Apple Final Cut Pro HD (4.5): New Features User Manual

Page 78

Chapter 4

Editing Film With Final Cut Pro in a PAL Environment

If you are still grappling with the frame rates and timecode counting rates that don’t
match, you can try the following exercises to better understand this principle. To do
these exercises, you need only the following items:

•

A pen and paper

•

A clock or watch that increments in seconds

Tip: Your computer clock can easily be set to count in seconds. To set your computer
clock to count in seconds, see the instructions on page 81.

Once you have a clock counting in seconds, you are ready to begin.

Exercise 1: Counting 60 numbers (0 to 59) each minute

At the turn of a minute (when the second counter reaches zero), begin writing down
the number of seconds passed on the clock.

Your paper should look something like this:

0 1 2 3 4 5... and so on.

Note: At first, it may be challenging to write numbers this quickly and also keep in sync
with the clock. It’s okay if you scribble a few of the numbers, as long as you make some
kind of mark for each second that passes. If some of the numbers are scribbled, you can
usually go back and fill them in based on the numbers you successfully wrote down.

After you reach 59, the minute counter on the clock increments by one and the second
counter resets to zero.

During the next minute, continue writing down the number of each second, but add a
1 before each number.

Your numbers should now look like this:

... 57 58 59 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4... and so on.

If you can write fast enough, you might add a colon (:) for clarity, like this:

1:0 1:1 1:2 1:3 1:4... all the way to 1:59.

Note: If writing the colons slows you down, skip them. The instructions will continue to
show them for clarity.

Continue writing numbers during the next minute, this time adding the number 2
before each second counted, like this:

1:57 1:58 1:59 2:0 2:1 2:2 2:3 2:4... and so on.

No matter how messy your writing is, make sure that you write a unique number at
each and every second that is counted on the clock. That is the most important part of
the exercise.

Stop writing after three or four minutes.

UP01022.Book Page 78 Tuesday, March 23, 2004 7:32 PM