NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Ken Tanaka]

...and think of each of the fields in the interlaced video as a guitar string tuned very close together. As they're each "vibrating" on and off they somtimes cycle in coincidence with each other (the "harmonic" aspect of Bill's explanation). To our eyes it looks like the whole picture is flickering.

Normally I'll de-interlace before I resize, although I rarely resize at all. Try it both ways to see which works best for your situation. No, you won't have to re-interlace the image, as that will automatically be done when it's displayed on a video monitor.

Sufficiently sorry you asked for a deeper explanation? <g>

[Jeff Farris]

After reading this thread, I followed Ken's link to firewiredirect.com. 120 GB 7200 rpm drive for 299.00. Seemed like a good deal compared to others I have seen, so it is on its way!

[Vic Owen]

Following up on the question I asked in the Firestore post, has anyone found a firewire drive that MAC OS-10.1.4 will read as a FAT32 volume?

Thanks

NTSC/PAL conversion in FCP is unsatisfactory. There is a long-running discussion about this issue on the "PAL issues" board at 2-pop.

An alternative is at www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/

Never used it myself so can't judge (although nothing beats "real" hardware conversion)

[Rob Lohman]

The best way to convert a PAL stream to a NTSC DVD is todo
the following... (as far as I know):

make a 23.976 fps progressive NTSC DVD. If your footage is
interlaced make sure to de-interlace it before you do the
following:

- import/alter the movie to play at 23.976 fps instead of 25..
I DO NOT MEAN that you must CONVERT the framerate
(ie drop frames). On a windows PC there are utilites that
one can use to CHANGE the rate a file is PLAYED without
actually dropping any frames. Ofcourse your total time will
change, but this will be unnoticable.
- PAL full res. is 720x576. NTSC is 720x480. Crop the picture
vertically for it to fit. If you do letterboxing this is even easier.
If you find that people look to TALL now you must do a
resample instead of a crop. MAKE SURE you use the BEST
quality resample routine you can find (Usually this will be
a bi-cubic or bi-linear resample)
- you also need to convert the color space from 0 IRE to
7.5 IRE (black should be 16,16,16 instead of 0,0,0)

This should work out quite nice.

[Jeff Farris]

Cruising around Apple's website, trying to learn everything I can about iMovie2, I found something that I don't think many people may be aware of.

If you are running OS X, you have free storage space on Apple's site called an iDisk. Most of us know that, but did you know that stuck in a folder on your iDisk are 2,100 royalty free music files?

Go to your iDisk, then click on the "software" folder, then the "extras" folder, the the "freeplay music" folder. voila'.

No more worrying about when the copyright police are going to come knocking.

[Rob Lohman]

Too bad this is only for Mac OS X users.... :( We PC users
are left out huh. Nice thing though!

Are you allowed to use these in your (commercial) projects
as well? There is a difference in free music and free "usable"
music!!

[Jeff Farris]

According to the information from Apple, they are "royalty free". That would imply commercially as well as private, at least to me.

[Bill Markel]

Here's one for you FCP 3 gurus.

Is there a way to fill text created with the FCP 3 text generator
with video? Basically I'm looking to do what would be a split key
on a production switcher.

I've just upgraded to a dual 1ghz G4 with FCP. Love it, love it,
love it.

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.


Bill

[Ken Tanaka]

I know of no way to do this in FCP3. I'm not saying it can't be done there, just that I don't know how.

This is really a job for which AfterEffects (and its peers) were really designed to tackle.

If you're devoted to doing this in FCP3 and don't have AE you might shop around for an AE plug-in that might be able to get the job done and might be used with FCP.

[Rik Sanchez]

I haven't up graded to FCP 3 but on FCP 2 I did that effect. After making the title I put in on Video track 1, I put the video clip I want to put into the text on Video track two.

Next I select the video clip on V2 and go into the modify>composite mode> and select Travel Matte-Luma. If you have multiple title tracks, it will only fill in the text with video on the track right below it. I made a qt movie of the two title tracks(two different title clips, V1 & V2) and re-imported it into FCP and then did the composite mode- travel matte-Luma again and then it put the video into all of the text. The same can be done in AE, but haven't gotten around to learning AE.

used to subscribe to the newsletter-DV "la vida loca", I think that's what it was called and that video in the text was one of their weekly "tips".

Hope this helps.

btw, Happy Cinco de Mayo

[Bill Markel]

Gentleman,

Thanks for the speedy reply. Looks like I have some "playing" to do today.

I appreciate your help.

Bill

[Ken Tanaka]

Rik,

Thank you for the FCP tip! Happy Cinco de Mayo to you, too!

[John Locke]

The fact that the music is royalty free is the good news. The bad news? Have you listened to any of it?

I've wound up using a couple from there recently in a short feature I shot. It took me forever to surf through dozens of samples and find two that were "adequate." Like always, you get what you pay for.

With that in mind...don't forget the option of making your own. It's amazing how many shows use really simple percussive background music...like a simple guitar rhythm, or piano or any other instrument. One of my favorites is "Dead Calm." It's basically just someone "heavy-breathing" a rhythm. (I may wind up making my own for this project anyway since I'm not very happy with the two samples I picked from iTools).

[Rik Sanchez]

Bill, thanks for reminding my about that video in the text effect. Had forgotten about it and now I'm reworking some titles using that effect.

In the FCP 2 book by Lisa Brenneis, page 547(the compositing section), there is more on this effect. In case you don't have her book I recomend you get it, it has been very helpful getting me through FCP.

Have fun.

Thanks Ken, always happy to spread what little knowledge I have.