[Lawrence Eaton]

Download and install Soundflower to record system audio. Change the audio input to 2ch and use QuickTime screen recording.

[Lawrence Eaton]

Yes. No problems

[Lawrence Eaton]

Kit,
Still interested in some videos of how to use FCPX and Zoom?

Lawrence

[Lawrence Eaton]

Simple answer: No. but I do embed QR codes in FCPX, all the time!

Lawrence

[Lawrence Eaton]

Cal,
I’d take a look at this mini series https://youtu.be/nHIePdFi-iU

Maybe it’ll answer some of your questions?

Lawrence

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[Lawrence Eaton]

Thanks Terry,
Building off what you have written:
Zoom does have ‘odd’ resolution recordings.

it also saves the mp4 as Motion JPEG2000 – because we all like those ‘crazy’ backgrounds in Zoom! But it gives us headaches. Everything from now on is based on my tool of choice – Final Cut Pro X & Compressor. My guide to this is to always save your meetings to your local machine after the meeting has ended. I’ve found I have a better quality of recording that way. (As an aside, I”ve been downloading/ converting one meeting while also in another meeting, something that I found useful to know.)

With Zoom now attaching/ mandating passwords to meetings, if you save your recording to the cloud, you’ll have to give out the password to it if you want too share the raw version and as Terry noted, if you’re not careful then you’ll have a surprise one day as your legacy recordings may disappear.

I have had no luck in logging into the same meeting with the same invite – in order to record it in a more acceptable manner. Zoom tells you that you are being logged out of the other log in, when you do. So it’s useful to have a moderator email to be invited to, as well.

That being said, I luckily am unable to be on all the company’s Zoom meetings and therefore pleaded with presenters or the host to drag the window of the gallery view or speaker view to as far to one side as they can – makes an interesting thumbnail, at times! That way you can at least crop back and scale up to fill your viewer and frame. If you detach the participants window, well let’s say it’s going to be an emotional day with the edit.

At the conclusion of the meeting(the vast majority of which run to 60mins) and the subsequent downloading of the meeting to your drive, you’ll want to edit…. If possible, I’ve learnt the most efficient way for myself is to transcode to ProRes – yes its nth times larger in file size but it gets rid of the hours of background rendering(with crazy resolutions) and missed frames playback, that I’ve experienced on my 2015 MBP.

My workflow for this is to amass as many meetings per day – on average 40 – as I can and then set them going in overnight.

I have made a ton of saved presets for effects, audio – such as EQ and anything else I can, to save time.

I start by throwing in the corporate graphics for intro/ extro slugs and put a gap clip of the original length of the meeting, between them.

I organize my library & keywords, but if that’s not possible, due to time constraints for deliverables, I’ll use Favorites, Delete and the ‘god-knows-what-this-if-for’ option and then filter by faves.

I also use the delivered Smart Collections in FCPX.

I assemble any cutaways and b-roll by making Compound Clips in FCPX and if I know the timings of these, I will place the generator>placeholder above the main timeline and. Turn on the ‘notes’ section in the placeholder and start describing what should happen before it and during and after – it’s a point of reference. When I have the assets, I will drag them over the placeholders and use the replace functions there.

I’ll select my bunch of ‘Faves” in my browser and drag them to the primary storyline and use the Replace option to fill out the gap clip. The magnetic timeline takes care of the rest. As the assets are ProRes there’s no background rendering. You could of course right click your assets in the browser and ‘optimize’ them rather than take them through Compressor, if you don’t have it. I let FCPX analyze the audio and fix accordingly and then if necessary apply an EQ to the track – BEFORE I make any edits. I detach the audio to make life a little better with video edits over audio and Video edits. If it is a software demo, I duplicate the section and place the main timeline at 35% opacity to allow me to get the person watching to only concentrate on the subject at hand. If it’s a cutaway to a talking head, then I’ll either go as a multi clip – as per Terry’s reply – or at times, I’ll use the method described above of putting in a placeholder at around the times that is needed and replace it as and when necessary.

When it comes to sharing….. I’ve tried every way I could, I believe. The way that best works for me is to export out as a Master file and then compress the living hell out it in Compressor to mp4. I’ve also used Handbrake and Handbrakebatch, as well, just for the whatever and giggles. Both very good options, but can slow things down. Any compressor that can take into account multi cores, is obviously preferable. I’ve also sent the timeline straight to Compressor and while this is a usable option, you are required to keep both FCPX and Compressor open during the sharing process. Again, this is what I have witnessed and discovered.

I am in the process of putting together 8 videos on this workflow, in case no one understands it. Maybe that will be better than me writing this all down.
If you have questions, then please don’t hesitate to ask.

(I don’t think I’ve written so much since college!)

