It is with great excitement that I am finally able to make an announcement that has been eating at me for nearly a year now. In June of 2009 when the iPhone 3GS was released I had a flash of what the future could hold for editing, and it’s that moment of inspiration that gave birth to the product I’m announcing today.

Our new groundbreaking product, Final Cut Pro Mobile, is now available on the iPhone 3GS. It will also be available on the iPad later this year. You heard me right – the full suite of FCPS apps have been ported to the iPhone 3GS, and in some cases, we’ve been able to add additional features not found in the current offerings from Apple.

Much of our inspiration at SuiteTake.com to create this mobile suite was inspired by the growing interest in editing projects outside of the office. While the edit suite has been the traditional place to get your project done, technology no longer limits us to just a single location. And it was with that vision in mind that we marched forward with the project. Here is a quick overview of what the new suite includes.

Final Cut Pro M

Starting with the current version of Final Cut Pro 7 from 2009, we included all of the same new features as well as the under the hood improvements from Apple. But we’ve also added some features that are only possible on the iPhone.

For example, with a single swipe of your finger – you can save your project, duplicate it, or permanently delete it – all with the same gesture. Swiping at different speeds determines which of the functions is selected. Now that’s efficient!

Need a quick rough cut of the footage you’ve imported? Just shake your phone up and down 3 times and the built-in accelerometer will create a rough cut using the current ins and outs of each clip. The phone will use our patented Content Detection™ algorithm to analyze dialog, body language and facial expressions. It will then systematically assemble the clips in the most pleasing and logical way.

Motion M

Complete with Open GL acceleration, 3D shadows and real-time playback, you can create graphics at uncompressed 4K or HD resolution while browsing the iTunes store, surfing the web or taking a call from your client. And all of this while you’re outside of the standard ball-and-chain edit suite. Be inspired – be Mobile!

While the standard motion templates that you’re used to are included, we’ve also added the ability to buy templates through the App Store, right inside of Motion M. Using your iTunes account and 3G networking you can download the latest templates where you want, when you want.

Soundtrack Pro M

Using your iPhone earbuds you can mix your latest soundtrack while listening to your favorite iPod playlist, checking your messages with  Google Voice and browsing SFX from the SoundTrack library.  All while walking through the busy city traffic to catch your bus to the beach.

But it’s not just about multi-tasking. SoundTrack Pro M can mix up to 256 tracks of audio in real time, has new MIDI functions available through the dock connector and now includes a cool iTunes-like screen saver to help you  see your audio as you mix. This is part of our new SeeHearMix™ technology.

Color M

Who says you need a $10K monitor to color grade your latest film? Don’t let the monitor industry make a fool out of you any longer! Using the precision color LCD touch screen on the iPhone you can grade like a pro using just your fingertips.

What’s that? You don’t have time to do the grading yourself? Again we tied into the Apple App Store and you can now purchase and download preset looks based on the type of project you’re grading. Some of the categories include Corporate Training Video, Broadcast Reality Show, Broadcast Sitcom, Over Produced Documentary, Low Budget Film, B-Movie, Direct to DVD, Flip Cam to Film Look and Barely Good Enough For YouTube. Each preset will optimize the look and feel of your video based on your target audience.

DVD Studio Pro M

Apple may not have updated DVD Studio Pro, but we sure did.

Need a DVD and need it while on the go? No problem! Plug in your favorite DVD burner and create a Standard Def or Blu-ray DVD on the spot right from your iPhone using our patented USB-BlazeBurn™ technology.

Don’t have a DVD burner? That’s OK too. Master directly to our new SuiteTake.com Print-On-Demand DVD service. Most DVDs will upload over 3G in just 2-3 weeks, and you’ll receive your DVD copies within one calendar year. Let’s face it, you didn’t really need it that fast anyway.

iChat Theater M

Using the iPhone 3GS camera,  you can now chat with your client live while watching your latest cut. You can even conference in up to three other members of the “creative team” to watch and comment on the playback of your sequence while referencing a live timecode window. Getting unwanted needless feedback has never been so easy.

And Finally, Compressor M

Compressor is more then a compression engine – it’s a publishing factory. Set up automated processes that will convert your final video to the proper format and upload it to iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo, FaceBook or just a standard FTP site.

As an exclusive to the Mobile FCP Suite, you can even export directly to another iPhone no matter where they are in the world. And all of this over 3G. Take that AT&T!

Need more speed while compressing? Using iPhone QMaster integration you can cluster up to 50 iPhone 3GSs together to cut compression times by up to 8.9%. (Estimated, actual savings can vary. In some cases render times can actually increase up to 75% due to some unknown reason that we’re still baffled by. Due to the increased radiation output of the phones during the render process, women who are pregnant or are hoping to ever become pregnant should limit their exposure to FCPm Qmaster. Do not taunt Qmaster under any circumstances.)

And with our new Social Media plugin architecture, you can send custom notifications to Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and even the Creative Cow Forums. Now all of your fellow editors will know just how frustrated you are by that request to make “one more small change”. Partner deals with Gowalla, FourSquare and DropBox are in the works for late 2010.

I am proud to say that I think we’ve really hit this one out of the park. And we’re just getting started. Since I started using FCP Mobile I’ve realized that having a full size computer is a thing of the past. I used to say I would never give up my Mac Pro. Now I’m starting to ask myself if it even makes sense to have an office. Since I started using FCPm I have barely bothered to show up to work at all.

Still not convinced?

Check out the cover story in the next issue of MacWorld magazine for a full hands on review or read our Press Release.

Can’t wait?

Head over to the App Store and download it now. We hope you’re as excited about it as we are.

As promised here is part 2 of creating custom buttons and a chapter index automatically with DVD Studio Pro. You can find Part 1 here.

In this video tutorial we pick up right where we left off in the last tutorial and show you how to take the custom button we made and incorporate it into a custom menu. Then, with a little bit of setup, we take that custom menu, save it as a template and then use that template to automatically create a series of chapter index menus with one simple drag and drop.

A recap from part 1…

“One of the most tedious things to author in DVDSP is creating chapter index menus with links to all the various chapters within a project. If you’ve ever had a multi-hour long video with dozens of chapters, creating chapter index menus can take hours and be extremely frustrating, especially if you make a mistake or there are changes after the fact. This 2 part video tutorial will show you how to easily create custom buttons and menus, complete with video drop zones, save them as templates, and then automatically create a chapter index menu series with one simple drag and drop.”

The SuiteTake
Creating, linking, and authoring extensive DVD titles with lengthy and complicated chapter index’s can be tedious and time consuming. Using DVD Studio Pro’s built-in functionality you can easily create, save, and author extensive DVD chapter index menus with one simple drag and drop process.

Ahh the joys of being a freelance editor. You get to make your own schedule, take time off whenever you want, sleep in on weekdays, pick and choose only the best, most highest-paying jobs, live the jet-set lifestyle hopping from post-house to post-house all across the country…

ZZZZZZCHHHHSSSSSWOOOOSSSSHHH (sound of vinyl record scratching)!

Wait, that’s not what it’s like at all. Probably back when you were in film school some eccentric tweed-jacket-with-the-patches-on-the-elbows professor filled your head with romantic notions like that. Then what happened, you got into the real world and found that most of the time you had to scrounge for any job you could get, from cutting your uncle’s boss’s LARPER themed wedding to that gastric surgery post-operative care demonstration video.

It seems like it was just yesterday

But that’s not the point, the point is that either you’re doing what you love or you’re considering cutting the cable and going out on your own or just graduating and still have that un-blemished innocent vision of the wealth of opportunity that awaits you out there. In any case, as a freelance editor, you need to focus on three main objectives: being a good editor, being mobile, and getting hired again. To do this you need to have a slick and portable system in place that enables you to jump from place to place, dive right in a get to work without wasting a lot of time getting situated. After all, your client is paying you to edit, not set preferences and adjust your chair.

