Final Cut Pro. Battle Creek Area Community Television 70 West Michigan Ave., Suite 112 Battle Creek, MI (269)

Transcription

1 Final Cut Pro Battle Creek Area Community Television 70 West Michigan Ave., Suite 112 Battle Creek, MI (269)

2 Final Cut Pro is Apple s professional-level editor. It provides all of the same capabilities as imovie, and a lot more. Programs can have up to 99 tracks of audio and video; complex layering, compositing and 2-D animation is possible. The ability to create and manipulate titles is much more advanced. Final Cut Pro also offers over 100 sophistacated video and audio filters, as well as a ton of transitions. Since Final Cut Pro is pro software, the learning curve is much steeper than imovie, but once you ve mastered it the possibilities are endless. Final Cut Pro Terminology Capture process of recording video and audio from tape onto the hard drive. Same as Importing in imovie. Scratch Disk (Capture Scratch) - hard drive where all of your media files are captured. Always capture files to the Firewire Drive. Log - process of playing source footage, setting In and Out points and naming each shot you that want to capture. Batch Capture - automated process of capturing several clips in one pass of the tape, rather than starting/stopping the tape to get one clip at a time. Once clips have been logged, Batch Capture will automatically control the deck to go through and capture all the clips you ve set in/out points for. Reel - original tape of your raw footage. When you capture footage, you should give each source tape a unique reel name, so that the computer can keep track of which tapes to ask for if you need to recapture. Bin - like a folder, bins can be used to organize clips in your project. Keyframe - a point you set to change something over a period of time. You can set beginning and ending keyframes to change audio levels, to change a video filter (effect), or to make clips move, resize or rotate over time. Audio Waveform - visual display that shows the analog shape of the audio signal of a clip. Peaks and valleys indicate loud parts or silence. Filters - effects that can be applied to change the look of a clip; same as Effects in imovie. Filters, transitions and titles must all be rendered for final output to tape. 1

3 Getting Started After connecting the firewire drive, open Final Cut Pro by clicking on the icon in the Dock. IMPORTANT: make sure the combo deck is powered up first before launching Final Cut Pro. If it is not, you will get an error that unable to locate the following devices Turn on the deck and then click Check Again to continue. To save your Project, select Save Project As... from the File menu. Before you hit the Save button, select Firewire Drive from the list of items available in the left column. If you have any doubt when you re saving a new Project, please see a staff member for assistance before proceeding any further. Be sure to save often! If you get a Missing Disks warning while Final Cut is starting, click Reset Scratch Disks. This will open up the System Settings window where you choose where to save your Captured files and Render files. Click on the Set button and choose your Firewire Drive. IMPORTANT! ONLY SET YOUR SCRATCH DISK TO YOUR FIEWIRE DRIVE. DO NOT SET YOUR CAPTURE SCRATCH OR SAVE ANYTHING TO THE INTERNAL HARD DRIVES. IF YOU DO NOT KEEP TRACK OF WHERE YOUR FILES ARE SAVED, THEY MAY BE TRASHED. 2

4 Final Cut Pro Windows Overview Final Cut Pro has four main windows: the Browser, Viewer, Canvas and Sequence. Viewer Canvas Browser Sequence (Timeline) Tool Palette Video Tracks Audio Tracks The Browser is used to access and organize assets, whether they are raw materials (auido and video clips, music, imported graphics) or finished Sequences. The Viewer is like a Preview monitor. When you trim clips, you can set In and Out points in the Viewer; it also gives you access to control any Filters you might use. The Canvas is like a Program monitor. It shows you what your finished piece looks like. It looks similar to the Viewer and has many of the same controls. The Canvas and the Sequence work together, and each reflects changes made to the other. The Sequence (Timeline) is a visual display of your program. Drag clips into the Timeline to assemble your show. Additionally, there are two small windows for audio levels and the Tool Palette. 3

