The audio and CRT video monitors for each row of workstations are powered up by a switch under one end of the table. This switch should be glowing if monitors are powered. It is CRITICAL that the left monitor be powered up BEFORE powering the CPU. Failure to do this will yield wildly different image sizes, and usually essential information will not show up on the left screen.

I will try to power all monitor rows prior to scheduled lab time, but if you are editing on your own, make sure monitors are powered (power button is black on black on lower right below screen) prior to turning on the CPU.

Each computer is powered up individually using the button located in the center of the CPU below the speaker. This is not a button in the usual sense, but is pressure sensitive. Place your finger over it and apply gentle pressure until the button becomes illuminated.

OS-X should boot and present you with a dialog box for your user name and password. Enter these exactly as shown on the paper you were given, including capitalization. Do not try to change your password!

Once booted, you should see a menu bar across the top of the right (Apple) screen and a strip of icons (called the dock) at the extreme left edge of the left screen or the bottom of the Apple screen. You single click on these icons to launch programs.

If you do not see the dock or want to change its position, click on the blue apple in the upper left of the menu bar, choose DOCK, and click on "Turn Hiding Off" or other settings you may want.

Final Cut Pro

While there are many companies that make non-linear editing software for various computer platforms, Avid invented the process, originally to edit feature films from video work prints. Final Cut Pro emulates the Avid interface and is becomming more popular with high end production houses because it is easier to use and more "scalable" than Avid products.

That said, this is a difficult program to learn. It is so powerful that you could spend a lifetime editing on it and never use all of the features.

Each time you launch Final Cut Pro without connecting the computer to a Firewire device, you will be presented with a window titled "External AV" and telling you that the program is unable to locate an external video device. Click on "Continue" at the bottom of this window and the program will open.

The interface has 4 basic components:

1. Browser: (usually on left monitor in dual monitor editing mode) A window containing a list of clips for your project. You can modify this to show small images called picons, which are key frames from the clips, but most editors do not use this feature unless they forget what a clip was titled when it was digitized. There is a slider on the bottom of the browser window that allows you to scroll right and learn much more about a particular clip.

2. Viewer Window: In the upper left (of the right/Apple monitor) is the Viewer window. This is where you can play individual clips and trim them, if desired. This corresponds to the Source machine's monitor in A/B roll editing. There are two timecode displays at the top of the Window which can display a variety of information about what you are viewing.

3. Canvas: To the right of the Viewer is the Canvas window, showing what you have edited in the Timeline. It corresponds to the Edit machine's monitor in A/B roll editing.

4. Timeline: This runs across the bottom of the screen (usually only on the right monitor) and graphically represents the elements of the project. In its simplest terms, nonlinear editing involves selecting elements from the Viewer window and dragging them into an audio or video track on the Timeline.

For serious editing virtually all professional editors use two monitors and we have provided you with this capability. Oddly, most books on FCP only illustrate the interface on a single monitor.

You can improve on this by using the "Dual Screen - Editing" arrangement, accessed from the Window-Arrange menu. This will place the Browser on the left monitor, allowing the timeline to run across the entire right screen. After using FCP 5/6 for 3 years I recommend two enhancements over the Dual Screen-Editing arrangement.

Using the Window-Arrange menu, select "Dual Screen - Color Correction." This makes the viewer and canvas a bit smaller, and adds a window on the right which displays 4 video scopes.

Having learned audio using real mixers, I vastly prefer modifying audio using the graphical mixer provided by FCP. To add this to your display, click on Tools and "Audio Mixer." The mixer will appear over top of the video scopes in the extreme right windows. There are tabs which allow you to display either the scopes, the mixer, or a special video viewer.

The suggested arrangement looks like the 2 diagrams below:

Right (Apple) Monitor

Left Monitor

If the dock on the left takes up too much room from the Browser, you can hide it by selecting "Turn Hiding On" from the Dock Preferences found under the blue Apple icon at the top left of the menu bar. You can still access the dock by moving the mouse pointer full right. You can also move it to the bottom of the right monitor, which I personally prefer.

Under "Preferences" in the main FCP menu, it is a good idea to find the box for "Autosave Vault" and set it as shown below.

Autosave saves a copy of your project in a folder in your home directory and may help you reclaim lost work.

While you have the Preferences menu open, click on the Scratch Disks tab and then "Set." The default scratch drive is on the network, but under FCP Documents. It is safer to make it your Home directory (the one with a little house icon). Scroll left and click on your user name in the list of home directories (which will already be highlighted). Then click "Choose."

Also, click on the Timeline Options tab from the Preferences menu and uncheck the Drop Frame box to the right of the "Starting Timecode" window unless your project is for broadcast.

Even with "Autosave" engaged, it is a good idea to save your project frequently when you are happy with how it is progressing. If you select "Save Project" the first time you attempt to save it, you will get an error message.

