Apple Final Cut Studio User Manual

Final Cut Studio

Workflows

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Introduction5Preface

About Final Cut Studio Workflows5 About the Final Cut Studio Documentation6 Additional Resources6

Developing a Post-Production Strategy9Chapter 1

The Overall Post-Production Workflow Explained9 Why Design Your Workflow in Advance?13 Types of Overall Workflows14

Ingesting and Organizing Your Media27Chapter 2

What Is Ingest?27 Importing Information to Aid in Capturing29 Choosing the Best Ingest Strategy for Your Workflow30 Ingest Methods Based on Media Type32 Asset Management and Organization44

Integration During Editorial Development49Chapter 3

What Is Editorial Development?49 Importing Editorial Information from Other Sources50 Integrating Titles and Broadcast Design Elements During Editing52 Audio Cleanup and Sound Design During the Offline Edit57

Client Review61Chapter 4

Arranging for Client Review61 Local Review Methods62 Remote Review Methods63

Finishing65Chapter 5

What Is Finishing?66 Finishing Using Compressed Versus Uncompressed Media67 Format Conversion When Finishing Mixed-Format Sequences69 Reconforming Media to Online Quality71 Creating Final Broadcast Design Elements and Effects79

Color Correction82 Final Sound Editing, Design, and Mixing90

Mastering97Chapter 6

What Is Mastering?97 Creating Versions of a Program with and Without Titles98 Format Conversion99 Subtitling and Closed Captioning100 Delivering Audio105

Output and Delivery109Chapter 7

How to Output?109 Doing a Negative Conform115 Long-Term Archiving of the Finished Project and Media115

4 Contents

Introduction

This preface covers the following:

• About Final Cut Studio Workflows (p. 5)

• About the Final Cut Studio Documentation (p. 6)

• Additional Resources (p. 6)

The Final Cut Studio Workflows document has been designed to summarize the overall post-production process and show how the various applications in Final Cut Studio fit into it. This manual also explains how the applications in Final Cut Studio work together, letting you send projects and media from one environment to another to perform specialized tasks.

About Final Cut Studio Workflows

Although every video and film program has different needs, the truth is that the post-production workflows of most programs, from music videos to feature-length documentaries, follow a very similar path. Every program needs to have its source media ingested, organized, edited, and color corrected; its audio mixed; and the entire program mastered and finally output; more or less in that order.

Preface

Where the workflows of various projects differ is in finding the best way to match the acquisition format of the source media to the type of output that’s required for exhibition, at the highest level of quality appropriate for the budget.

For example, if you’re working on a documentary or narrative feature, your workflow will vary depending on the combination of acquisition and delivery formats you use. Possible combinations include:

• Shoot using a high definition camera for a broadcast release

• Shoot using a digital cinema camera for film output

• Shoot on film for a direct-to-DVD release

• Shoot on film for finishing via a digital intermediate workflow

• Shoot on film for finishing via a negative conform

There are many more possible combinations of input and output formats, and Final Cut Studio can accommodate nearly all of them. The important thing to remember is that the type of program you’re working on has less of an effect on your workflow plan than do decisions concerning how best to match the original acquisition format of your media to the required output format of your program’s final master. Once that’s settled, everything in between can be determined based on your hardware setup, how much time you have to complete the project, and how you like to work.

As much as is possible, Final Cut Studio Workflows attempts to provide a universal guide to creating a workflow using the Final Cut Studio applications, based on the factors that will have the greatest effect on increasing your efficiency in post-production.

About the Final Cut Studio Documentation

Final Cut Studio Workflows provides an overview of relevant features in the Final Cut Studio applications that support the workflows being described, but for more information, consult the documentation for each application. To access the onscreen help for an application, open the application and choose the application’s help from the Help menu.

The documentation for the Final Cut Studio applications is also available (in English) at:

• http://documentation.apple.com

Additional Resources

The following websites provide general information, updates, and support information about Final Cut Studio, as well as the latest news, resources, and training materials.

Final Cut Studio Website

For more information about the applications included in Final Cut Studio, go to:

• http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/overview.html

Apple Service and Support Websites

The Apple Service and Support website provides software updates and answers to the most frequently asked questions for all Apple products, including all Final Cut Studio applications. You’ll also have access to product specifications, reference documentation, and Apple product technical articles:

• http://www.apple.com/support

For support information about all Final Cut Studio applications, go to:

• http://www.apple.com/support/finalcutstudio

6 Preface Introduction

Discussion forums are also available to share information about each of the applications in Final Cut Studio. To participate, go to:

• http://discussions.apple.com

For more information about the Apple Pro Training Program, go to:

• http://www.apple.com/software/pro/training

7Preface Introduction

Developing a Post-Production Strategy

This chapter covers the following:

• The Overall Post-Production Workflow Explained (p. 9)

• Why Design Your Workflow in Advance? (p. 13)

• Types of Overall Workflows (p. 14)

This chapter discusses, in broad strokes, the overall workflows and strategies you can employ for ingesting, editing, finishing, and mastering various kinds of programs. In the process, you can see how choosing one ingest strategy over another affects not just how you work in Final Cut Pro, but also how you’ll eventually finish, color correct, and master your program.

The Overall Post-Production Workflow Explained

Every project has its own unique requirements. Factors such as the acquisition format chosen for the shoot, the amount of media that must be managed during editing, the overall quality of the media, and the delivery requirements for the final product all have a hand in shaping the details of your workflow.