5 How to Capture Clips The Log and Capture window is used to capture source footage. To access this window, go to the File menu and select Log and Capture. Logging tab: Give each raw tape a unique name in the Reel Name section. Clip Settings tab: Select which tracks to capture (Video, Audio, or Audio+Video); select audio format (channels 1 & 2 independently, or both together as stereo). Capture Settings tab: Device Control should be on Firewire NTSC for MiniDV video; select Non-Controllable Device for S-VHS video. Capture Input: - select DV NTSC 32 khz for DV footage that was recorded with 32 khz/12-bit audio. - select DV NTSC 48 khz for S-VHS/analog footage or any footage recorded with 48 khz/16-bit audio. IMPORTANT: MOST of the time, DV footage will be recorded at 48khz, but not always. It depends on how the camera used to record the footage was set up. These settings MUST be set correctly. If you capture footage at the wrong audio sample rate, your audio and video will be out of synch. Final Cut Pro does not automatically capture audio with video like imovie does. If you do not capture your footage correctly, the only way to fix it is to start over and recapture. To capture video: Go to the Logging tab. Press the spacebar to start/stop playback, or use the shuttle control to cue footage. When you come to a section you want to use, click the Now button to start recording (it may take a second or two for recording to begin). When you want to stop recording, press ESC on the keyboard. Your clip will appear in the Browser window as Untitled

6 To Batch Capture: 1. Press the spacebar to start/stop tape playback, or use the shuttle control to cue footage. 2. Set In and Out points for each clip. With the tape playing, press I on the keyboard to set an In point, and O to set an Out point for each clip that you want to capture. 3. Click the Log Clip button. You will be prompted to enter a Clip Name. Give the clip a unique name and proceed with step 1 for the next clip. Logged clips will have a red slash through them, indicating that they are offline. You are not able to play offline clips, until they have been captured. Once you have all of the clips logged, click the Batch button. You will be prompted to select which clips to capture; you can choose all clips or only selected clips. Final Cut Pro uses the In and Out timecode for each clip to automatically cue the tape to batch capture the clips in one pass, unattended. When you switch tapes, make sure you change the Reel Name accordingly. Note that Batch Capture can be temperamental. If there are breaks on your tape without timecode, Batch Capture will fail. Batch Capture only works for capturing footage from DV tapes. If you don t want to Batch Capture, or if you have footage on SVHS tape, use the capture Now button. When you capture footage, you are only setting rough In and Out points for the clips. You should always capture a little more than you need. After the clip has been captured, you can fine-tune the edit points in the timeline. Make sure to close the Log and Capture window when you are not capturing clips. 5

7 Importing Other Files Final Cut Pro can import graphics made in Photoshop, Quicktime audio and video files, and just about anything else you might want to use. To import files: Drag and drop the files from the Mac Finder into Final Cut Pro s Browser window; or Choose Import > Files... from the File menu. IMPORTANT: Final Cut refers to the original files, so do not move or rename them in the Finder after importing. If you need to import a file from some form of removable media (photo CD, etc.), copy the files onto your Firewire Drive first, and then import the copy from the there. DO NOT IMPORT FILES DIRECTLY FROM DISCS; ONLY IMPORT FROM YOUR FIREWIRE DRIVE. Importing Music from CD To Import a music track from a CD: 1. Insert the disc into the CD drive 2. Select Hide Final Cut Pro in the Final Cut Pro menu. IMPORTANT! 3. Click on itunes in the Dock to play the CD. 4. Once you have decided on a track,double-click the CD on the desktop. Then drag and drop the audio file onto your Firewire Drive to copy it there. 5. Eject the CD. 6. Click on Final Cut Pro in the dock to return to the program. Either drag and drop the files from the Mac Finder into Final Cut Pro s Browser window, or select Import > Files... from the File menu and choose the audio track from your Firewire Drive. DON T import audio files into Final Cut Pro directly from an audio CD. Copy the file from the CD to your firewire drive FIRST, and then import the COPIED FILE from the firewire drive into Final Cut Pro. 6

