How to use Final Cut Pro 4

Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro are two programs that work together to produce a good quality video and burn in onto a DVD. Whether you’ve captured your content on a VHS or a DV tape, or if you have images and audio and want to make a movie, Final Cut Pro can help you do that.

Included here are some tips for using this program and also some setbacks I faced and how to overcome them. This section does not focus on complicated problems or too much detail. If you do need more detailed information, it would be best to look into the Help section included with Final Cut Pro.

• The "first step" will be to adjust your User Preferences, System Settings and Audio/ Video Settings under Final Cut Pro HD.

Also, make sure that Easy Setup is selected under this menu. You will need to set your settings depending on the format of your video (if its NTSC/ PAL).

Under the Scratch Disks option in ""System Settings"", check the “Capture Audio and Video to Separate Files” button. This is important when you want to edit video and audio files separately instead of changing the whole video. Also, tick the buttons on top according to your needs. If you want to capture both video and audio from a tape, you will tick both Video Capture and Audio Capture buttons (also the Video and Audio Render buttons). You can also set where you want to save those files. For example, if you want to save them all on the hard disk, tick all 4 buttons in the same row and click on “Set..” and select the hard disk. You can select where you want to save the Waveform Cache, Thumbnail Cache and the Autosave Vault. In this tab, also tick off the “Limit Capture Now to” and select the time. The default is set to 30 mins but depending on the size of the video you want to import all together, you can change this. I’ve felt that a 60 mins setting works well. This setting is important because the larger time limit you select, the slower Final Cut will import the video.

• For other settings under System Settings, most default settings work well. The same goes for User Preference settings.

• In the Audio/ Video Settings, you just need to look over the settings in the Summary section and make sure it is set according to the format of your video.

It is ""important"" to set these settings before you import any material because Final Cut will apply these settings as soon as you’ve imported the material till the end of the project. It is easier to do this than to change settings half way through the project.

• The next step would be to transfer your material onto the Final Cut. If you have a VHS tape, for example, you will need to connect your VCR to a media transformer device and link that to the computer. Even for a DV tape, the DVCAM needs to be connected to the media transformer that is connected to the computer. You will need a FireWire cable to connect the transformer to the computer.

To transfer your video content into Final Cut, you will need to use the Log and Capture function in the File menu. Logging is just a term used for the transfer of material and choosing exactly what content you want from the recorded video. This is first step of basic editing. Under Logging settings, you can name your video and each clip after that. Reel number is the number of tapes you use for the same file. If your material stretches out onto 2 tapes, you can label the content from the first tape as Reel 1 and the from the second tape as Reel 2. Also, markers are very helpful when splitting the video into clips. You can use them to mark the start and end time of the clips. Under Clip Settings, you can select if you want to capture only the audio or video component or both from the tape. You can also select the Audio Format. If you want all the sound captured, then Ch1 + Ch2 should be selected. Under Capture Settings, the ‘device control’ should be selected according to your settings. For example, I selected FireWire NTSC because I was capturing from a VHS with a NTSC format through a FireWire. The ‘capture/ input’ also depends on the format of your video. There is a Scratch Disks section here too and this is just so you can re-check your settings. Final Cut Pro Help has explained different formats and settings very well so be sure to look in there for more detail.

• After you have logged what you want, you will capture that selected content onto Final Cut. There are 3 ways to capture and they are called ‘Capture Clip’, ‘Capture Now’ and ‘Capture Batch’. The third option is the fastest when you have a lot of clips to transfer at the same time. Capture Clip is when you want to capture one clip at a time. Capture Now is when you don’t log but start capturing from the video right away.

Final Cut Pro also lets you import material like clips, QuickTime videos, and audio files from the computer itself. You just have to go to ‘Import’ under the File menu and browse to select what files you’d like to import.

AFTER IMPORTATION:

Once you have the clips on Final Cut, you can start editing them. There are 4 windows you will be working with: the Browser, the Viewer, the Canvas and the Timeline. The Browser is the window where you can view the clips. The Viewer lets you view and edit a selected clip. The Canvas is where you can also edit most of your material and add effects. The Timeline is also used for editing and performs almost the same functions as the Canvas. You can edit in any of the three that you are more comfortable with.

The Browser contains all the material you want to use for your video and you can arrange the order of clips here. Also, if you have lots of clips and want them sorted, you can save them under different tabs in the Browser.

Then you can open a clip (by double-clicking or dragging it) in the Viewer and select In and Out points according to the portion of the clip you want to use.

After this, if you drag a clip from the Viewer to the Canvas, you will notice a menu on the Canvas that you can drag the clip into. For example, you can overwrite, superimpose or replace etc. you clip onto the previous one.

You can also drag the clips into the Timeline in the order you want them to be in a video. The Timeline separates the video tracks from the audio tracks. But when you transfer this file into DVD Studio Pro, the audio and video can be played together. Also, the Canvas and the Timeline work together. If you play select a clip in the Timeline, it will play in the Canvas. The Timeline also lets you add effects. For example, if you have images in the Timeline, you can add transitions like dissolve, fade etc between them to create a movie effect. These can be found under the Effects tab in the Browser or under Effects- Video Transitions/ Audio Transitions as well.

FINAL STEPS:

Once you have organized your project, you can export it from Final Cut to DVD Studio Pro. For exporting, the audio and video sections of the movie will need to be exported separately.

The steps for exporting are:

1. File ? Export ? Using QuickTime Conversion..

2. In the Format section under the file name, pick MPEG-2 as the format

3. Click on Options and select your settings (NTSC/ PAL, the aspect ratio). Also, check the Create Audio button and the Create Log button.

4. Select your clips and click Ok

Now, your video files will be saved in a compressed MPEG-2 format and the audio files in an AIFF format. These formats are the most commonly used and work for most projects. If the AIFF files are too large to fit on your DVD, you will have to compress them to using Apple A.Pack that is included with Final cut Pro. The AIFF format audio usually fits into the DVD unless the movie has a very long duration. A 2 hour project should be able to take this format just fine.

I hope this has helped you in some way. As I discover more about the program, I will update more tips on here.