Here are a few things you can do to make your setup time at a new place quick and easy and add value to your service.

Save your keyboard, button bars, window layouts and other preferences

The first thing you’ll want to do when you get to a new place, other than a quick height adjustment of the chair, is to load up your preferences. Save your preferred window layouts, keyboard layouts, button bars, column layouts and any other user preferences that are important to you on a USB stick or other portable device (one of my current favorites is a 8 gig USB stick that fits on a keychain, for under $30). All you need to do is then simply load up all of your preferences and go. There is no need to even copy your preferences to their respective places on the host’s computer. Once you load your window layout, for example, directly from your USB stick you eject it and keep working. FCP doesn’t need the preference file to remain mounted while you edit, just set it and forget it. The same goes for you button bars and keyboard.

If you do load your preferences to the host computer or change any of its preferences it’s always good practice to return the computer to the state it was in when you got there. Especially if you’re filling in for someone on vacation you don’t want them to come back to a totally re-arranged system.

Effects and Plug-Ins

Transporting window layouts and button bars is easy and a no-brainer. But what if you have a dozen or more effects saved in your effects favorites bin at home? If you do you probably use them all the time and it could be a big frustration if you didn’t have those effects readily available as favorites during gigs. But you can’t just save your effects favorites bin like you can keyboard layouts, or can you? The simple workaround is to create a new Final Cut Pro project, select all of your effects favorites from the favorites bin, copy them, and paste them into the new FCP project. Just save this project as “Effects Favorites” and bring it with you on your USB stick. While editing just have the project open or copy those effects to FCP’s favorites bin.

This is also a good practice to keep in general for when the need to reinstall or upgrade FCP arises. Having this Effects Favorites project handy will allow you to re-load all your favorites right along with windows and keyboards after an upgrade or reinstall.

Third party plug-ins are definitely a separate issue than stock FCP effects. Before transporting third party plug-ins you’ll need to sort out licensing issues and your client’s preferences on you adding plug-ins to their systems.

Turn this...

...Into this

Hard drive of tricks

One of the best things you can do as a freelancer is to not only be an outstanding editor but to bring something more to the table. Get a few hundred gig portable firewire drive and load it up with any kind of stock, music, image, graphic, bell and whistle you can think of. From HD clips of kids eating ice cream to heavy metal stock music to animated lower thirds, it can be a job saver to be able to pull out elements like this when in a pinch for some creative. It’s up to you whether you charge extra for things like this and it’s completely your responsibility to have proper licensing of all the material. Either way it will greatly impress your client when someone suggests opening the sequence with a etherial fly-through of puffy clouds and you just grab a clip of it off your hard drive and drop it in in a matter of 2 seconds.

Your Hard-Drive-of-Tricks

Everything but the kitchen sink

I’ve seen a lot of freelancers who carry their own keyboards and mouse/trackballs with them. If you prefer to edit with a specific colored keyboard or fancy-schmancy trackball then by all means bring it along and plug ‘er in. Believe me, your client doesn’t care whether you’re using a trackball, mighty mouse, or pencil and paper as long as you’re getting the job done.

If the venue or job calls for critical audio mixing and monitoring consider investing in a pair of high-quality headphones that you can travel with. Find a set that not only provides top-notch audio but fits your head comfortably. Who knows, you may walk into an office that only has cheepy computer speakers plugged into the built-in audio out. You could shrug and later blame the poor audio mix on the cheepy speakers or whip out your headphones and give them a real mix.

Some people, for extended jobs, even choose to bring their own chairs with them. If you tend to do long-term gigs then dropping a grand on a really good chair may be definitely worth it. Say you get a gig editing for 10 days where your edit station will be set up in the basement of the hotel that the conference is going on. You walk in and see a couple of folding chairs set up for you. It wouldn’t be long before you get to wishing you had a nice comfy desk chair to park yourself in for 14 hours at a time.

There's nothin' like gettin' paid to watch a render bar

It’s the little things

Being a good freelancer not only depends on the quality of work you do but also the kind of person you are to work with. Being easy and fun to work with largely depends on your own attitude and having some simple creature comforts at your desk can go a long way in that department.

You may want to read your clients a little bit before breaking things like this out but small trinkets or pictures of your family are not inappropriate. Especially if it’s a travel job, having a small photo of your kids next to your monitor can be nice, or planting a few wacky Pez-dispensers (full of Pez, of course) next to your coffee cup displays your personality in a subtle and fun way. The idea is that with a few small items like this you can make any place that you’re in that much more like home.

I keep a Rubik’s cube on my desk (a leftover prop from a shoot) and can’t tell you how often a client picks it up to fiddle with it while we’re working or discussing something.

Just leave some room for your Mac

The SuiteTake:

Clients pay you to edit, not click around for an hour in the morning setting up preferences. Get there early, whip out your USB stick, hard drive of tricks, headphones, chair, magic 8-ball or whatever and set up fast. Having all your preferences available to you will allow you to just be able to sit down and edit, not reset keyboards or try to remember what the defaults are.

Bringing additional materials like stock footage and animations can provide real value to your services and set you miles ahead of the other schmucks on their list.

Lastly don’t be afraid to pack a few personal items and other simple comforts, especially on extended travel gigs. You’re human after all and few comforts from home can make you feel a lot better during the long hours and express your personality in a subtle and fun way.

While writing this post I asked around to some of the producers in the office about things freelancers had brought that impressed them. All of them were able to remember editors from years ago who brought something personal and unique to the gigs, whether it was a tool or trinket. Do you want to make a lasting impression like that or be forgotten among all the rest?

In the end all of these practices add up to one thing: getting hired again.

And now, introducing the SuiteTake App Store! Well, ok not really. It just seams as though everybody is getting rich selling apps these days so why not jump up on that band-wagon? The proliferation of the iPhone App Store, and the many others imitators from Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and on and on, it’s important to take a step back every now and then and remember that they still do make cool apps for regular computers too. And it may be hard to believe but some of them actually aren’t flashlights.

The following is a brief list of 5 cool apps that we just love to have on all our Macs. All 5 are what I would call utility and workflow type apps, they’re not things like After Effects or Firefox, apps that are essentially the core function of your Mac. These are little ditties that just make life, and work, that much easier.

Everyone goes through a learning curve when it come to technology and computers. You begin as a novice and learn more and more over time until you become very streamlined and efficient with the tasks you do everyday, whether it’s crunching spreadsheets or compositing layers. Even though the latest and greatest versions of OSX and Windows have come a long way to improving upon the efficient user experience they still leave a lot of things up to third parties to fill in the gaps. For most of us there will come a time in our learning curve where we have become so advanced and efficient that our software actually gets in our way, we can think and process what we want to do much faster than we can type and click. These few apps go a long way in solving these types of problems.

iStat Menus

This nifty app lives at the top of your menu bar

This nifty little app is a great for those of us who need to see whats happening under the hood of our Macs. It’s a complete system monitoring app that displays information as tiny icons at the top of your menu bar. It monitors in real time your CPU and Memory, Date and time, drives, network, and temps fans and power. Everything is customizable and user configurable via a pane in your system preferences. You can select which items you want to see, change their appearance, and even their order from left to right.