Before focusing on where workflows diverge in different projects, it’s helpful to take a

Ingesting and

organizing

media

Editorial

development

Finishing

Mastering

Client

review

Output

and delivery

step back and look at how all workflows are alike. In this overview, you can see how every single project you work on in Final Cut Studio—from music videos to educational and corporate communication programs to feature films—follows the same basic process.

Stage 1: Ingesting and Organizing Your Media

The first stage in any post-production pipeline is to ingest the film-originated, tape-based, or tapeless media files that you shot or generated into Final Cut Pro. Different types of media require different ingest methods; for example, ingesting from tape requires the Log and Capture window, and ingesting from a tapeless format requires the Log and Transfer window. Ingesting film-originated media, on the other hand, requires additional steps to develop the camera negative and transfer it to a video or image format that can be ingested into Final Cut Pro, sometimes with the help of Cinema Tools and Color.

During ingest, you’ll already be taking steps to organize your media by choosing what media to ingest and by adding logging information, such as clip names and notes. After ingest is complete, you immediately take other organizational steps to sort clips into bins and review, mark, and annotate each clip using controls in the Browser.

Although most of this work takes place in Final Cut Pro, other applications may come into play during this part of the process. Transferred film may come into Final Cut Pro through a Cinema Tools database, which provides additional logging and tracking data from the film-transfer process. Multiple-suite post-production facilities may benefit from using Final Cut Server to manage project and media files on a storage area network (SAN) to facilitate projects worked on by a post-production team.

10 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

There’s one key decision that you make during ingest that affects editorial development, and later, finishing. This is whether to ingest your program’s media at an offline resolution, where visual quality is lower but the media is easier to work with, or at an online resolution, where the visual quality is superior but the media requires more processing power to work with and more storage space.

For more information about using Final Cut Pro, Cinema Tools, and Color for different ingest strategies, see “Ingesting and Organizing Your Media.”

Stage 2: Editorial Development

Editorial development is when your project is put together. Sometimes referred to as the offline edit or the story edit, this is where the raw media that you ingested in stage 1 is turned into an edited program.

Some programs are assembled entirely within Final Cut Pro, where you can create all the titles and effects you need and do any necessary sound design right in your sequence while you edit. However, don’t forget that there are other applications in Final Cut Studio that you can turn to for specialized tasks. For example, you can create master templates in Motion for use as generators from within Final Cut Pro, or you can use Motion to create broadcast graphics and composites that you can then edit into the Final Cut Pro Timeline. As you work, you can also send specific audio clips from the Final Cut Pro Timeline directly to Soundtrack Pro to do things like eliminate noise, create ambient noise to patch holes, and do equalization matching on a clip-by-clip basis.

Whether you use one application or many, all of a program’s elements come together in your edited sequence, helping to guide your editorial decisions as you work to complete the program’s content.

For more information about how Final Cut Pro works with other Final Cut Studio applications at this stage of the process, see “Integration During Editorial Development.”

Stage 3: Client Review

If you’re working on a project for a client, frequent and specific feedback is an absolute requirement. If you’re working in a supervised session, you can simply play your project from the Final Cut Pro Timeline. However, there are times when you may be working unsupervised, with clients who are remotely located, or when you want to provide a version of the program that can be screened at another location. Final Cut Studio provides many ways of delivering individual clips or entire sequences to clients for remote viewing, such as via a QuickTime movie or DVD, on the web, or even interactively in iChat.

For more information about using Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and DVD Studio Pro to deliver a program for review, see “Client Review.”

11Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Stage 4: Finishing

After a program’s story has been edited and the project’s content is considered complete, it’s time to give the program its final polish and tweaking, appropriately referred to as finishing. The first part of finishing, if you’ve been working on your project using offline-quality media, is to conform your edited sequence to the highest-quality version of the original source media that’s available. The best way to do this depends on how the original media was acquired, how you ingested the media, and how carefully you managed the media during editorial development.

If your offline edit combines source media in several different formats, now may be the time to convert any clips that don’t match the final sequence settings so that the entire program is easy to output. Compressor has format-conversion capabilities that facilitate this process.

This is also the time when all temporary elements like placeholder titles, offline effects, and other placeholder media must be replaced with their final, online-quality versions. As always, these elements can be created inside of Final Cut Pro or in conjunction with Motion.

Lastly, once your sequence has been carefully reconformed and prepared, your program is ready for color correction and the final sound mix. Final Cut Studio has dedicated applications for each of these tasks, appropriately named Color and Soundtrack Pro.

For more information about using Final Cut Pro with Motion, Color, and Soundtrack Pro, see “Finishing.”

Stage 5: Mastering

Mastering is the process of assembling everything your project needs into a single, deliverable bundle for handoff.

In some cases, this process is as simple as making sure that the video and audio elements are assembled into a final sequence for output to tape. In other cases, mastering may involve assembling a much longer list of deliverable media files, including separate versions of the program with and without titles (also called texted and textless versions), format conversions, closed captioning and subtitle insertion, and alternative audio mixes for different audiences.

For more information about which Final Cut Studio applications can help with these potential mastering requirements, see “Mastering.”

Stage 6: Output and Delivery

Output and delivery is the last stage ofthe post-production process. As the name implies, it’s the process of creating the final, playable media that you then hand off to the client and audience. Output can take many forms: rendering a DPX image sequence for film printing, outputting to an appropriately high-quality tape format, creating a DVD, or compressing your program to a format suitable for web playback.

