NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Glenn Chan]

1- Maybe you could color correct it so that attention is drawn to the other side of the subject's face???

Tools to try:
Add vignetting, or some sort of gradient that goes from left to right. With the gradient, make the left side dark, the middle part would have the transition area of the gradient, and the right side light.

If you're really good you can make it look like it was lit that way. I doubt this, but haven't tried.

You can isolate off areas of the face with:
mask things off with a garbage matte. There are some filters you can get which gives you more than 4 points on the garbage matte.
secondary color corrector - target colors that are in the face but not in the background.
??? difference key. If the camera does not move, you may be able to pull off a difference key.

Use curves or a secondary color corrector to bright down the brightness of the highlight.

2- Do something artistic to distract the viewer's attention away from the highlight, or make it look intentional.

Distracting: Soft focus (duplicate video onto itself, set the top layer's opacity to ~50% and add gaussian blur)

Make it look intentional: Use curves and blow all the highlights out. Add some other 'artistic' filters/tricks like the soft focus trick above.

That's all I can think of right now.

3- Post a still frame grab?

4- I don't think Final Cut has a curves filter by default. I'm not sure where you can get a free one.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I don't know anything about the clip you're talking about. However you should be able to open it in the viewer and make sure the item properties are set for anamorphic 16:9. Create a sequence and make sure it is also set to 16:9. No rendering should be required.

Sounds like you did all this. In that case, my guess would be that the clip in question was not compressed with the DV codec, and that would require you to render regardless of how you set everything else.

[Greg Matty]

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff : I don't know anything about the clip you're talking about. However you should be able to open it in the viewer and make sure the item properties are set for anamorphic 16:9. Create a sequence and make sure it is also set to 16:9. No rendering should be required.

Sounds like you did all this. In that case, my guess would be that the clip in question was not compressed with the DV codec, and that would require you to render regardless of how you set everything else. -->>>

Boyd,

The clip is the beach/bird footage posted by Barry in the XL-2 forum. It is probably the codec thing. Thanks.

Greg

[Thomas Berg Petersen]

If I make a DVCAM master tape from my NLE and then recapture this DVCAM master tape, it looks like I am losing some resolution. I would have thought that since I am in the digital domain I wouldn't lose any resolution. Can this be due to the DV codec?

[Mike Hanlon]

From the tape to the computer and back again is all digital so there will not be any loss of resolution no matter how many round trips the data takes. All the codec is doing in this case is converting (decoding) the digital DV data to soemthing quicktime can display on your screen. Only if you alter the image in the NLE will the codec get involved in encoding the changes into DV data.

Perhaps you changed some capture settings or the timeline is set for reduced quality.

[Mark Sloan]

Yeah, unless you edited the footage and added dissolves or something it should be a straight digital to digital copy. The only problem "might" be that the head on your deck/camera, whatever you are recording with, might be dirty or something. You might want to clean your heads first if it has been awhile since you last used it.

[Matt Elias]

Purchased a ShuttlePro2 to use w/ FCP HD. Ever since I started using it, FCP seems to crash abnormally. I haven't lost any work and haven't trouble-shooted yet as Jeff Donald suggests, Is FCP acting strange?

I just want to know if anyone has had trouble using this device w/ FCP HD?

[Jeff Donald]

Not so far, but I use version 1. Keep use posted Matt.

[Joe Gioielli]

Is there another program than can be used to generate titles with effect other than Live Type?

[Greg Wolfinger]

Motion! More can be found at Apples website: http://www.apple.com/motion

[Hayden Campbell]

Thanks Glenn.

I appreciate you taking the time to offer advice.
I will now go and have a play with your suggestions and see what happens.

Thanks again,
Hayden

[Joe Gioielli]

Thanks Greg,

I'm in a real bind, my fcp didn't come with the "data disk" for live type so I have no efects installed (they guy I bought it from sworeit was legit and compleat, live and learn) so I can't use live type.

"Motion" looks like a great program, I've been looking for a reason to buy it.

The downside is I have a mirror drive G4, so I'll have to get a new video card, and from what I've read, I'm very confused about which one to get. When the time comes I'll call a retailer with my specs and intentions and see what I'm told.

Thanks I thought I was really sunk.

[David Slingerland]

My question is simple, can FCP handle the MXF-file structure of the new sony XDCAM optical disk camera's?

[Jeff Donald]

I don't believe there is at the present time. It may be supported by some of the third party capture cards available. I would suspect that by the time the camera ships Apple may have an update to accommodate the camera. Or you may have to wait until FCP is updated.

[David Slingerland]

I think xdcam is the next revolution, considering cost, storage and its filebased structure it will be appealing to a lot of shooters and the quality is excellent. Panasonic will have a working p2 camera on the IBC so i am curious about that as wel!!