I find iStat most useful in two ways. First, by monitoring the network and CPUs I can see at a glance the status of any processes that are going on and whether or not they have stalled. All of a sudden I may notice that an app has crashed and is pegging the CPUs, I can then just force quit the app and go on without any more trouble. And secondly, this one of those small things that I just love about apps like this, is that the OSX menu bar does not include the date as a number, it can only display the day of the week. iStat Menu displays a little iCal looking calendar page right next to OSX’s day and time. I use this feature every single day and love it.

iStat Menus is free (with a suggested donation) from the fine folks at iSlayer.com

Default Folder X

DFX adds a translucent border to your open and save dialogues

Default Folder X is an app that now that I have it I don’t know how I ever worked without it. Directly from their website: “Default Folder X makes Mac OS X’s Open and Save dialogs work as quickly as you do.” One of the biggest time wasters in any workflow when you have to deal with a lot of files and folders is opening and saving and just navigating through endless strings of folders upon folders. When I want to open or save something I just want to hit a key and bam, move on. Default Folder X adds a translucent overlay to your open and save dialogue boxes that offers several time-saving shortcuts. These shortcuts point straight to recent, open, and favorite folders that you can customize and even delegate among different applications. It beefs up spotlight’s power by allowing you to add your own search keywords on the fly. One feature of Default Folder X that I was amazed wasn’t part of OSX is the addition of hierarchical pop-up menus. You can easily mouse through the menus straight to the folder you need without click after click.

I have found that the recent destination button and being able to select already open Finder windows as the most useful. There are loads of other features that I simply haven’t gotten around to customizing yet, probably because I’m so happy with the few that I use daily.

Default Folder X is well worth it at $34.95 from the people at St. Clair Software

LaunchBar

Take this Dock!

LaunchBar is perfect for those of use who are keyboard shortcut obsessed, which, as editors, most of us are. If you are keyboard shortcut obsessed then you strive to do as much as possible without ever touching a mouse. You know all the commands in FCP, AE, PS, OSX, and even their Windows equivalents whenever the need arises. You even know the illusive CNTRL+EJECT command to activate the Shutdown/Sleep/Restart box. LaunchBar is for you. The best way to use LaunchBar is to set it up to automatically launch at login. It is activated by a configurable shortcut, we use CNTRL+Space. When you enter the shortcut a little menu drops down from underneath your menu bar, you then begin typing what you want to do. Most commonly this is the name of an application you want to launch. For instance, when I want to launch FInal Cut Pro I press CNTRL+Space then F-I-N. As soon as you begin typing a contextual menu drops down with suggestions that match what you are typing, when Final Cut Pro appears just hit enter and the app launches. LaunchBar remembers what keystrokes you use to launch what apps and makes life even easier. When I want to launch Mail all I need to do is type CNTRL+Space, M, and Enter. Now I’m not knocking the Dock, it’s fast and convenient, but for a keyboard shortcut junkie LaunchBar is the way to go.

There are dozens of additional features packed into LaunchBar from Spotlight searching, recent documents, web searching, iTunes browsing, Address Book entries, and so on. I love it for simply launching apps and constantly find myself hitting CNTRL+Space on Macs that don’t have it.

LaunchBar is approximately $34, actually €24.00, from the folks across the pond at Objective Development (They also make Little Snitch which is another gem)

1Password

Try and steal my HampsterDance.com login now!

It seems as though you can’t check the weather these days without logging in with some username and password. Username and password overload is a real problem these days with having literally dozens of logins all across the internet from Amazon, to eBay, to your bank, even SuiteTake! Very commonly people, myself included, resort to using the same username and password again and again across multiple sites just to allow yourself a fighting chance at actually remembering one. it doesn’t take an internet security genius to figure out that this can be a huge security risk to your business and personal life.

1Password is a utility that creates, stores, and recalls strong passwords for you right in your web browser. Any time you go a site where a password is required shortcuts that install in your browser allow you to create a password, that can be customized from simple to incredibly complicated, enter it in the proper fields then stores it for subsequent use. When you return to the site later you just hit the 1Password button and it autofills your password information. It works with almost any common web browser like Safari, Firefox, and Opera.

There’s not much more that needs to be said, if a thief managed to get one of your un-secure passwords they could run amok all over the internet with it. Using 1Password easily thwarts would-be criminals.

1Password also saves credit card information to speed up checkout processes and has portability features that allow you to access your saved password information when you’re at a computer other than yours. A handy iPhone app is also available. It is $39.95 from Agile Web Solutions.

MPEG Streamclip

De-mux anything that needs de-muxing.

Ok, this one falls out of the same categories as the apps above but I had to include it because this app has been a savior countless times across editing forums.

Have you ever needed to de-mux a DVD VOB file? If you’re an editor of any kind, yes, yes you have been given a DVD Video and been asked to incorporate it into a project. Hum, what the heck is a VOB file? Certainly not a edit friendly format.

MPEG Streamclip is a video converter app that, among many other things, can de-mux DVD VOB files to user-friendly Quicktime and Windows formats. Just pop in a DVD, select your settings and walk away as it converts everything for you.

Yes, there are many apps out there that do the same things that MPEG Streamclip does but the catch is that MPEG Streamclip is free! Yes, it’s a free app that is in version 1.9.2 and has been around for years. And yes, it does work and is reliable enough for a professional environment.

MPEG Streamclip Free at Squared 5

The SuiteTake

If you’re not there yet, one day you’ll get to a point where your efficiency with you computer outpaces your ability to click and type fast enough. There are hundreds of useful apps like these out there that go a long way in helping improve upon that efficiency and overall user experience. these are just 5 of them, the list could go on and on and on. The best part is that the most expensive app listed here is less than 40 bucks. Drop a little cash and save yourself hours of frustration.

And please, offer your favorite gems bellow as comments. I’m sure there are loads of apps out there yet to be discovered, we’d love to hear about them.

Isn’t it annoying these days that there seems to be a new “how to” or “tutorial” blog about the video industry popping up every other day? Places like SuiteTake.com, those guys think they know everything and are the Steve Jobs’ gift to mankind…oh wait….

But seriously, these days there are a ton of free and very useful sites out there that offer a wealth of education about all things audio and video. And ok, I’ll admit that here at SuiteTake there are a few things we don’t know. (One writer, who shall remain unidentified for now, was railed by readers for not knowing what the “extend edit” button does, sheesh.) Whenever we have some down time here at SuiteTake worldwide headquarters I always cruise the tutorial sites looking for new ideas and techniques. But, it’s one thing to watch a tutorial and just think to yourself “wow, that was cool. I should try that sometime.” and another to actually advance you skill-set and knowledge through the tutorial. Here are a few things I do when watching or reading tutorials to get the most out of them.

Read between the frames

To begin, a few of my favorite tutorial sites are: VideoCoPilot.net, CreativeCOW.net, and AE Tuts+. They all have a wealth of video and written tutorials on how to make all kinds of way cool stuff written by a wide variety of contributors.

After watching a whole mess of AE tutorials I realized that I was still creating the same old stuff project after project despite having seen so many new techniques. I wasn’t effectively putting into action the concepts I was seeing in the tutorials. So I began to watch them with a more critical eye determined to expand my skill-set. One of the first things I noticed is that the author would routinely apply effects or filters over and over again to enhance the look and motion of the animations he was creating but only mention them as an aside. For instance, Andrew Kramer at VideoCoPilot almost always adds a contrast curve (using the curves effect) on an adjustment layer at the end of every tutorial to just give the image a little more punch. However, he barely mentions it and usually just slaps it on there without saying much about it. If, the whole time I was focusing my concentration on the main lesson of the tutorial, like how to setup his Sure Target preset, it was easy to not pay any attention to those more subtle details. Furthermore, it seems as though the author is usually so accustomed to adding these effects and finishing touches that they breeze by it too, taking it for granted.

I learned to read between the frames and pay the most attention to the small details that they were blowing off. It’s these many small details and enhancements that distinguish the real pro’s from the wanna-bees and by catching these little tricks that usually sneak by you’ll lean a lot more from each tutorial.

Always follow along, but experiment too

Many tutorials provide the project file and sample media so you can follow along at home and it’s obvious that that is usually a good idea. In the past I have been lazy and a just sat back and watched them like a re-run of Three’s Company, but recently have made it a habit to fire up AE and follow along with the tutorial as it goes. I quickly found that just watching the tutorial and actually hitting the keys myself is a whole different experience. And, just as quickly, I found that it’s even better to not only follow along but to experiment with my own ideas as well.

