[Bill Dewald]

Yep, that’s a sign of corruption. How long have you been using that project file (days, weeks, months?) and what is the size of the project file? Once a project becomes bloated, it can cause incoherent errors like the one’s that you’ve got. In my experience, any project file over 100mb can be at risk.

If you have a lot of old timeline versions, perhaps you can paste just your current timeline into a new project to cut down on the size.

Other things to try

1. Trash preferences

2. Trash render files

3. Check permissions on the system drive

4. Copy the contents of the project into a blank project, save, and re-open the new project.

5. Go to a old copy of the project from the autosave vault.

Also, check out the two audio files that are causing you trouble. Any chance of corruption there? Are they in a weird location? Do they have illegal charecters (&, / , etc…) in their filenames?

[Bill Dewald]

You can use .wav or .aif with FCP.

You certaintly should use the 29.97 frame rate for your video footage. That’s your problem. Drop or non-drop is fine.

[Bill Dewald]

Francis, you’re barking up the wrong tree – she’s talking about timecode, not dropped frames on the timeline.

Kimberly, you want “Modify>Timecode – Format”. This will change the metadata in the QT file.

[Bill Dewald]

If you’re working in an anamorphic timeline, simply blow the image up to fill the frame.

If you’re working with 16:9 clips in a 4:3 timeline, then you should make a matte that you can lay over the 4:3 clips to provide the letterbox.

A pair of slug clips, moved to the top and bottom, can take care of this in a pinch. Better to make your matte in Photoshop.

[Bill Dewald]

I’d bring your machine up to OSX10.4.11, and FCP 5.1.4.

The biggest leaps forward for FCP 6 were the ‘Color’ application, and the ProRes codec. Since you’re shooting on miniDV, I don’t see a pressing need to shell out for a whole new rig.

How are you monitoring your work? You may want to look into a broadcast monitor, if you’re not already using one.

[Bill Dewald]

If you’re going to release “in film”, then the best person to answer this question would be your contact at the lab.

Your delivery specs, on-line/offline workflow, graphics, titles, sound(!), etc. should all be decided in consultation with the people that will be handling the film out. Talking it through will them, rather than taking a shot in the dark, will improve quality and save cost in the end.

[Bill Dewald]

[andy shnikes] “but when you talk down to those of us”

Get over yourself. No one’s talking down to you. You wanted to learn the difference between your software from 2003, and what’s currently available. The answer is – a lot. I’m sorry that you don’t have enough money to buy all of the gear that you assume we all own. B.u.t. – do you really need it?

You can do many fine things with your G4 and FCP 4. Entire feature films have been cut on that platform. HD is pretty much ruled out. Encodes will take forever. But you can still cut.

To address your original question – “Do I need to upgrade?” How would a room full of internet strangers know? What are you trying to do with FCP?

And in regards to hardware vs. software – its a combination of both. Besides, FCP 4 won’t run on the current intel macs, so if you’re going to upgrade, you’ll have to do it all.

But keep insulting helpful strangers on the internet, and you’ll be rich in no time. Good luck.

[Bill Dewald]

[Rick Dolishny] “Here is what I think of when I think of creative inspiration. 🙂

” target=”_blank”>https://www.cinevate.com/images/stillmotion/inspiration.mov”

Wow… I kept waiting for the punchline… And I bet that Zep track took $$$ to license… (beautiful photography, tho.)

Here is what I think of when I think of creative inspiration:

https://www.hulu.com/watch/6211/the-office-dunder-mifflin-commercial

[Bill Dewald]

Two ideas –

1. Did you properly set the scratch disk to the external? Its “Final Cut Pro>System Settings>Scratch Disks”

2. How is the external drive formatted? It should be Mac OSX Extended (non-journaled)

[Bill Dewald]

FCP only wants standard video rates.

Why are you trying to cut at 12fps? How about cutting at 23.98 and then exporting a 12fps Quicktime?