8 Project Management Tips Clips in Final Cut Prp are only references to the media files in the Capture Scratch folder. Once you ve captured clips, DO NOT MOVE the media files to another folder or rename them in the Finder. If you do, clips will become disconnected and appear offline. If this happens, go to the File menu and select Reconnect Media. Video media files eat up a lot of hard drive space. Five minutes of video = 1 Gigabyte of hard drive space. Only capture what you need, with very little extra: If you only need audio, don t capture video with it. Don t import a whole raw tape in one piece. Log tapes on paper ahead of time and then capture only the parts you need. If you delete a clip in Final Cut Pro, the media file still resides (and takes up space) on the hard drive. To delete the media file and free up space: 1. Quit Final Cut Pro. 2. Double click on your Firewire Drive; double click on Capture Scratch; double click on the folder (with the same name as your project) inside Capture Scratch. 3. Select the file you want to delete. Note that any clips captured using capture Now will have the Untitled 00_ name from when they were originally captured (regardless of whether you ve renamed it in the Browser). If you are unsure what a clip is, double click it to play. When you re sure of which files to delete, drag them to the Trash can icon in the Dock. 4. In the Finder menu, select Empty Trash. Once you ve emptied the trash, the clip is permanently gone. If you need to get the clip back, you must re-capture it from the original tape. 7

9 The Browser Window The Browser has two tabs: one for the project, and one for Effects. The project tab contains all of your clips and Sequences. The Effects tab contains all of the Filters and Transitions (more on these later). A Project may have hundreds of items in it, so, to keep track of all of these elements, you can make Bins. Bins work just like folders. You can make as many bins as needed to organize clips. To create a new Bin: Go to the File menu and select New -> Bin. Bins can be renamed in the same way as clips. The Viewer Window The Viewer is like a Preview Monitor. Use it to view source footage and set In and Out points before committing the clip to the finished program. The Viewer is also used to adjust audio, filters and motion. Use the Play Controls (or press the spacebar) to play the clip. To navigate through a clip, click on the Playhead and hold to drag through the clip. Set edit points by pressing I or O on the keyboard (for In or Out), or click on the In/Out buttons. To add a clip to the Timeline froom the Viewer, simply drag the video to the Timeline. Like the Browser, the Viewer has several tabs to access different features within the same window. If your clip has sound, the Viewer will have an Audio tab. The Audio tab displays the waveform of the sound, and allows you to set edit points, adjust levels, and make level changes over time. To drag an audio clip to the Timeline, use the drag audio icon. You can view the footage at different sizes using the pulldown menu to zoom in or out. Usually Fit To Window is best to use. 8

10 The Sequence The Sequence, or Timeline, is where your program is assembled. To create a new sequence: File menu ->New Sequence. To open a Sequence: double-click the sequence icon in the Browser. The video and audio tracks are stacked up vertically, and for video tracks, the top layer has priority; in other words, the clip on the top layer will overlap clips below it. Track Visibility Track Lock Along the left side of the timeline are the track controls: Track Visibility (green) turns track off so its contents aren t visible Lock Track (padlock) disables editing of the track At the top right corner are buttons to turn on Snapping and Linking Linking Snapping Additionally, there are several controls along the bottom of the window: Clip Keyframes Zoom Control Zoom Slider Clip Keyframes - allows you to place keyframes on clips in the sequence Zoom Control / Zoom Slider - used to scroll through timeline, as well as enlarge/shrink view 9

11 The Canvas window The Canvas is like the program monitor; it shows you what your finished edit will look like. The material in the Canvas is also displayed on the video monitor. You should always use the video monitor in your final judgment of what looks good, since the Canvas and Viewer do not display video at the full resolution and frame rate; they are not an accurate representation of how it will appear on TV. The Canvas window has many of the same controls as the Viewer: Play controls, Shuttle, Jog, and edit buttons. If you have multiple Sequences open, each will be represented by a tab in the Canvas window. The Viewer, Canvas and Timeline all use the Spacebar to start/stop playback. The arrow keys <-- --> move frame-by-frame. The HOME key moves the Playhead to the absolute beginning of the clip or Sequence. Working in the Timeline To assemble a program, simply drag clips from the Browser or the Viewer into the Timeline; or drag clips into the Canvas window. In the Timeline, the Scrubber trims edit points as you drag. In the Timeline, a right arrow cursor indicates an Insert Edit. Down arrow cursor indicates an Overwrite Edit. To line up two clips without gaps in between, turn on Snapping. With Snapping activated, clips snap or stick together in the Timeline. Clips can also snap to the Playhead or to Markers. Press n on the keyboard to toggle Snapping on or off. To remove clips, click to select them and press DELETE. This is what s called a Lift edit; it leaves a hole where the clip was. If you press Shift and DELETE together, it will do a Ripple Delete edit; this removes the clip and closes up the hole. You can Shift-click to select multiple clips, or click and hold while dragging to draw a rectangle to select a range of multiple clips. To perform a Split Edit (adjust audio/video edit points independently), hold down OPTION and drag the layer you want to change without affecting other layers. Use Cut/Copy/Paste to remove/duplicate/add clips in the Timeline. (Edit Menu ->Copy, etc.) You can Undo or Redo all functions in all windows (Edit menu ->Undo or Redo). 10

