I don’t know about you but for me, audio is somewhat of a mystery. So when it comes to playing with audio filters in Final Cut Pro, I look at them, scratch my head and through trial and error end up abandoning any attempt at fixing the problem and pass off to our audio mixer. Now, thanks to the fine folks at Digital Rebellion, home of Aspect Ratio Calculator and many other great tools, there’s a great review and explanation of each audio plug-in. Take a look by clicking on the link below.
Here’s a quick little tip to make those pesky 16×9 files you get and turn them into nice 4×3 files so they can live harmoniously in your 4×3 DVD Studio Pro project. Just make sure to select the setting in the crop area as noted below and presto! Your 16×9 file will now be a letterboxed 4×3 file.
The other day I was handed a bunch of ASF files. Knowing I would have to convert these to quicktimes for editing in FCP, I went on a long painful journey to find out how to convert them. Of course the first thing I tried was playing them in Quicktime. Audio played but the video was very scrambled.
I then tried our tried and true MPEG Streamclip knowing that almost everything plays in MPEG Streamclip but I got the same results as with Quicktime. What to do. VLC played the files but not in sync and I’m still not certain how to convert/stream out of VLC. What is an ASF file anyway? According to Wikipedia ASF stands for Advanced Systems Format and it’s a Microsoft proprietary digital media container specifically meant for streaming media. Okay…so I thought I could probably plays these files on a PC so I fired up my copy of Windows using VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro. The files played fine of course and I looked for free software downloads that would help me to convert these files to any format I could play. Well of course I didn’t have enough room on my Windows partition to convert any files so I decided to dig around the forums a little more and that’s when I came upon a posting on the Apple forums recommending VisualHub. I already had a copy of VisualHub but never purchased it so I’m restricted to converting the first 30 seconds of any clip. So I load in an ASF file and set it to convert to a DV for for use in Final Cut Pro and voila! Now why VisualHub can play these files and not quicktime I don’t understand. I had always thought of VisualHub as more of a consumer software program great for converting you files to formats to play on your iPod, iPhone or PSP or something. Well now I new found respect for this little app and will make it a part of my arsenal for tackling tricky file conversions. You should too! It’s only $23.32 to enable full functionality and if you have to use it once I think it’s worth it.
The latest installment of the new Microsoft Vista campaign. What’s it all mean? We can only hope this journey leads us to something chewy and moist like the churros in the first spot.
Now that we’ve gone green here at 622, I was thinking, what can we do here at PostOp beyond what’s expected? To be honest, I’ve been waiting to write this missive for quite sometime, but now with ME’s move to green, I feel compelled to finally get this down on paper, aahhh…I mean blog.
So beyond recycling of bottles, cans and white paper, what can we do? Here are my ideas:
1. If you don’t use it, turn it off, If you do use it, turn it off when you’re done. I shut down my system every night along with the rack that holds the decks. On Fridays, I shut down the client iMac and the decks in the rack in the hallway, along with the NTSC monitor. If you’re the last to leave for the night or the weekend, take a look around and turn off any lights or equipment that doesn’t need to be on overnight.
2. Before you burn that CD/DVD, make sure the client won’t accept a digital file. Often times quicktimes or mpeg files can be copied to the drop box for viewing or sending. If they don’t know how to get on the drop box, show them. If they still want the disc, have them check your work before burning. How many times do we burn a disc only to have to burn again because the client made a change or god forbid we made a mistake. If I’m authoring a DVD with a menu, I’ll send a still image of the menu to the client to get approval before burning. This helps to avoid unnecessary burns. If you do have a disc that’s no good for whatever reason, don’t throw it out. Save it and give it to me. I’ve been collecting all my “coasters” to send off to be recycled.
3. Think before you print. Do you really need to print out that email or script or can you forward it or just keep it open in a window and refer to it when needed during the job?
4. Save your extra plasticware, napkins, chopsticks from all the lunch and dinner deliveries. Don’t just throw away unused stuff into the trash. Best choice would be to bring your own silverware or plasticware and reuse each time. Did your food come in plastic containers? Consider taking home to reuse with you or cleaning and putting in recycling bin.
5. Reuse any white paper for notes or scrap paper. There’s usually a whole other side out there! Once both sides are used, then throw it into the recycle bin.
6. Keep the sliding glass doors in the hallways closed along with the dub room door. Think you’ve heard this one before but not from this perspective.
7. Print labels? Well we know we can’t print to just one label or print to previously printed label sheets, so if you only need 1 DVD label, make sure you’re not printing to the other 2 labels on the page. This way you won’t waste the other 2 labels. You can always use the remaining blank labels for handwritten labels.
I’m sure there are other ways we can save the world here at PostOp. What are your thoughts and ideas?
You may have heard of Prores but unless you’re running Final Cut Studio 2 you haven’t had the chance to work with the this codec. Well now, Apple has kindly made it available to everyone.
“Apple ProRes is a visually lossless format that provides uncompressed HD quality at SD data rates.
It is an excellent choice for mastering and can easily be transcoded to distribution formats like H.264. With new support for playback on both Mac and Windows computers, Apple ProRes can also be used for review and approval of Final Cut Studio sequences.”
FCP Rescue is an indispensable tool I’ve been using for years and I recommend for anyone using Final Cut Pro. It makes the task of trashing and restoring your preferences easy and painless. There are versions for FCP 4, 5 & 6 and yes it’s FREE! Of course like any freeware, if you use it, consider a donation to developer Anders Holck.
This 90 second commercial aired during the premiere game of the NFL last night. Taking a cue from his hit show from the 90’s, Seinfled delivers what we should have expected. What’s it about….well nothing of course! Just a tease or will there be more delicious chewy stuff to come?
I just wanted to add a short video on LaFontaine and his career. I never really knew about his earlier credits in producing, editing. As Phil mentioned, he certainly had a huge effect on the industry.
Plus, check out three trailers that LaFontaine did over the years…
