Log & Transfer Clip Naming

One of my favorite new features of FCP7 is the fact that you can now almost completely customize the automated naming process in Log & Transfer.

Previously, you could tell it which of the 5 or so categories you wanted it to include in the name, and then each incremental clip would get a number at the end.

Now there’s a Naming Preset dropdown menu at the top of the L&T window that has a handful of basic presets, and the ability to edit them and create new templates of your own.  Click it and select Edit or New to bring up the plethora of options now available to you. … Continue Reading

Use what you want and leave me alone

I just posted a comment on Shane Ross’ blog that was so long I decided to make it a post here.  :)  Sorry Shane.

First of all, why is editing natively such a big deal? Drives are cheap. Convert those files to a format that is smooth as silk to work with.

Second of all, who really cares how many people are editing on a certain platform? Are you really so insecure that you feel the need to get as many people as you can on your platform? I have worked in the worlds of AVID, Premiere, Vegas, Media100, and Final Cut Pro. I’ve landed with FCP and I’m staying because I like the hardware, the features, the price point, it just does what I need it to do. If you want to work on FCP, that’s great. If you don’t, I could really care less. It doesn’t affect me at all. At. All. … Continue Reading

Ken Burns my ass!!!

Have you ever noticed that, whenever a producer hands you a drive full of photos they say something to the effect of “oh, this will be quick and easy, it’s all photos!”?

What they don’t seem to realize is that it takes even more time to put together a video consisting of nothing but photos that they will actually be happy with.  Sure, I could just dump all their photos on the timeline, line them up with the VO and be done with it.  But they wouldn’t like that.  ”Not really what I was imagining.  Could we do a move on them?” … Continue Reading

Z-Motion in Motion

I’ll admit it.  I bought After Effects and spent about 4 hours with 2 different books and gave up on learning it. It just didn’t seem very intuitive to me. I kept meaning to learn it, but there was always something more interesting for me to learn. So it sat there. Oh, I upgraded the software a few times, again, with the intention of learning it. But never learned it.

Enter Apple’s Motion. … Continue Reading

Liven Up Your Text

When you use text in a video, you don’t have to go all out and use the ‘used car dealer’ effects in Motion (or LiveType), but at least take the time and change it from the default font and color.  It gets noticed.

This Post Sponsored by the Letter “T”

One of my favorite keyboard shortcuts in Final Cut Pro is the letter T.  Often times I need to select everything on a track and tighten it up or move it down. T will do that. And the number of times you press it select what items it’s going to select when you click.  Very cool.  Very handy.  Very quick.

Multicam #1 Mistake

One thing you should always remember, when you’re working with multiclips, you can’t render your sequence. Once you’ve rendered, you’ll only be able to see one clip in the viewer when playing the sequence, which defeats the purpose of multiclips.

If you need to render your multiclip, either your sequence settings are wrong, or your hard drive is causing a bottleneck, whether it’s from drive speed or connection speed, or you just need a faster computer/more RAM. … Continue Reading

AVCHD Final Cut Pro Workflow

I’ve been shooting and editing AVCHD with Final Cut Pro and a Panasonic HMC-150 for just over a year now. I’ve worked out a pretty good workflow that has caused me no problems at all.  Here’s how it goes: … Continue Reading

Final Cut Pro Tips

Don’t worry folks, I still have a folder with all the images I used for the FCP tips, so hopefully I’ll be able to reconstruct them, with the images acting as my reminder.  If you have requests, feel free to comment on this thread to make sure I remember them.

Then I need to start putting out new ones, huh?