Recommending a Final Cut Pro Tutorial Site

I found a web site, which may be helpful to many student editors. It is called Final Cut Pro tips.



FCPtips tutors its viewers about how to use existing tools in Final Cut Pro to achieve effects similar to those that can be created using expensive plug-ins. For example, there is a clip on the site's main page that explains how to blur a person's wrinkles by adding several layers of Blur filters; so it's not necessary to buy skin-smoothing plug-ins.

Most tutorials are provided in the form of a video clip, which usually lasts 10 mins. There are several clips available to everyone, but you have to register online to gain full access to the website.

Line Video Clips Up with Audio Clips

I often messup the sequence I'm working on when editing. In most cases, the linked video and audio clips are not lined up with each other, which makes editing tough.
To line them up, simply click the clip in the sequence to highlight it. The video and audio clip will both highlight even if they are sepearted.



Click the Linked Selection button, which is on the right upper corner of the timeline.

Once the icon changes from green to gray, the video clip is no longer linked with the audio clip.




Then move the video or the audio clip manually to line them up. Finally, click the Linked Selection button again to re-link them.

Problem with Frozen Frames

When I was editing my friend's wedding clip, I froze some frames to make them look like still image. As usual, I double-clicked the clip containing the frame I wanted to "freeze." Then I placed the playhead over the frame so it was shown in the Canvas window.



Then, I went to the Modify tab and selected Make Freeze Frame. The frozen frame appeared in the Viewer window.



Finally, I dragged the frozen frame back into my sequence and performed Image Motion as I had before. I made four frozen images in total. The first three looked fine when I played back the sequence. But the fourth frame had some problems. Compared to the other three, it looked blurred in the Canvas window, and on the external monitor, I saw interlacing lines and flickers.



I checked again to make sure I performed the same effects on all four frames. I can't figure out the problem with the fourth image. Can anybody help me?

Record Voice-over in Final Cut Pro

I used to record my voice-over on tape and then import it into Final Cut until Jake Kassen, the engineer at my school's editing lab, told me there was no need for the extra step and I could record into Final Cut directly. I find that using Final Cut to record voice-over saves me a lot of time.

To record directly, you need your Mac, an audio board, a USB audio interface, and a hand mic.

First, hook them up: hand mic=>audio board=>USB audio interface=>Mac
Then, choose Voice Over, which is in the Tools menu.



Next, choose the audio interface input your microphone is connected to from the Input pop-up menu, as well as the sample rate that matches your sequence sample rate.



Then, select the sequence to which you want to add voice-over. Remember to set In and Out points, which is very important, or Final Cut won't record.

Finally, click the red "record" button on the Voice-Over window and you will have a five second countdown before the recording starts. Once you finish recording, just hit the space bar to stop.

Converting Footage from 16:9 to 4:3 in Final Cut Pro

I encountered a problem with aspect ratio when doing a project last semester. The project was supposed to be in 4:3, but I had some footage in 16:9. How to convert the footage from 16:9 to 4:3 confused me for some time. But it turned out to be an easy job in Final Cut.

First, as usual, double click the video clip that you want to alter in your sequence and it will be shown in the Canvas window. Then click the button in the Canvas indicated below, and select Image+Wireframe mode.



Now there will be handles attached to the clip that allow you to perform different geometrical manipulations. See image below.



Simply drag the edges or the corners to scale proportionally.



Congratulations! You get the 4:3 footage!

An easy way to make video clips black and white in FCP

Many video makers like to use black-and-white in post production, and it's easy to apply in Final Cut Pro.

First, double click the clip that you want to change to black-and-white and make sure you can see it in the Viewer.



Then, find the Effects tab in the Browser. Click the Video Filter bin, in which you can see the Image Control bin.



Click it and find the Desaturate filter. Then drag the Desaturate filter and drop it onto the Viewer.


And DONE~~~~

Super Easy Ways to Perform Color Correction

There are a lot of ways to perform color correction in Final Cut Pro. Here are two easy ways I often take.

The first way is to use the Color Corrector filter, which is in the Color Correction bin, within the Video Filter bin in the Effects tab in the Browser. All you need to do is drag the Color Corrector filter and drop it onto the clip you want to change in your sequence. This method works when you know exactly what changes you want to make.



The other method I often use is using the filters in the Image Control bin within the Video Filter bin, including the Brightness filter, Contrast filter and Saturation filter. This method works if you are not sure what color you really want and simply want to enhance the quality of your footage.



One thing to remember: it takes longer to render using the second way than using the first.