Picture brightness changes depending on if timeline is playing or paused

[Shane Ross]

What is the codec of the footage you are cutting?

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Taylor Foerster]

Thanks for the quick reply Shane.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how to find the codec of a clip.

[David Roth weiss]

Your sequence settings clearly do not match your media.

In addition to answering Shane’s question, please tell us exactly what the sequence settings are as well.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los Angeles

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[David Roth weiss]

[Taylor Foerster] “Unfortunately, I don’t know how to find the codec of a clip.”

Taylor, it’s listed on the FCP browser… just scroll to the right until you see the column.

If you can’t ID the codec you’re working with, you will NEVER be able to succeed with FCP or any other professional non-linear editing app.That’s fundamental to editing…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los Angeles

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Shane Ross]

I’m guessing, based on your answer, that the clip is a raw file from a DSLR or GoPro or other camera that shoots quicktime…and that you didn’t convert it to an editing codec. FCP doesn’t work well with most camera native Quicktime formats, and this is one of the issues that pops up. You need to convert your footge to ProRes first, then import and edit in FCP. Compressor does this.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Taylor Foerster]

I began using FCP no more than a month ago.

From what I think sequence setting are, mine are 1920×1080 and 23.98 fps. My codec is h.264.

[Shane Ross]

Yeah…that’s the issue. H.264.

You need to convert the footage to ProRes 422, and then bring that footage into FCP. Drop that into a new sequence and it will make the sequence ProRes 422. Be prepared, the file size of your footage will increase by a lot.

If you want to edit H.264 native, you should look at FCP-X or Adobe Premiere Pro. FCP 7 is not only a very old application, it was discontinued over 4 years ago. And never dealt with H.264 properly.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[David Roth weiss]

Shane and I have probably dealt with this issue over a thousand times here in the Cow with new editors like yourself. Neither of us advise that you learn to use it now, as you’ll have to learn all over again with new software. You can download a free 30-day trial of Adobe Premiere and learn properly on the latest and greatest at no charge.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los Angeles

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Taylor Foerster]

This worked! Thanks for the polite answer Shane.