NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Erik Selakoff]

Ahh, very interesting. Learning more & more all the time. I appreciate your help.
Erik

[Bill Hardy]

I was kinda let down on the inability to right click and down load your movie to the hard drive so I could see it full screen and compare the quality to my new GL2.

You can right click and save on my web page:

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/iMovieTheater17.html

Although some say it is choppy and some say it is very smooth, it depends on your system. You can play it full screen, about 8 MB I think, compressed but watchable.

But I suppose the length of your movie required a massive compression that would not look good full screen.

I really did not have time to look at your movie closely as I had a girl friend in my room who wanted me to edit her movie. But I will get a second chance to see it tonight, hopefully.

FCP is a more expensive program, I am wondering what are the biggest advantages. if any. for someone doing small documentary style projects.
RH

[Ken Tanaka]

Erik,
Re: color bar calibration, the need for it depends on what you are "calibrating". Using bars to calibrate footage captures is largely a remnant of the analog world where relative signal strength dictated the appearance of captured imaging. But in the digital world a bit is a bit. You would normally make your primary image adjustments with the camera before shooting. The bits the camera lays onto tape are identical to those transferred from the tape to your computer. Adjustments in your computer's nle generally come under the heading of color correction and not calibration.

Calibrating studio reference monitors to SMPTE color bars, however, is still a necessary practice, initially and periodically, to ensure that you're able to accurately view your footage. (Note that I'm referring to crt-based professional monitors and televisions. LCD monitors are generally more problemmatic to accurately calibrate.) Video University has an excellent tutorial on this calibration prrocess at:

http://videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

[Henrik Bengtsson]

Well, as with all tools, it a matter of your own personal taste. Both Premiere and FCP have a basic toolset that is more than adequate for most projects you will encounter. I prefere FCP mostly because of its waveform & monitor tools and its excellent colorcorrection. These functions can be had in Premiere aswell with a plugin. Another good thing with FCP is the ability to create own transitions and effects without being a pro software developer. Though how many non-programmers that use that feature is another matter :)

Both programs will let you do what you are looking for. And both programs will have hardware support if you have the budget. What you use is in the end a matter of your personal taste.

Regards,
Henrik

FCP, imo, is quite superior to Premier in that it has an extensive palette of compositing tools. I'm sure this has all been covered before, so i went go to into it. Do a search on the forum.
Basically, to get all the features of FCP, you need both Premier and After Effects.

I find I am able to do all my compositing fx *within* FCP w/o ever touching AFX!

[Henrik Bengtsson]

Yes. but how often do you need compositing tools when doing small Documentary films =)

And there are compositing plugins to be had for Premiere aswell (if you dont wanna go full out and get AFX).

In the end, Premiere vs FCP vs Avid vs Edit* vs Whatever comes down to two things. Budget & personal preference. Its like with cars, do you need a Ferarri to drive to work or will a Honda do just as well? Both will get you to your destination if you drive them well, but one will do it faster (and more expensive (and with more people going ahhh when you swoosh past :) )

Regards,
Henrik

[John Locke]

Not one response! Holy toledo!

This is my second post in this forum that went unanswered...so the stories must be true. There are only two people in the whole wide world using Macs for video and I'm one of them. The other doesn't like answering questions.

Oh well...seeyaz

[Ram Nagarajan]

John:
...Here's the other guy using Macs for video! :-)
You've probably already tried this, but try Control + clicking the transition you've set and reselecting the placement of the transition (Center on Edit/start on edit/end on edit): I usually want center on transition, but I've noticed that my FCP sometimes selects one of the other options for no apparent reason.
My two bits...
Best,
Ram

[Barry Goyette]

There is a much easier way to do a basic fade-in/fade-out...place your clip in the timeline (bag the two black clips). Set your timeline view to include rubber bands..(see the lower left corner of the timeline, click the button that looks like a line graph with two red points). The rubber bands are used to let you set the opacity of your clip. Use the pen tool to set keyframe points at the ends of the clip, and where you want your fade-in to end, and your fade-out to start, and then use the pointer tool to drag the endpoints of the rubber band to the bottom of the clip...render. Done. This is a very accurate way of controlling fading, as you can also set intermediate points to affect the "ramp" of the fade.

One other trick...if using this technique on a long clip, use the razor blade to separate out the transition areas of the clip (rendering will be faster.)

Barry (#3mac user)

[John Locke]

Hey! There's three of us! Woohoo! I'm not alone!

Ram, thanks for the tip. I'd tried that and that's actually what had me baffled. Even though I control clicked the dissolve and typed in a new duration, FCP wouldn't accept it. Can't imagine why it won't let me.

But Barry...your suggestion sounds like just what the doctor ordered. I'd never even thought of doing it that way...so thanks! I'll test it out now.

Adios Mac Compadres.

[Ryan Wachter]

Ive been checking out the prices on memory and hard drives. Im having trouble understanding how to tell the mac stuff from the PC stuff. Unless it has a chart or parragraph that tells me. Im lost.
Can someone help me out.

Also on a side note. Is there a difference in mac and PC monitors?
Thanks
Ryan

[Ken Tanaka]

With respect to hard drives there really are no platform-specific distinctions. Interface type is the key issue. If you're looking for a drive that will mounted internally in a Power Mac G4, for example, you're looking for an ATA interface. If you're interested in an external drive you're looking for a FireWire interface. (FW drives are generally ATA drives mounted in an enclosure that provides the ATA-to-FireWire bridge interface.

Re: monitors, the display adapters in newer Power Macs feature Apple's ADC connector as well as a standard VGA connector. So you can use nearly any monitor with your Mac.

[Ryan Wachter]

thank you for all your help. Now do you know by chance if the older version g4 quicksilvers have these adaptors to run any type of monitor?

[Ram Nagarajan]

Barry: Great idea. I haven't tried that out either...am trying it out - NOW. There, it works!
John: It goes beyond the 'control+click+change duration' technique :-). Sometimes the simplest way, I've found, is to simply delete the transition from the timeline, save and close down the project, and open it again after a few seconds. The transition will now accept whatever duration you tell it to!
Macs rule - but boy, FCP can be quirky!
Ram