Self-Contained Movies

[Tom Meegan]

1. Self-contained QT means the result will be a stand alone mixed, version of the work you have selected to export.

Be careful if you export from a time line. Remove any ins and outs and to deselect everything before you export. Test the self contained file before you need it.

2. If your original work was in DV NTSC, and the sequence settings are DV NTSC, there will be no degradation of quality when you export to DV NTSC.

The only exception to this is with text, graphics and filters you add in the sequence.

Some folks convert DV original footage up to uncompressed 8-bit or 10-bit, and work in an 8-bit or 10 bit sequence in order to get more post render quality from graphics. This works, but the effect is subtle to non-professionals. This technique is also resource intensive and has minimal effect on the unprocessed video in the show.

Probably not worth it for most applications.

Best,

Tom

[Kat Hayes]

1. What do you mean by “Be careful if you export from a time line?”
How else could it be exported?

2. What happens if the ins and outs are kept in there when exporting?

3. Since DV NTSC does not degrade the quality of the video, are there any issues with exporting it and bringing it into FCP later if needed, doing some more editing, and exporting again as DV NTSC?

Thank you.

[Tom Meegan]

1. You can export a sequence by selecting it in the browser, then going to file > export. The sequence does not need to be open as a timeline.

2. If there are ins and out in the time line, FCP exports from the in to the out, ignoring the rest of the sequence. This can be handy, but is a drag when it happens accidentally.

3. If you are shooting DV NTSC, DV NTSC is the video.

When your camera wrote the information it had captured to tape, it wrote it as DV.

DV entails 5:1 compression, and this compression occured just before the image information was written to tape in the camera.

As long as the DV video is treated as DV throughout the process, it doesn’t degrade any further, with the exceptions noted below and in my prior post.

So if,

you shoot with a DV NTSC camera,
you capture as DV NTSC via firewire,
you edit with a DV NTSC sequence,
and you export DV NTSC when you are done,

There is no quality lost from your original DV NTSC footage.

As noted in my prior post, graphics and renders that have to take place in the course of your edit do take a small quality hit because they are going through a second round of DV compression.

This hit is not noticed by most, and upconverting everything to uncompressed before you start to edit is resource intensive.

If you are shooting DV for broadcast, or your show is graphics intensive with picky clients, I might recommend a different workflow. Otherwise, I wouldn’t sweat it.

So re-import as much as you want, but be aware of the recompression that happens with rendered portions of the time line.

Tom M

[Tom Meegan]

I would like to correct one thing I said above:

The in and out points in a sequence determine what will be exported when using File>Export>Quicktime Movie, whether you choose to export with the time line active or from the browser.

Best of luck, and sorry for the misleading statement.

Tom

[Kat Hayes]

When you said:

“you shoot with a DV NTSC camera,
you capture as DV NTSC via firewire,
you edit with a DV NTSC sequence,
and you export DV NTSC when you are done”

What does it mean to edit with a “DV NTSC sequence?” Once it is captured as DV NTSC and brought into the timeline for editing, how or why would you change its format prior to exporting it?

Thank you.

[Tom Meegan]

If you choose the DV NTSC Easy Set-Up when you start your session, you don’t ever have to worry about your sequences being something other than DV NTSC. If this is your situation, don’t worry.

HOW to change sequence presets:

If you want to change the settings of a sequence you already have, select it, and hit Command – Zero. Modify the setting in the window if you need to. Only do this if you have a good reason.

If you want to change the settings of future sequences you create, go:

Final Cut Pro > Audio/Video Settings and then choose the sequence preset tab. Select the appropriate preset, or look in the manual about how to modify a preset.

WHY you might change sequence presets:

If your show is graphics intensive, or If you have to deliver a digital beta or beta master you might choose 8-bit or 10-bit uncompressed.

If you are building certain types of visual effects you might choose to create a sequence with a custom size.

When trying to Chroma Key footage, sometimes editors will place DV (which is short for DV 25) footage in a DV 50 sequence, in hopes of gaining the benefits of a broader color space. Unfortunately, this isn’t very effective, but it is a reason people will change their sequence settings.

There are probably other reasons as well. Those are the ones that jump to mind right now.

Bottom line