Disk is in Use and You Can't Eject It

Ever had a hard drive you can't eject because the Finder claims it's in use even though no project is open on it, no file is open, no anything is anything on the drive?

Usually the culprit is FCP which sometimes doesn't want to be left all alone and desperately clings to any last vestiges of its former usefulness. There's a Terminal command to find out what is using the drive (or at least what file is open on it) but it's the Terminal and that's not very Mac-Like.

So, recently a free application called WhatsOpen appeared and it's perfect for finding out what's going on. Give it a try and donate something if you like it and find it useful.

This is different from when the Finder just decides to leave a properly ejected drive's icon in the sidebar which does happen on occasion. Those you can just drag out of the sidebar and enjoy the poof of smoke.

If you really want to know the Terminal command it's:

lsof | grep /Volumes/Stubborn-Hard-Drive

Where Volumes/Stubborn-Hard-Drive is the path to the hard drive in question. To make it a little easier just type:

lsof | grep

into the Terminal, then drag in the stubborn hard drive from the Finder and hit return. You'll see what file is "in use" on the drive. lsof, btw means LiSt Open Files.

Shift+N and Missing Frames

I haven't had time to really test this and see if it's an occasional bug or an actual repeatable bug but, I had a Typewriter Text Element which needed to be extended a few seconds after it completed it's action. So, opening it up in the Viewer and hitting Shift+N (for still frame) I noticed that it removed the last one or two frames of it's typing action.



So, instead of it reading Day014 it would suddenly read Day01 when I hit the key combo. I'll investigate it further but it was repeatable that day and I didn't try restarting FCP to see if that cleared it up. The project isn't over yet so I'll have more time to test it later.

Shift Delete Bug

Here's an interesting occasional bug in FCP:

I had two clips and their associated audio tracks highlighted. Then I hit Shift+Delete to perform a ripple delete. But one unassociated audio track refused to budge. You can see the result in the two following images.

Before the Ripple Delete


After the Ripple Delete


A restart of FCP fixed it which goes to show that something as complex as FCP can get confused sometimes.

Always make sure you set your auto-saves to a different drive than your project drive (preferably one with Time Machine going) and don't be reluctant to save and restart FCP when things get strange.

(the stills were pulled from a video my assistant took with his little portable camera, it's interesting to see the convex curves in the stills even though the editing monitor is a flat LCD, due to the lens on his camera)

SmoothCam Not Working

If you try to apply SmoothCam to a clip and nothing happens, no analyzing, no messages, no errors, nothing...your clip is probably in a format that SmoothCam doesn't like to work with. This can be especially tricky with SD footage.

To solve this, open up your clip in QuickTime Player and export it as Apple Intermediate Codec (or something else depending on the initial codec your clip was encoded to) and Save. Then bring it into FCP and apply the SmoothCam filter.

Final Cut Pro and Freeverse's Color Picker

If you're seeing something like this:

5/7/09 10:34:53 AM Final Cut Pro[408] Warning Custom ColorPicker class with name .com.freeverselib could not be loaded.

In your Console logs it's because someone has likely installed Freeverse's Lineform application at some point on your Mac. Lineform is a simple drawing application but it's installer does (or did, not sure) some strange stuff. One thing is that it installs a 4 KB file called .com.freeverselib.06020 into ~/Library/ColorPickers (the tilde means it's the Library folder in your home folder).

The file it installs begins with a period so it's hidden. Why, I have no idea but I don't like it. I dislike hidden files entirely, but that's another rant. How do you get rid of it and the console error every time you use the color picker in Final Cut Pro?

01) Launch the Terminal.
02) Paste in "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1" without the quotes. (this command toggles the visibility of hidden files in Leopard)
03) Hit return.
04) Hold down Command + Option and right-click on the Finder icon in the dock and select Relaunch.
05) Navigate to ~/Library/ColorPickers and trash the ridiculous .com.freeverselib.06020 file and empty the trash.
06) Paste "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0" (that's a zero) without the quotes into the Terminal. [or just hit the Up Arrow and backspace and change the 1 into a zero.] Hit Return.
07) Command + Option right-click the Finder icon in the dock and hit Relaunch again.

