Final Cut Pro X First Impressions or “FCP, I Hope You Feel Better Soon”

With the major changes in Apple's new version of Final Cut Pro X, we've had a lot of people asking if MediaStorm is making the switch, and what we think of the program. This essay is the first in a series of MediaStorm producers responding to FCP X. Apple giveth and Apple taketh away. And with the release of Final Cut Pro X, Apple did a lot of both. Among the missing (at least for the moment): the ability to import FCP 7 projects. the ability to export only a portion of your project multicam support the auto-save vault And on and on.  To be fair, Apple recently promised to reintroduce absent functionality in future versions. It’s still painful to work with an incomplete toolset, particularly given that the toolset was doing pretty darn well just last week. Yes, FCP X is a 1.0 release but Apple is not new to this…

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MediaStorm’s Ten Tips for Working With Music in Multimedia

Music is an all too frequently overlooked facet of multimedia production. In this ongoing series of tutorials to improve your multimedia, I'll explain 10 techniques that the MediaStorm team utilizes when working with music. First, though, a few definitions commonly used to describe musical attributes. Tempo: the speed of a musical composition, how fast or slow it's played. Timbre: the voice or sound of an instrument. A stringed instrument has a different timbre than a piano or a saxophone. Pitch: the frequency of a sound. Bass notes have a low pitch; the upper octaves of a piano produce a higher pitch. Rhythm: the variation in length between sounds and accents. Rhythm is often tapped onto a surface. 1. Decide whether to use music. If the music you've chosen is not exceptional, don't use it. Viewers need only a single small reason to stop watching your work; poor music is a big one.…

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MediaStorm documents Final Cut workflows for the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D300

Since its release, the Canon 5D Mark II has become the de facto video camera for many photojournalists. Despite some technical challenges, like the ability to follow focus and the low-fi built-in microphone, the visual quality is simply stunning. Prosumer video gear just can't touch its filmic look or depth-of-field. For examples, check out the gorgeous work of Jeff Hutchens and Nacho Corbella in the MediaStorm workshop project Hold Out. More recent workshop attendees Deanne Fitzmaurice and Doug Grant also used the 5D to beautiful effect in Family Kocktail. It's not hard to understand why the Canon 5D Mark II, and now the Nikon D300, have become so popular. But to make these files Final Cut Pro compliant there remain a number of technical hurdles. To help with this, MediaStorm has documented our workflow with each of these cameras in two separate PDFs. These documents detail the transcoding process in Compressor, demonstrate…

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Finally, a custom designed multimedia bag

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Think Tank Photo makes some mighty fine bags and so when they sent MediaStorm samples of their new Multimedia Wired Up Collection bags, we were excited. Recently I had a chance to put them through their paces working in the field. Intelligently designed and well constructed, the combination of the WiredUp 20 beltpack and the Mic Drop bag best fit the still and audio gear I carry. The belt is brilliant for taking the weight off your shoulder and I find that adding a strap helped me balance it perfectly between my hips and shoulder and made it a snap to spin it from back to front so I could quickly change from carrying mode to working mode. The belt also serves as base to attach other components, including a cool headphone hook (it's included) and the auxiliary Mic Drop bag which big enough to carry a large "dead cat" wind screen…

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MediaStorm’s Multiclip Workflow

One of the benefits of shooting two-camera interviews is the ability to cut between angles without having to use b-roll to cover an edit.

For an example of this technique see On the Road with Danny Wilcox Frazier, an interview with the Driftless photographer.

Final Cut syncs two-camera interviews by creating multiclips. Multiclips act as a sort of wrapper, bundling two or more angles into one clip so that you can seamlessly edit between them.

(NOTE: This workflow assumes that you have asked your subjects to clap their hands at the beginning of the interview as a way to sync your cameras during the editing process.)

The first step in editing a two-camera interview is to make sure both tapes will be in sync when you create the multiclip.

To do this, load the clip from the first camera angle into Final Cut’s Viewer.

Mark an IN point (I) at the first frame of your subject clapping. You may need to scrub
back and forth with the arrow keys to find it. On occasion, the visual may appear to be a frame or two off from the actual clap. Mark IN based on the sound, not the picture.

Repeat this process with your clip from the second camera angle. Mark an IN where you hear the clap here, too.

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