Quick Start in Final Cut Pro 6


This section will walk you through the creation of a Magic Bullet Frames project in Final Cut Pro. There are three sections for different output destinations: Using Frames in Final Cut Pro, Creating True 24p Media, and The 50i to 24p Workflow. The first section covers both deinterlacing and the 24p conversion process using the Frames plug-in. The second section shows you how to render a 24p conversion and then use Final Cut Pro 6 and the Open Format timeline to create true 24p media. Finally, for users shooting a 50i source and wanting true 24p output, the last section covers using Motion 3 and Final Cut Pro 6 to convert to 24p using Frames.

Using Frames in Final Cut Pro

Creating deinterlaced output from 24p media is easy using Magic Bullet Frames. If you are starting from a 60i source, then you can covert to either 30p or 24p with pulldown. If you are converting from 50i source (PAL SD or 50i HDV), then you can use the Deinterlace option to get 25p media.

NOTE: You should NOT use the 24p Conversion option in the Frames plug-in for PAL sources. The resulting frame rate will be effectively 20p and will look wrong and be incompatible with most output formats.

Here is how to setup a Frames project.

Step 1. Create a Sequence in Apple ProRes format. This involves simply duplicating a sequence preset and rather than rendering in the native codec, setting the output codec to Apple ProRes.

Codecs
The QuickTime compressor menu in the Sequence Preset Editor.

Now save this setting to a new preset. Here you can see the Audio/Video Settings dialog showing an edited DV NTSC preset edited to use ProRes HQ. The name reflects the change.

Final Cut Presets
The duplicated DV NTSC Sequence

If you are working in HD, you can simply use the one of the Apple ProRes presets available in the same dialog.

NOTE: At this point you may be wondering, why should I use ProRes instead of native formats? Native codecs like DV or HDV use heavy compression, and saving rendered sequences more than once will degrade the image. Using the Apple ProRes standard or HQ codecs (either one—they are very hard to distinguish) alleviates this problem and provides the best possible format for your output. Also, if you bring Apple ProRes media into other programs like After Effects or Motion, the subsequent rendered media will preserve much more quality than rendering in a native codec like DV, HDV or XDCAM.

Step 2. Import your interlaced footage. Remember it is important to start with interlaced footage. Frames does NOT convert progressive formats such as 30p to 24p. You can import media using Command-I if it is already on disk, or use either the Batch capture or Log and Transfer tools to get the media into Final Cut Pro. See Chapter 15-20 of the Final Cut Pro User Manual for detailed information on capture and import.

Step 3. Put your footage into a sequence and apply the Frames plug-in from the Effects > Video Filters > Magic Bullet filters menu. If you don't see the Frames filter, check the section on installation. Double-click the media to reveal the Frames control in the Source Viewer tab.

Frames In Final Cut
The Frames interface in the Filter tab of the Final Cut Viewer

The default option of Deinterlace Only will simply covert your 60i or 50i media to progressive format at half the rate, either 30 or 25 frames per second.

Step 4. Render the timeline (Option-R). This will force the timeline to render all effects and the output will be ready for further editing. You don't need to worry about media that has already been cut. The Frames filter will automatically handle any edits or scene changes properly.

Creating True 24p Media

Frames can also output 24p media with pulldown. This means that Frames will convert the 60i media (ONLY) to 24p but maintain the frame rate by applying field insertion (known as pulldown) into the output.

Step 1. Create a 60i timeline for your media, be it NTSC DV, D1, HDV or other HD format (HDCAM/XDCAM, etc). Make sure that the render codec is set to Apple ProRes as outlined in the steps above.

Step 2. Import your NTSC SD or HD interlaced footage. Remember that it is important to start with interlaced footage. Frames does NOT convert progressive formats such as 30p to 24p. You can import using Command-I if it is already on disk, or use either the Batch capture or Log and Transfer tools to get the media into Final Cut Pro. See Chapter 15-20 of the Final Cut Pro User Manual for detailed information on capture and import. See below for information on converting PAL media to 24p.

Step 3. Apply the Frames plug-in and set the Mode to 24p Deinterlace. Make sure that the Input Field Order matches your media (lower for most DV/SD media and Upper for HD).

