[John Calhoun]

I use Livetype or Photoshop depending on the look I’m going for. The only problem I’ve seen recently is the overuse of Livetype animations (or the like in After Effects or Motion). Sort of like using a “sheep wipe” when a simple dissove is more tasteful. Use sparingly.

pxlmvr

[John Calhoun]

I use widescreen alot for our shows, but I don’t use the FCP filter. It’s a hassle when you have a lot of cuts. I’ve created a 16×9 graphic in Photoshop with an alpha channel. I can then lay the graphic over all of my video layers and if any clips need adjusting I just move them around.

pxlmvr

p.s. DRW please try not to be so critical and condesending. This forum was created to find answers to questions.

[John Calhoun]

I usually use “Strobe” under “Video” in Effects. I set it to “1” and that smooths out video pretty good. That and doing some good color correction has had people asking me if the footage was shot on film. When I DP for spots, if I’m using a DVCam, I gain up to 9db to give the footage a little “grain” and reduce output from my lighting fixtures to maintain depth of field. I don’t gain up if I’m shooting on beta.

pxlmvr

[John Calhoun]

I was having problems FCP not launching, Safari locking up the computer (first time in over a year), dock weirdness as well. A co-worker gave me a copy of ‘Pacifist’ which updates prebinding. Probably the same as what you can do though the terminal.

Anyway, updating prebinding information seems to have done the trick.

Apple says you can do the same through the terminal:

– start Applications/Utiities/Terminal and type

sudo update_prebinding -root / -force

and press return, you’ll have to enter your password. When it has finished, reboot your computer.

Apple document: 93984
Final Cut Pro HD won’t open or unexpectedly quits after a Software Update
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93984

pxlmvr

[John Calhoun]

You also may want to change your User Preferences. I’ve changed mine to “On Timecode Break, Warn After Capture”. I find making a new clip too time consuming. This way it continues to digitize.

Your tape probably doesn’t have continuous timecode. Perhaps the camera was set to ‘free-run’. This is sometimes used when syncing two or more cameras together. If you check the tape and the timecode ‘skips’ after every scene, then you have discontinuous timecode. This isn’t an error; it’s just something that you have to work around. Changing the preference or making sure you have enough ‘pre-roll’ will solve the problem.

pxlmvr