Book Image

Final Cut Pro X Cookbook

By : Jason Cox
Book Image

Final Cut Pro X Cookbook

By: Jason Cox

Overview of this book

As technology becomes more and more accessible and easier to use, we are expected to do more in less time than ever before. Video editors are now expected to be able not only to edit, but create motion graphics, fix sound issues, enhance image quality and color and more. Also, many workers in the PR and marketing world are finding they need to know how to get viral videos made from start to finish as quickly as possible. Final Cut Pro X was built as a one-stop shop with all the tools needed to produce a professional video from beginning to end.The "Final Cut Pro X Cookbook" contains recipes that will take you from the importing process and basic mechanics of editing up through many of FCPX's advanced tools needed by top-tier editors on a daily basis. Edit quickly and efficiently, fix image and sound problems with ease, and get your video out to your client or the world easily.No program gets you from application launch to the actual editing process faster than FCPX. After covering the basics, the book hits the ground running showing readers how to produce professional quality videos even if video editing isn't your day job.The recipes inside are packed with more than 300 images helping illustrate time-saving editing tools, problem-solving techniques and how to spice up your video with beautiful effects and titles. We also dive into audio editing, color correction and dabble in FCPX's sister programs Motion and Compressor!With more than 100 recipes, the Final Cut Pro X Cookbook is a great aid for the avid enthusiast up to the 40-hour-a-week professional. This book contains everything you need to make videos that captivate your audiences.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Final Cut Pro X Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Importing data from a tape-based camera


Today, it's hard to find a video camera in a store that still records to tape. The camera world has virtually completed its slow and painful transition from tape-based to tapeless media. However, for those of us who are clinging onto our old, yet trusted equipment, or who work in a professional environment that is forced to use their technology till the day it dies, we still need FCPX to be able to import from these cameras.

Luckily, FCPX can still import from most tape-based camera formats, including HDV, DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO HD. However, support for the process has been severely deprecated. It's still an easy task, but there aren't nearly as many bells and whistles to import from tape as there used to be in FCP7.

How to do it...

  1. 1. Turn on your camera and set it to playback mode (this differs from camera to camera). Attach it via FireWire to your Mac or capture device.

  2. 2. If FCPX is open, it should automatically open the Import from Camera window. If not, click on the Import From Camera icon in the left of the toolbar:

  3. 3. Queue your tape to the point you want to import from either by using the camera's controls, or by using the J, K, and L keys on your keyboard to rewind, pause, or play, respectively. Click on Import:

  4. 4. In the next window, pick your settings such as what event you want the video saved to and if you want any analysis or transcoding done. When you're done, click on Import again.

  5. 5. FCPX begins importing right away. It will continue to do so until it either reaches the end of the tape, your disk fills up (don't let this happen!), or you click on Stop Import. Remember that tape-based capture happens in real time. If you have 57 minutes of footage, it will take 57 minutes to capture!

There's more...

If you're lucky...

Depending on your camera, FCPX may be able to detect starts and stops (when you click on Record and Pause) on your tape automatically. If it can, FCPX will split up your imported footage into individual clips!

If you run into problems, try a camera archive

Reports of tape capture problems in FCPX have been widely reported (such as dropped frames, missing video, and so on). As Apple pushes technology farther and faster, they tend to leave behind what they believe to be dying technologies (in this case, tape). Users who have run into various issues capturing from tape have also found better success by creating a camera archive of their footage first, then importing from that, rather than doing an immediate and direct import. Read the Creating a camera archive section for more info. When all else fails, try importing your footage into iMovie first, then import that project into FCPX!