[ This is an excerpt from a recent on-line webinar: “Ask Larry Anything!” which is available as a download in our store, or as part of our Video Training Library. ]
EXCERPT DESCRIPTION
“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about questions related to media production and editing. In this short excerpt, Larry Jordan explains what Final Cut Pro’s export tags are, where they are located and how to change them.
Apple Final Cut Pro: What Are Those Export Metadata Tags?
TRT: 4:27 — MPEG-4 HD movie
SESSION DESCRIPTION
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything.” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask.
This session covers:
These sessions are always interesting because there is always new stuff to learn!
AUDIENCE LEVEL
These questions span the range from beginner to advanced. Subjects change quickly, so if you aren’t interested in the current question, another will be along in a few minutes.
One Response to Apple Final Cut Pro: What Are Those Export Metadata Tags? [v]
I’ve discovered that the metadata values are exported in a PRORES file, but not in a .m4v file. (I’m not sure why, but Apple uses the .m4v extension when I export using any of the built-in “Apple Devices…” destinations. The file format is MP4, and I often change the file extension from .m4v to .mp4 before I share the file with other people.)
For a PRORES file, the metadata displays in the Info window of QuickTime Player, but not in the “More info” section of my Finder Info window.
I cleared the Tags field in my FCP project to try the Notes field on the Export dialog instead of Tags. I then found that I could insert only a single value into the Notes field, whereas in a metadata field I can insert as many separate values as I need to, separating them by pressing the comma or Return key. Notes is not a metadata field, so its contents do not seem to be exported within a PRORES file.
In another experiment, I added 3 Tags and 1 Actor to my project’s metadata and exported a PRORES file. These Tags and Actor appear in the QuickTime Player Info window but not in my Finder Info window. Neither a Finder Search nor a Spotlight Search for these values found the file.
The Name and Description metadata fields apparently are stored within the movie file, because they display in the General information about the video if I open the file in the MediaInfo app. Only the Movie Name and Description display there, though; none of the other metadata does.
As far as I can tell, Tags and other metadata don’t seem to have any value.