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OPERATIONS ARTICLES

New ! Creating Customized User Preferences Using Automator
There are some really good preference file managers for Final Cut Pro. But, sometimes, you need to create something customized for yourself. In this case, Automator can give you a hand. Don Smith sent in this technique of using Automator to simplify the process of creating FCP preference backups. (Published: Sep. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 6)

New ! Editor's Story: There's High-Def and REALLY High-Def!
What do you do when your client requests a video that's almost 13,000 pixels wide? (Well, after panicking a bit first...) Steve Sebban took on this task for a museum. Since then, I've heard from other editors who need, or use, this technique for the chasing lights around the edges of stadiums. Fortunately, Final Cut Pro makes this easy... if you ignore render times. (Published: Sep. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 5.0x, 5.1x, 6)

New ! Technique: Rolling Two Different Movies in Sync in Final Cut
Ganging two movies together in Final Cut Pro means that you can easily compare, frame-by-frame, two different movies. One in the Viewer and the other in the Timeline. This has been a feature of Final Cut for many years, but its hard to find. This article explains how to do it. (Published: Sep. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 4, HD, 5.0x, 5.1x, 6)

New ! Technique: Everything You Never Knew about PPMs
PPMs are something we never hear about in North America. All our audio is measured in dB. However, in Europe, PPM is THE standard of audio measurement -- and Final Cut does not support it natively. This article explains what you need to know, and how to measure audio in PPMs. (Published: Sep. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 5.0x, 5.1x, 6)

New ! Hard Disk Warning!
It is a long-known, but little-discussed secret that hard disks slowly lose their magnetic signal. If you archive your projects on hard disks, you need to read this article before all your carefully stored files... are gone! (Published: Sep. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro)

Three Interesting Things About Soundtrack Pro 2
The more I work with Soundtrack Pro 2, the more I like it. Recently, I spoke with Apple about STP and learn some quick facts I wanted to share with you here, including what gear you need to hear surround sound.  (Published: Aug. 2008 ; Soundtrack Pro v. 2.x)

Reconciling Frame Rates Between Final Cut Pro, After Effects
Matching frame rates between Final Cut Pro and After Effects can be tricky, especially when you are working at 24 fps; because there's 24 fps and "24 fps". This article details the differences and explains what you need to know to prevent problems. (Published: Jul. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 5.0x, 5.1x, 6)

WHITE BALANCING DURING A COLOR CHANGE
Dealing with shifting color temperatures during shooting presents a raft of problems during editing. This article describes what you can do during shooting to compensate for color temperature changes, as well as how to "fix it in post."  (Published: Jul. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 5.0x, 5.1x, 6)

EXPORTING TO FLV
One of the current limitations of Final Cut Studio is that it does not natively support creating Flash video output from a Final Cut Pro sequence. However, all is not lost. This article describes three different ways you can get what you want. (Published: Jul. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 5.0x, 5.1x, 6)

TWO GOTCHAS IN FINAL CUT PRO 6.0.2
Final Cut 6.0.2 has a number of unseemly bugs in it. This article details two that are particularly suspect. If you are running FCP 6.0.2 be sure to read this article.  (Published: Jul. 2008 ; Final Cut Pro v. 6)