12 To duplicate a Sequence: Edit ->Duplicate, then rename the new Sequence. This is useful to make a safety copy, or to easily make multiple versions of the same timeline. Any changes made to the duplicate version do not affect the original (or its render files). Unlike media files, which occupy huge amounts of disk space, Sequences and Bins are small files that do not require much space. Feel free to create as many Sequences and Bins as you need. Use multiple tracks for more flexibility; you can line up audio tracks and overlap to work out timing of music edits, etc. To add or delete tracks: go to the Sequence menu and select Insert Tracks... or Delete Tracks... Tracks can also be added by dropping clips above existing tracks in the Timeline. Remember, the top video track has priority over tracks below it. To adjust a clip s opacity: 1. Turn on clip keyframes 2. Click and drag the Keyframe Overlay line down Browser/Sequence Interaction: Edits made to clips in the Browser do not affect those same clips already in the Timeline; edits made in the Timeline do not affect those same clips in the Browser. If you want an edited clip to work with in the Browser, drag the clip from the Sequence back into the Browser. If you want to superimpose clips, control-click on the clip and make a choice of Composite Modes. Sequences can also be Nested, whereby you can use a Sequence within another Sequence. Drop a finished Sequence into a new Sequence and work with it as a single clip. This can be useful when working with large groups of clips that you don t want to mess up, or accidentally unrender. It also allows for creating very complex compositions that have many layers of elements going on in them. To Nest a Sequence: Drag its icon from the Browser into a new Sequence; OR Select several items within a Sequence and select Nest Item(s) from the Sequence menu. Now, instead of having a bunch of clips spanning several tracks, you have a single, long clip on one video track. It is a good idea to make sure the item is completely finished and rendered before you nest it into another Sequence. Use Markers for timing (keyboard: M ). You can place marks on the Timeline or on a clip to match up audio/video edits. Snapping clips stick to each other, or to the Playhead ( N turns snapping on/off). 11

13 Tool Palette The Tool Palette gives you different tools to work with when editing on the Timeline. Most tools have several options; click and hold on a tool in the palette to see its other tool options pop up. Selection - use to select and drag clips Select Track selects contents of entire track (forward, backward, one track or all tracks) Slip/Slide changes In/Out points of a clip without changing length or position Zoom In/Out - enlarge/shrink view of Sequence; Hand moves view from side to side Pen sets or removes keyframes Edit/Group/Range Selection - allows you to select a range of clips to work on Roll/Ripple Rolls or ripples edit points by shortening or lengthening a clip Razor Blade cuts clips Crop/Distort crops edges of an image in Viewer or Canvas; or distorts image by click-dragging corner points Transitions Filters and Transitions can be found in two places: 1) in the Effects menu; or 2) in the Browser Effects tab. Adjustments are made in the Viewer window. To apply a Transition: in the Effects tab of the Browser, select the transition and drag it to the Timeline over an edit. OR, select the edit in the Timeline by clicking on it to highlight it, then select the transition from the Effects menu. Now, double-click on the transition in the Timeline to open up the Transition Editor in the Viewer window. (Note: if the transition is really short, you may not see it in the Timeline unless you zoom in; otherwise, it might still just look like a cut between clips). The Transition Editor gives you controls to adjust transitions. Remember: you must have enough overlapping footage to accommodate the transition. For example, if you add a 24-frame dissolve between shots, then you must have at least 12 frames extra on the end of the first shot, and 12 frames extra on the beginning of the second shot. If you don t have enough, the transition will be shortened. The buttons at the top of the Transition Editor give you options on where to place the transition: the transition can be centered on the cut, start at the cut or end at the cut. 12

