Apple Cinema Tools 4 - Manual (Page 17)

Note: Capturing video clips from a tape-based device may require third-party hardware.
When using serial device control, make sure to calibrate its capture offset. See the
Final Cut Pro documentation for more information. Also see
Setting Up Your Hardware
to Capture Accurate Timecode for more information about capturing your clips.
• If you do not have a telecine log file and the clips are provided using a tape-based system: In
this case, you use the Final Cut Pro Log and Capture window to manually capture each
clip. Once the clips are captured, you can create a Cinema Tools database based on
them using the Synchronize with Cinema Tools command. In some cases, third-party
hardware is required.
• If the clips are provided using a file-based system, such as on a hard disk or DVD-ROM
disc: In this case, most often you also have a telecine log file. You can import the telecine
log file into Final Cut Pro, copy the files to your computer, and connect them to your
Final Cut Pro project.
• If your clips are coming directly from a digital acquisition source, such as camcorders using
solid-state cards: In this case, you use the Log and Transfer window in Final Cut Pro to
ingest the clips. You then use the Synchronize with Cinema Tools command to create
a Cinema Tools database based on the clips.
Recompressing the Captured Files
Regardless of how you captured your video, you may decide to recompress the files to
make them smaller and easier to work with. For example, taking advantage of the correct
codec may allow you to edit on an older portable computer.
About Compression
Compression, in terms of digital video, is a means of squeezing the content into smaller
files that require less hard disk space and potentially less processor power to display.
The tradeoff is lower-quality images.
It’s important to remember that the edited video that results from Final Cut Pro when
used with Cinema Tools is not typically going to be used in an environment where high
quality would be expected. The most common use of the edited video is to give the
negative cutter a visual guide to go along with the cut list. This means that the quality
of the video only needs to be good enough to make your edit decisions and read the
window burn values. However, because your edit decisions are sometimes based on
subtle visual cues, it’s best not to get too carried away with excess compression.
Important: Do not use long-GOP codecs, such as most MPEG-2, XDCAM, H.264, or HDV
codecs. In addition to being difficult to edit, these files cannot take advantage of the
Reverse Telecine feature.
17 Chapter 1 An Overview of Using Cinema Tools