How To March 26, 2001
How To March 26, 2001
Final Cut Pro v. 2.0, an ambitious beginning...
PAGE THREE
Finally, you need to check the last tab for External Video.
by Charles Roberts AKA Chawla
Copyright Charles Roberts, 2001.
This tab lets you decide how you will monitor the video as you edit. You can decide to watch playback through the Firewire to a video monitor or set it to None for just viewing on-screen. You also tell FCP whether or not to view on your computer monitor while playing back, called mirroring, or recording to tape. Until you have gotten acceptable performance with your system, leave 'mirroring' off. Older systems or systems which are not optimally configured may drop frames if forced to display the video in both places.
Once you have completed the four tabs, return to the first tab, Summary, and hit the Easy Setup. Now you will take your optimized settings and save them under a preset name.
Give the Easy Setup a name, and give it a description. Click Create and save the preset in the Custom Settings folder,
Now when the time comes to work, you can simply choose the preset instead of going through all the tabs individually.
Save Early, Save Often
Finally, its time to name your project and save it appropriately. Remember that we have turned off AutoSave, so any crashes will lose anything you haven't saved. Also remember that the Preferences are not saved with the project file, so you will have to recheck them when you start back up. Go to the File menu and select New Project (unless of course you already have a project you are working on, in which case you would merely open that project). On doing so, any number of the windows shown below will appear on screen.
This project you have opened will have the name Untitled 1 assigned to it by FCP. That name is unacceptable. Do not let me catch you with Untitled anything. Name your files according to what they are. To name your project, select Save Project As from the File menu.
A dialog box will immediately pop up asking you to name the damned thing. FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING METHOD EXACTLY !!! If you do not save your files in the appropriate locations, you will lose everything, hours and hours of work. Save your project files on the desktop and AT LEAST one MAC FORMATTED zip disk. This is REALLY important, Follow the order of these steps exactly...
When the Save as... Dialog Box appears, do not name your project first. First, hit the Desktop button so that you will be saving it to your Start Up Drive, then select New Folder. It is very important that you not save your project to the same drive that your media is saved to and instead save it to the same drive that your System folder and Applications live on. You will be asked to name the new folder. Name it with your project's name and the word "folder". Remember, unrecognizable stuff is WAY more likely to disappear.
Hit Create and you will return to the Save Project dialog box. Change Untitled to something relevant and then hit OK.
Your project file will now be saved in YOUR folder on the desktop.
Backing up your project periodically is an incredibly important step that you should be doing. You are investing incredible amounts of time and effort and it all boils down to one fragile project file. If that project file goes belly up, your work could be gone for good. That will not be as catastrophic if you are regularly backing up and archiving your project files to another location. I suggest two locations. Have a copy of the project file stored in a separate folder on your hard drive and also copy it out to your zip disk.
To copy them to your zip disks periodically, simply pop in your zip and drag the project folder onto it. Then re-name the copied folder on the zip with the date and time. This process is called sequential back up, because each time you back up your project files to the zip disk (or other folder on your drive), you are creating a version of the project up to the time you copied it. If you ever decide you went a wrong direction with your editing several days back, you can easily return to your previous version. As you copy these project folders from your desktop to the zip disk, you will rename the folder with the date or a number identifying that the project in that folder was current on that date. Sequential Backup is standard in an industry that can not be subject to the whims of a single corruptible project file.
(note-Remember never to run a FCP project from a zip disk. ALWAYS REMOVE YOUR ZIP FROM THE MAC BEFORE WORKING IN FCP.)
Ok, now the last setting and you're home free. Go to the Edit drop down menu and select Project Properties. The following box will open.
Without altering anything, hit Edit Render Qualities. The next box that opens should look like this. Adjust the settings exactly as shown. The time will come when you can adjust these to benefit and streamline your process, but for now they will keep you from dropping frames.
Hit OK for this window, OK to close the Project Properties window and you have finished your settings. Now you can work reasonably assured that you are not going to drop frames.
A Few Last Words
Remember, this is only a QuickStart guide for preparing a generic project from and to Firewire. Your own editing needs as well as your materials and configured system will determine how you should vary from this tried and true path. If, for instance, you attempt to do the Apple Manual Tutorial with these settings, you will quickly discover that they are not right. Settings depend on what you are using and what you intend to accomplish. This is why much literature on FCP seems vague about settings. The possibilities are just too numerous. However if you are using Firewire in/out with "nothing weird" as they say, this should be just fine.
More Tips:
#1 Read the User Manual for Final Cut Pro. The version 2.0 User Manual is a fantastic resource. If you have trouble understanding it, that means you need to do a little more research, not that the information isn't important.
#2 Shoot and edit little things first, don't start out with Moby Dick. By the time you do a couple of small things, you'll realize that you know what you're doing and can tackle the big ones. Trying to do a monster project before you're ready is just going to give you big headaches. Patience, grasshopper.
#3 Read the books. Learn how to use time code. It is the bestest tool you have. Without it, you are at the mercy of a merciless machine that likes to eat media.
#4 Boost the RAM allocation as high as possible for FCP without choking your System. Unlike previous versions of FCP, 2.0 apparently does take advantage of more RAM. RAM is very cheap these days; consider purchasing more. FCP running the minimum RAM allocation will crash if you try anything interesting. To figure out the correct RAM allocation, subtract around 75 mbs from your actual physical RAM (look in About This Computer for this number). Then select (but not double click) the FCP icon and hit command-I (Get Info in the File drop down menu in the Finder). In the window that opens up, click the drop down and select memory and you will see the place to enter the same value for both preferred and minimum values. Remember that this means you can not run anything else while FCP is running if you do this. If you get a lot of Type 2 errors, pull the RAM allocation back and see if that corrects the problem.
#5 Go to 2-pop's site on a regular basis anyway. It's by far the best, most up-to-the-minute resource on FCP. Where do you think all this info came from, aside from my own blood, sweat and tears?
#6 Do routine weekly maintenance. Rebuild your desktop regularly (start up the Mac and hold down the command and option keys until it asks if you want to rebuild, then select OK). If you don't do this, your machine may start crashing or losing files. If you are new to the Macintosh system, go ahead and drop the dough on a book about the Mac OS. It is not a PC and you should find out how it likes its tummy scratched.
Thanks Without Whom etc. (and hearty tribute) to Apple, Ralph F., Philip H., Ken S. and the rest of the faceless but amazingly helpful and resourceful regulars on the 2-pop forum. All screen captures and textual references are the property and trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.
Charles Roberts AKA Chawla teaches Digital Video and Audio Production at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, MA. He uses his long tedious rendering times to generate content and tackle hard hitting issues on the discussion boards of 2-pop FCP Home Page
copyright © Charles Roberts 2001
All screen captures, images, and textual references are the property and trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.
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