12 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

For more information about how Final Cut Pro, Compressor, DVD Studio Pro, and Color work together to output to any of these delivery media, see “Output and Delivery.”

Why Design Your Workflow in Advance?

Final Cut Studio provides numerous tools for performing the many tasks that each program requires, along with features for integrating industry-standard, third-party applications into your post-production workflow. A bit of forethought will allow you to use these tools most efficiently and to their best advantage.

What are the advantages of careful attention to workflow design?

You’ll save money

Working out what you’ll need at each stage of post-production can help you control your post-production budget. As you can imagine, there are many ways of spending money during post-production, whether by renting equipment like video decks for high-end tape ingest, booking time at a facility to do film-to-tape transfers, or hiring talent to perform specialized tasks that are outside your domain of expertise. The workflows you choose have a big effect on how much money you’ll spend on these types of details. For example, something as simple as choosing an appropriate ingest strategy can save you money down the road. You can determine the format of video that would be most cost-effective to ingest based on how long it takes for different offline formats to be reconformed, the amount and type of disk storage that is available to you, what degree of finishing and what mastering elements your program requires, and the video decks to which you and any facility you’re working with have access. During post-production, nearly every choice you make has the potential to impact your budget.

You’ll save time

Being careful about your workflow also eliminates unnecessary steps. For example, if you determine that the duration of your program is such that you can fit all the necessary media on your available storage disks, and the acquisition format is easily handled by your system at online quality, you may elect to work right from the beginning at online quality. This simple decision eliminates the entire step of reconforming offline-quality media to online quality, which can be a significant time savings. However, if you determine that the online-quality media will be so processor- and space-intensive to work with that you’ll lose time during editing, it may make sense to go with an offline/online ingest strategy after all.

13Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

You can focus on being creative, rather than on fixing problems

Lastly, working out your post-production strategy in advance lets you avoid problems before they come up. For example, if you’re working with film that was telecined to video as an inexpensive “one-light” transfer, and you know in advance that you’ll be requesting specific sections of the video to be retransferred at “best-light” settings, you can request a telecine log file. You can then import the telecine log file into Final Cut Pro to automatically create a database of the film edge code–to–video timecode correspondences prior to editing, so that later it’s easy to export a pull list for the retransfer. Neglecting to do this in advance can result in additional steps and potential hassle down the road (time that you’d probably rather spend creating an innovative title sequence in Motion).

Types of Overall Workflows

The following sections offer some generalizations about the most typical workflows you may find yourself pursuing. Whether you’re creating a video for the web or finishing a feature destined for theatrical exhibition, one of these workflow templates probably applies to your program.

Each workflow focuses on the most common combinations of acquisition format and delivery medium. Although the steps between ingest and output may vary in their specifics, these workflows are meant to give you an overall look at how to organize your work for any particular program, before sending you to the other chapters in this guide for more information about particular ingest, editing, and finishing workflows.

The workflow overviews that are provided include:

• “Acquired on Video for Output to the Web”

• “Acquired on Video for Output to a Consumer Playback Format”

• “Acquired on Video for Broadcast Delivery”

• “Acquired on Film for Broadcast Delivery”

• “Acquired on Film for Theatrical Exhibition”

• “Acquired via Digital Cinema Camera for Theatrical Exhibition”

14 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

How to Approach Workflow Design

Two of the most important decisions to make are how you want to ingest your media and how you’ll output it. These decisions are tightly linked and define everything that happens in between. In general, it’s wise to plan your post-production strategy with the end product in mind. What do you expect to deliver at the end of the process? There are far fewer steps involved when you output to videotape than when you output to film, so this decision is crucial.

When you know how you want to output your program, you can pick an editing-to-finishing workflow based on the acquisition format that was used. This will let you know if you need to use an offline-to-online workflow that involves reconforming the media, or an online-to-online workflow where you output the same media that you originally ingested for editing.

After these decisions have been made, you’re in a much better position to determine how best to preserve the quality of your media and all relevant clip metadata, as you edit, reconform, and do visual and audio effects work.

Acquired on Video for Output to the Web

This workflow refers to programs that are acquired via a consumer or professional video format such as DV-25, HDV, AVCHD, or DVCPRO HD and produced for delivery via the web. The results are typically highly compressed and are intended to be watched on a computer, on a portable device (such as iPhone), or on a television via a set-top box of some kind.

Types of Programs

Program types include video podcasts and blogs, web serials, educational programming, corporate communication videos, Internet-distributed features and TV programs, and music videos. Given the proliferation of video for the web, this category has rapidly expanded to include just about every type of program.

Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest

Acquisition formats include but are not limited to DV-25, DVCPRO 50, HDV, AVCHD, DVCPRO HD, and XDCAM, to name a few. What this means for ingest is:

• Tape-based formats are ingested via the Log and Capture window in Final Cut Pro using an appropriate built-in interface (FireWire) or a third-party capture card.

• Tapeless formats (also called file-based formats) are typically ingested by copying the native video data from the camera to your storage system and then transferring the video data to Final Cut Pro using the Log and Transfer window.

15Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Quality-Control Guidelines

An absence of standardization and engineering oversight means that venues hosting web video usually have extremely permissive quality-control standards. Furthermore, computer display of video is simply more forgiving than that of traditional video playback devices. However, it’s to your advantage to use color correction to adjust the clips in your program in order to provide your audience with the best possible experience. What this means to you is:

• Although you don’t have to legalize your program’s picture to exacting video standards, video compression for the web may still clip super-white luma (above 100 percent) and out-of-bounds chroma that go uncorrected, so it’s wise to at least adjust your clips to these minimum standards.

• Color correction, even if applied simply inside Final Cut Pro, can dramatically improve the quality and legibility of your images.

Delivery Specifications

Overall, there are many possible delivery specifications for web video. Frame rates, frame sizes, and media formats vary widely depending on the intended playback platform and application. Common delivery platforms for Internet video include QuickTime, Flash (SWF), and Windows Media. Long-term archiving of the final master is typically accomplished via a high-quality QuickTime file backed up to a variety of media. What this means is:

• You usually create a self-contained QuickTime master of your program.

• You use Compressor, the Share command in Final Cut Pro or Motion, or another third-party video encoding application to prepare a version of your program for the web.

Workflow Summary

This is one of the most basic and straightforward workflows you can follow. Your video is ingested into Final Cut Pro using the Log and Capture or Log and Transfer window, as appropriate. During editing, you can use Motion and Soundtrack Pro, along with the video and audio effects tools that Final Cut Pro offers, to incorporate motion graphics, effects, and sound work into your program. After editing is complete, you can color correct your project inside Final Cut Pro or send your edited sequence to Color.

After you finish your program, you can use Compressor to export it to a format that’s suitable for web delivery and playback.

Tip: You can also use the Share command in Final Cut Pro or Motion to export programs directly to web-hosting services such as MobileMe and YouTube. See the Final Cut Pro documentation for more information.

Acquired on Video for Output to a Consumer Playback Format

This workflow refers to programs that are acquired via any consumer or professional video format and produced for delivery via DVD or Blu-ray for consumer playback.

16 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Types of Programs

Program types commonly include direct-to-video programming, shorts and features intended for film festival exhibition, corporate communication videos, and educational programming.

Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest

Acquisition formats include but are not limited to DV-25, DVCPRO 50, HDV, AVCHD, DVCPRO HD, and XDCAM, to name just a few. What this means for ingest is:

• Tape-based formats are ingested via the Log and Capture window in Final Cut Pro using an appropriate built-in interface (FireWire) or a third-party capture card.

Quality-Control Guidelines

Unless programming is being delivered to a formal distributor, quality-control standards tend notto be tightly applied. However, because the exhibition is intended fortelevisions and video projectors, practical video and audio signal limitations apply if you want to ensure trouble-free playback in the widest variety of situations. What this means to you is:

• You should use reasonable standards when color correcting your program, either in Final Cut Pro or in Color, to ensure consistent playback.

• You don’t typically have to be as strict as a broadcaster might require, although it pays to use an appropriate broadcast monitor as you work.

Delivery Specifications

Delivery is typically in one of the common video formats, including NTSC and PAL frame sizes for standard definition (SD) and 720 or 1080 frame sizes for high definition (HD). Frame rates are usually limited to 23.98 fps (for DVD and Blu-ray authoring), 25 fps for PAL, or 29.97 fps for NTSC. Although the final product is often an authored DVD, it’s common to master to a high-quality tape format for long-term archiving. What this means is:

• You usually output a QuickTime master of your program.

• You will probably use Compressor and DVD Studio Pro to author a DVD of your program for direct delivery or replication.

• You may optionally use your QuickTime master to create a Blu-ray version of your program.

• Using Compressor, you can also create versions of your program suitable for high-end digital distribution, such as SD or HD playback on Apple TV or iPhone.

17Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Workflow Summary

After editing, it’s a good idea to send your edited sequence to Color for grading, after which you send it back to Final Cut Pro in preparation for output.

When you finish your program, you can use Compressor to export its video and audio to formats that are suitable for DVD authoring using DVD Studio Pro, or to a format that’s suitable for Blu-ray authoring using other tools.

Tip: You can also use the Final Cut Pro Share command to quickly burn programs directly to DVD or to a Blu-ray disc. See the Final Cut Pro documentation for more information.

Acquired on Video for Broadcast Delivery

This workflow specifically refers to programs that are acquired via a professional video format and produced for delivery to a network for terrestrial, cable, or satellite broadcast.

Types of Programs

Program types include network news, daytime TV, music videos, commercial spots, infomercials, magazine shows, reality TV, game shows, and sitcoms. Increasingly, this category includes dramas produced using HD or digital cinema cameras.

Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest

Acquisition formats are typically limited to less-compressed formats, and some broadcasters specifically exclude or limit the amount of more highly compressed formats that can be used in a program. Commonly used formats include Digital Betacam, DV-25, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, XDCAM, HDCAM, and even some digital cinema formats such as REDCODE, to name just a few. Highly compressed formats such as HDV and AVCHD are sometimes specifically excluded or restricted in their use (some quality-control guidelines specify that no more than 25 percent of a program may include a restricted format). What this means for ingest is:

• Tape-based formats are ingested via the Log and Capture window in Final Cut Pro using an appropriate built-in interface (FireWire) or a third-party capture card.

