NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

Dan,

thanks so much for your review.
I think (hope) that you'll find that the pacing of the cuts works with the music. Please let me know when you've heard it with the music. I agree with the inconsistency of lighting, it was really tough getting the cameras to match because I was shooting at fairly extreme shutter speeds. One camera was at 1/30th and the other at 1/2000th (it was an experiment).

The couple are friends that are getting married. The video is basically to get people excited about the wedding, and then to show at their reception. So the sickening "kissing" shots were needed to establish their romance (and get 'oohs and ahs' out of friends and family).

Details:
A crew of 4, (3 camerapersons and a director/assistant).
Sony Cameras, Bogen Tripods and MonoPods.
We scripted in 2hrs on a Monday, shot for 8hrs (including scouting, blocking and rehersal) on a Wednesday, and edited for 6hrs on Thursday with an Apple 733mhz G4 with 512mb of Ram, running Final Cut Pro 3.0.

If we had more time, I'd do more color correction, narration, and cool titles. But we wanted to get this done with as little effort as possible.

Thanks again for the input, it really helps.

- Chip

How do I extract just sound from a video which I captured on FCP to the timeline?

[Barry Goyette]

One simple way is to drag the clip into the timeline, then turn off the linked selection under the sequence menu. Delete the video portion of the clip, and then turn the linked selection back on. Knowing FCP there are probably 3 or 4 other ways to do this.

Barry

[Ken Tanaka]

"GreenRubberPlant",
Aside from the FCP manuals (which are pretty thorough) there are several 3rd party instructional books on FCP available which could enhance your understanding, and enjoyment, of FCP. Take a look at our "Read About It" forum on this board.

[Joe Redifer]

The easiest way I have found is to go to "Export" under he FILE menu and export as "Quicktime". After you do that you will get a menu with more choices. Choose "Save Movie as AIFF". From there you can choose stereo or a mono mixdown and the such. Pretty easy. I do it all the time when readying 6 track mixes which will be turned into Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks by DVD Studio Pro.

EDIT: Ooops I just re-read your question... it appears I mis-understood. Here is a simple way to do what you like. Lock the video tracks on the timeline and drag the movie to the audio timeline. Sometimes FCP will automaticaly create a new track for the video, sometimes not. If it does, lock the audio tracks you just placed and delete the video tracks like mentioned above.

[Kyle De Priest]

I also just grabbed one of the 1 gig dual machines. Luckily I have a friend at Apple in Cupertino who got me in on the "friends and family" deal that they offer. I can't believe how cool it is. I'm a receint convert and I still haven't fully made the switch (I'm on my PC now...)
I have yet to add more RAM. I will, trust me. I just need to recover from the price of the machine. I did however add 2 Hard Drives. The machine came with 80 stock. I had a IBM Deskstar 120 GHz and a IBM Deskstar 40 Ghz. Both run at 7200 rpm's. This is what you want. 5400 rpm's is ok, 7200 is better, 10,000 is best. I went with the 7200 and have been super happy. I keep all my OS stuff on the 80, all my music on the 40 and all my video on the 120. One thing to remember, Hard drives are not platform specific. They don't care what type of machine they're in. Just make sure it's an ATA100 drive and IBM, Seagate, whatever will snap right in. There are instructions in the apple manual that fully explain how to hook them up. Apple has made it pretty easy for the DIYer. You want the drive that came in the machine to be the "Master" and the additional drives to be the "Slaves" The guys at the computer store should be able to tell you how to configure the drive to be a slave drive.
As far as RAM goes, a monkey could do it. There is nothing easier, so don't be intimidated. Don't forget to buy a "FireWire" when you buy the computer. It doesn't come with one. Otherwise, you'll have a machine and a camera and no way to hook them together.
Man, I got to tell you, I love this new Mac and OSX is a beautiful thing!

BTW, I was at the apple store and they told me that on the apple, it compresses the video in a way that will enable it to store 12 minutes of miniDV video on 1 gig. I have found this to be the case. Just so you know.

Also, the apple stores out here in the SF Bay area offer free iMovie and FCP III classes. You might look into that.

Have fun
-Kyle

[Simon Plissi]

Spec sounds fine except for the monitor. Spend the extra cash and get yourself at least a 19".
My old Apple 20" ColorSync died a few months back which I replaced reluctantly with a 19" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 920. (a previous model which is replaced by the current, better looking range I believe.)

I run the monitor at the same resolution (1280x1024) as I did on my old one so the changes wasn't so dramatic. But I do highly recommend the largest size you can afford. So from experience I would say a 19" is the bare minimum for editing.

[Ferdinand]

Im doing a BTTF spoof, and I have After Effects 5.5. Im very inexperienced with After Effects, and thus, am asking if anyone has any suggestions how to make the car spark and shoot lightning. Will AE do this, or is another program better? Im running FCP 2 on a G4 as well, if this helps. Any help is appreciated...

[Ken Tanaka]

Yes, After Effects can accomplish this for you in any of several ways. Offhand, I would first look for a stock clip of sparks (such as from a grinding wheel) shot against a black background that you can convert to an alpha channel for compositing. Compositing the sparks clip over your main clip in AE would basically accomplish your goal.

[Ferdinand]

Ok, I'll look around for some stock footage. Thanks.

[Johnny Fernandes]

Hello to all,

Can anyone here give a brief explanation on how to make titles that haveclips inside them or something of the sort. I believe I saw an article in a magazine on how to do this but I cannot remember where I saw it.

Any knowledge would be usefull.

[Mike Finnerty]

Ok, I'm looking to purchase a second hard drive for my Mac. I'll probably end up buying an 80 gig drive....can't quite afford a 120 right now.

Are certain brands better than others? I'm looking at IBM, Seagate, Western Digital and Maxtor. They all seem to have somewhat comparable prices.

I'd love to hear both the good and bad about anyone's experiences with any of these brands.

Thanks.

[Marc Betz]

I have used Maxtor drives for years and never had one fail. There is a bundle available in some stores that gets you a Ata133 pci interface card free with an 80 gig harddrive.

Someone posted a note about manufacturing flaws on IBM hardrives a few weeks ago on DVINFO but i cant remember who it was.

[Ken Tanaka]

These days, hard drive problems tend to occur according to a specific model rather than by a brand. As Marc alluded earlier, the IBM DeskStar 75Gb turned up a high failure rate approximately a year ago. (I have one in an older Mac and have had no trouble with it.) I think that IBM has since pulled that particular model and replaced it with an 80Gb model.

In general you'll be just fine with nearly any name brand such as IBM, Maxtor, Western Digital, et.al. Look for a spin rate of 7200 rpm which is ideal for digital video.

[Ken Tanaka]

Yes, Bill Markel posed the same question earlier this year and Rik Sanchez provided a very good solution in the following thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1875&highlight=title