NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Neo Castillo]

Ok hear goes. I saw my friend using Cleaner and what he does is use the 16:9 guides in his XL1s to film his projects. Then what he does is edit the whole film in 4:3. The what he does is export his movie to a quicktime dv file. Then while in cleaner he crops the dv file and converts to mepg2 so that all that is left is a file that is in the cropped, with no need for black bars and in a widescreen format.

From what I can see is that this way saves some time because my friend no longer has to render bars for a 2 hour movie!

Now what my question is, Can i do the cropping in FCP4 some how, or possibly Compresser? Or do i need use another program like Cleaner?

[Chris Staab]

Thank you...I will look into it.

[Jeff Donald]

The SoundSticks may be the source of the problems. What version Mac OS are you using and on what computer? Are you using a USB hub? It probably is not a sound card issue. The drivers for USB sound are pretty weak on earlier versions of OS X. I always had trouble with OS 9 and SoundSticks on my G4 dual 450.

[Nicholi Brossia]

I have Final Cut Express which should not vary too much in this area, so here's what I would do (I actually just tested it out and it works fine).

- Edit the movie in 4:3 ratio.

- After completing the edits, start a new sequence.

- Import the original sequence (click and drag from the browser to the timeline) into the new sequence. This will allow you to change the properties of the entire movie rather than clip-by-clip.

- Control-click the sequence/clip in the timeline and select "open in viewer."

- Now the entire, edited 4:3 ratio movie is seen in the viewer window.

- Open the "motion" tab so you can adjust the size and scale properties.

- Change the scale from 1.0 to 1.33.

- Change the aspect ratio (under the "distort" tab) from 0 to +33.

- Render.

- Export the file as a custom, 16:9 ratio (multiply your desired height by 1.78 to calculate the correct width).

This will take some render time, but everything does. This will result in a video file in 16:9 widescreen format without black bars, like the movie trailers you see on the Apple Quicktime website. If you plan on making dvds (is that the final destination for your friend's mpeg2?) you will either need the black bars, or export the stretched movie to a DV, AVI, or uncompressed MOV (first try without making the movie self-contained, that will save lots of time). Then, use a dvd production program that can export anamorphic dvds.

[Chris Staab]

I am using 10.2 connected by USB. I have heard that the USB issue may be the problem......anyone want a new set of sound sticks?!?!?! :)

[Michael Gibbons]

I have no luck getting through to apple support, so I'll ask here, again.
My G-5 (dual 1.8) sometimes makes a strange electronic beep at the very close of shutdown. Like, I said, it is only sometimes and there doesn't appear to be any correlation between how long the machines been on or how hard I've been working it or anything like that. The sound is not coming from the speaker; seems to be from somewhere further back.
Other than this, the machine is running fine, so I'm not even certain I should worry; considering what I paid for it, though, I'm worried anyway.

Thanks.
Michael

[Joe Gioielli]

Thanks! I'll go with the G4 option.

[Jeff Donald]

If it doesn't come from the speakers, it would likely come from a moving part(s). There are very few moving parts in a computer, so it's probably related to the drives or fans. There are a few reports of the power supply causing a chirping or rubbing noise. Some users are claiming that the software, Chud, fixes the problem. Chud is available from Apple here.

If the noise becomes consistent, in that it happens frequently, I would consider sending the unit to Apple for service.

[Michael Gibbons]

Thanks again, Jeff. I've read about the chirping problem with the power supply, but from what I gather it is just a bit different than what I've heard.
I'm inclined to go with your drive theory
I just installed a new drive, and now that I think about it I never heard the noise beforehand. Hmm...
Guess I'll disconnect the new HDD tonight and see what happens.
I feel better already.
Thanks!
Michael

[Sharon Fraats]

If you have Studio Pro 2 you could force 16:9 aspect ratio.

Or read how Ken Stone suggests to do it.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/understanding_16_9.html

Lastly I recall there is a filter for FCP that could force 16:9 for export.

[Marco Leavitt]

I just finished editing a project that combines digital 16:9 footage with footage that was shot with a 16:9 lens adapter and I can't get everything to match. In other words, the digital 16:9 footage wants to output to tape letterboxed and the adapter footage remains stretched. I want to make two versions of the completed project -- one stretched, and one letterboxed. In the manual it says I can change the properties for a clip from the item properties box under the edit menu by clicking or unclicking the anamorphic 16:9 box. The only problem is, there's no box. Everything else in the window matches the picture in the manual so I'm confused. I realize that the best way would have been to capture everything using the same setting from the beginning, but it's too late for that now. I have hundreds of clips. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? I'm using Finalcut 2.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I think I've seen this problem in FCP3, and it involves how you open the clip. Open the ORIGINAL clip in the viewer window. It won't work if you open a copy of the clip from the timeline. If you go to Edit > Item Properties there should be an "Anamorphic 16:9" checkbox.

But I don't know that this is really the problem anyway. If you want to letterbox the "real" 16:9 first make sure that it's flagged as anamorphic as described above. Then drop either the individual clips or your completed sequence into a new 4:3 sequence. It will automatically letterbox to fit. You will need to render.

Going the other way, from letterbox to anamorphic, is another matter. It sounds like you shot the video with a camera that just cropped instead doing "electronic 16:9". In this case, create a new 16:9 sequence and drop the clip into it. Now you will see that it's "pillarboxed" in the 16:9 window. In the canvas window be sure you're set for image+wireframe. Now use the other drop-down buttton to set the view to 50% so you can see the grey area around the image. Point to one of the dots in the corner of the image, press the mouse button, and drag outwards until the image width fills the full 16:9 frame. Of course you'll lose quality this way, but that can't be avoided since you didn't shoot real anamorphic 16:9. You'll also have to render this.

Hope this helps.

[Scott Moore]

I recorded my in-camera black bars onto
my footage---my images came out a little dark,
so NOW I need to go in and
brightness/contrast my images
WITHOUT lightening my black bars as well---

I haven't performed this type of 'selected
filtering' before...what's going to be
the easiet and/or most efficient way?
(PS - I have a LOT of scenes to fix)

[Nicholi Brossia]

Could you crop the black bars, but leave a solid black layer behind your video or maybe just a black background instead of transparent?
To correct an entire edited piece, I always finish it without corrections, then import that sequence into another sequence, and change the entire piece at the same time. So, if this applies, you could import the first sequence, crop the bars off, color correct your video, make the background black.

[Kevin Burnfield]

you recorded pseudo widescreen black bars at the top and bottom, is that what you mean?


In FCP you can use mattes or in the 3 way color correction panel you can be selective about what range of colors or luma you want to effect.

I would go with the Matte option since the bars should be in the same place throughout the entire footage.

Also since they are not going to move you could generate an alpha channel item and use that ....

all else fails you could create a matte with solid 100% black in the places where the bars are and the area where the picture is as transparent and that way it'll be like lying a transparent cell over you footage with the lines on it.


OH, and about having a lot of scenes to correct: I would do you edit first, get it close to a lock and THEN do your color corrections and your color balancing. You'll be able to get a better balance and it won't kill as much hard drive space.

To get a good color balance and color correction each and every take must be done seperately but you can apply the corrections to the same take no matter if you've inserted cut-aways or whatever into it which is a savings. Color correction first and then go back and do the balance.