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Quality-Control Guidelines

Because programs in this workflow are being delivered for broadcast, tight quality-control standards usually apply. (Some networks have more stringent standards than others.) Although video and audio standards vary by network, submitted programming is always closely scrutinized, and quality-control violations may result in tape masters being rejected by the network, incurring additional costs for the client. Always obtain the specific quality-control (QC) guidelines before finishing any program intended for broadcast. What this means is:

• You’ll use Color, or another high-end grading system, to color correct and legalize your program using an appropriate broadcast monitor.

• You should obtain and follow the quality-control guidelines provided by the network or your distributor as a guide in finishing the program.

Delivery Specifications

Each network typically has specific required delivery formats, which may include one or more SD and HD formats. Also, networks usually require separate versions of each program with and without titles (also called texted and textless versions). Inquire in advance about what deliverables are required. What this means to you is:

• SD programs are usually output to Digital Betacam.

• HD programs are typically output to HDCAM, HDCAM SR, or D-5, although some broadcasters use other specific formats for mastering.

Workflow Summary

Your video is ingested into Final Cut Pro using the Log and Capture or Log and Transfer window, as appropriate. During editing, you can use Motion and Soundtrack Pro, along with the video and audio effects tools that Final Cut Pro offers, to incorporate motion graphics, effects, and sound work into your program.

After editing, it’s a good idea to send your edited sequence to Color for grading according to the network’s standards, after which you send it back to Final Cut Pro in preparation for output. As part of the finishing process, you send all of your program’s audio either to Soundtrack Pro or to a third-party digital audio workstation (DAW) application for final sound design and mixing.

When youfinish your program, you output it to one or more tape masters, in the network’s format of choice.

Acquired on Film for Broadcast Delivery

This workflow refers to programs shot on film but transferred to video with the intention of creating a video master for terrestrial, cable, or satellite broadcast. This workflow overlaps with the one specified for programs shot on film for direct-to-video release via a formal distributor.

19Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Types of Programs

Program types include high-end commercial spots, high-end music videos, dramas, made-for-TV movies, and miniseries.

Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest

The acquisition format is typically 16mm or 35mm film (or their Super 16mm and Super 35mm counterparts) via any one of a number of cameras. Before you can ingest film into Final Cut Pro, it must be transferred to a video format, usually via a telecine (a machine that converts film to a video signal, in real time) run by an experienced operator. In general, there are three methods used to transfer film to tape: a one-light transfer, a best-light transfer, or a safety transfer. Each has tradeoffs, and the method you use depends on your budget. What this means for ingest is:

• One-light transfers, though cheapest, usually require a retransfer from the original negative. You need to obtain a telecine log file with which to keep track of what source film negative corresponds to which video clips using Cinema Tools. You have the option to have the final color correction done by the telecine operator.

• Best-light and safety transfers, though more expensive, usually eliminate the need to retransfer from the source negative. You have the option to grade your final program using Color, or another third-party color correction environment, as part of your finishing workflow.

• Telecined film is typically transferred to a high-end, tape-based format at SD or HD resolutions.

• Typical video formats used include Digital Betacam, HDCAM, D-5, and HDCAM SR, though you can specifically request other formats. You ingest using the Log and Capture window in Final Cut Pro.

Quality-Control Guidelines

• You’ll use Color, or another high-end grading system, to color correct and legalize your program using an appropriate broadcast monitor.

• You should obtain and follow the quality-control guidelines provided by the network or your distributor as a guide in finishing the program.

20 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Delivery Specifications

• SD programs are typically output to Digital Betacam.

• HD programs may be mastered to HDCAM, HDCAM SR, or D-5.

Workflow Summary

First, the film negative is transferred to videotape. The facility that does the transfer will provide you with a telecine log in one of several formats. (FLEx and ALE are common formats that are compatible with Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools.) You import this log into Final Cut Pro by choosing File > Import > Cinema Tools Telecine Log, which creates a Cinema Tools database of events that establishes the correspondence between the edge code that identifies each frame of film negative and the timecode that identifies each frame of transferred video. This is an optional step, but important if you plan to retransfer any of your edited selects later.

This process also automatically creates offline clips in the Browser. One clip is created for each event in the database. You then use these offline clips to automate the process of ingesting the transferred videotapes via the Log and Capture window. If necessary, you can use Cinema Tools to remove 3:2 pull-down from the imported media, so you can edit at a true 23.98 fps progressive frame rate. This last step is also optional, depending on the frame rate you prefer to work at and the frame rate of the master you’ll eventually be outputting.

Your video is ingested into Final Cut Pro using the Log and Capture window. During editing, you can use Motion and Soundtrack Pro, along with the video and audio effects tools that Final Cut Pro offers, to incorporate motion graphics, effects, and sound work into your program.

When youfinish your program, you output it to one or more tape masters, in the network’s format of choice.

21Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

Acquired on Film for Theatrical Exhibition

This workflow refers to programs shot on film and then mastered and output for theatrical exhibition via film or digital projection. Color correction and film output may be accomplished either by conforming the negative and using optical printers or through a digital intermediate process and film printer.

Types of Programs

Program types include advertising spots, shorts, and features intended for theatrical exhibition.

Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest

The acquisition format is typically 16mm or 35mm film (or their Super 16mm and Super 35mm counterparts) via any one of a number of cameras. Before you can ingest film into Final Cut Pro, it must be transferred to a video or QuickTime format that Final Cut Pro can work with. How you choose to transfer your film depends on how you intend to finish the program.

