Debe
Forum Replies Created
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Exactly how are you monitoring the audio and video?
If you don’t have your system set up properly, you will certainly have sync issues. The manual has a very good diagram of how external audio and video monitors should be connected and used at all times with FCP.
There are obvious exceptions, like if you’re working remotely and just can’t drag a monitor to the coffee shop…but in general, it’s best to always have external audio and video monitors in use with FCP.
The diagram is in different pages depending on what version of FCP you have, so you may have to search for it. It’s pretty close to the beginning, though!
debe
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Since you probably can’t reshoot…
Use the 3-Way Color Corrector and use the Limit Effect feature (you need to drop down the carat on the lower left hand side, right next to where it says “Limit Effect”).
What I just recently did to tone down some blown-out windows was drag the bottom right luma slider all the way to the right and the left slider to the little hash-mark on the right of the slider. Both stood parallel to each other and perpendicular to the slider (that will make sense when you get in there and see it). Then I pulled the slider for the whites (that’s the one directly under the color wheel) down until the blown out bits were more tame. The edges would be chunky and ugly, but once I got the levels right, I then I went back to the Limit Effect options and dragged the softness slider to blend things in. Depending on how it really looks, you might end up with a white halo around everything. On most of my shots, it blended in fine, but on a few, there were halos that I couldn’t get rid of, no matter how much I tweaked the sliders. I ended up ditching those shots because I had plenty of B-roll to choose from. Hopefully, your shot will blend! This might be trickier if your person’s face has any highlights on it. My stuff was mostly B-roll, so it was much more forgiving. You might have to play with the position of the bottom slider(s) to limit the effect to just the windows. Double check the interviewees eyes as you do this, and any “hot spots” on the forehead or face, or head if he’s bald/balding.
You should use the Video Scope Tool to help you, as well. That’s in the Tools menu.
You also might be able to marry this technique with doubling up the clip on two tracks and using a composite mode between them to affect the luma levels. That’s something you just need to play with in order to tell what’s helping and what’s not. Right-click on the top clip and at the bottom of the pop-up is “Composite Mode”. Pick one and see how it works. Then pick another until you find something that helps. Again, depending on the shots, you might want to darken the bottom layer first. Under some conditions, that just makes things muddier. There’s another way to get to those composite modes from the menu, but I don’t quite remember. You could look it up in the manual or call up the Button List (also found in the Tools menu) and look for them in there.
It’s going to take some time, tweaking and patience, but you should be able to make it better. I don’t know about perfect, but better.
debe
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I’m not sure I understand the question.
Title safe is title safe. If you have an image, whether it is text, graphic animation, or whatever, if it goes outside of title safe, you are not guaranteed that it will not be cut off on every television. You can push it to action safe, but you run a risk of it being cut off. You can push it to the edges of the screen, but you run a much bigger, more likely risk, of it being cut off.
Does this make sense?
debe
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Cool, thanks, Wes!
That’s a huge relief to know!
debe
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The only problem with backing up the disks is many of the install disks are dual layer. Both the Motion and DVDSP disks are over 6 GB. If you don’t have a dual layer burner, you’re sort of outta luck.
I made disk images of all mine and put them on a FW drive, but I don’t think they’ll work as install disks because I think the installer looks to the physical DVD drive. However, I can’t test that theory because I don’t want to reinstall software that’s working just fine right now.
If anyone else knows the answer for certain or is in the position to test, I think many people here would appreciate it.
debe
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Actually, the best bet is to google and download MPEG Streamclip. It will demux the MPEG1 and spit out a format that will play nice with FCP. There’s also Cinematize, which is not free, but gives you more options.
debe
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What the student wants and what FCP wants are two different things.
Assuming she is working with DV footage, FCP really really really wants the audio and video to remain together as one file. It works best that way with DV25 footage.
The option to separate it is available and really only appropriate for higher quality captures.
Why it’s happening is tough to say, but she shouldn’t be capturing that way anyhow. Tell her to capture it the way FCP wants, not the way she wants, and her issue should alleviate itself.
debe
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Does making the tracks a little taller help?
debe
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You can only judge the final quality on your external video monitor.
The Canvas, by design, only shows you about 1/4 resolution.
Consult the manual for proper external audio & video monitoring. Where it is in the manual depends on which version you are using.
It’s possible your titles look just fine. You have no way of knowing until you see them on an external monitor.
If they still look bad once you connect up to an external monitor, post back with system specs, FCP, QT & OS versions, & Sequence Settings and hopefully we can help you narrow it down!
debe
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If you have View>External>All Frames set, you should be getting your output on your external audio and video monitors at all times via the FW port, which is really the best way to work, anyway.
debe