DC Metro Final Cut Pros

For those in DC/MD/VA going to this year’s SUPERMEET, its going to be a blast!

This will be the first year that it will be broadcast LIVE!

Head here for details…

Tune in and enjoy…

Rodney Mitchell

DCFCPUG Leader representing OUR PUG at the SUPERMEET

Sorry to have these so close to each other but we were forced to not meet on 10 February due to SNOW.

San Francisco Supermeet

While in San Francisco, I stopped by the Artbeats booth to meet our sponsor and was invited to take my chance spinning the “Wheel of Fortune” game wheel for a chance at the Grand Prize Jackpot…

So I told Julie, what the heck, why not spin since maybe it will be a good sign of things to come for DCFCPUG!  Well, the picture speaks volumes…. I took home the GOLD prize – JACKPOT FOR DCFCPUG!!! $1,599 worth of HD footage of my choice from ARTBEATS plus a nice umbrella and SWAG T-shirt!!!

Event specifics – Ninth Annual San Francisco SuperMeet to take place on Friday, February 5, 2010 at the University of California San Francisco, Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA. Doors open at 3:30PM with a Digital Showcase and presentations begin at 7PM and continue until 11:00PM. This SuperMeet promises to be the single largest gathering of Final Cut Studio, Adobe and Avid editors, gurus and digital filmmakers in the Bay Area for all of 2010.

I also got to tell around 700 attendees on the SuperMeet stage about DCFCPUG and there are a lot other FCP community members interested in US.  Let’s show them we are building our FCP contributors to participate and give back to this awesome gathering of professionals.  You might be on stage with me next time around!
Next SUPERMEET is in April at the NAB show… see separate post on this event for more info.

Final Cut Pro – Changing Render Codecs

Sequence Settings

Normally, it is a good idea to render your effects and transitions in the same video format you are editing.

However, for some video formats which use a GOP compression scheme, such as HDV, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, changing your render settings can both improve quality and allow your renders to be completed faster.

To change your render settings, go to Sequence > Settings > Render Control tab.

Then, change the Codec pop-up menu from Same as Sequence Codec to Apple ProRes 422.

Making this change has two significant benefits: higher quality and significantly faster render times.

It also has one downside, your render files will be about 4 times bigger than your source files.

If disk space is really limited, don’t do this. Otherwise, I strongly recommend it.

The website is fully functional and user accounts are now available. Let me know if you still see problems.

Rodney – DCFCPUG Leader

Final Cut Pro – Reading Clip Markers

I got this tip from Stephen Kanter.

Here’s the problem: An editor puts markers on her clips with detailed notes. She then edits her clips and markers into a sequence. What’s the best way to read the comments in the clip markers?

Here’s one way to do it:

1. Select the entire sequence with Command -A
2. Set the Playhead Sync to Open
3. Use the jump to next/previous marker shortcuts (Shift+M / Option +M) to jump from marker to marker. The source clips will automatically open in the viewer (i.e. match frame is always “ON” in Open Sync mode) and you can read the overlays in the viewer as you step through the sequence markers.

Very cool, indeed…