Video with Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro

I've been knocking out quite a few movies of late using Final Cut Pro and the standard effects that come with the package. It took me some time to get my head around it, as I had learnt video editing at CMM (College of Multimedia, Amsterdam) using Adobe Premiere. I won't repeat that name here because in comparison to FCP it is crap and doesn't deserve the name check.

FCP is a bit like PhotoShop in the sense that most people have fixed routines and use only a small percent of what it can do. Experimentation with the other stuff takes time and when you're a professional it can be hard to find the time to have fun and try out new things.

Recently I've granted myself the time just to play around with footage in Final Cut Pro. I've not used any plug-ins other than the bundled ones. It's remarkable what you can do. I find myself not missing After Effects (another standard I had to learn at CMM) at all. There's so much to play with in FCP that, at least for the time being, I'm happy to follow this through.

There's a connection here with systems and some of the music of, for example, Brian Eno, one of my favourite recording artists. Set up a system and see what happens. Then tweak it. I did that with the footage here, and had little idea, really, how it would turn out in the final render. I'm still watching it on YouTube because it is still a wonder to me. I expect to be making more abstract movies using FCP in the near future.

I'd love to hear from anyone that can grok this!

The music, of course, is by Tracing Arcs...

YouTube Partners and Custom Thumbnails

The Elusive Custom Thumbnail Button

I noticed this morning that the elusive "Custom thumbnail" button had appeared for all my uploaded movies. It's taken a couple of months from becoming a Partner to this change taking place on my channel, but if you're a newbie like me you'll be happy to know that it's just a question of time.

I spent the morning changing the more irritating thumbnail images that had been chosen automatically to something I can live with for the time being. At least they're not blurred and I could actually choose the frame to export from Final Cut Pro and then edit in Photoshop according to YouTube's spec (at an aspect ratio of 16:9 which is a bit mad when you're still shooting at 4:3 but at least it's me that's doing the cropping).

AdSense and YouTube

I'm a "newbie" when it comes to AdSense but have been uploading videos to YouTube for a couple of years. Setting up an AdSense account is pretty straightforward and monetizing videos on YouTube is easy enough, isn't it?

Not for some of you, apparently, and recently not for me either. Like many new YouTube "partners" I've had videos held in limbo awaiting approval for monetization. And the reasoning is unclear – particularly when the video footage is your own and the source of music is the same as it's always been. So what can we do to rectify the situation and get our videos monetized?

The Burden of Proof

Well, we need to prove that we have all the necessary rights to the video and music. If you get an email in your gmail account you'll be able to supply all necessary proof, no problem. If you don't get an email though, you might start to get impatient after a couple of weeks of your video being "under review".

I spent a lot of time trying to find out how to submit the necessary proof to YouTube, and found a video that looked promising. It was a few months old though and the solution – to revert to the old YouTube interface/layout – already past its sell by date. I don't have the option to use the old style any more and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. There is still a way, though, even if it is currently hard to find.

The Missing Link

Here's the current link:
YouTube Partner Support – Revenue Share Claim
THE LINK I NOW BROKEN

It took me hours to find the page, but today I finally submitted my proof of rights to use the music I used in my videos. I'll keep you posted as to how my claims progress.

On a lighter note, here's a short movie that was monetized without any hassle at all. Enjoy!

Publishing and Advertising

That was then

I was involved in the publishing and advertising industry for too long. It made me ill in the end.

From the early 80s until the mid 90s I was tied in to jobs with advertising agencies and publishing firms that guaranteed I would never have enough time to spend on my real interests.

My real interests weren't actually as far removed from my dreaded jobs as some people thought at the time. There were moments of bliss when I got a freelance article published in MicroMusic, or when I performed well at a gig with whatever was my current band. But it wasn't until I was fired from my job as Desk Editor at Elsevier Science in Amsterdam that I finally made the big change and followed a course in the new discipline of multimedia engineering.

In 1998 at the College of Multimedia (CMM) in Amsterdam I could easily have skipped the first 6 months of study as I'd been running a sound studio for many years and still knew a lot of the theory that had been drummed into me for A-Level Physics. After talking to some of the Multimedia Level 1 students at an open day, however, I realised that there were still some major gaps in my knowledge of the basic stuff that I needed to be grounded in before stepping in to MML2. And then MML3, of course, at which stage I went for the Multimedia Engineer diploma.

And this is now

Now, after 13 years or so of working with Flash, HTML in all its flavours, sound and video editing and what have you, I find that I have come full circle and am publishing (in the form of blogs and videos uploaded to YouTube) and advertising (by way of AdSense).

