[Nick Meyers]

next to impossible to tell without seeing your original and the convert.

BUT
– could be a pixel ratio issue. you can bring that mp4 into FCP just to look at it;s format details if you want
– has MPEG Streamclip padded the video in some way? (added black bard top& bottom)

i didn’t know it could do that if it did.
i use Compressor for converting odd formats to FCP friendly video, partly for the padding options

nick

[Nick Meyers]

“The problem now is how to work on my project on the new computer”

your best bet is to install FCP7 on the new computer somehow.

[Nick Meyers]

“I’m thinking I might grade the whole short film as one clip being doctored might make the others look odd?”

not necessarily, but often, yes, once you start grading you see how it improves things and you feel compelled top do the lot.

“are there sharpening tool that can be used just on one area”

no specific zone-sharpening filter that i know of.
there are zone-softening filters. they generally define a simple area with a round shape you can control.

of course you CAN do zone sharpening in FCP with a couple of tools combined.

1- stack 2 copies of the clip (Option+Shift Drag the video up to a second track)
2- apply a mask-shape of garbage matte (8-point might do the trick) to the top clip, to define the area you want to affect (or leave un-affected, it can work wither way with the “invert” button)
3- apply a sharpening filter. weirdly the “un-sharp mask” is the best for subtle work

sharpening is tricky- it can look really awful.
if part of the problem is that the bg looks more in focus than hte fg,
then i will sometime soften off the bg as well as adding a touch of sharpening to the fg.
smoke and mirrors!

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

Hi, Lucy.

you don’t put the plug-in INTO FCP

put it in SYstem Drive > Library >App Support> Final Cut Pro System Support > Plug-Ins.
you’ll need to re-start FCP

as Dave said, it;s not the worst case of over-exposure. that would be next to impossible to address,
i think the Blow-out filter might work for you on this.
fingers crossed.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

you could try opening in Preview, opening the colour pane (Option Command C, i think)
and try tweaking the sliders to their extreme opposites, but it will probably look bad!
there’s no simple Invert function, i suspect.

however, there IS an INVERT filter in FCP you can use.

Effects > Video Falters > Channel > Invert
you could re-export as PNG or whatever if you wanted

nick

[Nick Meyers]

you must have hit the W key while the canvas or viewer was active.

hit it again until you see an image
OR
go to the right-most [pulldown menu in the canvas or viewer and set to “Image”

nick

[Nick Meyers]

Thanks, for the info, guys.

we have some subs already created in FCP7.
we *might* create new ones in FCPX, time will tell

but mainly i’m interested in what happens AFTER the subs are created.

let me outline what we do in FCP7:

after creating the subs, we add a marker for every sub on the clip beneath it, the subtitle text is entered in the marker.
this gives some lee-way when cutting: if we lose the subtitles, or lose sync on them, we can recover.
(we do this by going back to the rushes, finding the relevant spot via reverse match frame,
then copy / pasting the missing subs back to the edit sequence)

we also enter the subtitle text into teh Text generator’s name, with a prefix STL_
this allows us to search for specific text terms, (very handy) and also allows us to do a “find-al” for all subs.

that’s just the preparation,
when it comes to editing, most of our work then needs to be copy and paste from sequence of subtitles rushes into an edit sequence.
obviously the subs don’t follow when you load clips into the viewer.
of course we can also load the subtitled rushes sequence into the viewer and edit from there.
FYI we also have two tracks of sloppy multi cam, which is simplest to not multiclip.

so my main query is how FCPX would compare to this process.

are there some steps we have to do in FCP7 that are now redundant in FCPX?
is there a slicker way to edit subtitled rushes?
can one do a find-all for a specific type of text generator?

i know FCPX can deal with our sloppy multi cam much better than FCP7,
so how much better is it at editing subtitled rushes where the subs are separate strings of text generators?

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

cool, thanks

ok just tested again:
dragging the folder into FCP= 3 clicks per file = 3000 clicks
Import folder = 1 click per import = 1 click if i import the enclosing folder

[Nick Meyers]

cool, thanks

[Nick Meyers]

hi, Shane

the main reason to get them out of the way is alleviate the problems they cause when we bring the folders onto FCP.
each one brings up messages which need to be clicked away,
and there are thousands of these.

there are NO CARDS left, only the Quicktimes.

nick