Glenn Fisher
Forum Replies Created
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Hehe, unfortunately I don’t think I can help with your issue, but I can certainly help you to intentionally fade to black! It’s very easy. In the Final Cut “Browser” window, click on the “Effects” tab. From there, click the disclosure triangle for “Video Transitions” and then the triangle for “Dissolves”. At that point, a “Fade In Fade Out Dissolve” will do a fade to black between two clips.
Additionally, you could keyframe the opacity of each clip and as long as there is black underneath the video track, or you’re only working with one track (i.e. the V1 track), then by keyframing the opacity you can essentially create your own fade to black transition. To do this, I set the playhead in the timeline to where I want the fade to start. Double click the clip to load it into the viewer. Choose the “Motion” tab, and then click on the disclosure triangle for “Opacity”. You will see a slider that corresponds to the number next to it (it will default to 100 since it has 100 percent opacity…or you “can see 100% of it”). To the right of that number, you’ll see a rhombus-like shape. By clicking on that, you’ll set a keyframe, which tells final cut that you want the opacity to be 100% at that point in time. You can then go back to the timeline and position the playhead to where you want the fade to end (99.9% of the time that will be at the end of the clip). The position of the playhead should automatically be reflected in the viewer. Once you have moved the playhead in the timeline, go back to the viewer and set the opacity to 0 by either typing 0 into the box or moving the slider all the way to the left. That automatically sets another keyframe at that point in time telling Final Cut that you want the opacity to be zero. Final Cut will “interpolate” between the two keyframes, which makes for a constant decrease of opacity between the 100% and 0% keyframes.
I hope that helps!
– Glenn Fisher -
It may be possible for a cross dissolve to look like a fade to black if there is black at either the end of the first clip or the beginning of the second clip. I would check both clips to make sure you have the appropriate handles, and that the video in neither one cuts out to black.
The way the cross dissolve transition works is that it essentially extends the length of your clips by 30 frames (assuming it’s a one second dissolve). So even though the clip in your timeline without the cross dissolve (i.e. with a cut between the two clips) may not show any black, the cross dissolve will extend the out point of the first clip and the in point of the second clip by 30 frames. If there is black in either of those two clips in that 30-frame section, then the cross dissolve will show that, and it will look like a fade to black.
Hope that helps,
Glenn Fisher -
The iMac is an extremely capable desktop computer. The biggest problem with it would be in expandability. It seems limited in possible future endeavors. The Mac Pro, depending on the configuration, should be more powerful and since it actually has a case that you can open, it would present you with more options for adding cards, increasing your hard drive space, and so on. If you don’t feel that you need those options though, then I’m sure you would do just fine on an iMac.
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Ah, good to know! I’ll have to try that the next time I’m working on compressor. I’ll be sure and add Compressor Repair to my arsenal of tools as well! Thanks Jeremy.
– Glenn Fisher
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1. I don’t use DVCPRO HD, but according to the specs that I can find on the internet, I don’t see any theoretical problem with using firewire 400. According to this creative cow article, DVCPRO HD has a data rate of about 40 Mb/s. This tech note quotes firewire as having a 38 MB/s read speed, which is equivalent to about 304 Mb/s. With 264 Mb/s as overhead, I can’t imagine that you would have an issue using firewire 400 to capture your video onto a firewire hard drive. I get the feeling though that either my math or my sources are wrong, because if this was the case, then why do people experience issues using USB? I would love to get another COW member’s opinion on this one!
2. I would imagine all of that information would be in the manuals that came with your software.
3. What do you mean by “card included?” What card are your referring to? If I had that budget, I would be looking at a Mac Pro, or a Macbook Pro is portability is very important to you. I personally edit HDV footage on my 2.4 GHz Macbook Pro and have had no issues with it (other than compression times when it comes to export, and those should be dramatically decreased with a Mac Pro). Also, don’t forget that you can purchase refurbished macs. Just scroll down at the Apple Store and on the left hand side you should eventually see a link for Refurbished Mac. There’s a Mac Pro there for only $2,000.
I hope that helps,
Glenn Fisher -
Not sure what could be causing this, but something is clearly not working correctly. You are right when you say that compressor SHOULD be prompting you to give you a name for the batch after you click on the Submit button. I’m not sure if there is any other way to name a batch.
