Some Questions

[Huy Vu]

I just entered a contest where they'll only let me cut my film on FCP 5.1. Being a Premiere person I have next to zero experience with FCP, so please help me out.

I saw the general layout of FCP and it seems like the basics is similar to Premiere, so that part I can figure out. I have one questions though. I'm submitting my film in the foreign film category and I plan to do hardsub in English. In Premiere I would just create a title but how would I do this in FCP?

In the next couple of days I'll probably come up with more questions, so thanks for helping me :grin: .

 

[VaricamLife]

Apple Pro Training books...

Apple Pro Training books...

First and foremost, run to a book store and get Apple Pro Training Series books for Final Cut Pro 5. There is the main on and an advanced book. At the very least I would get the base one, but if possible get both. Even if you don't have time to actually read through them all and do the lessons, they can act as an immediate reference tool at your side.

As for the sub-titles, you can simply create titles in FCP as well. Then just adjust their X,Y co-ordinates for the lower thirds (when the title effect is loaded in the viewer its under the motion tab). You'll find the titling options in FCP in the Effects tab (I believe under one of the video generator folders). Be warned though, FCP text has long since been considered sub-par in terms of quality. Its certainly a 'good enough' solution for many things, but I wouldn't consider it 'good' persay. If you have the entire Final Cut Pro suite at your disposal and the time you may want to invest some time to explore Motion and/or LiveType (seems like overkill for sub-titling, but might be the most accessible work around if the built in text of FCP doesn't work for you).

cheers.

 

[Matulis]

I think you're scaring us FCP users with terms like "hardsub"... or just me, because I don't know that term. ;-)
If you're simply trying to add subtitles to your track, there's a "text" filter under the Effects tab, in the Video Generators / Text folder that should do it.

 

[Huy Vu]

I think you're scaring us FCP users with terms like "hardsub"... or just me, because I don't know that term. ;-)
If you're simply trying to add subtitles to your track, there's a "text" filter under the Effects tab, in the Video Generators / Text folder that should do it.

Sorry, by hardsub I simply mean subtitles that are a part of the video itself and not part of a DVD track. The contest requires me to turn in the FCP project files for them to verify that I've actually cut the film using that program, so I won't be turning in my submission on a DVD.

VaricamLife, unfortunately I won't have time to get the book either because we're required to film, edit and submit our project within a week. But thanks for the advice, I'll certainly give it a try.