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.

The Loud Pause

For future reference, when your client mentions a "loud pause" that they heard in a rough cut, they're referring to an audio gap, usually of silence.

.motn files render as black in FCP timeline

I've mentioned this a long time ago here, and this ridiculous bug still persists.

Basically, when you go from Final Cut Pro (6.0.5) to Motion (3.0.2) and then back again (via saving in Motion) sometimes the .motn file that is initially placed in the timeline will be completely black. Also, sometimes, when you open it in the Viewer, it's fine; putting it manually into the timeline it looks fine but unrendered. Render it and it's all black again.

Bizzarely, create a new sequence and place the .motn file into the timeline and it'll look fine, render it, and it'll be black.

Worst of all, export from Motion and the resultant Quicktime file will sometimes be all black.

There's another thread on this here.

Stranger still, in Motion, Export Selection... will do nothing when In and Out points have been set.

This must be some kind of rare bug (possibly confused alpha channels or frame rate mis-match) or settings issue with Motion or Final Cut that spans software versions, years (yes, years) and Mac models and graphics cards. I'm experiencing this issue on not only with a newer version of FCP than last time, but Motion as well, as well as a model of Mac that wasn't available at that time with a graphics card unavailable at that time.

The solution? For me at least, there is no solution, only a workaround of exporting out of Motion as an 8-bit Uncompressed file then import that into Final Cut Pro.

If you have any information, tips, hints or anything about this please let me know. I'm not the only one dealing with this issue judging from a few people I've asked about it.

Here are some links to threads about this issue (and similar ones) from some emails I've received:

FCP interprets .ipr & .motn files (correctly) with Black alpha. Since when?

Livetype problems since going to FCP 6.0.3 and QT 7.4.5

Livetype problems with K3

Live Type maybe fixed?

Livetype Effects misbehavin'

Suggested Possible Solutions:

01. Change the Alpha of the Motion files from straight to black (or vice-versa).
02. Go to the View menu and change the preset for playback to none or at least something other than what it is set to now.

PAL to NTSC DVD Conversion

Here's another reason to lament VisualHub's passing.

A client needed a PAL DVD of dailies converted to NTSC that day. Looking at the structure of the DVD I saw that there were luckily no menus, just four VOB files.

I launched VisualHub, dragged the VOB files into it, told it NTSC, Author as DVD, Burn When Done and popped in a blank DVD. About an hour later I had an NTSC DVD for them.

So if you need a fast simple way to convert a PAL DVD to NTSC (that's not copy protected) and don't want to worry about 720x576@25fps vs. 720x480@29.97fps, VisualHub is a pretty straight forward route.

You can also name the DVD in the Advanced window and tell it to create chapter stops every 5mins or so if you'd like.

Here's looking forward to Transcoder Redux in the future world of tomorrow as a VisualHub replacement.

Looping Video Playback in the Timeline

Someone emailed me the other day asking how to loop video playback in FCP's timeline. After thinking about it for a little bit (and way over-thinking how to do it) it hit me and it's simple.

Set your In and Out points in the timeline. Don't bother with Option + A to select the portion of your sequence within the In and Out points. Tap Control + L to turn on Loop Playback, then hit Shift + \ (backslash) to just play the portion of the sequence between the In and Out points.

(Thanks to Josh for bringing this up!)

Digital Cinema Desktop Can Crash Final Cut Pro

Apple just noticed a long standing bug in FCP.

Changing system display settings causes Final Cut Pro/Express to quit unexpectedly

Wow. News.

Here's their solution:

Avoid making changes to the system display settings while Final Cut Pro/Express is using Digital Cinema Desktop. Set the display size, arrangement, and color profiles before activating Digital Cinema Desktop in Final Cut Pro/Express.

Here's the link.

Video Monkey

Video Monkey is a Mac-only application for the conversion of video between a variety of formats. It borrows concepts from the great, but now defunct Video Hub software.

While they probably mean VisualHub, I'm not sure this is using it's open sourced code. Video Monkey, which I didn't try yet is only at version 0.1 as of this post so it's something to watch but not something to rely on day to day.

I didn't install it because it comes wrapped up in a .pkg file and I've never liked installers exploding files all over the place, although the installer just as the application within it. So, I extracted it via Pacifist and here are the screenshots:




As you can see lots of export options are greyed out and there are the handy "Check Box 1" and "Check Box 2" already checked for you. If the developer keeps this app updated and actually adds in all the greyed out export options this could be the next VisualHub. However, my first test failed when it failed to recognize a .flv I dragged into it.