14 Filters To apply a Filter: 1. Select a clip by double-clicking it to open in the Viewer window 2. Go into the Effects tab in the Browser and find the Filter you want to use. 3. Drag the Filter icon from the Browser onto the Viewer window. OR: 1. With a clip selected in the Timeline, go to the Effects menu and select from the list of Video Filters 2. Double click the clip to load it into the Viewer Now select the Filters tab in the Viewer to access controls for the filter. All changes are visible in the Canvas window as a still frame. Most Filters and Transitions must be rendered before playing back. A very powerful tool for color correcting is the Color Corrector 3-Way filter. To automatically adjust colors, click the black eyedropper and select the darkest black in the video frame. Do the same for Mids (click on a neutral gray) and Whites (click on brightest white). Experiment by clicking on different shades of gray until the image color looks good. Or, drag the button inside each of the color wheels to manually adjust. Also adjust the levels of blacks mids and whites using the sliders beneather the color wheels. You can adjust the saturation (amount of color) using the Saturation slider. 13

15 Titles and Video Generators To create titles, click on the Effects tab of the Browser and go to the Video Generators folder. Inside the Text folder are six different styles of titles. Outline Text is the best default title style to use. Other styles, such as Crawl or Typewriter, are animated and will move into the frame. Whatever style you choose, drag the title onto the area above the top track in your Timeline. Now double-click the title to load it into the Viewer. To adjust the settings for a title, click on the Controls tab of the Viewer. Highlight SAMPLE TEXT and type your title. You can control the Font, Size, Style, Color, Tracking, Leading and Aspect. If you go to the Motion tab in the Viewer, you can also create a drop shadow. How to do other Special Effects Some things that you may want to do aren t really considered effects by Final Cut Pro, so they aren t listed in the Effects menu. Here s how to do them. To Freeze Frame: park the playhead on the frame you want; then go to the Modify menu and choose Make Still Frame. If the frame jitters (due to interlace artifacts), choose Video Filters ->De-Interlace from the Effects menu, then render the frame. To change a clip s speed: Go to the Modify menu and select Speed. Enter the value you want. Check Reverse for backwards; check Frame Blending for the smoothest results. Rendering Final Cut Pro reduces the need for continual rendering by displaying as much material in real time as the computer can handle. When you apply a filter, transition, title or anything else that would normally need to be rendered, a green line will appear above the video track in the Timeline. Material in green will preview in real time - it may look jumpy or blocky, but at least you can get an idea of what it looks like. You will still need to render it before you record your program to a tape. If you apply more filters or layers of video or titles than the computer can handle, the green line will instead be red. Any material in red must be rendered before it will play at all. Once clips have been rendered, playback will be smooth and at full quality. 14

16 To render clips, go to the Sequence menu and select Render Selection > Both or Render All > Both. Final Cut will also automatically start rendering after the computer has been inactive for several minutes. Working With Audio To adjust audio levels in the Timeline: 1. Click the Clip Keyframes button to turn it on. 2. Use the cursor to drag the lines for the levels up or down. To change audio levels over time (fade up or down), use the Pen tool to click and add keyframes. To fade audio you must have at least two keyframes: one at the beginning of the fade, and one at the end of the fade. Drag the second keyframe down to make a ramp from zero volume to full volume. Both of these techniques can also be used in the Viewer window by going to the Audio tab. Effects for Audio (Transitions, Filters) work just like Video Effects: Select an audio clip in the Browser by double-clicking it to open in the Viewer window; In the Effects tab of the Browser, drag the Filter onto the clip in the Timeline Double click the clip to load it into the Viewer window. Go to the Filters tab in the Viewer to access controls for the filter. The same rules apply for rendering Audio Filters. You can hear samples of the audio as you drag the Playhead in the timeline. This is called Audio Scrubbing. To turn Scrubbing on or off, go to the View menu and select Audio Scrubbing. 15

