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What are your Top 10 Tips for Anything about the Latest Final Cut Pro Studio?
I want to find out anything you guys come up with. If there is any 3rd Party Plugins that you have to have or an I/O Device that works great for Final Cut Pro Studio or Any Shortcuts in Final Cut Pro Studio or just Anything on Final Cut Pro.
Thank you,
Chad -
4 Replies
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OK, I’ll bite…
1. Read the manual
No, really. Read it. RTFM. Read it or be prepared to be mocked and ridiculed and ignored and teased because you were too freaking lazy to start with the basics and now expect forum users to solve your problems for you.
2. Learn how to use Compressor
So many people never bother to use it because they’re scared of it. Don’t be. It’s there for a reason. You bought it, now use it.
3. Use a proper video monitor
For accurate monitoring, always use a proper video I/O device connected to a proper video production monitor. It is impossible to properly judge video by looking at the FCP canvas or Digital Cinema Desktop.
4. Educate yourself about proper workflow for various types of cameras and footage before you start a project in FCP
Don’t shoot something on a DSLR or a RED or anything else and be surprised when it comes time to edit that it’s not as easy as you thought it would be. It’s far easier to take the time to learn the proper workflow before you begin a project than to try to backtrack to fix something afterwards.
5. Educate yourself about various codecs and their appropriate uses
For example, h.264 is not a suitable codec for editing. Find out why, and how to transcode it to something that can be edited easily. See #2.
6. Never mix footage of different frame rates in the same FCP sequence
Always conform footage to one unified frame rate before editing either by using Cinema Tools or Compressor.
7. Never drop 24p footage or sequences into 29.97 interlaced sequences
FCP cannot add proper 3:2 pulldown, only 2:2:2:4 pulldown (which looks atrocious). If you don’t understand what pulldown is, find out.
8. Resize footage using Compressor
When mixing footage of different resolutions in FCP, consider first resizing footage to match the sequence settings using Compressor, with frame controls turned on and best quality selected for the resizing filter. Resize high resolution still images to the smallest needed size before importing them into a project.
Here’s two more tips that aren’t FCP-specific, but just as valuable for using these forums:
9. Search
Learn how to use the search feature on forums, then use it – before posting.
10. Provide details
When posting on forums, provide as much detail as possible about your editing system, software versions, project/sequence settings, etc. Forum users are not psychic.
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[Chad Graves] “What are your Top 10 Tips for Anything about the Latest Final Cut Pro Studio?”
The two most important things are
1- Clone your existing system before doing anything else.
2- Erase your system drive and intall a clean copy of the OS. once that is done install Final Cut.
These two things apply to any version of any pro app.
Hindsight is always 1080p
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Ditto what Alan and Zane said.
Great jobs guys!
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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[Chad Graves] “I want to find out anything you guys come up with”
This forum is filled with thousands of posts of information (going back 8 years or so). All you need to do is Search this forum for whatever you need to find at the time.
[Chad Graves] “If there is any 3rd Party Plugins that you have to have or an I/O Device that works great for Final Cut Pro Studio or Any Shortcuts in Final Cut Pro Studio or just Anything on Final Cut Pro.”
I/O devices and third party plugins are wholly dependent on your workflow and your deliveries. Again, there are thousands of posts on this forum (and the Final Cut Pro Basics Forum) that cover system design, I/O devices, throughput, workflow, storage, etc….
You can click on my Profile and see the various systems we run here which support broadcast HD and feature film projecs.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.
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