• If you intend to conform the negative and have your program optically color-timed and printed, you must first have the film telecined (transferred to video in real time). Afterward, you’re provided with the transferred media and an accompanying telecine log file, which you can use with Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools to track the data that allows you to ingest and edit in Final Cut Pro. At the end of this process, you use this data to export a negative cut list with which to conform the camera negative to match your edited video.

• If you intend to finish via a digital intermediate workflow using Color, you can have the film transferred using a datacine process, where each film frame is scanned into a high-bandwidth image sequence format such as DPX or Cineon. Each frame file’s number is converted to timecode and stored in the frame file’s metadata. You can then convert each image sequence to an offline- or online-quality QuickTime file for ingest into Final Cut Pro. At the end of the process, you can reconform your edited sequence to the original media using Color for grading and output.

• You can also use a combination of these workflows to suit your particular purpose. For more information, see the Color documentation.

Quality-Control Guidelines

Whether your program is intended for film or digital projection, quality-control standards are usually extremely specific in order to maintain color fidelity from the negative through to the final distribution prints or digital masters that are sent to theaters. Color and quality-control issues are typically worked out through the efforts of the facilities that do the grading, film output, and/or digital mastering. What this means is:

• You’ll use Color, or another high-end grading system, to color correct your program.

• You need to carefully calibrate an appropriately high-end monitor using LUT profiles.

22 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

• It’s best if you coordinate your efforts with the facility that is printing or mastering the final project.

Delivery Specifications

A program’s distributor usually provides the exact delivery specifications that are required. Delivery specifications for film projection include 24 fps playback, specific aperture sizes and aspect ratios, and specific audio encoding methods. Delivery specifications for digital projection are defined by the Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM) encoding specification, which includes specific color space encoding standards and 2K and 4K frame sizes. What this means to you is:

• If you’re delivering 2K or 4K image data, you typically deliver a DPX image sequence.

• In some instances, it might also be possible to provide your 2K or 4K program master as a QuickTime file using the Apple ProRes 4444 codec. (Check ahead first.)

• If you’re delivering your program at 720p or 1080p resolution, you may be able to deliver an HDCAM SR or D-5 tape master.

Workflow Summary for Negative Conforming and Optical Printing

If you intend to go through a conventional negative conform and optical film–printing process to finish your film, you use Cinema Tools both prior to capture and after you’ve locked the edit.

First, you usually transfer the film negative to videotape for offline editing. The facility that does the transfer will provide you with a telecine log file in one of several formats. (FLEx and ALE are common formats that are compatible with Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools.) You import this log into Final Cut Pro by choosing File > Import > Cinema Tools Telecine Log, which creates a Cinema Tools database of events that establishes the correspondence between the edge code that identifies each frame of film negative and the timecode that identifies each frame of transferred video.

Importing the telecine log also automatically creates offline clips in the Browser. One clip is created for each event in the database. You then use these offline clips to automate the process of ingesting the transferred videotapes via the Log and Capture window. If necessary, you can use Cinema Tools to remove 3:2 pull-down from the imported media, so you can edit at a true 23.98 fps progressive frame rate.

You use this ingested media to do the offline edit. After editing is complete, you can export a cut list directly from Final Cut Pro that you can give to a negative cutter to do the final negative conform. From the conform process through the optical grading and printing processes, you work with a lab to obtain the final film deliverables.

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Workflow Summary for Digital Intermediate Finishing and Film Printing

If you intend to use a digital intermediate workflow to finish your program, there are several approaches you can take. The easiest, from a workflow perspective, is to transfer the camera negative via a datacine (a device that scans each frame of film as an uncompressed image file) to create DPX image sequences of all the shots you want to edit. These shots are organized into directories, named with the number of the film roll from which the shots originated. Also, each frame of every image sequence should have embedded timecode metadata that reflects its frame number.

You can then convert the DPX media to offline QuickTime media with matching reel numbers and timecode using Color, which clones the timecode and roll numbers from the DPX media as part of the process. These offline clips are then imported into Final Cut Pro and used to perform the offline edit.

After editing is complete, you export an EDL from Final Cut Pro for use by Color in conforming the original DPX media to your edited sequence. You then grade your program in Color. When grading is complete, the entire program is rendered and output from Color as a single DPX or Cineon image sequence, which is delivered to a film-printing facility.

Tip: Another possible workflow is to use Color to convert the scanned DPX image sequences to Apple ProRes 4444 media, and to then create offline QuickTime media from that. Although lightly compressed, Apple ProRes 4444 is a high-quality RGB 4:4:4 data format suitable for film mastering, and you may find the eventual reconform workflow to be simpler to manage using QuickTime media rather than image sequences. If you use Color to do this conversion, make sure to save and keep the project file that you used to do the conversion, in case you need to reconvert the original DPX media with the same filenames that Color automatically generated originally.

Acquired via Digital Cinema Camera for Theatrical Exhibition

This workflow refers to programs shot with digital cinema cameras, typically at HD through 4K resolutions, and then mastered and output for theatrical exhibition via film or digital projection.

Types of Programs

Program types include advertising spots, shorts, and features intended for theatrical exhibition.

Typical Acquisition Formats and Means of Ingest

The acquisition format is captured using a digital cinema camera such as the Thomson Viper FilmStream, Panavision Genesis, RED ONE, and Arriflex D-21, among others. There are several ways in which these cameras record images. What this means for ingest is:

• Some digital cinema cameras record at HD resolutions using the HDCAM SR tape format, necessitating a tape-ingest workflow in Final Cut Pro.