17 16 Keyframes In addition to changing audio levels over time, Keyframes can also be used to adjust the parameters of a filter, or even the size and position of a clip. Think of Keyframes as kind of like edit points that you set to change parameters at different points in time and even use to create animation. The Motion tab in the Viewer window allows you to adjust settings that relate to animating a clip over time. Here you set Keyframes and make changes at the beginning and end of an animation. Use the Wireframe view in the Viewer to preview animations in real time. If you control-click on the wireframe, options for easing keyframes in/ out pop up. Easing means to make the motion come to a gradual start or stop. For example, if you want a small box of video to move across the screen, place it at the start position in the frame, set a Keyframe. Then move the playhead ahead 4 seconds and change the position to where the title should end up and set another Keyframe. Final Cut Pro will figure out all of the in-between frames create a :04 animation of the title moving across the screen when it is rendered. Keyframes can be used to animate just about anything: video & audio filters, movement of clips, text properties, etc. For animating Filters, click the Keyframe button in Viewer s Filters tab, or use the Pen tool. Using Photoshop Files To create a Photoshop document that is set up correctly for Final Cut Pro, make the document 720 x 534 pixels large, 72 resolution, and RGB color. If you import a layered Photoshop document into Final Cut Pro, it will import as a Sequence, with each layer represented as a Video track. The scanner in Edit B can be used to scan logos or prints for use in your program: 1. Open Photoshop Elements and select Import From Camera or Scanner. Choose Epson Perfection Select either Color Photo or Black & White Photo. If you are scanning an image from a print made of a dot screen, click on Image Type to select Descreening: On. 3. Drag the cursor to draw a marquee box over the area you want to scan. 4. Choose the target resolution (dpi) and size. If you can scan larger than you need to start off with, you can always resize to a smaller image later. 5. Click the SCAN button. When the scan is complete, a new Untitled document will open in Photoshop. If you want to animate the image to make it move in Final Cut Pro (example: zoom in), you should scan it larger than 720 x 534 to begin with. At least twice as big (1440 x 1068) is a good general rule.

18 Finishing Your Program Once you have completed editing your program, add the AccessVision disclaimer to the end. You can create a title for this, or use the pre-made Disclaimer video clip inside the Shared Documents on the Desktop. Preparing Your Program To Air: 1. Export your sequence by going to the File menu and selecting File > Export > Quicktime Movie... Choose Current Settings, Audio and Video. Save the movie to your Firewire Drive. 2. In the dock, click on Toast Titanium. In Toast, select the Video tab and make sure DVD-Video is selected. If there is a camcorder listed, select it and delete it. Settings should be: (see photo) DVD-Video No Menus Encoding: Automatic Video Quality: Best 3. On the desktop, double-click on the Firewire Drive and find your export Quicktime movie. Drag this into the Toast window. 4. Click on Save As Disc Image. Save it on to your Firewire Drive. Depending on which edit room you use, it may take anywhere from 2/3-1.5x real time to encode the video (i.e., a 30 minute program will take about minutes to complete). 5. After Toast dings to indicate that it is finished writing, close Toast. Then double-click the disc image file (created in step 4) to open it. Click the Mount button and the disc image will mount as a DVD on the desktop*. 6. Open MPEG Streamclip by clicking on its icon on the Dock. 7. Go to the File menu and select Open DVD ; select the DVD from the list of devices in the leftmost column. 8. From the File menu select Convert to MPEG with MP2 Audio. 9. Save your file and give it a name. Click on MPEG in the leftmost column to put the file in the MPEG folder for playback. File names should include a program title and episode number (example: Pet- Show1.mpeg). One-time shows will not have an episode number (Example: PoetrySlam.mpeg). The file name must be no more than 27 characters in length and contain no spaces. *TIP: if you still want to burn a DVD of your program to take with you, simply hit the red Record button in Toast and insert a blank disc. Since the video has already been encoded, burning should only take a few minutes. 17

