I take the one channel of sound and make it a stereo pair?

How do you do that?

Thank you.