When I’m watching something throughout the whole video I am constantly thinking “how can I apply this to the kind of projects I work on every day?” Sure, blowing up a 3D model of Mars and morphing that into a glowing image of Miley Cirus that evaporates into a cloud of particles is cool but probably not appropriate for my video of the keynote speech at XYZ corporation’s annual conference. So during the tutorial I’ll often pause it and first re-create what the author has done but then go on and experiment with the parameters to get a look that would be practical for the type of work that I usually do. But it is always fun to just crank up the parameters to see how far you can take something too.

Use it in a sentence

Your 3rd grade teacher may have told you this way back in the day. Whenever you learn a new word simply making an effort to use it in a sentence the next day helps a great deal with making that word a permanent part of your vocabulary. The same is true with tutorial techniques. You’ve watched the tutorial through and experimented along the way, the next step is to actually use the new technique in a real world project as soon as possible. By taking what you have learned and actually applying it to a real project where you’re on the clock and achieving real results will lock those new tricks into your video vocabulary permanently. On several occasions I have watched a tutorial one day and used it in a project the next, making real money with it.

Also by using new techniques in real world situations you’ll be forced to become more flexible and creative with them. Chances are that your client will have some thoughts about what you have created and you’ll be obligated to address them. This will likely force you to delve into the technique deeper and with more control to achieve the exact look that was requested. You’ll probably have to employ a lot of creative problem solving to get what you want because you’ve never done it before and are unsure of what parameters to change to get there. This will lead you to a much deeper understanding of the technique and allow you to apply it in the future to a much wider variety of projects.

It’s about the techniques, not re-creating the project

The ultimate benefit of tutorials are the concepts you take away from them. Just re-creating what the author made does little good but for practicing keyboard shortcuts. Remember that “R and D” stands for Research and Development, not Rip-off and Duplicate. If you see something you like it’s best to take it with you and make it your own, not just remake the project and change the text to fit your client. It’s ok to be inspired by others work, but it’s always best and most rewarding to add as much of your own unique creativity to your projects. Besides, there’s always that chance that you’ll be called out by a fellow editor. And that’s just embarrassing.

The SuiteTake:

The things I find most beneficial from tutorials is that they often show me things that effects are capable of that I never knew existed. Once I know an effect is capable of something in general I can then use that to make all sorts of new and creative projects. Also, as you watch more and more the knowledge accumulates. You can take ideas from one and apply them to the next and on and on. By reading between the frames to pick up all the little tid-bits, experimenting on your own, applying new techniques to real-world projects and adding as much of your own unique creativity – you’ll be getting the most out of every tutorial you watch.

And hey, it’s also a great way to pass the time on a slow afternoon.

Ah, the words of Dave Coulier have never resonated stronger in my life than in recent days. Sure there were times on the playground in 4th grade when Full House lingo may have been more frequent, but not until I started editing did I consider Uncle Joey’s catch phrase to become a way of life. In a situation where a nice After Effects sequence or a Motion graphic project could jazz up a portion of a video that needs a little jazzing, I look to my go-to secondary editing program: Photoshop.

You could say that I’m not skilled enough in After Effects and Motion to utilize them enough so I resort to Photoshop. Well, that would be mean to say, and you know what, I think your shirt is ugly and you have poor taste in restaurants. I like to think that I use Photoshop in a good enough way that it could be the program I look to for sprucing things up, just by cutting up and rebuilding photos. So despite what my Dad insists, Photoshop can be used for more than eliminating red eye in pictures of his dog.

What I mean by cutting up and rebuilding photos is exactly what it sounds like. Bust out the lasso tool, and cut out multiple objects in the foreground of the shot, make them their own individual images, then build them back together like a puzzle. In certain situations where you need just a little extra spark in a video that is supposed to be a little more lively than the untouched footage has the capabilities of, cutting things out of images can be a cheap and easy way to do so. I know this is nothing new to anyone, it’s not like I invented the equivalent of Goober PB&J sandwich spread, but I think it works for brief moments where, again, you need something more than a dissolve to a panning photo. Some people think it looks cool, you may not think the same, and in that case, I think your shoes are stupid, so there. At the very least it is more interesting than dissolves and zooms.

Here’s an example; I needed a moderately flashy opening for this video about this dude, and I had a bunch of shots of him playing instruments, so I thought I would take a still image from the video of him playing the drums, and isolate them, and make him fly onto the drum set over a background.

So I took the first frame of the shot I was planning on playing out after the photo work, and I cut out the drums with a combination of a bunch of the select/cutting out tools, mainly the polygonal lasso tool. It takes a little time to get it to look pretty good, as a rushed job would look pretty noticeable I suppose, so just zoom in real close and trace around the drum set. I love doing this kinda stuff, when I was a kid I loved to draw, and I would draw all the time, but the only thing was that I was a horrible artist. So for my birthday one year, probably in an act of sympathy for my lack of artistic talent, my mom bought me a big notebook of tracing paper. I loved it, as it made me appear as if I knew how to draw. All it really did was raise my childhood self esteem by doing a quasi-talent (kind of like being good at Guitar Hero, but terrible at actual guitar). Anyway, the same fun principal applies here, just trace around the drums until you’ve got a good outline, and shift-drag it onto a transparent document of the same size.

Well now there is a cut out of the drums on the guy’s body, because obviously this isn’t an x-ray camera that can magically see through the drums and fill in the body. But cut out the guy’s body from the background anyway, shift-drag him to a different transparent document of the same size, and start filling in the gaps with the clone stamp and paint tools. It will look crappy most likely unless you are the Picasso of computer painting, but in this case it doesn’t matter because I’m going to have him fly across the screen in roughly one second of duration, so no one will really be watching for it.

So then in Final Cut, put both of the isolated transparent images in the timeline with the back end of it right before the actual start of the moving video (which should be starting with the same frame as the stills).

Then put a center keyframe at the back end of the guy’s image, and go to where you want him to come in, and pull him off screen. Now he will fly from off screen and settle in on the drum set. Put a little move on the front of the drum set and you’ve got yourself a neat little movement going on. It’s actually pretty easy. [you can look at the video after next example]

Later in the video I was told I needed to make a file cabinet do something cool. A file cabinet?! Alright. Same concept as the drums, take the first frame of where you want the moving video to start, make it an image, and start cutting away! Trace around the files in the file cabinet and make them all their own individual transparent images of the same size.

Now once again the image that had stuff covering it in the foreground (the cabinet sides) has some transparent gaps in it, so use clone stamp and paint and blur and whatever else you need to to get it to look like it is it’s own object that didn’t have anything on it to begin with. I put in a large black abyss on the right because I thought it worked.

Then again in the FCP, put all the layers down on top of each other (with the cabinet structure on the bottom) and build on the files themselves as you see fit, and when it’s lined up correctly with the start of the video, it will seem like your still image has COME ALIVE…! It’s an easy effect, and it makes a file cabinet look more interesting than just transitioning the shot onto the screen

In this excerpt from this other video, you can also build on pictures while they’re moving by cutting out the foreground objects that you want to build on, then put them all in on top of each other where you want them in the timeline. Then disable the foreground layers, and put whatever move you’d like on the bottom layer (which is the full uncut picture), then enable the other layers and copy the keyframes from the one you put the moves on to the foreground layers. Then cut them at the front of the clips where you want them to build on. (Also, I didn’t pick this song, I don’t even know who the artist is, and it got changed to a Michael Jackson song in the end, but I like the timing better on this song for certain areas [like the ones I'm showing you here]. But yeah, just saying, I listen to Lou Reed and The Clash, just trying to save my musical credibility…)

Then in this last example, I just cut out a bunch of photos for this highlight video into three layers each, and just mashed them together into a sequence. I tried to get the photos to play off of each other when I could, and have them flow to a degree. My initial idea (which may or may not have come true) was to achieve “a subtle Ken Burns effect on cocaine”. It’s very simple in execution, by just building on the layers one at a time until the full picture is revealed, then putting a move on the full picture.

