Video, generally, has two bit-depths: 8 and 10. In this short article, I provide an analogy that helps to understand what bit-depth is, why its important, and when you should consider working in 10-bit depth.
Making your talent look good is critical in any production – however, not all productions can afford a hair/makeup person. Here’s a tip I learned years ago that will make all your on-camera people look great – with almost no work.
With the camera industry’s head-long rush into tapeless image acquisition, having a soild backup and archiving strategy is critical because video tape masters no longer exist. In this commentary, I discuss the sad state of today’s options and provide suggestions to keep you out of trouble.
Having problems with audio playing at the wrong speed? It may be due to mismatched sample rates. This article describes what you need to know, and to do.
Soundtrack Pro allows you to easily make an insert edit and keep everything in sync. However, just because it is easy to do, does NOT mean it is easy to find. This article explains what you need to know to make it happen.
Soundtrack Pro does not create audio CDs automatically, but you can still do so, if you know how. This article explains the steps. Also, Peter Neil, from the BBC, suggests another program that makes this process even easier.
It’s hidden in plain sight, near the top of the Motion tab in Final Cut Pro: Anchor Point. But, what does it do?
Setting the Anamorphic Flag to tell FCP how to treat your footage.
Traditionally, effects were recorded to DigiBeta tape in two cuts. The first cut was the hold-out, which defined the alpha channel and the second cut was what went into the matte. However, creating an alpha channel from tape is not obvious. However, it’s easy to do and this article shows you how to do it.
Here’s a conversation between Peter Tours, of TNT Video Services, and Tony Lauria, of AJA Technical Support, on the best way to ingest footage using AJA video cards. (Reprinted with permission.)
Need to find some new fonts — or looking for a way to add them to your system? Here’s how.
It’s late at night, you are wrapping up a project. Just when you think you can go home, you discover that your final export from Soundtrack Pro, doesn’t sync with your final export from Final Cut Pro. Grrr!! Now what? This article explains a very nifty technique that solves that problem in short order.
The simplest definition of rendering is to convert an effect or image from its native format to match the video format of your timeline.
Getting the most from old 8mm film is the subject of this article. Here are six steps you can use to improve the look of your film transfers.
64-bit memory addressing is new with OS X 10.6. But what does this really mean? And what does it mean for Final Cut Studio (3)? In this short, moderately technical, article, we take a look a this new term and what it means for the future of video editing.
Here’s a short article that explains what you need to know about 64-bit memory support, along with some software you can use to toggle between 32-bit and 64-bit modes.
It’s a simple question, but not necessarily a simple answer. This looks at the differences between the two video formats.
Stereoscopic 3D video is not just for theatrical release. Cable and satellite channels, even YouTube, now display images in 3D. In this musing, I reflect that even if 3D isn’t the future, we can make money on it now – without spending a ton of money.
One of the common problems that inexperienced Final Cut editors run into is audio that slowly drifts out of sync. While the problem may appear to be within Final Cut Pro, the cause is actually due to mismatched audio sample rates between the video you shot and the way you are capturing it. What makes this worse is that many consumer cameras default to an audio sample rate of 32 kHz, while Final Cut expects 48 kHz. In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll explain what an audio sample rate is and how to change your Final Cut settings to capture your audio accurately.
As 2010 draws to a close, three quick observations on technology for the coming year.