24 Chapter 1 Developing a Post-Production Strategy

• Other digital cinema cameras, such as the RED ONE, record 2K and 4K resolution image data using a proprietary RAW format. The RED Digital Cinema Camera Company provides plug-ins for Final Cut Studio that enable specialized ingest and finishing workflows. Other manufacturers rely on proprietary image-processing utilities to convert their format to one useful to Final Cut Studio applications.

• Still other digital cinema cameras record images as DPX image sequences. This workflow is similar to a film digital intermediate workflow; you can use Color to convert the source DPX image sequences to online or offline QuickTime media for ingest and editing in Final Cut Pro, and later, finishing (with the option to reconform to the original DPX image sequences in Color, if necessary).

Quality-Control Guidelines

Whether your program is intended for film or digital projection, quality-control standards are usually extremely specific in order to maintain color fidelity from the negative through to the final distribution prints or digital masters that are sent to theaters. Color and quality-control issues are usually worked out through the efforts of the facilities that do the grading, film output, and/or digital mastering. What this means is:

• You’ll use Color, or another high-end grading system, to color correct your program.

• You need to carefully calibrate an appropriately high-end display using LUT profiles.

• It’s best if you coordinate your efforts with the facility that is printing or mastering the final project.

Delivery Specifications

• If you’re delivering 2K or 4K image data, you’ll typically deliver a DPX image sequence.

• It might also be possible to provide your 2K or 4K program master as a QuickTime file using the Apple ProRes 4444 codec. (Check ahead first.)

• If you’re delivering your program at 720p or 1080p resolution, you may be able to deliver an HDCAM SR or D-5 tape master.

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Workflow Summary

Digital cinema cameras typically shoot tapeless media (although some filmmakers record to HDCAM SR), so the specific method of ingest depends on the exact type of media that was originally captured. Usually, this includes proprietary RAW formats (such as the RED ONE camera’s REDCODE format) or DPX image sequence capture. REDCODE media can be ingested into Final Cut Pro using third-party software, and other RAW formats can usually be converted to a suitable QuickTime file format for editing via proprietary software. DPX image sequences, on the other hand, can be converted to QuickTime media using Color for offline editing in Final Cut Pro.

After editing is complete, the edited sequence must be prepared, and all offline media must be reconformed to the original online source media using one of a variety of methods. REDCODE media can be reingested as native RED QuickTime files in preparation for grading in Color, and DPX source media can be conformed using an EDL exported from Final Cut Pro using Color. When grading in Color is complete, the entire program is rendered and output from Color as a single DPX or Cineon image sequence, which is then delivered to a film-printing facility.

Tip: If you’re working with media that was captured as DPX image sequences, you can use Color to convert the DPX media to Apple ProRes 4444 media and then use the Media Manager in Final Cut Pro to create offline QuickTime media from that. Although lightly compressed, Apple ProRes 4444 is a high-quality RGB 4:4:4 data format suitable for film mastering, and the eventual reconform process is simple to manage. If you use Color to do this conversion, make sure to save and keep the project file that you used to do the conversion, in case you need to reconvert the original DPX media with the same filenames that Color automatically generated originally.

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Ingesting and Organizing Your Media

This chapter covers the following:

• What Is Ingest? (p. 27)

• Importing Information to Aid in Capturing (p. 29)

• Choosing the Best Ingest Strategy for Your Workflow (p. 30)

• Ingest Methods Based on Media Type (p. 32)

• Asset Management and Organization (p. 44)

This chapter covers the myriad ways in which you can ingest media into the Final Cut Studio applications for editing, motion graphics work, and sound design. Ingesting into Final Cut Pro is covered most extensively, as most audiovisual projects begin in this application.

What Is Ingest?

Before you can work with media in Final Cut Studio, you need to get it onto your hard disk and into Final Cut Pro. Ingest describes, in a very general sense, the process of capturing, transferring, or otherwise importing different types of video, audio, or image media into Final Cut Pro in order to use it in a program. Once in Final Cut Pro, media can be easily moved into any of the other Final Cut Studio applications.

There are three primary ways of ingesting media into Final Cut Pro:

• Log and Capture window: You use the Log and Capture window to capture standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) media from a tape-based format, in real time.

• Log and Transfer window: You use the Log and Transfer window to capture tapeless media in a wide variety of formats, including SD, HD, and even some 2K and 4K formats.

• Import Files or Import Folders: You use the Import Files and Import Folders commands to import other kinds of QuickTime, audio, and image file formats, as well as compatible Final Cut Studio project and data files.

However, this is only part of the story. Depending on the type of media you’re ingesting,

Shoot film and

do a telecine

transfer

Shoot

videotape

Shoot film and

do a datacine

transfer

QuickTime

clips

Music and

audio files

Still images

Create a

Cinema Tools

database for ingest

Review

and

organize

Shoot

tapeless

media

Ingest into Final Cut Pro

Share project

and media

with facility

Convert DPX and

Cineon media

to QuickTime

media

Log and

capture

Import

Log and

transfer

other applications such as Cinema Tools and Color might play a part in the ingest process. Workflows for ingesting film-originated media, in particular, can be more involved depending on how important it is to be able to match back to the original film negative and whether the film negative was transferred to videotape or DPX or Cineon image sequences. The following flow chart illustrates the different paths media might take into Final Cut Pro.

