[Jeff Pierce]

Mask the transition with a sound effect. My favorite: a cymbal sweep. Take several seconds of a cymbal sweep, and position it directly below your transition in the timeline. Trim and add dissolves to make it the appropriate length for your transition.

I learned this trick by reviewing/dissecting radio promo spots for TV broadcast network lineups. They change gears from comedy, to high drama/death, back to comedy all in about 15 seconds… their production technique is truly remarkable. If they’re transitioning between comedy cuts of music, they’ll use a laugh-track SFX. If it’s a drama, it might be a sweep, woosh or hit.

As others have noted, you have to get the edit in the right spot in the cut of music. But masking the edit with a SFX (You can also use a natural sound hit) will get you out of a lot of sticky situations — and will make a good transition into an absolutely elegant one.

Good luck.

[Jeff Pierce]

Quicktime’s film filters are pretty decent. You can adjust grain, color fade, even film scratches and hairs. If you’re delicate with it, you can get good results.

Good luck.

jp

[Jeff Pierce]

Kevin,

Alleluia!

That has been driving me nuts.

Thanks.

[Jeff Pierce]

[Jeff Pierce]

I have two methods for doing this:
1) Go vertical. If you’re working with 4 video tracks, and 4 audio tracks… lock those 8 tracks, and create your new work on video and audio tracks 5 and up.

2) Duplicate. Make a duplicate of your timeline, and work from the duplicate. If something goes amiss, you can copy and paste from the original TL.

I use both methods all the time. I’ll get a project to an acceptable point of completion, but want to experiment with something. If the experiment turns out to be an improvement, great. If not, I’m no worse off.

Good luck.

[Jeff Pierce]

[Conan Stott] “Also, when color grading in final cut, is it possible to place the color grade on an empty video track?? I dont actually want to put it directly on the clip, but the track above it… this is standard practice for me when using avid and im wondering if it is possible with final cut? “

It’s been a while since I used Avid, and I’m not sure I ever used it the way you describe… which only demonstrates that there are many workflows — even when using the same system.

But if you explain your desired result, we may be able to give you a method to get where you want to be using FCP? (likely, even more than one method)

Good luck.

jp

[Jeff Pierce]

For the sake of clarity… it’s the “Backspace” key.

This perplexed me for months too, until one day I saw someone else use it. I was kinda peeved at myself for not figuring it out on my own… but hey, now I know.

jp

[Jeff Pierce]

All my source material is SD. Although I am using 16:9 footage in a 4:3 timeline.

I’ll have to experiment a bit with different combinations to see if this mix of aspect ratios is the root of the problem. Although I suspect it is not, since the issue improved — albeit slightly — with with time, and no other changes.

I’ll post back with my findings.

Jeff Pierce

[Jeff Pierce]

…and now 20 minutes later, the “x”s and the points are much closer — they’re at least visible at the same time. They’re still not correct, but when the point is on the Safe Title Area line, the “x” is at the edge of the screen.

By midnight tonight, they should be aligned perfectly!

jp

[Jeff Pierce]

Hi Steve.

Thanks for the reply. I’ve used the same work-around that you mention. But what was curious, was that yesterday morning, I experienced this same issue on a different project. It didn’t throw me, because it is always this way. But when I came back to it in the afternoon, the “x” controllers were located precisely on the 8 points!?!?

Go figure.

Again, thanks.

Jeff Pierce