March 9, 2010
Helpful Tips for Getting Started in Final Cut Pro 7
If you're new to Final Cut, or even if you've been using it for a while, there are a bunch of tips to remember that I'd like to share with you that will help you speed up your editing session or even teach a thing or two. Here's my first ten.
Tip #1 - When you use a two button mouse, remember you can always access shortcut menus by right-clicking in any specific window area. This can save you time and allow you to really see what is going on at any particular point in the interface.
Tip # 2 - When screening a source clip in the Viewer, if the filmstrips overlays do not appear in the image area, choose View > Show Overlays. You can turn overlays off or on during the editing process.
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March 5, 2010 - Just Announced!
Story Telling with Final Cut Pro 7 with Diana Weynand
Free Webinar April 8th, 2010 - 10am - 11:30 am PST
Editors love to tell stories. And Final Cut Pro is a great tool to use for molding the footage you've shot into a story that is entertaining and even captivating. But it doesn't help to use a comprehensive app like Final Cut Pro if you don't know how to tap into the numerous ways in which FCP can help you organize, develop, craft, and cut together all the elements you will need to tell the story you want to tell.
In this free webinar, hosted by the Center for New Media Studies, I hope to inspire you to create a masterful story while utilizing specific features of FCP 7. She will show you how to organize, shape, refine, and share your sequence, and guide you through the process of utilizing FCP functions that may have been hiding from you or ignored. And like any great artistic master, you will learn to carve (or create) your own masterpiece one video clip at a time.
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March 3, 2010
The Film To Tape Process
The other day I got asked about the 3:2 or 2:3 pulldown film to tape conversion process, so I thought I'd post part of a chapter of my How Video Works book that explains the process for all to see. Even though more and more people are shooting with video or direct to SD cards or other digital files, the film to tape transfer process is still a very important part of our industry and knowledge we should all have. Read on.
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March 2nd, 2010
What's Your Preference?
Every software program, no matter how big or small, has preferences and Final Cut Pro is no exception. So, here's what you should know about FCP preferences.
You will find the User Preferences under the Final Cut Pro Menu. Choosing and setting your preferences can help you edit within certain parameters. Final Cut Pro will remember the preferences you set. In fact, you can copy these preferences and and use them on any other computer you may want to edit on. For example, If you're working on the same project at both your home and office, just copy your preferences to a flash drive and take them along to with you.
The preferences are divided under six categories: General, Editing, Labels, Timeline Options, Render Control and Audio Outputs.
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February 24, 2010
So You Got a New Laptop...
So you just got one of those new laptops with the multi-touch pad, and you're saying to yourself - does this work in Final Cut Pro 7. Well it does and it will speed up your edit process. So here's a couple of things you can do with the touch pad while in FCP7.
1. Pinch to zoom horizontally within the Timeline. [Meaning bring two of your fingers or a thumb together as though you're making a circle.]
2. Rotate to scrub the Timeline, Viewer, or Canvas
3. Use a three-finger swipe to advance the playhead across edit points.
How about that? |
February 23, 2010
Can You Teach Old Mattes New Tricks?
There are many great uses for the set of matte filters in Final Cut Pro. You can use a matte or mask to fix a problem, like getting rid of something in a shot that doesn't belong (who didn't strike the craft services truck?). You can also use mattes to help improve eyelines between shots. Sometimes you use them to create a style, like making standard definition footage appear in widescreen, or resizing a border and masking out the image portion. Here are a few ideas. All mask filters can be found in the Effects > Video Filters > Matte section.
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February 22, 2010
Editing in the Timeline Just Keeps Getting Better and Better
Some editors do most of their editing in the Timeline, it's easy to just drag and drop stuff there and make your editorial decisions as you go. Here are two Timeline tips in the new version of FCP 7 that you may not know about that will help you speed up your editing process.
1. The Close Gap command now functions with the playhead anywhere over the gap. It no longer has to be at the first frame of the gap. The shortcut for this command is Control-G.
2. Lots of editors love using the Razor Blade tool for all sorts of editing and trimming. One editor I know once cut an entire feature film using primarily the Razor Blade tool, just like in the old film days. But let's say you used the Razor Blade tool to split clips in multitrack editing or in your basic editing or trimming. If you want to rejoin all those edit points (the ones at the red through edit indicators), it's now easier than ever. Just Right-click on one of the through-edit indicators and choose Join All Through Edits. Voila! You've just cleaned up your entire sequence in a single step.
I recommend you give these new tips a try. They're definitely worth checking out!!!
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February 18, 2010
Want To Print Your Browser Info?
I don't know a single editor who hasn't at one time or another wanted to print out the information in the Browser columns. There's some really valuable info there, but, unfortunately, FCP doesn't have a Print option. But if you have a spreadsheet program, such as Excel, you can copy and paste the Browser information with a few simple steps. You can also import the information into a word document, but you won't see the delineation of the columns as easily. There are several ways to do this. Here are a few options.
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