I thought it looked cool in the end. I was going for “wacky” so I sort of went insane with the transitions, but you could tone it down if you wanted to do so, I don’t see why you couldn’t, it’s a free country for the most part. So, I just timed it all to an awesome song by The Cars, and in my opinion it is better than just Ken Burnsing the photos into a sequence. It might be too unsubtle for some people’s tastes, but it could work however you want it to work. And again, it really isn’t that hard to do any of this, you just need to have the time to cut the pictures out. And for this particular project, as the Stones would say “Time is on my side… yes it is!”

The SuiteTake

This is not a new concept to anyone, but perhaps you can do a variation of this to solve a problem of how to make a still image a little different in a video where you need something a little different. Maybe my examples aren’t your cup o’ tea, but I remember two things from my vacation to Disney World in the 2nd grade. I got to meet April O’Neal from the Ninja Turtles (whom I had a crush on at the time), and I also remembered the words of Dr. Dreamfinder and his pet dragon Figment, “Imagination is our key to unlock the hidden wonders of our world.” So maybe you can come up with something better yourself! (by the way, have you noticed how Disney hasn’t exactly been pushing the imagination theory on kids nowadays, like they did with my generation in the late 80s/early 90s? Every kid I see lately is a mindless dullard…)

And if you don’t like the effect at all, then well, I think you’re singing talent is mediocre and you have a less than satisfactory body odor.

Ok ok, the title may be a little mis-leading but what’s the harm in trying to drive a little Google search traffic? The windows that I am referring to are the Final Cut Pro kind, not the Microsoft kind. I’ve always made a big case for workflow and editing efficiency here and no detail is too small when it comes to working smoothly. In fact, I’ve found that it’s often the little things that help the most when they are streamlined or annoy the most when they are clunky and rigid. If you never take the time to experiment and rearrange your FCP window layout and button bar arrangements you’re probably missing out on workflow efficiency gains. Here is my window layout and button bar arrangement and why I have things the way they are.

The first thing you’ll notice is that my window arrangement isn’t all that different from the default standard FCP window layout. All I have done is to move a few windows around, resize them, and add an area that contains some additional tools.

My Standard Window Layout

Let’s move from left to right. The most prominent window on my screen is the Browser window. Rarely is there a project that I edit where there are fewer than 100 clips and other items in my browser. One of my biggest time wasters is scrolling up and down back and fourth through windows. I like to be able to see as many of my browser items as possible all at once. By making my browser the full height of the screen I can maximize my viewable clips and minimize scrolling. Also since the item names are often short the browser doesn’t need to be long horizontally therefor leaving me plenty of room for everything else.

My Very Tall Browser Window

At this point I should specify that I use an Apple 23″ display. If you use a bigger or smaller size, or 2 displays, the best solution for you may be different. For instance, when I used 2 displays I always made one entire display the browser window. Also depending on the arrangement of you desk you may want to flip flop these windows and have the browser on the right if that suits your taste better.

Moving on, the balance I have struck between my timeline, viewer, and canvas windows has to do with my preference for external monitoring. I rely heavily on my external monitor to judge my edits, color, and composites. Because of this I feel that my viewer and canvas windows can be on the small side and give that extra space to my timeline. Just like with my browser I want to be able to see as much of my timeline as possible all at once and minimize scrolling and zooming.

My Rather Small-ish Viewer and Canvas

A Big-ish Timeline

The last bit of space is occupied by the tool bench that contains the frame viewer, scopes, and audio mixer. In the course of an edit I always follow a pattern to come to the final piece. I make several passes through the video to arrive at the final and rarely co-mingle tasks from different passes. For example, I make an A-roll pass then a B-roll pass, then an audio pass, a color correction pass and so on. Since I usually use the scopes and audio mixer in very segmented passes I don’t need them to both be available at the same time. I can switch to one and leave it there while I’m working with it then switch again when I’m done.

Alas - The Toolbench

My button bars are based on a little simpler philosophy. I pretty much choose to add buttons that I use the function of often but simply never memorized the key commands to or that had awkward key commands like Shift-Option-Backslash. I’ve pretty much filled up my custom keyboard with all of the most common commands I use and there are really no more simple commands left to map these functions to, so I made buttons. Of course I placed the buttons in the appropriate windows that the function effects. I won’t go through ever one but I’ll name a few.

First, in the timeline I have Export and Export using Quicktime Conversion. I use these functions several times a day and since they’re usually used as a final step and not a editing function I felt that a button would be best. One simple click and my sequence is output. Others are the pan audio left right and center and toggle stereo pair. I use these often and finding them in the menus is usually tedious. I can quickly and easily click em while mixing audio on the fly. My browser has a Set Logging Bin button and a close project button, all come in handy from time to time.

My Various Timeline Related Buttons

A few Straggling Browser Buttons

I should also point out that I tend to use both the buttons, menus, and key commands for all of these functions. It usually depends on where my brain is at while I’m furiously editing and trying to meet a deadline. I may be chugging along and all of a sudden completely blank on the key command for I have mapped for Close Gap, well, never fear because the button is right there waiting to be clicked. I think it’s pretty safe to say that clicking buttons is faster than drilling down into the menu bar.

I’ve experimented with lots and lots of deferent window layouts and button bars over the years and am really glad that I finally came up with these. The window layout maximizes the viewable area of important items and minimizes areas that are less important. Depending on your screen size and desk arrangement you’ll probably want to make a few tweaks, but just trust that by using a default arrangement you are probably missing out on some valuable efficiency. My button bars make up for what could be considered a bit of laziness in not learning certain key commands but also serve as a valuable backup when I just can’t remember them either.

The SuiteTake Take:
There’s a lot of nifty little features all over FCP like these and they’re there for a reason, to make you a better editor. You should definitely take advantage of them.

If you’re an editor you work for somebody.

Even if you’re just a one man freelance shop – Johnny’s Productions – if you have work, you are working for somebody. You, or your sales staff, or your producer closed a deal and got you a gig, and that means you work for somebody. That person is your client.

Whether you just landed your first real job and are scrambling to actually learn how to use After Effects by tomorrow morning, or you’re “celebrating” your 20th year in the biz by reminiscing about the good old 1-inch days, the manner in which you interact with your client will determine whether or not they will be your last.

It’s no secret that being polite, listening, and working cooperatively are all necessary when working with clients but to keep the passion alive and the creativity flowing year after year you really need to develop relationships that work in harmony together and truly mutually benefit each other. We may hate to admit it but we do actually need our clients input and direction if we are to create a successful piece for them.

During my career as an editor I have found that there really are 2 primary ideas that need to be balanced when dealing with a client. No matter what your skill and experience level, and, more importantly, no matter their skill and experience level –  keen attention to these ideas can make all the difference between a great working relationship that brings you work for years to come or just another edit from H – E – Double Hockey Sticks.

The first idea:
Give the client what they want.

When I was just a young buck eager to take on the world one Avid at a time (FCP wasn’t around when I was in school) a lighting professor of mine taught me probably the most valuable lesson I have ever learned in my professional career. My professor, a 30+ year veteran lighting designer, while answering a rather bizarre question from one of the more eclectic students, amongst an otherwise long-winded answer, said:

“You need to give the director what he wants.”

This simple statement instantly rang a bell with me. Here was a man who knows everything there is to know about lighting design and, without reservation, declared that despite all his combined knowledge he just needs to give the director what he wants.

