Visual QuickStart Guide [Electronic resources] : Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X

Lisa Brenneis

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Capture Clip: Capturing Video with Device Control

Capture Clip combines logging tasks (marking In and Out points, naming the clip, entering comments) and capturing a single clip. Using a controllable DV camcorder or deck allows you to mark In and Out points at specific timecodes and capture exactly the section you marked. Later, you'll be able to recapture the exact same clip by using the Capture Project feature.

To capture a clip with device control:

Make sure your video device is properly connected and device control is operational. If you're using a camcorder, make sure it's switched to Play (VCR) mode; similarly, if you're using a deck with a Local/Remote switch, make sure the switch is set to Remote.

Choose File > Capture (Figure 5.14 ).

Figure 5.14. Choose File > Capture.

Capture Strategies to Manage Project Media

It's tempting to skip the time-consuming process of logging and capturing individual DV clips and just hit the Capture Now button. Final Cut Express offers DV Start/Stop Detection and subclipping to handle extra-long clips (see the next section for details). So why not capture whole tapes and log them after you've captured?

The primary reason to go to the extra trouble of capturing shorter individual clips is because once you've captured a large clip, you can't easily delete the unused portions of its huge media file.

FCE's media management options are limited, allowing you only to manually delete whole clips and their associated media files, and to recapture all DV project clips with the Capture Project feature. Neither of these options allows you to discard unused portions of the media file.

If you're desperate to reclaim some drive space, you can shed unused portions of a media file by exporting a clip that contains just the part of the media you want to keep, but you'll have to re-import the trimmed clip and then re-edit into your sequence. For more information on exporting a clip, see Chapter 19, "Creating Final Output."

Use the transport controls in the Capture window to control the source device and locate the footage that you want to capture (Figure 5.15 ). If you have full device control enabled, you can also navigate to a specific timecode location on your source tape by entering a timecode value in the Current Timecode field.

Figure 5.15. Use the transport controls in the Capture window to control your video deck and locate the footage that you want to capture.

[View full size image]

In the Capture window, specify a capture bin using one of the methods described in the previous task.

Enter logging information for your clip (follow steps 4 through 6 in "To enter log information" earlier in this chapter).

To mark a clip,

do one of the following:

Click the Mark In and Mark Out buttons (Figure 5.16 ); or press I to set the In point and press O to set the Out point.

Figure 5.16. Click the Mark Out button to set an Out point for the capture. You could also enter a timecode value in the Out point timecode field.
Enter specific timecodes in the timecodes fields at the bottom of the Capture window. Enter the In point in the left timecode field and the Out point in the right timecode field.

Click the Capture Clip button located at the bottom of the window (Figure 5.17 ).

Figure 5.17. Click the Capture Clip button located at the bottom of the Capture tab.