19 At the End of Your Edit Session When finished working, quit all open programs. Now eject your Firewire Drive so that it disappears from the Desktop by clicking the eject button next to it in the Finder window, or dragging it toward the Trash on the Dock. Now it is safe to unplug the hard drive. DO NOT UNPLUG YOUR HARD DRIVE IF IT STILL APPEARS ON THE DESKTOP! You have 60 days to complete a project; after that, your hard drive may be erased without notice. Additional Tools in Final Cut Studio Final Cut Studio includes all of the tools needed for an integrated post-production workflow, from editing to motion graphics, audio editing and mixing, color grading, and delivery. Check out some of these other programs for very advanced work: LiveType is used for creating animated titles. Watch the LiveType Powerstart training program to learn how to use LiveType. Motion is used to create and edit motion graphics, titling and 2D and 3D compositing for visual effects, similar to Adobe AfterEffects. Some Motion templates for graphics can be used directly inside Final Cut Pro, inside the Browser s Effects tab, under Master Templates. Color is a professional color grading software application, for more sophisticated color correcting than what Final Cut Pro offers. Soundtrack Pro is a music composing and audio editing application, which includes a collection of over 5,000 professional instrument loops and sound effects. Sort of like a professional version of GarageBand, with more audio filters and sound-processing capability than what Final Cut Pro offers. Compressor is a video and audio media compression and encoding application. It is used primarily for encoding video to MPEG for DVD, but can also convert videos to a wide variety of others formats for internet use, ipods, etc. DVD Studio Pro is a high-end software tool for authoring DVDs. You can create sophisticated menus from built-in templates or from scratch, script buttons to play videos and produce more complicated DVDs than what is possible using idvd or Toast. 18

20 Additional Resources Jumpbacks: Use itunes to browse the library of over 500 animated background video clips to use in your productions. 1. Pick a volume from the playlists on the left. Once you ve found the right background: 2. Go to the Shared Documents folder (on the desktop) and go to the Jumpbacks folder to find the appropriate Volume folder with the clip inside. 3. Now drag the clip into your Firewire Drive and improt it into Final Cut Pro. Most Jumpbacks can be seamlessly looped by copying and pasting the clip back-to-back in the timeline. Royalty-free production music can alos be found in itunes and imported into Final Cut Pro in the same way. User Manuals: A library of official manuals for all programs is located in the Edit Room. Training Videos: AccessVision has several training videos to help you learn Final Cut Pro at your own pace. They can all be found in the Tutorials folder. Inside Editing with Final Cut Pro 4 & HD/4.5 LiveType Powerstart For both of these, double-click their icons to run the tutorials. Edit Like A Pro with Final Cut Pro HD is a DVD video. To play it: 1. Open DVD Player 2. From the File menu, choose Open VIDEO_TS Folder Navigate to Tutorials > Edit Like A Pro w Final Cut > VIDEO TS and click Choose 4. Click the play button Final Cut Pro HD: Visual Quick Pro Guide by Lisa Brenneis is an excellent book. Web Sites: check out the following links online. You can use the Safari web browser in the edit rooms: Jason Augenstein, Projects Coordinator jason@accessvision.tv 12/10 19

21 Dos & Don ts Best Practices for Editing Video DO 4 Be creative - think visually! 4 Edit on paper first: log footage, transcribe interviews, write a script and follow it. 4 Start with a rough cut by getting all shots trimmed and sequenced in the right order. 4 Begin scenes with a wide shot to establish the setting, then cut in closer. 4 Use pacing. Cut to a new shot every 3-4 seconds. Slower cutting creates a more relaxed pace; faster cutting creates more tension and excitement. 4 Cut on the action when possible. 4 Use B-roll/cutaways to cover up jump-cuts in interviews. 4 Use editing to condense time. 4 Use graphics to reinforce important facts or to cover statistical info. 4 Use the right tool for the job: don t try to use slide presentation software to create video graphics. DON t 4 Don t start editing until all material has been shot. 4 Don t try to make an epic production for your first project. Start small and work your way up. 4 Don t bore your audience by making the video too long. Shorter is usually better. 4 Don t be afraid to cut parts out. You do not have to use every single thing that was shot. 4 Don t cut from a moving shot to a static one, or vice-versa. 4 Don t linger on a shot longer than necessary. 4 Don t overuse transitions or special effects. Edits work best when they are motivated. 4 Don t make graphics/titles too small or too thin. 4 Don t strictly adhere to all of these rules. Rules are meant to be broken! 4 Steal ideas from things you see on TV/movies.