Done.

Boosting Audio Levels

If you've received an audio file like a Voice Over that's just too low to really use and cranking it up to max level in the timeline (Control + ] (right bracket)) doesn't do it, and even doubling up the audio in the timeline doesn't bring the volume up enough you can use a plug-in.

Head over to Audio Filter > Apple > AUMultibandCompressor. At the top you'll see post-gain, ratchet that up in very small increments and check your audio level. Keep an eye on your peak meters and you should be able to get some usable volume out of what was previously an unusable audio clip.

Be careful though, this plug-in can REALLY make audio loud so bring up the level slowly.

Firewire Tips

Using FireWire 400 peripherals with multimedia applications and FireWire 800 ports has a few basic but still handy tips on using Firewire.

FCP Knowledge Base Updates

Troubleshooting Basics
Green frames or other anomalies on render with REDCODE
Quality issue with movies you export from the Viewer with filters applied
Log and capture with DV50 sometimes does not work in French or Japanese
Speed interferes with Smooth Cam
Some imported PSD files may only contain the background layer

Motion quits unexpectedly when exporting to REDCODE

Compressor Troubleshooting Basics

2-Column Video Script Format in Pages

I've had a series of scripts to write and re-write for a client lately and they need to be in the traditional two-column format with Video on the left, and Audio on the right. Sadly, Apple's Pages doesn't handle this format readily and there's no pre-made template for it.

I asked around and some friends almost always suggested that I:

A: use M$ Word. I've been 100% M$-free since February 17th 1999 and I'm not changing that now.
B: use Celtx which rocks and I wish more people would use it but not everyone has it, not everyone wants to install it (It'll be complicated to install! they'll say) and oddly, they don't trust free software because they've been jaded from being plagued for years by mal and spy-ware on their Windows boxes. (Yes, Celtx is free)
C: use a Spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are like the Leatherman's of documents, and while it would work I want simple.

Besides, I use Pages a lot. It's nearly always open on my Mac.

Okay, so how to make a two-column AV Video Script template for Pages...

01) Launch Pages.
02) Choose Blank from Word Processing which will open a new blank document.
03) In the Menubar: Insert > Table.
04) In the left top grey box type "VIDEO"
05) In the right top grey box type "AUDIO"
06) Resize the middle column to something that looks nice.
07) Open up the Inspector Palette and click on the 7th from left button to open up the Table Inspector and click the Down Arrow under Body Rows until it says "1". (in Pages version 3 '08 it'll read just Rows and you should set it to 2)
08) Make sure that "Automatically resize to fit content" is checked.

Now you can start typing away. Some tips though; you'll have to click twice to be able to type in a box. If you click once on a box and start typing what's in the box will be replaced with what you just typed so keep Command + Z handy.

Also, as it is now, you'll have two continuous columns as you type but if you need each scene in a separate box you can add another row by click on the Edit Rows & Columns pull-down menu and selecting "Add Row Below" or just hit OPTION + Down Arrow.

The great thing about this format is that if you have an empty box you can just click and drag an existing box's contents into it.

The only other hassle or help, depending on how you look at it, is that Pages will put a previously typed entry into a new box if the new box begins similarly, this is a Table after all. If you want to get rid of the pre-emtive help go to preferences with COMMAND + ' (apostrophe) and uncheck "Show auto-completion list in table columns." But, overall this works fairly well for two-column A/V Scripts and since most Macs have Pages already, it's usually compatible.

Once you have the template built and as you like it by adding footers, headers, company logo, etc... go to File > Save As Template... and you'll always have it handy under My Templates from the Template Chooser.

Render Only What You Want To See

Tap G three times, that'll be the Range Selection Tool. Now, hold down the mouse button and drag over the part of your timeline that you want to render. What's great is that this tool will highlight exactly what you drag over and it's not limited to highlighting entire clips, it can highlight portions of clips.

Hit render and you're good to go.