Here are some useful guides for the post production stage of your multimedia pieces:
FINAL CUT PRO
- Final Cut Pro Lynda Tutorial
- Ken Stone’s Final Cut Pro
- Fixing Low Audio Levels in Final Cut Pro (pdf)
- Online Video Formats
- Saving media
- FinalCutPro Shortcuts
Naming conventions:
- For Project folders & FCP file: yearmonthday__LastName__Description
- For sequences within FCP: yearmonthday_projectslug_version# & major change in version, i.e. 20100830_Gorillas_v1 first cut
- Video clip naming convention: In the bins, processed videos can use the following: “ws gorillas in the mist” (wide shot) “ms gorilla eating banana” (medium shot) “cu gorilla eating banana” (close up) “xcu gorilla face sleeping” (extreme close up)
Audio Mixing:
- Lynda tutorials on FinalCut Pro – Chapter 6. Basic Audio Mixing — first four videos (20 minutes).
- Adjusting the Audio Level of a Clip from the Knight Digital Media Center
- Creating Multiple Audio Levels from the Knight Digital Media Center
Titles
- From Final Cut Pro Lynda Tutorial #12: Creating Titles
- Creating basic titles 03:57
- Creating lower thirds 03:19
- Creating outline text 04:29
- Text tutorial material on Adding Titles and Text to Clips in the Knight Digital Media Center Final Cut Pro tutorial
PHOTOSHOP
- Lyndia.com tutorials for Photoshop CS3 for Photographers – Chapters 2-4 (66 minutes). (Optional: Chapters 15, Chapter 15 on layers, Chapter 16 on masking, Chapter 24 on burning & dodging. Also, Chapters 6-9 on Bridge). This tutorial explains the Photoshop menus, principles, tips, tricks, etc. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are very good for getting started (understanding the interface, the menus, etc. and very basic first steps in editing – resizing, etc.). Chapters 15 is good for understanding how layers work, and Chapters 16 and on for editing photos in more depth.
- Vunky Search Photoshop Tutorials
- Soundslides Manual Pages
- Preparing your media files (image and audio files)
- Embedding Soundslides
- Audio plays at the wrong speed or sounds distorted
- Switch: Converting Audio files
- SoundSlides utility for generating Flash embed code
- Ethical guidelines for editing audio, The Canadian Journalism Project
Creating title cards in Final Cut for use in Soundslides:
- “Generators” tab (under viewer)==>Text==>Text
- Drop onto timeline
- Double-click to see in viewer
- Adjust text, font, style
- Make sure text is within “Title Safe” area
- NOTE: You can create standardized title cards by dragging the one you just created into browser’s project tab. Then can use with other clips by selecting clip, dragging file to “superimpose” on canvas. Edit by double-clicking and editing in viewer.
To export the title card
EXPORT==>Click File Name–>File–>Export–>Using Quicktime Conversion–>Format=still image–>Options/Format=JPEG–>OK–>Save
IMPORT: As image into Soundslides
