DCFCPUG members: We have established a relationship with Larry Jordan’s group to bring our members a great source of training on FCP and donor to our user group meetings!  Let’s show our support !

Sign up quickly as these limited seats go quickly! 

Take advantage of this once a year opportunity when Larry Jordan comes to Washington D.C for his Final Cut Pro PowerUP series. We’ve established a special discount for our DCFCPUG members to save you money on this great seminar. See below for details:

• Succeeding in the New World of Tapeless and HD Video (4 hours)
• Integrating Adobe Products into a Final Cut Workflow (4 hours)
• Discover the Hidden Power in Final Cut Studio (8 hours)

Here is the second Zoom In Online tutorial on roundtripping to Color. Once you’ve prepared the sequence in Final Cut Pro (see the first tutorial), this video will give you the basics on how to “Send” the sequence to Color, render your work, and send the graded clips back to FCP.

Thanks to Alexis Van Hurkman for his guidance, and to Nam Choi for the submission.

Integration is an Apple strength. Most Mac users understand the advantages of integration by virtue of the iLife Suite, which offers seemless export/import/transport of media between the various applications. Use pictures from iPhoto to create a slideshow in iMovie that is set to the beat of songs you mixed in GarageBand and that you exported to iTunes. Burn your masterpiece using iDVD or post it on your iWeb site. Integration.

Final Cut Pro users also have powerful integration capabilities in Final Cut Studio, via the “roundtripping” process. Roundtripping to and from Color involves: (1) cutting a sequence in Final Cut Pro; (2) preparing the sequence for export to Color; (3) sending to Color, where it is graded and rendered; and (4) exporting back to Final Cut Pro, where it will look better, brighter, darker, cooler, hotter, sparkling, desolate - whatever suits your needs.

The above video tutorial from our colleagues at Zoom In Online focuses on the 2nd step - preparing the sequence for export to Color.

Additional resources:

• Colorist Alexis Van Hurkman breaks down the color correction workflow here - be sure to click the “Prepping Your Sequence and Media” tab for details on this step.
• Apple’s Color user manual and Final Cut Pro user manual are both interspersed with guidance on how to properly round trip.

Editor’s notes:

• Worthy of emphasis - Always duplicate your sequence before doing any significant editing, such as roundtripping. It’s cheap and easy. Option-D does the trick.
• Added Tip - When you drag your clips down to the V1 track for consolidation, use the Shift key to ensure that you maintain the clip’s position in the timeline (i.e. to avoid tiny frame movements backwards or forwards).
• What I learned: I would have thought you should just strip out any Color Corrector 3-Way filters before sending to Color, both to avoid muddying up the sequence and because Color can do a more robust grading job than even the powerful CC 3-Way filter. According to the Zoom-In tutorial, if you leave the filter in place when you export, Color (roughly) translates the settings and makes them available on the clip during grading. Now I know.

Here is a quick tip on using the Extrude filter in 3D space in Motion - another in a series of tutorials from Contributing Member, Mike Greenberg of KonspiracyStudios.com:

VIDEO: Using Extrude Filter in Motion

(Successful post-production requires solid production. Here is one in a series of production tutorials designed to improve the ultimate edit.)

The oft-stated yet still under- appreciated reality is that audiences will forgive mediocre video but not sub-standard sound. Solid audio recording offers better choices in post-production, and separates your work from that of an amateur.

Listed below are the steps to set up an external condenser microphone, a basic field mixer and a prosumer camcorder – specifically, audio-technica’s AT8035 Line + Gradient Condenser Microphone, Sound Devices’ 302 Compact Production Mixer and Canon’s XH-A1 high definition camcorder - to capture audio in the field. (more…)

Another great contribution from great Contributing Member, Mike Greenberg of KonspiracyStudios.com:

The Sony PMW-EX1 is a solid reply to Panasonic’s HVX200. I love tapeless, but for some folks think it’s a bit confusing. Like the P2 workflow, there are a few adjustments when using the EX1. In fact, the EX1 requires a new mindset. Don’t be fooled by conventional tactics; you can’t just search the card for a file and hit Command-I. (more…)

Here’s a quick tutorial on Creating Slideshows in FCP from Contributing Member, Mike Greenberg of KonspiracyStudios.com:

I get this question a lot: What’s a fast and easy way to create slideshows in FCP? (more…)

I don’t know Ken Stone. I’ve never worked with Ken Stone. But I am a self-learning kind of guy, and whenever I have to sneak into someone else’s brain for information on any of the applications in Final Cut Studio, I find myself scrolling through the tutorials and articles on Ken Stone’s web site. (more…)