[Tom Matthies]

If you’re running FCP 5 Studio, check out Soundtrack. It has a number of filters that can radically change a voice track. You might already have what you need.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Same problem here with Time Warner Cable and even my DirecTV at home. Whenever the providers drop in “local” spots, their volume levels are often WAY louder than the program levels. As stated above, I believe much of the problem is in inattentive operations at the head end level. With the automation in place for playing spots these days, it seems that no one actually monitors the channels any more…or even cares for that matter. I’ve had spots that I’ve produced running on our local cable channels with bad audio, blown-out video levels, up cutting and down cutting the ends of the spot, and generally making the spot look like crap. A call to the cable provider usually achieves nothing. It’s only when I call my clients and make them aware of the problem with their spots and they, in turn, call their sales reps at the cable office does anything ever get fixed. It’s most often turns out to be a problem at the point of ingestion. No one seems to actually check levels any more. They just run the spot into the server and that’s about it for QC. I’ve seems the same bad spots run for weeks with no one questioning why you cant actually read any of the titles or see detail in the talents faces. It’s a sad commentary on where the industry has gone lately.

As for compressing spot audio, most of out clients still want their spots to sound LOUD when played. It cuts thru the clutter they say. It’s just plain annoying, I say. When I make an analog air dub of their spots, the audio meters usually just point to around Zero db on the meters and just sit their and quiver. No real deflection in the meters…just very high average program levels. Sigh…

Oh well, time to get off of my soapbox now…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I export OMF files for the audio and a Quicktime movie for the video reference. If it’s a long show, I send over a 360×240 DV25 movie so as not to use up too much of his drive space. Our audio guy has no problem bringing it into his Pro Tools rig and syncing it up with the OMF files. I just make both the audio & the video files and transfer it to his machine over our network. So far, it’s worked everytime. When he’s finished, he transfers his sweetened mix back to me over the network and I simply copy it, import it intp FCP, add two (or more) new audio tracks and add it to my timeline. When I’m ready to go to tape, I simply “turn off” the proginal audo tracks and output to Digibeta.
I’m not sure if we’re doing anything special or not. It just works.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Two things.
When the new letterbox graphic was made in Photoshop, was the pull down menu “Background Contents” under the FILE>NEW menu changed to “transparent”? It defaults to “white”. If it wasn’t changed, I’ve seen graphics come in with a white rather than transparent background. Just a thought.
Otherwise, just nest your entire sequence and apply the letterbox filter to the nest. You’ll only need to apply it to the nest to letterbos your entire program. You’ll need to re-render your sequence, but it’s a simple way to add a letterbox to your entire video in one easy step.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I usually use PhotoShop for my static titles. Always look good too. I’ll use Livetype for moving titles. Also looks good.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Go to System Preferences>displays>arrange.(under the blue Apple)
Grab the little title bar from one monitor icon and drag it to the other monitor icon.
Restart. That’s it!
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

One word: FedEx.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Also, when you create a new graphic in Photoshop, make sure that you change the “Background Contents” pulldown menu to “transparent” and not “white”.
Otherwise, your graphics will display over a white background when you bring them into FCP.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I just did this today. It’s pretty straightforward. After importing the EDL into FCP, you’ll have your clips listed in a bin. Just go into Log & Capture, set it to whatever compression/codec you want to use, select the clips and batch capture with the correct reel in your deck. Anything without a reel number will not be captured, of course, but it’s pretty simple.
I used a CMX 3600 list from a Symphony and imported it into FCP. It worked without any fooling around.

Kind of scary to think that the off-line work is being done on a Symphony now, and the on-line conform is being done in Final Cut Pro.
My, how the times have changed…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I’m running 8 d2 type Lacie’s and they work for the most part. I do have to put an external fan on the units if the ambient room temperature gets above a certain point, however. They do run very hot and at some point I start getting dropped frames on playback until I can get the temperatures back down to normal.
They have been mostly reliable otherwise. These drives have been running for almost two years now. Knock on wood.
I also have an 800gb G-Raid as well. Very solid unit. Very reliable and it has a fan!
My 2