As editors we are typically amongst the last in a long string of people who take part in any given project. The client or producer has pre-produced, written, shot, and taken care of a million other things for months or even years before we ever see the first tape. Long before we ever come along a vision has already been established. Now don’t jump to conclusions, yes, clients do hire us to bring our own unique vision to their project but in the end it is their project and ultimately they call the shots. It is our job to provide as much creative input as possible but in the end we must give the client what they want. The “keeping your sanity” part comes into play when your vision and their vision don’t match up.

It’s 3 days into a edit and your client says: “Can we just find a place to add these 12 pictures my wife took with her cell phone yesterday?” Or, “Ok, that’s a pretty good final draft but can we squeeze in these 12 lines of dialogue but not make the video any longer?” Better yet, “How hard would it be to just make it cooler, like the episode of Jag I Tivo’d last night?” How do you react to that without jumping across the table at them?

The very first thing I do, no matter who the client is and what their experience level is, I start by listening to them fully and completely. After that I react to situations like this depending on the client.

To begin, if the client is the end user, not a intermediate producer or creative director, and is totally ignorant to the entire process, treat the situation in the following manner. Never start to shake your head before they are even done talking. Listen to the suggestion.  Take a moment to actually think about it and really consider what it would look like in the video. Just because the first, horrible, picture that jumps into your head seems like it will totally derail an otherwise great video doesn’t mean that you are properly envisioning what the client is seeing in their head.

Next, ask follow up questions to get a better sense of what they see. Do you see green or red star wipes? Are the pictures of your dog filling the screen or are they mixed into a background? Is this 200 word text build a roll or a crawl?

After actually considering their suggestion with an open mind,  give your take on it. “Well Mr. Client, adding the chicken dance sequence back into chapter 3 may work and add some flair to that section but it’s already 2 o’clock and we just don’t have the time to fit it in because we still need to work on lower thirds.” Or, “Ok, let’s take 15 minutes to see what adding all 23 product logos to the end slate will look like and if it works great, but if not we can ditch it and move on.”

There are several factors at play here with an un-experienced end client. One, they have no idea what it takes to actually do what you do. Two, they have no idea how every element of a video lives in tandem with everything surrounding it and how they effect each other when they are changed. And three, all they do know is that what they are seeing right now is not what they want.

The best reaction is to listen to what they are saying, consider it, and then provide a practical solution that works, even if it is just to indulge them and show that in reality their idea does suck. Digging in your heels and pushing back with an attitude is no way to creatively collaborate on a project.

Now, if the client is an experienced producer or other creative director I take a whole different approach.

“Can you just make everything move in 3D around the screen?” “Can you just squeeze 3 more shots into this paragraph?” “Can you just remove her from the background and replace it with this animation?”

The first thing I remind myself when presented with an outrageous list of changes is that this isn’t their first rodeo. They have produced many videos before and will go on to produce many more. What they are suggesting to you is probably coming from past experience. Maybe it’s a technique that they used with another editor, or maybe it’s something a colleague of theirs did in a piece. In any case the suggestion is coming from somewhere where it worked in the past.

One of the hardest things to deal with is to be chugging along cutting like the wind and to have the client stop you in your tracks with a idea that goes in the complete opposite direction, something that’s not even close to what you were planning to do. After many years of grudgingly shuffling down their apparently insane train of thought I started to say this to myself:

“What they are suggesting may actually make the video better.”

Like I stated earlier, they have probably been working on this project for months before you ever saw it and they have a vision, and that vision is probably not a bad one. You need to just trust that what they are asking will actually work and give it a go. Most of the time I am humbly surprised that the change does work and does make the video better. The fact that I didn’t think of it doesn’t make it a bad idea. And in the end you just need to give the client what they want.

The second idea:
It’s your job to say no.

On the other end of the spectrum it is our job to say no to clients.

Why do clients hire us in the first place? Because they can’t edit the video themselves. They hire us because we know how to edit, because we bring a level of creativity and expertise to the table that they don’t have. They trust us to bring their vision to life and to incorporate our own unique vision into the video along the way.

It’s because of this that we need to push back and say no sometimes. “I think we should change the music during this section.” “I don’t like the color of the font you chose, change it to blue.” “What happened to the part about the rollerskating grandmother?”

Does saying no negate the first idea – give the client what they want? No.

What the client ultimately wants is the best possible video for their money and if it is absolutely clear that what they are asking for will harm the video or drive it over budget or past the deadline then they are not getting what they want. From our experience we are required to take a stand and say no.

Often times it is best to indulge the client first and show them why their idea is a bad one instead of just shrugging off the idea from the get-go. Remember that in their mind the idea works, however cloudy that image may be. You can put them at ease and convince them fully that the idea doesn’t work by un-muddling that image and mocking it  up on the screen for them. You have to give and take all the time during an edit and often take side trips and experiment to see whether ideas work or do not work.

I heard a great quote  some time ago: “Never say no to a client, just charge them more.”

For a long time I thought that quote was a good way to handle difficult demands by clients. But in hindsight I have found that throwing the budget or deadline back at the client to force them into submission is almost never the best way to handle things.

“Ok, Mr. Client, I can make those changes but what you just asked me to do will take 2 more days of work.”

Saying that almost always produces a scowl on the clients face. They hired you to get the job done for the budget you agreed to and by the deadline you set. Turning around and declaring that their ideas will blow the budget and deadline does not foster creative problem solving or encourage further communication. Instead, it builds a wall.

If in reality what they just asked you to do in the 11th hour will require 18 additional hours of work it is far better to suggest alternatives that don’t blow the budget or deadline (or at least don’t blow it as much).

In extreme situations like this, both sides are going to have to compromise. They are going to have to settle for something less then what they really want and you are going to have to put something together that is less then ideal as well. It may mean using Livetype over After Effects or stock images over custom.  Whatever the case, providing a compromise is always better then throwing the budget back in their face.

The SuiteTake Take:
If you take the time to listen and consider every idea your clients come to you with, and if necessary even test the idea out a little, you’ll quickly build a trusting relationship where your client values your input and response and respects you when you say no. Keep an open mind and remind yourself that your vision for the video is not the only one, and at times you’ll be surprised at how many ideas actually do make the video better. The trust between you and your client is a two way street. You need to first trust in their vision and experience, and in return they will trust in yours.

I’ve been an editor for a while now at several different shops. Through those days and places I have mostly been self taught until I ended up here with SuiteTake. At SuiteTake training and skill development is not just encouraged, it’s part of our daily responsibilities. Therefor, in the recent past my learning curve has increased dramatically.

The Top Ten things I wish I knew:

10. Shift and option dragging

9. Quick Ken Burns effect

8. QuickTime vs Quicktime Conversion.

7. The Black and code button.

6. Option 1,2,3 for transition alignment

5. Esc, tab, spacebar to navigate windows

4. Apply normalization to audio in FCP

3. Disable dropped frames warning.

2. Disable rendering with caps lock.

1. Map your keyboard.

The SuiteTake Take?

If you’re an experienced editor you probably know most of these already, however, if you’re just starting out like me so many years ago you’ll be putting yourself ahead of the game by learning these tricks now and not 10 years from now.

The following video tutorial demonstrates a list of 10 efficiencies and workflows with Final Cut Pro that I wish I had known from the start. If I had these often simple tricks in my pocket from day 1 I would have saved myself countless hours and heaps of frustration.

Ahhh the age old struggle between Final Cut Pro and After Effects. For what seems like centuries now us Final Cut Pro editors have been struggling with finding an efficient and, moreover, convenient workflow between FCP and After Effects. Sure, products like Livetype and Motion have come along and made life easier for some tasks but when it comes down to real motion graphics work and serious compositing nothing beats After Effects. Have you ever put Motion’s Primatte RT side by side with a key pulled from After Effects Keylight? To me there’s no comparison.