Lawrence

[Lawrence Eaton]

Thanks Terry,
Building off what you have written:
Zoom does have ‘odd’ resolution recordings.

it also saves the mp4 as Motion JPEG2000 – because we all like those ‘crazy’ backgrounds in Zoom! But it gives us headaches. Everything from now on is based on my tool of choice – Final Cut Pro X & Compressor. My guide to this is to always save your meetings to your local machine after the meeting has ended. I’ve found I have a better quality of recording that way. (As an aside, I”ve been downloading/ converting one meeting while also in another meeting, something that I found useful to know.)

With Zoom now attaching/ mandating passwords to meetings, if you save your recording to the cloud, you’ll have to give out the password to it if you want too share the raw version and as Terry noted, if you’re not careful then you’ll have a surprise one day as your legacy recordings may disappear.

I have had no luck in logging into the same meeting with the same invite – in order to record it in a more acceptable manner. Zoom tells you that you are being logged out of the other log in, when you do. So it’s useful to have a moderator email to be invited to, as well.

That being said, I luckily am unable to be on all the company’s Zoom meetings and therefore pleaded with presenters or the host to drag the window of the gallery view or speaker view to as far to one side as they can – makes an interesting thumbnail, at times! That way you can at least crop back and scale up to fill your viewer and frame. If you detach the participants window, well let’s say it’s going to be an emotional day with the edit.

At the conclusion of the meeting(the vast majority of which run to 60mins) and the subsequent downloading of the meeting to your drive, you’ll want to edit…. If possible, I’ve learnt the most efficient way for myself is to transcode to ProRes – yes its nth times larger in file size but it gets rid of the hours of background rendering(with crazy resolutions) and missed frames playback, that I’ve experienced on my 2015 MBP.

My workflow for this is to amass as many meetings per day – on average 40 – as I can and then set them going in overnight.

I have made a ton of saved presets for effects, audio – such as EQ and anything else I can, to save time.

I start by throwing in the corporate graphics for intro/ extro slugs and put a gap clip of the original length of the meeting, between them.

I organize my library & keywords, but if that’s not possible, due to time constraints for deliverables, I’ll use Favorites, Delete and the ‘god-knows-what-this-if-for’ option and then filter by faves.

I also use the delivered Smart Collections in FCPX.

I assemble any cutaways and b-roll by making Compound Clips in FCPX and if I know the timings of these, I will place the generator>placeholder above the main timeline and. Turn on the ‘notes’ section in the placeholder and start describing what should happen before it and during and after – it’s a point of reference. When I have the assets, I will drag them over the placeholders and use the replace functions there.

I’ll select my bunch of ‘Faves” in my browser and drag them to the primary storyline and use the Replace option to fill out the gap clip. The magnetic timeline takes care of the rest. As the assets are ProRes there’s no background rendering. You could of course right click your assets in the browser and ‘optimize’ them rather than take them through Compressor, if you don’t have it. I let FCPX analyze the audio and fix accordingly and then if necessary apply an EQ to the track – BEFORE I make any edits. I detach the audio to make life a little better with video edits over audio and Video edits. If it is a software demo, I duplicate the section and place the main timeline at 35% opacity to allow me to get the person watching to only concentrate on the subject at hand. If it’s a cutaway to a talking head, then I’ll either go as a multi clip – as per Terry’s reply – or at times, I’ll use the method described above of putting in a placeholder at around the times that is needed and replace it as and when necessary.

When it comes to sharing….. I’ve tried every way I could, I believe. The way that best works for me is to export out as a Master file and then compress the living hell out it in Compressor to mp4. I’ve also used Handbrake and Handbrakebatch, as well, just for the whatever and giggles. Both very good options, but can slow things down. Any compressor that can take into account multi cores, is obviously preferable. I’ve also sent the timeline straight to Compressor and while this is a usable option, you are required to keep both FCPX and Compressor open during the sharing process. Again, this is what I have witnessed and discovered.

I am in the process of putting together 8 videos on this workflow, in case no one understands it. Maybe that will be better than me writing this all down.
If you have questions, then please don’t hesitate to ask. (I don’t think I’ve written so much since college!)

Lawrence

[Lawrence Eaton]

Hey Kit,
Just finishing off some stuff to reply to you with…. keep the faith!

Lawrence

[Lawrence Eaton]

Kit,
Recently my life has become zoom files, somewhat like yours. I’d be more than willing to offer any tips I’ve learnt.

Lawrence

[Lawrence Eaton]

Kevin,
I sympathize with you on this. Ironically I went the other way at the launch of FCPX…. lots of burning midnight oil and wondering if “this was it?” scenarios, I can assure you. But, to answer your questions. yes, you can add markers – chapter markers to the timeline in FCPX and name them; export via H264 or H265 (HEVC) and Quicktime, VLC, IINA all pick them up.
Quicktime
IINA

I was incorrect about Handbrake and apologise. It can TAKE existing chapter markers and allow you to export/ edit them but not create them.

There is something called mChapters (App Store) – although I have no knowledge of it.

So at the moment, it appears the choices are limited – but $50 does get you Compressor that WILL allow you to place chapter markers in your videos.

Lawrence