Final Cut Express HD Getting Started Apple Computer, Inc. © 2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Use of the "keyboard" Apple logo (Option-Shift-K) for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Apple may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. Apple Computer, Inc., is not responsible for printing or clerical errors. Apple Computer, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014-2084 408-996-1010 www.apple.com Apple, the Apple logo, Final Cut, Final Cut Pro, FireWire, iMovie, iTunes, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS, PowerBook, Power Macintosh, and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Finder and iDVD are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. AppleCare is a service mark of Apple Computer, Inc. Helvetica is a registered trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, available from Linotype Library GmbH. Other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products. 1 Contents Preface 7 7 8 12 12 13 13 14 16 17 18 21 25 28 32 33 33 35 39 40 46 49 50 54 55 57 59 60 62 66 An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD What Is Final Cut Express HD? Editing Your Movie With Final Cut Express HD Final Cut Express HD Onscreen Help Apple Websites Setting Up Final Cut Express HD Connecting Your Camera Choosing Your Initial Settings Tip for Optimizing Performance Getting to Know Your Editing Environment Organizing Your Clips in the Browser Working With Clips in the Viewer Working With Clips in the Canvas Working With Clips in the Timeline Tool Palette Capturing Your Video Making a New Project and Saving It Working in the Capture Window Determining How Much Disk Space You Need Capturing Capturing Tip Basic Editing Before You Begin Opening Your Project Adding a Clip to Your Sequence Adding a Storyboard of Clips to a Sequence Locking Tracks Using the Razor Blade Tool Deleting Clips From a Sequence Assigning Destination Tracks Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 3 68 Chapter 5 75 75 76 79 82 86 89 89 90 91 94 96 99 109 109 111 114 115 115 117 118 119 121 121 122 123 124 128 130 132 133 133 135 136 139 141 Most Commonly Used Edits Editing With Audio About Linked Clips Resyncing Clips Adding Music Using the Voice Over Tool Editing With Audio Tips Fine-Tuning Your Edit Where You Can Perform Trim Edits About the Tool Palette Doing a Ripple Edit Doing a Ripple Delete Doing a Roll Edit Tips on Editing Adding Transitions About Adding Transitions Adding a Transition to the Center of a Cut Adjusting a Transition Deleting a Transition Copying and Pasting a Transition Adding Effects Applying a Filter to a Clip and a Range of Clips Adjusting a Filter Disabling a Filter Removing a Filter Filter Tips Creating Titles and Credits Creating Opening Titles Using Lower-Thirds Creating Rolling Credits Tips for Making Terrific-Looking Titles Sharing Your Movie Exporting for DVD Exporting for the Web Making a Videotape Importing an iMovie Project Importing Stills Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Appendix A Appendix B 4 Contents Appendix C Appendix D 143 145 145 150 151 155 Preparing for Your Next Project Solutions to Common Problems and Customer Support Solutions to Common Problems AppleCare Support Glossary Index Contents 5 An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD Final Cut Express HD provides a professional-level environment in which to edit video, mix audio, and add effects together to create any kind of video program you can imagine. The last few years have seen a revolution in the use of personal computers for editing video. Until recently, editing video projects would have required an array of professional editing equipment. These projects can now be completed at home using a personal computer and readily available consumer video equipment. A personal computer with a fast processor and enough memory can now serve as a workstation for capturing, organizing, and editing video. The finished movie can be played back on videotape, burned on a DVD, or distributed over the Internet. For hobbyist digital video editors, this development allows unprecedented opportunities for increasing their creative control over their video projects. Now, using Final Cut Express HD, video editors, including those with no professional video editing training or experience, can create high-quality, polished digital video projects on their personal computer. What Is Final Cut Express HD? Final Cut Express HD is a flexible video editing tool; when combined with a Macintosh computer and FireWire, Final Cut Express HD can be used to capture footage from nearly any DV camcorder. Final Cut Express HD is also a standard QuickTime application, so you can import and export a wide variety of video, audio, graphics, and animation file types. This flexibility makes Final Cut Express HD well suited for projects ranging from family videos to feature-length independent films. The only limit is your creativity. Preface 7 Editing Your Movie With Final Cut Express HD If you're just beginning to learn how to edit video with Final Cut Express HD, the following flow chart illustrates the basic workflow of desktop video editing. There are five main steps to video editing­shooting, capturing, editing, adding effects, and sharing. This book describes how to do the last four. Shoot Connecting Your Camera Capture Making a New Project Capturing Video Organizing Your Clips Editing Your Sequence Fine-Tuning Adding Music Edit Adding Transitions Effects Creating Effects With Filters Creating Titles and Credits Exporting for DVD Share Exporting for the Web Outputting to Videotape The following steps outline a typical Final Cut Express HD work session. You won't always proceed in a strict linear order, and you may choose to overlap some steps. For example, you may decide to reedit a clip after you've added an effect to it, or you may shoot and capture completely new footage to add a different ending to your nearly complete movie. Note: This book is not intended to be a complete guide to editing. Common editorial terms and ideas are discussed in a general way, as appropriate to their use with the application. If you