Since something must be wrong, I’m going to suggest the common troubleshooting steps. Try restarting compressor. If that doesn’t do it, restart your computer. If you still aren’t having any luck, then I would try trashing the preference files for compressor (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.compressor.Compressor.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Compressor.CompressorSharedService.plist). If that still doesn’t help, well, then I hope that another COW member comes along that has more knowledge than I do!
Good Luck To You,
Glenn Fisher -
I’m not sure what could be causing it, but I would first try making an entirely new sequence and drop your problematic video into it, and see what happens. If it seems to work okay, then copy over what you have in your first sequence into the new one, and see if you run into the same problem.
If that doesn’t work, then you may want to try FCP Rescue. You can use it to backup your FCP preference files and then trash the originals, forcing Final Cut to generate new ones. If that fixes your problem, then you know that it was an issue with preferences and you can change all of the settings back to the way that you like and continue to work. If that doesn’t fix the problem, the you can use FCP Rescue to restore your old preferences, that ones that you had sent to the trash. It’s worth a try, if nothing else.
Best of Luck,
Glenn Fisher -
Ty knows WAY more than I could ever even imagine about audio, but I’m starting to get into the realm of audio recording and am about to invest in microphones for a similar purpose. Since I started filming some local school concerts, I have decided to upgrade my audio kit from a Sony PCM-d50 up to real microphones hooked up to a mixer by my cameras. I thought I would share what I’m looking into for recording band, orchestra, and choral concerts in an auditorium.
The Oktava MC012 microphone has gotten some good reviews as a powerful performer. I’m looking into getting a stereo pair of MC012s and mounting them on top of a Manfrotto 004BAC light stand. Some extra height in a stand might be nice, but 13′ seems like it will be good enough to start with and it won’t break the bank.
Anyway, I hope that might help you a little in your endeavor! Best of luck to you.
– Glenn Fisher
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I apologize for not keeping up with my side of this conversation. I would make some excuse, but the truth is that things just got very busy and I forgot about the CreativeCOW forums for a while.
Anyway, I hope that this post might be useful for you in recording the next marching band season.
As far as the d50 goes for marching band audio, I’m planning to pick up a Manfrotto 004BAC light stand from B&H. It’s a collapsible 13′ stand that comes with a screw on adapter to convert the top thread to a 3/8″ mount, allowing me to mount the d50 on top. I’m also ordering the casters to go along with it, so I’ll keep the d50 set up (and maybe even recording) for the entire football game, and I can simply wheel it around where I need it to go. I think that this will be a great solution for me at football games since it allows me to get a much higher location for the d50 while I’m recording my marching band’s “pep music” in the stands, and then I can simply wheel it on the track over to the 50 yard line (I already talked to the band director and he has no problem with me positioning the stand directly behind the drum major during football games) for their half-time performance. I’m hoping that this solution will give me much better audio, and I’ll let you know how it turns out whenever I try it!
As a side note, I’ve gotten into recording many of my school district’s concerts (orchestra, band, and choir) for broadcast over a local television station. The high school choral director actually hired a professional sound recording guy to come in for his concert, and talking to him (and especially hearing the audio that he got compared to the d50) convinced me that I should look into expanding my audio recording kit. I already have a mixer, so I’m looking into purchasing a stereo pair of Oktava MC012 microphones. I mostly plan to use them for indoor recording, but I’m sure that I will set them up at least once during next summer’s band camp in order to see “what I’m missing” by using only the d50. I don’t think I can use the Oktavas to record football games, since I’m already running two cameras, and can’t manage a mixer at the same time. Not to mention the fact that I don’t really have a proper field mixer and would have to either rely on my laptop and a usb audio interface, or have to purchase another expensive piece of kit. Anyway, I plan to try it, so I’ll be sure to upload some samples once I do!
Best Of Luck To You In The New Year,
Glenn Fisher -
To add to Walter Biscardi’s comment:
When I first started editing with Final Cut, I found it off-putting that I could only see title-safe/action-safe when paused on a frame (i.e. it wouldn’t show the safe regions while playing a clip in the timeline). Over time, I got more used to it, but if you’re just starting out and also find it difficult, you might want to check out the DH_WideSafe plugin from Digital Heaven (https://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/fcplugins/dh_widesafe.php). I’ve never used it, but it should essentially generate guides that you can put on a video track, and they should display while playing back a clip in the timeline.