Distributing Media

General Concepts

The end goal of video editing is to produce some final product. That final product should have been held fast in mind during all the stages of production. The end goal should drive how a film is made. If the film is to be turned into a media stream for the internet, then it should be filmed with that in mind (motion should be kept down if possible, small detail should be avoided, etc).

Objectives

• Output to a DV tape
• Output to VHS tape
• Output to file

Final Cut Pro can produce many forms of data. The main output options that students are interested in are:

• Out to DV tape (loss less storage for DV files)
• Out to VHS tape
• Some local media (CD, DVD, streaming, etc)

In addition to being able to output the media in the time line, FCP can save the project file you are working on (or have finished). This file is basically all of your editing decisions, and information about where the media came from that was used in the project. The file is very small, and can be used to recreate the entire project if the media has been captured and labeled correctly when the project was set up. It is usually a good idea to save a completed project file, and store it along with the original media, in case changes are needed later.

DV Output

DV is a loss less transfer method. As data is moved from the original tape to FCP and back, there is no degradation of the data. This makes outputting files to DV from FCP a great way to store a project, even if it is not complete yet. The DV standard is also a very high resolution format, and so the image quality will be significantly better on DV rather than VHS. Most DV cameras can play tapes directly to a TV, so a dedicated deck is not needed for miniDV tapes.

To print a video project to miniDV in the labs using the decks provided:

1. Turn on Device Control in the Log and Capture window.
2. Select the DV button on the VCR.
3. Set the channel on the VCR to F-1.
4. Select the LEFT arrow on the Dub circle (pointing to the right).
5. Select File>Print to Video.
6. Follow any onscreen instructions.
7. FCP will then be able to control the DV tape deck and start and stop the recording action without any outside help.

VHS Output

Although Final Cut Pro was designed to work with modern digital video, there are still many clients who wish to output their project to VHS tape. VHS tape is very inexpensive, the quality is all right for most productions, and players are everywhere.

The VCRs in the labs are connected to the computers via Firewire. The VHS side of the VCR cannot respond to device control, so you sort of have to trick the system into printing to the VHS deck. You do that by following these steps:

1. Select the DV (not the SVHS) button on the VCR.
2. Set the channel on the VCR to F-1.
3. Select the LEFT arrow on the Dub circle (pointing to the right).
4. Set the channel on the VCR to F-1.
5. Select the SVHS tape button on the VCR.
6. Once the VCR is ready to go, select File>Print to Video.
7. Follow any onscreen instructions.
8. You will most likely be required to press the Record button on the VRC yourself.

Other Output

Final Cut Pro is based on QuickTime, and therefore has the ability to save files in any QuickTime Format. Final Cut Pro can export QuickTime files via the Export item under the file menu. One of the options under Export is QuickTime movie. Using this setting, you could choose any of the supported QuickTime Codecs at any data- rate. You could also select DV Stream from the export menu if you wished to save a stand-alone DV (loss less) file on the local hard drive rather than a miniDV tape.

Final Cut Pro is not the most efficient option in the labs for creating media files for distribution, however. We have in the labs a program called Cleaner. This program can take digital video files and compress them quickly (relative to FCP) into many different formats. The best way to get a FCP sequence into Media Cleaner for compression is to export a Final Cut Pro Reference Movie. This is a very small file that points to all of the media used in your composition. Creating such a file only takes a few seconds, and then it can be treated just like a stand-alone movie (i.e. it can be compressed, or burned to media) and it will reference back to the real files.