Coming from an editor’s chair, not a designer’s, it took me a while to really get up to speed with After Effects. In the past I was using AE infrequently for several reasons: 1. I didn’t know the interface and key commands well, 2. I didn’t know the software’s capabilities well, 3. I was intimidated by the rigid workflow between FCP and AE. All these factors equaled inefficent workflow and so I just usually opted not to use AE in favor of a faster and more flexible option like Livetype or Motion.

However, in the past year the work we have been doing has called more and more for serious graphics design and compositing, Livetype and Motion were simply not going to cut it. So I buckled down and really learned the After Effects interface, key commands and it’s capabilities. Through that hard work I quickly became much more efficent with AE and started creating some really cool stuff. But all this new-found efficency with AE itself still did nothing to help with a round-trip workflow to and from FCP. And if we can assume anything about Apple and Adobe there will probably never be an intergrated roundtrip solution between the two.

Now of course there are 3rd party solutions out there that help with this problem (at least half of the problem anyway). Automatic Duck is a great 3rd party solution that exports Final Cut Pro projects and timelines in a format that After Effects understands and converts to compositions. Bam, you’ve got half of the roundtrip issue solved right there, prepare a timline in FCP and export with Automatic Duck into AE and take care of your graphics and compositing. The problems? Output is still the same, you must render your comps out of AE and import them into FCP just like always. Then later if changes are needed you must go back to AE, make your changes, and re-render the revised comp and import back into FCP. The other problem, Automatic Duck is expensive. If you’re a home business or just struggling like everyone else in this economy buying the plug-in may not be an option.

I call this solution The Manual Duck. It doesn’t involve any special plug-ins or any other software, it’s just a few simple steps to add to the workflow that can make the trip to and from AE much easier, and more importantly, leave less room for errors requiring revisions in After Effects later.

I had a job recently where I knew that I was probably going to need to do almost entirely in After Effects. It was an image piece that involved nothing but text builds and a few stock images. The producers instructions were simply to take the “boring” corporate message and make it just “look cool.” Ahhh, is there anything better then the old “Just make it look cool…” line? And what’s more, from listening to the music that was selected, it was going to be a music driven edit.

In my opinion After Effects is not a good audio editor from a workflow perspective and have to cut to music in After Effects can be a big hassle being that there’s no “real” real-time playback or scrubbing of audio. All this added up to a perfect candidate for The Manual Duck workflow.

It’s simple really, start in Final Cut Pro. I laid down the music track in an empty timeline and made the audio edit (the track did need to be cut down and mixed a bit). Once I was happy with the audio I started to block out what I wanted the shots to be using the built-in text tool. I had the script and knew what order the text build had to go in. With the text tool I was able to very quickly block out where the individual sentences would go. I went along through the song and timed out all the text builds adding no style or animation of any sort. The key to this step is the speed at which you can work, just copy-paste the text clips from one edit to the next and copy-paste the next sentence from the script into the text tool. Format just a bit so the lines can be read and that’s all you need to do. Of course, if your project is more complex you can get as complex as you’d like during this step, adding images, transitions, etc. The point is that you lay everything down and time everything out in Final Cut Pro where you have quick real-time editing available with no significant render or RAM preview time.

The project blocked out in a FCP timeline

From there export the timeline to a codec that After Effects will play well with. Import that QT into AE and drop it into your Comp. From here you can proceed in the manner you prefer best. You can scrub through the Comp and add markers at the edit points or do split-track edits. Either way you can quickly scrub the Comp and see where you made edits in FCP with no need for audio playback or scrubbing. Also you now have a base layer that acts as a virtual storyboard. As you build your effects and composite you can easily solo the base QT layer to see what you blocked out next.

The FCP QT imported into an AE Comp

As a side note I after I have made my markers or split tracks I turn off the visibility and lock this layer to ease RAM preview time and avoid offsetting the layer with a stray drag.

The final composite

Now there’s nothing automated about the process and it doesn’t add any sort of round-tripping between the two but I’ve found that it helps a great deal with being efficient once in After Effects and leaves far less room for errors and mis-timimg. If you can build your graphics and composite and get it right the first time that is far more valuable than the extra time it took to block the project in Final Cut Pro.

Late last year we added a new camera package to our offerings at Edit Creations. In part because we wanted to diversify the services we had to offer, and also because it played into a spinoff company we’ve been working on. That new company would be a lot more production based then Edit Creations currently is.

We looked at all the options out there in the sub 10K price range, and after weeks of research ended up with a Sony EX-1. That really surprised me because when we started the search I was pretty much set on the Panasonic P2 format and the AG-HVX200A model. Not only do I have experience with that camera, but almost everything else we do is shot in the DVCPro HD format, so we have a nice workflow in place. More then that though, I can’t stand editing in the MPEG-2 format. It’s fine for shooting and can capture great images, but once you get it into the edit system you can be assured you will rendering more then ever before. But in the end, the Sony EX-1 won hands down in image quality, built in features, and price. There was just no denying it.

So, what to do with the workflow?

On the first several projects we tried multiple different ways of attacking the projects. Everything from working in the MPEG-2 format natively to converting everything to ProRes and editing with the converted files instead. We also have extensive experience working with the Sony software, which includes XDCam EX Clip Browser and XDCam Transfer.

In addition to all of this trial and error, I was training a client on how to handle the workflow for his own project (he was renting our camera). But it seemed every time I met with him I was saying “OK, I know I said do it like this, but now there’s a whole new way to do it”. Nothing like learning on the job to keep everybody on edge!

So here we are now, about 6 months later, with what I believe is a solid workflow. So if you’re using EX-1 (or XDCam footage of any kind) you can learn from our mistakes and start off on the right foot.

In The Field

If you’re new to using a tapeless format, it can be very unnerving to spend an entire day shooting and have no tape to show for. To avoid disaster, redundancy is the key.

A simple but important note – label your media cards!!! Use a sharpie or a nice printed label, but make sure each card has a unique name/number. This will avoid confusion in the field when you drop your cards into a pile of other cards and don’t know which ones have footage to download and which are empty. Seriously, this one little step can save you in the field.

Assuming you don’t have enough SxS cards to make it through an entire day of shooting, you’re going to have to offload the cards and erase them in the field so that they can be reused (see, you’re already freaking out). Here’s how we handle that task.

In addition to the producer, camera person and possible audio guy, it’s ideal to have a AP or junior tech person with you. The handling of the media cards is very important, and getting it wrong can be disastrous. Don’t underestimate how important this is, just because it’s easy. We call this person the Media Assistant (MA from here forward).

The MA has the job of offloading all cards in the field, checking to be sure files were successfully transferred, and then erasing the clips from the card so the card can be reused. The equipment used for this is a MacBook Pro and two portable FireWire or USB drives. You can do the same thing using the PC but we’re all Mac here so I’m unable to provide any details on that side of things.

As each card is filled by the cameraperson, it’s passed off to the MA. The MA will then load it into the Express 34 slot on the MBP and it will mount on the desktop as an external drive (make sure you have the proper drive installed on this machine so that the card will mount on the desktop properly). Then, using a program called Shotput EXPress, the media is copied, simultaneously, to two different external drives (you can do up to 3 different locations. While you can do this manually in the finder as well, Shotput EXPress makes it more automated and does a nice data verification as it copies everything over. It just adds another layer of security.

Once the media has been copied, Sony’s XDCam EX Clip Browser software is used to view the clips on the drives and verify that everything looks and sounds as it should. At this point we’re just spot checking a random sampling of clips. Once the MA is satisfied, the inserted SxS card is erased by selecting all clips and hitting the delete key (this is also done using the Clip Browser software). The card is then given back to the producer or camera person for use again.

Once the shoot is over and the producer is back at the office, the footage is all copied to 2 different full size (and less expensive) drives. One is used during the production of the project by the producers and editors, and the other is a backup, and is stored with the client. It’s essentially equivalent to the box of beta tapes the client would have received in the past. After the media is successfully copied to the larger drives, the mini-drives are erased and ready for the next shoot.