Frames 24p
The Frames plug-in set to 24p conversion.

Step 4. Render the timeline (Option-R). This will force the timeline to render all effects and the output will be ready for further editing. You don't need to worry about media that has already been cut. The Frames filter will automatically handle any edits or scene changes properly.

Step 5. Save the output of current project to a new QuickTime file. Once, completed, import this media into your current project.

QUICKTIME Save

Step 6. Choose a new 24p preset from the Audio/Video Settings... dialog (Final Cut Pro > Audio/Video Settings...). In this case, if you are using DV, you can use the DV NTSC 23.98 preset. For HD, choose one of the HD presets such as "Apple ProRes 1920 x 1080 24p" or "HDV - 1080p24". You can also choose a format that is appropriate for your output, such as a DVCPRO HD or XDCAM preset. Any of these will work as long as the frame size matches your render footage (be it SD or HD) and the frame rate is 23.98 or 24p (these are used interchangeably by Final Cut Pro but make sure that frame rate is 23.976 in the Sequence settings dialog).

Step 7. Create a New Sequence (Command-N) and then add the media you rendered in Step 5 into the new Sequence. When you load the media, Final Cut Pro will warn you that the frame rate of the imported media does not match the Sequence.

Warning
The Final Cut Pro warning for mismatched frame rates

Click No to keep the Sequence settings unchanged. This warning is for the mismatch between the imported media that is rendered as 29.97 media and the 24p sequence frame rate. But this is exactly what you want, because Final Cut Pro will automatically recognize that the 24p media created by the Frames plug-in is really true 24p media with the addition of pulldown fields. Final Cut Pro's Open Format timeline feature will remove the pulldown on the fly during playback. You can also render out this media to a true 24p file, confident that Final Cut Pro will remove the extra fields during the save or render process.

The 50i to 24p Workflow

The final workflow for creating 24p files is to start with a PAL source and convert it to 24p using a combination of Frames, Motion and Final Cut Pro. This workflow is referred to as a Slow PAL conversion. Final Cut Pro will process all the fields, but at a 4% slower rate.

Step 1. Launch Motion 3 and create a new 24p Motion project that matches the duration and frame size of your media. If you are using HDV PAL, for example, you should create a project with a render size of 1440 x 1080 and a frame rate of 23.98.

Motion Project
The Project properties for an HDV project in Motion 3

Step 2. Import your media, then open the Project tab and select the media that you imported. With the media selected, open the Media tab in the Inspector to show the import options for the Media.

Step 3. Change the Frame Rate to 23.976 in the custom entry window.

Motion Media Frame Rate
Setting the Custom Frame Rate in the custom entry field

Step 4. Save this new project as a .motn file. By setting up the PAL media as 24p in the project and in the Media tab, Final Cut Pro will use the frame rate as 23.976 and every field will be used in the Frames conversion. This trick is basically accomplishing a frame rate change in the media that cannot be done in Final Cut Pro itself.

Step 5. Import the .motn file into a new Final Cut Pro project.

Step 6. Create a new Sequence preset that matches the .motn project that was saved in Step 4. In this case, we had an HDV project set-up for 24p.

Step 7. Add the .motn file to the new Sequence and then apply the Frames plug-in to the .motn media.


The Frames plug-in applied to the Motion media with Deinterlace Only

Since the frame rate has already been adjusted in Motion, the right mode is Deinterlace Only, since the input media is already setup to render 24p.

Step 8. Render the timeline (Option-R). This will update the timeline and you will get true 24p output from a PAL (50i) media file.

NOTE: The final trick is to slow down the audio of your source. If you have dialogue or other audio tracks that need to be stretched, import them into Soundtrack Pro or another sound editing program. You then need to time-stretch the audio by a factor of 104.2709% (the difference between 25 and 23.976 frame rates). You can multiply the length of the audio in samples or seconds by 1.042709 and get the proper stretch, or simply refer to the output length of the media in the Motion project and enter that number in Soundtrack Pro's Time Stretch dialog to get the right audio length.

Sound Track Pro
Setting the Length of Selection for Time Stretch in Soundtrack Pro