Final Cut Pro HD | H•O•T Hands-On Training [Electronic resources]

Larry Jordan

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1. Print to Video

In this exercise, you will learn how to output your project to tape. Specifically, this includes learning how and when to use Print to Video.

1.

Start Final Cut and open Chapter 12 Lesson. It's in the FCP Projects/FCP HOT files folder you created at the beginning of this book. Double-click Seq Snowboard Final to load it to the Timeline.

This is my version of the commercial you've been working on during this book, plus a few extra goodies: a modified nested sequence for the open fromChapter 11," Filters and Keying," new transitions fromChapter 8," TransitionsMaking Change Beautiful," and audio fades fromChapter 7, " AudioThe Secret to a Great Picture."

It's time to output this to tape. First, though, a note on rendering.

NOTE | Rendering for Output

During editing, a variety of transitions and effects will cause render bars to appear over your video or audio elements. Generally, green bars mean the effect can play in real time.

Generally, that is, but not at output.

When you get ready to output your project, Final Cut renders everything. And, if you have set your render settings to lower qualitya really bad idea, which is why I haven't discussed it in this bookFinal Cut will re-render all your effects at the highest quality.

This final rendering occurs after you complete the Print to Video or Edit to Tape dialog. And, sometimes, this rendering can take a while. You can decrease your wait time by rendering your whole sequence first.

Choose Sequence > Render All > Both (press Option+R) and make sure everything is checked.

When this render is complete, you will notice that Print to Video and Edit to Tape are ready to output much more quickly than before you did this rendering. This can especially save time if you have multiple tapes you need to create, since you are only waiting to render once, rather than every time FCP needs to output a new tape.

2.

Go to the Browser and select the sequence you want to output. In this case, choose Seq Snowboard final.

3.

Choose File > Print to Video, or press Ctrl+M.

[View full size image]

This is the Print to Video dialog. If you are outputting a tape for the Client to review, or for your Aunt Joyce to show to the family, these default settings are fine, with one exception…

NOTE | Choosing Between "Print to Video" and "Edit to Tape"

How do you decide whether to use Print to Video or Edit to Tape? Well, it all comes down to timecode.

If all you want to do is output your project to tape, Print to Video is your best choice.

If you need to output your project and have it start at a specific timecode on the record tape, you'll need to use Edit to Tape.

For most DV editors, most of the time, Print to Video will be fine. For editors of broadcast projects, Edit to Tape will most often be a better choice, as you will learn in Exercise 2.

4.

Change the Trailer from 5 to 60 seconds.

The Trailer setting determines how much black will be output by Final Cut after your sequence is complete. Five seconds is too short a time for someone to get up and turn off the tape. Sixty is more reasonable.

(If you are outputting to VHS tape, the industry standard is to fill the remainder of the tape with black, so that the viewer never sees "snow" at the end of the tape. That assumes, of course, you are using a tape length close to the length of your program. There's no advantage to outputting two hours of black just to fill the tape.)

A check box that's new with FCP HDis Automatically Start Recording. Rendering can take a long time, in fact, probably more time than you'd like to sit and wait. By checking this check box, if Final Cut has machine control over your deck (as is true with virtually all FireWire-connected decks), then, it will switch your deck into Record mode 3 seconds after rendering is complete. This means you don't need to wait; it can all be automatic.

Very cool. Except… um, I like watching this last playback to tape. Just to be sure nothing goes wrong. Not, of course, that it ever does. Much. So, I check this box, but I don't leave the room.

5.

Click OK. Behind the scenes, Final Cut does a final mixdown of your audio to a stereo file and makes sure all video has been rendered.

6.

This dialog appears when FCP is ready to output. Press Record on your deck or camera, click OK in this dialog, and watch your movie.

7.

When the recording is done, Final Cut will switch your deck out of Record. Extra black at the tail (end) of your video is always a good idea. The amount of black at the end is determined by the number you entered for the Trailer in step 4.

Ta-DA! Finished. Whew!

8.

That's it for Print to Video. In the next exercise, you'll learn about a more sophisticated way to lay video back to tape, but for now, take a break. Quit Final Cut, if you wish. Otherwise, keep this project open, as you'll use it again. Because you made no changes, there's nothing you need to save to disk.