As a side note, don’t cheap out on your hard drives, especially the big ones that are the final destination for your camera originals. A good drive does not cost that much more then a cheap one. Just ask yourself how much your shot day is worth, and if you would be willing to pay to reshoot everything. I highly recommend buying drives from G-Technology. While they’re not the cheapest, they are backed up with the best warranty in the business, they run quite and most of all, cool. On the flip side, STAY AWAY FROM LACIE DRIVES! I can’t tell you the number of editors and clients who have horror stories about drive failures, myself included. We used to have a ton of them but sold them all on eBay just to avoid any additional disaster.

Preparing for the Edit

While the free Sony tools can be used to screen and prep for editing, we have opted to go the route of having a FCP work station for the producer. After doing it both ways, we feel this is the most efficient for both the producer and the editor. (We’re currently looking into setting up a FCP Server workstation to streamline this process even more).

At this point loading, logging and transferring footage is the same is using P2 footage. Using the Sony FCP Logging plugin outlined in a previous SuiteTake post, the footage is loaded into the Log & Transfer window and clips are marked and labeled. As each clip is identified, it’s added to the import cue and converted to QT movies that FCP can edit with. The files you end up are basically MPEG-2 files wrapped into a .mov file. (For faster logging, check out our post on log and capture shortcuts.)

While going through this process, the producer can import multiple clips from a single recorded clip, add clip names and log notes, and organize footage into multiple bins as desired. This is all typically done to a drive designated as the “project drive”, so what you end up with is a single drive that has the FCP logging project with all of the bins and clips, and all of the transferred and transcoded media. This is what is handed off to the editor at the start of the edit.

Once the editor receives the drive, the project file that the producer created is opened, and all bins/clips are copied and pasted into the current working project (or the template project if we’re starting one from scratch). The project the producer creates is treated as a log project only, we do not edit inside that project.

With the new bins/clips pasted into the working project, we then use media manager to move all of the logged footage to our local edit drives and re-link them. We never work off of client drives, and instead opt to always have the footage on our own system. Since we have dedicated raid systems on each edit system, it’s a lot faster and it’s easier to keep things organized on our end. Once everything is copied over and re-linked we eject the drive and give it back to the producer.

Editing

So the main drawback to editing with the XDCam/EX-1 footage is that it’s saved in the MPEG-2 format. Because it’s a long GOP format, there’s not actually a full frame of video for each recorded frame of video. So when editing, FCP has to recreate those missing frames. While on the fly editing it’s usually seamless, the moment you add a transition or anything else that requires editing FCP has to create these new frames (FCP Calls this “Conforming MPEG-2 Video”), and THEN render. It adds a whole new layer of processing and even on a fast machine it’s a slow process.

So, what to do? There are three basic options.

Transcode to ProRes
While logging and importing footage inside of the FCP Log & Transfer window, you don’t have the option to transcode the footage into any other format. However, once that the footage has been imported and wrapped into QT files, you do have the option to convert everything to ProRes using compressor. What you’ll end up with are iFrame based video files that look as good as the original, but are more “edit friendly”. You’ll be able to edit quickly in a ProRes sequence with minimal rendering, and be able to do compositing without watching the image degrade right in front of your eyes. The drawback is you’re adding another step to your process, and depending on the amount of footage you have and the speed of your machine, it can be a very timely step.

Edit Natively in the XDCam EX MPEG-2 Format
For some very simple and short projects, this is actually a good option. Just drag your first shot into the timeline and let FCP match the timeline to your raw footage, and everything will play and edit in real time and you’ll be pretty happy with how it all comes together. But there’s one trick to make it go smoothly.

After you’ve let FCP match the sequence settings to you footage, open up the settings for your sequence and go to the “Render Control” tab. Make sure all rendering is done to ProRes instead of Same as Sequence. This way whenever you do need to render it will take less time and you won’t be compressing back into the MPEG-2 format. This essentially removes the conforming step that FCP would otherwise need to perform, at least while editing.

Exporting your final sequence will go slower then you might be used to, but it’s usually tolerable unless your project is very complex with lots of effects/render files. Because you’re exporting back into the XDCam EX format, it has to convert everything back into the Long GOP MPEG-2 format, which is very slow even on a fast machine.

Edit in a ProRes Timeline
You can also setup your timeline as a ProRes timeline for whatever frame size/frame rate matches your source footage. Once you do this, you can edit with your footage and for the most part play it back in real time (except for some effects) with FCP’s RT timeline. The advantage to working in this way is that since you’re working in the ProRes codec, your footage will continue to look great even if you throw lots of layers, graphics and effects at your project.

The huge down side to this is everything, and I mean EVERY-THING must be rendered at one point or another. Even if you’re able to play things back in real time while you’re editing using the RT features of FCP, when it comes time to print to tape or export a master QT file, you will have to render everything and it can take a very long time, even on shorter projects. You will end up with a very nice, high quality ProRes master file, but if you’re on a tight deadline this might not the way to go.

The Best Way?
After trying all of the above approaches on multiple projects, I don’t think this is a single solution that fits every project. I think before starting each project the best thing to do is look at the details of that project and decide. For simple projects that are short, mostly cuts and dissolves, few graphics and no real layers, staying in the MPEG-2 format is by far the fastest way to go. But if you have a more complicated project with layers, keys, graphics and so on, I would work in the ProRes world so that the image quality holds up though all of the processing.

At least for the majority of projects we do, transcoding everything to ProRes before we start is not really efficient. It takes too long and just adds an extra step that we just don’t have the time for. So in my opinion the it’s just not worth the time penalty.

The SuiteTake Take?
The EX-1/EX-3 and the higher end XDCam cameras have all proven that you can create some great images and record them to the MPEG-2 format. MPEG-2 cameras have really matured over the years, and they’re far superior to the baby brother HDV format cameras.

But understand that if you go this route there are tradeoffs when you get to the postproduction stage. The tradeoffs are not nearly as bad as they used to be and there are now multiple ways to handle the challenges – but they are still tradeoffs.

When starting any project, you should always consider the entire work flow start to end before shooting your first frame of video. If after doing this the EX-1/EX-3 fit your production needs, I say go for it.

Believe it or not the built-in tools in iTunes can be useful in a Final Cut Pro working environment. In this quick video tutorial I’ll show you some hidden features in iTunes that can help you maximize your efficiency and better your organization when importing music tracks into FCP projects.

With more and more media being shot and delievered these days with tapeless media formats such as Panasonic’s P2 and Sony’s SxS, efficency with Final Cut Pro’s Log and Transfer tool is more valuable than ever.

In this video tutorial I’ll show you how to log and transfer all of your tapeless media using only keyboard shortcuts. Once your clips are loaded into the Log and Transfer window you’ll be able to log the entire batch without touching the mouse once. 

If you’ve ever had to edit with the Sony XDCam format, you already know that the work flow can be a challenge, especially if you’re using Final Cut Pro. While the Panasonic P2/DVCPro HD format integrates very well with the Log and Transfer tool, XDCam has had many shortcomings. That is, until now. 

Sony recently released version 1.0 of their log and transfer plugin that works with both XDCam and the newer SxS solid state media cameras like the EX-1 and EX-3. 

Installation is very simple, and no restart is required except for relaunching Final Cut Pro. When you open the Log and Transfer tool, you won’t find anything visibly different, but when you select XDCam media, either from a hard drive or directly from a SxS card, the footage now loads, and you can log and transfer the same way that you can P2 footage. 

In limited testing, we have found it to work as expected. The only downside is that you can’t transcode the footage into another format during import. This would be a helpful feature since editing in the XDCam format less then ideal. But for now, we’re pretty excited to see Sony improving the workflow and look forward to future upgrades. 

You can find more information by visiting Sony. 

DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE