What’s in a Name?

steve martin | 06/04- 11:47 AM

As any editor knows, good media management begins by establishing proper naming conventions.  In a perfect world, proper clip names would be entered during the logging stage.  However, due to tight deadlines or perhaps shear laziness on the part of the editor, media file names are sometimes injested or captured with non-descript file names such as “untitled” or, as is the case with the Panasonic AG-HVX200, transferred with their 6 digit camera-assigned file names. This article will show you how to rename your files directly in the Browser using Final Cut Pro 6.  Below is an screen shot of an edit in progress using clips transferred from an AG-HVX200. 

Before you can rename the file, you first must locate the Master clip.  Park your playhead over the clip to be renamed, then press Shift-F to reveal the clip in the Browser.  The clip will become selected.

In the Browser, give your clip a meaningful name.

From the Modify Menu choose Rename>File to Match Clip.

You will be warned that what you are about to do will modify the original file. Go ahead, live life on the edge…

Because of Final Cut Pro’s Master/Affiliate clip architecture, all Affiliate clips that reference the Master clip will be renamed.

In the Finder, you’ll see that the file name was actually changed to the new name you entered in the Browser.

Rendering Motion Projects in Final Cut Pro

Mark Spencer | 05/20- 10:01 AM

If you have begun to explore Final Cut Studio’s application integration by embedding your Motion project files into your Final Cut Pro sequence, you may have noticed a rather large increase in render time for that sequence.

Part of the cause of the increased render time is due to the level of complexity of your Motion project, but there’s a setting in Final Cut Pro that can dramatically reduce render times with little to no impact on the quality of your Motion project—except for certain types of projects.

In Final Cut Pro, select the sequence, press Command-0 (zero) to bring up the Sequence Settings, and select the Render Control tab . By default, the Quality setting for Master Templates and Motion Projects is set to Best.

If you change it to Normal, you should see a significant reduction in render time. If you uncheck “Always Use Best Quality When Rendering Movies” you will reduce render times even further.

The only projects that require the Best setting are ones involving vector objects like shapes and text that are increased in size over 100% - for example, flying a camera through some text. Do a test render of a section of your .motn clip in your FCP sequence by setting In and Out points with both the Best and the Normal settings to determine if you need the Best settings - for most situations, Normal will probably be just fine, and will give you much faster renders.

To make all new sequences use the Normal setting by default, press Option-Q to bring up User Preferences, then go to the Render Control tab and change the setting there.

Cinema Craft Encoder MP for Compressor 3

Brian Gary | 05/14- 12:19 PM

Cinema Craft, the industry leader in MPEG-2 encoding for DVD, is going to release a Compressor 3 plug-in by the end of this month. I wrote an article on Ken Stone’s site that takes a look at both the plug-in itself and the technology behind it…the Cinema Craft Xtream encoding engine. The majority of Hollywood releases on DVD have been encoded using the Xtream engine, and it’s the same engine that’s at the core of the Cinema Craft Encoder MP plug-in for Compressor.

In addition to high quality, Cinema Craft Encoder MP is a full Compressor plug-in (vs. a QuickTime Component) so it has access to all of Compressor’s features like frame controls and geometry.

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles on May 21st, 2008, I’m going to do a demo of the software at the May LAFCPUG meeting.

BG

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