[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Here’s a start:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sound+effects

[joshua] “any creative ideas on recording my own sound effects?”

It would sure help us if you’d tell us in detail exactly what you’ve tried so far.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[boydmcc] “And saying you can’t tell someone how to do something for “legal reasons” is rather pretentious.”

Your ignorance of the law is staggering.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[boydmcc] “And let’s not even get into the potential issues around how iMovie encourages and facilitates using iTunes content (purchased or otherwise).”

The “iTunes-made-me-do-it” Defense.

Yeah, that’s the ticket!

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Having done these kind of things for years… Just type into the Note Pad (or any word-processor) use the built-in Mac Spelling checker. Then copy & paste the type into the Titler.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Please use the SEARCH POSTS here on the COW to find countless answers to this exact question.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Jay111] “While monitoring my project from the timeline using a Sony mini DV deck/monitor (using firewire), the audio and video are in sync. However, when I try to record the project (press “record” on the deck or use FCP to activate it), the audio goes out of sync by about one second.”

Sorry, but that just can’t be possible…
There is no difference whatsoever in just playing (“monitoring”) the timeline via a deck or camcorder and hitting the “record” button on that same deck or camcorder.

What CAN be possible…
is that you didn’t play the timeline “all the way through” in one pass (that’s when the sync problems usually show up) when you were just “monitoring” it during the edit.

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Rozanne] “I don’t have photoshop. Am I dead in the water?”

Photoshop is not needed, except it offers you a method to make a raw video freeze-frame “look better” by allowing adjustments to it.

If you want to send the image as-is (which will probably work just fine for you) just export a frame, as I described, and email the file that FCP makes.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

We could start with why you need to compress your VO’s.
(What is the purpose?)

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Kevin C.] “(preferably that could de it a multiple speed without quality loss– possible??)”

Ah Hah!

You’re thinking you might high-speed dub like on AUDIO duplicators.

Nope.

Video duplication has always been one-to-one speed (except in certain camcorders which are designed to copy to a HD at increased speed.)

Since there is no commercial NEED for “duplicating” DV (no consumers are renting/viewing movies on DV) I know of no such devices.

I have no idea why you’d need to duplicate several copies of a DV tape for distribution, but no matter.

If you want to just copy the audio and video (without NEEDING the MATCHING Timecode), buy several DV camcorders (or decks) with FireWire (consumer-level is fine) and connect them to any DV playback unit.
If NEED the Timecode to MATCH the master on any and all dubs, you will need to buy decks that accept external TC.

The lowest-cost reliable DV DECK for this MIGHT be the Sony DSR-11.

Here’s the sticky part, although you can buy FireWire “Hubs”, I don’t know if you can make more than ONE deck connected to a player copy a tape correctly, TC and all.

Again, since there no widespread NEED for this kind of dubbing, you may have to be a “pioneer” if you want to try it.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

There are many choices for various purposes. But the first few steps would be the same:

Park the cursor on the frame you want to export.
Then:

Step 1: File> Export> Using QuickTime Conversion… “Save” window appears
Step 2: Format> Still Image
Step 3: Options… > Format: (choose PNG, PICT, JPEG, Photoshop etc.) > OK
Step 4: Name your image, Set location (disk, folder, desktop) for your new still. > Save

After you have your new image you can manipulate it in Photoshop (et.al.) for best looking print.
If there is a lot of motion in one area of the still, you can use the “video” filter in photoshop to interpolate both fields into a “less-blurry” still.
You can of course adjust color, brightness, contrast, etc. for the best-looking print output.
You can then resave it and email the file(s).
The best way to see how it will ultimately “look” is to actually print it.
Once you do a couple of these, it will be more easy to determine what you NEED to do based on the image on the computer screen.

Remember that the image is saved as 720 x 480 @ 72 dpi which translates to 10 inches x 6.66 inches (and 72 dpi is rather low rez.)
So if you want to effectively double the resolution, reset the image/print size to 5 inches by 3.33 inches at 150 dpi.
(This is just a rough estimate, but you get the idea.)