You can also import video, audio, and still-image files directly into other Final Cut Studio applications such as Motion and Soundtrack Pro, but video capture and transfer is limited to Final Cut Pro, and audio capture is limited to Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro.

28 Chapter 2 Ingesting and Organizing Your Media

Importing Information to Aid in Capturing

There are three ways in which you can import organizational information into Final Cut Pro that will help you prepare for ingest. The method that best fits your particular workflow depends on the type of media you’re ingesting and how much preparation you want to do in advance.

Import batch capture lists

A batchcapture list is a tab-delimited text file that specifies which clips you want to capture from a particular videotape using timecode. Each clip is defined, at a minimum, by a name, a reel number, and timecode In and Out points. Batch capture lists are useful because anyone can review video dailies on tape, on DVD, or in QuickTime Player and, using timecode as a reference, assemble a list of which clips to ingest without having to know how to use Final Cut Pro.

You can create a batch capture list using any spreadsheet, text editor, or database application as long as you can export a tab-delimited plain text file when you’re finished. This file can then be imported into Final Cut Pro, which turns each entry in the list into an offline clip in the Browser, ready for capture.

For more information, search for “batch list” in Final Cut Pro Help.

Import XML-based batch capture lists from Cinema Tools

Another option is to export an XML-based batch capture list from Cinema Tools and then import it into Final Cut Pro. This option is appropriate for any workflow in which you want to maintain the correspondence between the original film negative and the video that was transferred from it. This method is ideal when, at the end of the post-production process, you want to conform the original negative or retransfer new, high-quality media from the source negative for finishing.

This workflow assumes that you’re starting out with a Cinema Tools database created from an imported ATN, FLEx, FTL, or ALE telecine log file provided by the facility that did the film-to-video transfer. FLEx and ALE files contain a wealth of information about the keycode that identifies the frames of film negative that were transferred, the corresponding video timecode, and other logging information such as film type, camera roll, telecine speed, and sometimes even notes from the shoot. You import this log into Final Cut Pro by choosing Import > Cinema Tools Telecine Log, which creates a Cinema Tools database of events that establishes the correspondence between the edge code that identifies each frame of negative and the timecode that identifies each frame of transferred video. This process also automatically creates offline clips in the Browser, which contain all of this information.

You can also import compatible telecine log files directly into Final Cut Pro by choosing File > Import > Cinema Tools Telecine Log, which automatically creates a Cinema Tools database.

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For more information, search for “batch capture list” in Cinema Tools Help.

Import Edit Decision Lists

You can also import an Edit Decision List (EDL) into Final Cut Pro to use as a starting point for ingesting media. An EDL is a text file that describes an edited project as a series of events. Events can include cuts, transitions, and sometimes superimpositions that make up an edit. When you import an EDL, you end up with an edited sequence and a bin in the Browser named Master Clips that contains each offline clip, ready for recapture. EDLs are useful for moving projects from other editing environments into Final Cut Pro, if there’s no other XML-based solution or third-party utility for doing so.

For more information, search for “importing EDLs” in Final Cut Pro Help.

Choosing the Best Ingest Strategy for Your Workflow

The way you ingest your media affects the way you’ll work with it during editorial development as well as what additional steps you’ll need to perform in order to finish and master your program. One of the most fundamental workflow decisions you have to make is whether to work in an offline/online manner or ingest your media at online quality right from the beginning and work at full quality all the way through the finishing process.

No matter what kind of media you use, there are three general approaches to ingesting and working with your media.

Ingest, edit, and finish at online quality

Using this strategy, you ingest all of your media at its highest native level of quality. You edit at this quality, and when you’re ready, you finish your project by color correcting and mastering it using the same media that you originally ingested. All the way through your project’s development, you’re working with your media at its most pristine.

Ingesting all your media at its highest quality means that when you’re ready for finishing, there’s no need to reconform, which saves time. However, this can require large amounts of disk space, especially for uncompressed HD, 2K, and 4K formats. Furthermore, some video formats are processor-intensive and reduce real-time performance while you’re editing, which can slow you down.

Whether or not this method works for you depends on the type and amount of media that wasoriginally acquired. For example, the source footage for shorter projects or those using a compressed acquisition format (such as DV-25, HDV, or DVCPRO HD) can be realistically captured in its entirety at the highest native level of quality. On the other hand, projects that have a large amount of source material (for example, documentaries with hundreds of hours of footage) and use a high-bandwidth format (such as the Uncompressed 10-bit or Apple ProRes 4444 codec) may be more difficult to manage this way.

30 Chapter 2 Ingesting and Organizing Your Media

+ 86 hidden pages

Apple Final Cut Studio User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Introduction

About Final Cut Studio Workflows

About the Final Cut Studio Documentation

Additional Resources

Developing a Post-Production Strategy

The Overall Post-Production Workflow Explained

Why Design Your Workflow in Advance?

Types of Overall Workflows

Acquired on Video for Output to the Web

Acquired on Video for Output to a Consumer Playback Format

Acquired on Video for Broadcast Delivery

Acquired on Film for Broadcast Delivery

Acquired on Film for Theatrical Exhibition

Acquired via Digital Cinema Camera for Theatrical Exhibition

Ingesting and Organizing Your Media

What Is Ingest?

Importing Information to Aid in Capturing

Choosing the Best Ingest Strategy for Your Workflow