are interested in learning more about the application or more in-depth editing techniques, refer to Final Cut Express HD Help. 8 Preface An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD Step 1: Shoot Making good videos begins with good camera work. Although this book does not teach the finer points of shooting video, you need to be aware of some basic issues while shooting your footage and recording your audio. Final Cut Express HD is a robust and powerful digital video editing tool; however, it is not designed to correct video that was improperly shot or audio that was improperly recorded. The following list is a series of tips on shooting good video: · Use a tripod. Tripods add stability to your shot, allowing your viewers to focus on your subject instead of your camera motion. · Avoid zooming to get closer to your subject, especially when the camera is handheld. · · · · · · · · · · Magnifying the image with a zoom lens also magnifies camera movements, potentially giving your viewer motion sickness. Never use digital zoom. Turn this feature off on your camcorder. Digital zoom makes pixels bigger on the screen, resulting in a blockier, lower resolution image. Avoid auto-focus. Learn to focus your camera lens manually so you control the image instead of the camera. Avoid bright lights behind your subject (called backlighting), since this often results in unwanted silhouetting. Be cautious when shooting reflective surfaces. For example, eyeglasses and car mirrors can cause overly bright highlights and often reveal the camera operator in the shot. Plan your shots in advance. Consider image composition and how your shots may work together during the editing process. Scripting and storyboarding can be useful ways to organize your shooting. Think about image composition and frame your shots. Pay attention to headroom­ too little will smash actors' heads against the top of the frame; too much will lose them at the bottom. Avoid using the on-camera microphone­use an external microphone instead. Built-in microphones tend to capture the sounds of the camera and the camera operator instead of the subject of the scene. Leave at least one minute of black (recorded with no audio or video) at the beginning and end of your tape, where tapes receive the most wear and tear. Pull the record tab to prevent recording over your tape as soon as you've finished shooting. Always label your tapes as soon as you remove them from the camcorder. This is the number 1 organizational rule of motion picture editing. Sorting through piles of unlabeled tapes for a particular scene is an editor's worst nightmare. On feature films, there is one person dedicated to labeling film and tape reels as soon as they leave the camera. Preface An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD 9 Step 2: Set up Thanks to the development of FireWire, setting up Final Cut Express HD is easy. You simply connect your camera (via FireWire) to your computer, turn on your camera, set it to VTR mode, and open Final Cut Express HD. When you open Final Cut Express HD, the application recognizes the type of camera you have and knows how to control it. Unless you upgrade your system or change components, such as the DV camcorder, you should only have to set up your system once. Important: Verify that all of your cables are securely connected between your computer, camera, and speakers, but never force a cable into a connection that doesn't fit. Step 3: Capture Capturing is the process of digitally copying the video from the DV tape in your camcorder to the hard disk on your computer. After creating a new project, you capture your video using the device control capabilities of Final Cut Express HD and your DV camcorder. (Device control is technology that allows Final Cut Express HD to control a DV camcorder.) Final Cut Express HD makes capturing easy by allowing you the flexibility of capturing individual clips or an entire tape. Step 4: Edit After you've captured the clips that will go into your finished program, it's time to begin editing with Final Cut Express HD. You do most of your editing in the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline; however, you organize your captured clips in the Browser. The basics of editing involve organizing clips in the Browser; editing clips into your sequence using the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline; fine-tuning your edits using the Final Cut Express HD editing tools; adding transitions such as cross dissolves to your edits; and adding music tracks to your sequence. Final Cut Express HD provides other tools to perform detailed editorial tasks, manage files, and specify preferences and settings to customize Final Cut Express HD to how you work. Step 5: Effects When you're satisfied with the arrangement of the clips in your project, it's time to apply effects and filters such as a blur or a tint to the clips. Once you're happy with the effects you've applied, it's time to add titles. Now your project is complete. Step 6: Share When your project is complete, you'll want to show people your movie. Final Cut Express HD provides you with a variety of output options for your completed project. If you want to use your camcorder to view the completed project on your TV, you can transfer your project back to DV tape using the Print to Video command. If you want to make a DVD, you can use the export to iDVD feature. You also have the option of distributing your edited video project on the web. 10 Preface An Introduction to Final Cut Express HD Moving From iMovie to Final Cut Express HD The Apple entry-level DV editing application is iMovie. It allows you to create simple edited digital movies with some of the most popular features found in Hollywoodstyle releases, without having to know any technical details about the process. The interface and feature set are configured to make the process nearly foolproof. Eventually, however, you'll find yourself requiring features beyond those that iMovie offers. The tools in Final Cut Express HD allow you to expand your digital editing creativity. Final Cut Express HD gives you access to a wide range of professional features such as ...