30 sec broadcast spot with Final Cut Express

L

Ljdiedrich

New member
Hello,
I'm just getting into video production and have the opportunity to produce a 30 sec commercial for a local business on television. My question is, can i achieve broadcast quality with Final Cut Express? The footage will be shot using a Panasonic DVX 100B. Does a TV station prefer the broadcast master on DV or DVD? I don't have Beta...
I have a feeling I've got a lot to learn. Thanks in advance for your help and time!
 
The short answer is, "Yes, you can get broadcast quality with FCE." If you are shooting with the DVX, once it's on tape it is all 1s and 0s. It's not like trying to edit BetaSP through a "Thumbs-Up" editor. You can't kill the DV signal like that with FCE, and you'll have access to most of the basic tools you'll need.

As David pointed out, you need to talk to the broadcast facilities and see what delivery medium they require, or which ones they can accept. I deliver to stations here on DVCAM.

But FCE has its limitations, especially with TC on the time line. You can't start a sequence at anything but 00:00:00:00. I don't know if you can get it to tape with the right TC, either, since the tape needs to start at 00:58:00:00 and the first fram of program at 01:00:00:00. That's typical for delivery, but no matter what you need to have an accurate starting point on the tape. I've not tried doing this with FCE, so it may be entirely possible (assuming you black the tape with the right TC first) to edit to tape like that.

You also will not be able to work with 24p material in FCE (that is, 24pa... you can shoot in standard 24p and edit as 29.97).

EDIT: Just fired up FCE and no, it cannot do an assemble edit to tape with accurate TC in and out. It can only do a crash edit.
 
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Can you Export Seq Tiffs or tgas from FCE.

Can be handy to use these as an export method to a full version of FCP that may then be able to output as the station requires.
 
Shooter said:
Can you Export Seq Tiffs or tgas from FCE.

Can be handy to use these as an export method to a full version of FCP that may then be able to output as the station requires.
Click to expand...

Why not just build your whole sequence (including B&T and slate and countdown) in FCE, export a self-contained movie, and then drop it into a FCP time line for proper edit to tape?
 
I don't have access to FCP, I might have to pony-up the $$$ and ditch FCE, huh? I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that. If it does come to that, I might look at a used version. Do you recommend I do the full Final Cut Studio or simply get a version of FCP 4, 5, or 6? Is the compressor good enough on those version?

Thank you all for your help so far!
 
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C2V said:
Why not just build your whole sequence (including B&T and slate and countdown) in FCE, export a self-contained movie, and then drop it into a FCP time line for proper edit to tape?
Click to expand...


Advantage of seq. tiffs or .tga is that they can be imported into FCP , Premiere, Flame, After Effects, Maya ... easily. Very cross platform unlike qt from any FCP application. Many broadcasts are now file based (not tape - eg mpeg) so the workflow from seq. can be efficient.

Output can be at max quality and suitable for broadcast. Encoding them is simple. They are very versatile. No Codecs Involved. Require separate export of audio track though.

Qt (.mov) can be problematic and also can have gamma issues for broadcast if not managed properly.

I am not sure absolutely if FCE can produce seq. files but would be almost certain that it can.
 
Shooter said:
Advantage of seq. tiffs or .tga is that they can be imported into FCP , Premiere, Flame, After Effects, Maya ... easily. Very cross platform unlike qt from any FCP application.
Click to expand...

For cross-platform, yes. The question I answered was specifically moving from FCE to FCP. But if you want wider compatibility, you're absolutely right.
 
At this point the OP does not know how he is going to get his output to broadcast so my suggestion offers him / her some flexibilty at both ends of the process as well as being broadast quality.
 
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