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The mobile DV-solution from Apple Until recently the name Apple was traditionally associated with the powerful, expensive and enough closed systems intended almost for elite. It is necessary to tell, that, as a matter of fact, so it was so… some years back. But already Apple company during prolong time produce the available systems allowing successfully solve the various tasks of TV production. One of such systems is Final Cut Express 2.0 which is optimized for operation on Power Mac G5 platform with Mac OS X Panther. Final Cut Express 2.0 system installed on computer PowerBook becomes the successful mobile solution, allowing to create scenes in formats of DV family practically directly on the working place of film crew. Naturally, the packet is also functioned on the stationary computer. What is the Final Cut Express? This application is provided for editing of a video material in DV format with wide range of functions. Convenient interface makes operation with the system simple even for editing beginners. Last version of Final Cut Express is provided with slider RT Extreme providing an output of multilayer projects with effects in the real time mode. Last version of the packet is also provided with improved user interface, color correction in the real time mode and the expanded opportunities of processing and audio editing.
It is necessary to note, that opportunities of the application are wide enough. Functions Insert, Overwrite, Replace and Fit to fill, realized by simple dragging of fragment on a time scale, are considerably facilitated and accelerated editor’s operation. Also, there are other useful tools and functions (slip, slide, ripple, roll, split, extend, etc.). For exact adjustment of fragments the dynamic and asymmetric trimming are provided. Under using of dynamic trimming the operation is carried out in Trim Edit window by means of keys J, K and L, and edit points are adhered to the playback cursor position. In case of asymmetric trimming the adjustment is separately carried out for video and audio on a time scale directly. Hundreds of transitions, filters and special effects allow to give to prerecorded material practically any kind appropriate to the creative plan of editor. The lion’s share of these effects is carried out in the real time mode by RT Extreme slider, therefore there is no necessity to wait the calculation — effect, filter or transition can be looked through in the playback window at once. Final Cut Express does not grieve and in sense of multilayer editing — 99 layers allow to combine video clips and graphic files which can be imported in Adobe Photoshop format in the “disassembled” form, that is with preservation of division by layers. Program effects can be adjusted by means of Bezier curves, to specify the way of movement to them, time of performance, to mix frames and to carry out many other interesting actions. Modern television production is inconceivable without subtitles. Final Cut Express allows to create animated subtitles and then to place them in any place of the screen, specifying necessary movement. For example, it may be the bottom third of the screen, creeping line, drum-type scrolling etc. For making of two- and three-dimensional subtitles the tools of application Boris Calligraphy into software packet are included. Under audio operation 99 sound tracks (eight of which are reproduced simultaneously in the real time mode) are also accessible; their mixing is carried out at the level of sub-frame. The program allows to carry out adjustment of panning, level and three-band frequency correction on the time scale directly. There is also an opportunity of audio mixing, and also effects of the reverberation, expanded frequency correction, echo, noise suppression and others. For creation of news and documentary sketches the function of overlay of the speaker text (VoiceOver), when post scoring is carried out directly during playback of audio material, will be useful. As the system is operated with the sound which sampling frequency is in the range 8…48 kHz, and depth of sampling — 8…16 bits, it guarantees the compatibility practically with any recording/playback equipment and allows making the ready material of that quality which is necessary in each concrete case. Special attention it is necessary to pay to integration of Final Cut Express with Soundtrack application. Due to this there is an opportunity of addition of musical accompaniment to the edited video material that may be useful for creation of captions, program announcements, jingles, advertising rollers etc. For this operation it is not necessary to have music education and experience. Ii is enough to export the Final Cut Express project with exactly located markers of insertion of musical fragments for Soundtrack and then to use simple interface Soundtrack on the basis of dragging to insert the necessary music and effects in the real time mode. In Soundtrack library are thousands of musical fragments, available to use and made in such manner that they are easily looped. Video capture is simple also. For this purpose the interface FireWire (IEEE 1394), integrated in the computer is used. To transfer video on the computer with parallel viewing in Browser window it is enough only to connect a digital camcorder, VTR or disk device. The opportunity of installation in system of connected modules provides the support of the majority of the devices conformed to formats of DV25 (miniDV and DVCAM) family of NTSC and PAL standards. Besides capture of video, Final Cut Express enables to control of these devices (with interface FireWire). In particular, among supported devices are products of Canon, JVC, Panasonic and Sony. Among useful “trivialities” it can be noted the ignoring of time code interruption under capture (some systems will be simply stopped in this case) and automatic numbering of clips. During capture of video the system gives an opportunity of fragment naming, addition of comments and structuring of captured material. If to speak not about capture, but about file import then in this case the formats psd, bmp, jpeg, pict, png, sgi, targa, tiff are accessible. To the video fragment transferred in system it is possible to add markers (the same can be made to the video sequence on the time scale). They allow to mark video and audio for the subsequent editing, creation of DVD sections (the disk is formed by means of DVD Studio Pro or iDVD packets), encodings by Compressor application or addition of music accompaniment to Soundtrack. As for creation of DVDs, besides wide assortment of functions and the tools, inherent to DVD Studio Pro (it is delivered in addition) or iDVD packets, the system enables to record the disk at once as computer PowerBook, as a rule, is equipped with recording DVD driver. The Compressor application allows to carry out the high-quality encoding of material in MPEG-2 format and to make it quickly — during several minutes only. Control of the material in Final Cut Express is well advanced. Traditional for the majority of nonlinear editing systems the bins with maximum convenience allow to organize work at level of sequences and the whole projects. The support of several sequences in one project is provided, that is convenient for creation of several versions of the same screen product or at splitting of one large project to some small projects. There are also powerful means of search, sorting and selection of material. Designers of the program have provided also the opportunity of cancellation of brought changes by 32-level Undo system. Video and audio quality control in the application is not carried out only by sight. More precisely it can be made by means of the integrated module of oscilloscope, and for the audio level control the separate indicators are provided. Final stage of any editing is the output of ready material for its further use: viewing, duplicating, translation, Internet-broadcasting, etc. For this purpose in Final Cut Express some possibilities are provided. The first, as it was already noted, this is the making of DVD with direct recording of material on the computer. The second, the edited material can be transferred to recording/playback device in DV format. By the way, the material can be looped for repeated recording of the material on the tape. And the third, it is export of ready material of any QuickTime format or of format for Internet broadcasting. Well, at last, what requirements are made by program part of Final Cut Express to hardware? Requirements to the computer which accomplishment provides effective operation of the system at whole are the following:
It is not unreasonable to consider briefly the computer PowerBook G4 on the basis of which the whole system is operated. Though there are three modifications of this computer — with 12", 15" and 17" screen, nevertheless for operation with video the model with the greatest screen can be considered as optimum. Certainly, it is possible to use and 15" modification, but it is less convenient and is not so effective. The set of interfaces PowerBook G4 is impressed:
Actually the hardware platform allows to realize all opportunities of the system: from video capture up to output to tape, transmission to the Internet or under local network, recording of DVD. Besides, the computer is compact and light — its weight is 3.1 kg only (for 17" model). Graphic opportunities of PowerBook G4 are also wide. It is provided with graphic adapter Radeon 9700 on the basis of ATI technology which is provided by 64 or 128 MB memory As a result, it is possible to say, that the digital nonlinear system of editing in DV format Final Cut Express on platform PowerBook G4 of Apple company represents the powerful means of creation of the television programs, giving to editors all opportunities inherent to professional editing systems of higher television formats. It allows to create television content by high quality and with the minimal expenses of time and labour. Material provided by Apple IMC Company |
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