You have some of the fabulous shots that are HD from Artbeats, but are working on a Final Cut PRO HD system that doesn't include an HD capture card. Can you use them? Sure you can! Read on...
What's needed is a file conversion that will allow you to work in the format of your choice. Yep, just change the file format to what you are working with, be it DV or one of the new FCP HD DVCPRO100 codecs, which put the HD in FCP HD. You could go through the laborious one at a time conversion via a QuickTime movie export or you can do it all at once with a "Batch Export" command. Very cool indeed.
Here's how it's done:
1. Import the HD clips from Artbeats into your project file after you've copied them from the DVDs. (Yep, they'll import without a hitch).
2. Select them all in your Browser.
3. Control click on one of the highlighted clips, or (if you've been clever enough to put them in a bin altogether) just control click on the bin that contains the original HD clips and select "Batch Export" from the contextual menu that will pop open with the control click.
4. When you select the "Batch Export" command, the "Export Queue" window opens:
5. Select the Batch 1 folder then click on the settings button in the bottom center of the Export Queue window. The settings for the exported file's can be set from the dialog box that opens:
In this example, I've chosen the DVCPRO HD 1080i60 setting simply by clicking on the Settings pop up menu. (the preset I'm using for your whole project is the one to use here.
6. Click on the "Set Destination..." button and choose your scratch disk for these new media files.
7. Click on the "Make Self-Contained" option if need be. Then Click OK.
8. You're almost there! Now look back at the Export Queue window and simply click on the Export button in the bottom left of the window. The files will export.
9. Now the coolest thing of all... Not only did you export as many files as you needed to at one time, you can open them automatically, by clicking on the "View Exported" button! They'll each open in their own viewer, and you can simply drag them from there back to your Browser! Further, you can export more that one type of batch at the same time. In other words, choosing more clips or sequences, you can export more that one batch at a time, and each batch can be a different format to boot!
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Jerry Hofmann is an award winning theatrical actor, TV and film editor, writer, director, producer and an Apple certified trainer. Over the years, he has produced hundreds of TV commercials, and industrial films for Fortune 500 companies, Hollywood studios and advertising agencies. A true pioneer in the technology of non-linear editing, Jerry received one of the first Avid non-linear disk based editors in Los Angeles. He now owns and operates his own production company jlh productions, in Denver Colorado. Jerry teaches part-time at the Colorado Film School. He is a team leader in the Final Cut Pro forum at creativecow.net and is the leading contributor to Apple's own discussion group for Final Cut Pro. New Riders Publishing publishes his book "Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4".