Simply click on OK (several times if necessary) and use "Save Project As." The project will be saved with the word "copy" after the title. It should be saved in your home directory. The Save Project As screen should look like the diagram below.

You should periodically click on "Render All" from the Sequence menu so that you can see an accurate representation of how your effects will look when exported.

Whenever you are through editing for the day, you can just select quit from the Final Cut Pro menu, leaving your project open, and when you next open FCP your project should be right as you left it.

The Importance of the Viewer

Think of the Viewer as encompassing the entire preview process in linear, tape editing. While non-linear editing allows a great deal more control of the edit process after clips are placed in the timeline than tape editing allows once you hit Auto-Edit, most aspects of the edit are considerably easier to control in the viewer, and some can only be controlled in the viewer.

Clicking on the Audio tabs at the top of the viewer allows you to "see" your audio, manipulate volume levels, pan audio from left to right in the master stereo matrix and generally ensure that your clip sounds as good as it looks. Setting accurate in and out points in the viewer will also save time, as trimming video in the timeline, while possible, can be very complicated.

The Class Projects

To open class projects, do the following:

1. Launch FCP using the "clapper" icon in the dock.

2. From the menu bar Click on File and Open.

3. Then scroll the slider at the bottom of the box full left and click on Macintosh HD and Class Files. Then select either Tutorials or Media depending on what you want to edit. You can scroll to the right to follow the path to a file on a Mac. The entire path to the FCP tutorial has been expanded to display in the diagram below:

4. Then click on Choose at the bottom of the window.

1. Click on File and Save Project As, which should open a dialog window.

2. Change the "Where" slot from Documents to Home using the button with up and down arrows on it to open the dialog box shown below. This is the easiest way to insure that your project is saved on the server and not on the local hard drive where it will be hard to use.

3. The default name will be "X project copy" which is fine, so click on Save.

Shutting Down

It is usually best to leave your project open, and click on Final Cut Pro and Quit.

The next time you open FCP your project should open automatically. If not, click on the title at the bottom of the File menu. Make sure to chose the X Project Copy to get the version you have been editing.

Once all programs are closed, shut down the computer by clicking on the little blue Apple in the upper left hand corner of the menu bar and selecting Shut Down. It will ask you to confirm this choice and then the computer will shut down and power off automatically.

Trouble Shooting

1. Problem: The computer hangs when logging in after someone else has just logged out.

Solution: Shut down computer by holding the power button for 60 seconds until the computer turns off. Wait at least 10 seconds and then power up and log in as usual.

Prevention: In general it is best to power down a computer workstation and then re-boot it from a cold start whenever changing users. This resets many settings which help the new user start with a "clean slate."

2. Problem: data on the left screen appear larger than they should or fall off edge of screen.

Solution: Shut down computer using the blue Apple icon if possible. Then make sure both monitors are powered and re-boot the Macintosh CPU and log in as usual.

Prevention: Always make sure monitors and audio amp are powered BEFORE powering the CPU!!!

3. Problem: Password shakes and then disappears.

Solution: Retype user name and password, making sure Caps Lock is off and that you type all letters correctly.

Prevention: Make sure you are using an account for the current semester and that you observe spelling and case for the information given to you by the instructor.

4. Problem: Computer logs in and then displays message that your home folder cannot be found. DO NOT continue working or you may lose all work performed!

Solution: Shut down the computer, wait at least 10 seconds, and then re-boot and log in as usual. If the problem is repeated, report it to a technician or the instructor.

5. Problem: You are unable to log in and get a message that you are already logged in.

Solution: Shut down whichever workstation you were previously logged in to.

Prevention: Make sure you are logged on only a single workstation at a time.

6. Problem: You try to save an FCP project and get an "Access Denied" message.

Solution: Click OK on the error message and then use "Save Project As" from the File menu and make sure to save it in your home directory (house icon).

Prevention: As soon as you open a project from the "Class Files" folder on the local Macintosh HD, use "Save Project As" and place the copy in your home directory.

7. Problem: FCP effects (dissolves, page peels, etc.) do not work properly.

Solutions:

a. First, make sure that you have sufficient handles before and after the clip selected in the Viewer. Freeze Frames especially need to have in and out points placed in the middle of the 10 second clip to allow for effects front and back.

b. Second, try clicking "Render All" from the Sequence menu. This is necessary to export to iDVD or Toast in any case, and will make many effects display better in the Timeline.

c. Third, If rendering the effect clip does not fix the problem, or worse yet, it causes an effect to disappear, try redoing the effect in the Video #1 Timeline using an overwrite edit and transitions selected from the Browser.

Prevention: Check for handles in the Viewer as you define clips and remember to use "Render All" often to see the results of your work. "Undo" from the Edit menu will undo a render if it is not what you want.

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