It's a funny old world.

The Trellis Conference Movie 2012

With the Gardening Scotland event in Edinburgh beginning on Friday, it's great to have uploaded the Trellis 6th Annual Conference movie to YouTube.

Here's the link:



Check out the Trellis stand if you're going to Gardening Scotland!

The Trellis Conference Video Shoot

Yeah, that was a day-and-a-half, the 15th of March. Genie and I turned up at Perth Concert Hall with our video cameras and filmed all we could of the Trellis conference, given that some of the workshops overlapped and we could only film in one place at any one time. Even during the breaks we were still filming, as part of the brief was to show how people network at these annual conferences. Hardly time to grab a bite to eat or visit the loo.

We didn't do bad, though, considering that Genie was also having to zoom off for photo shoots and perform other functions befitting a Trellis employee. What helped enormously was getting a good quality MP3 of the sound taken off the mixing desk during the speeches and presentations from the resident sound engineer, and my Roland 05 audio recorder saved the day during the workshops in the afternoon. I was also given all of the Powerpoint presentations from which I could make my own slides for the editing stage.

We were both absolutely knackered by the end of the day but came away from Perth Concert Hall with not only sufficient footage for the main Trellis movie (which is currently awaiting approval) but also for a number of related movies that cover individual presentations and workshops which are already on YouTube.

It's great to work for the good guys. Trellis is a charity that supports therapeutic gardening projects throughout Scotland, and regardless of the fact that my partner Genie works for them part-time, I'm really happy to be associated with Trellis through my work. They are very groovy people and deserve our support.

And here's one of the offshoot movies that I really like. There's a Camphill community nearby (Corbenic) so I know something about their work and have been involved with them to some degree over the years I've lived in Scotland. This movie shows Ian Futter's presentation about his work at a Camphill community in Aberdeen which I find really inspiring.

Error Code 0x80080005

I'm a Mac user but use a Dell PC laptop (Windows 7) for testing. Recently it slowed right down and when I tried to run the Maintenance Wizard I got the error code 0x80080005.

I could no longer get online with the Dell and troubleshooting the internet connection gave me the same "unexpected" error, so I looked it up on the Mac. Apparently the code meant I had a system-level problem. I ended up downloading a program called "Errorend" and then transferred it to the PC laptop. It took ages to launch the program as the laptop was really on its last legs, but it did launch eventually. It scanned my laptop, found almost 300 errors in the file structure, and then asked me to go online and buy the program in order to fix the errors...

Yeah, right. Sounds like a con, but I managed to get online again with the Dell (by resetting the router) and paid for the program's license. Lo and behold, the wee beasty worked just fine after letting Errorend do its stuff. Cost me less than thirty quid. My Dell is functioning normally again and that's well worth the spend.

There are many articles online which suggest that Errorend is a scam. Well, it worked for me!

Problems with Final Cut Pro? Solutions from Digital Rebellion

First I should say that I've used FCP (6) for years without a hitch. While I was editing the last Tracing Arcs movie, though, it became erratic. I muddled on and completed the video but when it came to capturing footage from last week's Trellis conference, FCP wouldn't launch at all. Instead I got the dreaded spinning beach ball and "Force Quit" didn't force a quit. For each time I tried a fix I had to reboot the Mac.

So I did my research and tried deleting the obvious preference files, etc., but to no avail. I realised I'd need to reinstall the entire Final Cut Studio package, but Apple don't offer an UnInstall program, and deleting all the files involved by hand is practically impossible. Then I found a free uninstall program (FCS Remover) which I downloaded from Digital Rebellion. I uninstalled FCS and re-installed it. Still the spinning beach ball on launch...

Maybe it's a system thing, I thought, so I defragged the hard drive and tried again. Beach balls!

Then I remembered that Digital Rebellion had another program I might try out (15 day free trial). If only I'd tried that in the first place. I'd have saved a day and a half of total frustration and zero productivity.

Pro Maintenance Tools (PMT) sorted the whole thing out. There were files that I had saved in places that FCS Remover would never have found and which were corrupted. PMT found the stuff I'd saved "temporarily" all over the place and removed it all without touching the important stuff.

I'm going to buy PMT and have it on hand for my peace of mind. I'd recommend it to all Final Cut Pro users. It's fab!

Recovery – HeLo Mix

Next week I'm due to film a conference, which is going to be hard work, but at least it will get me out of the house.

I've been busy planning and preparing the kitchen for the builders, and have had little time for blogging or any semblance of a social life. I did manage to complete the new Tracing Arcs video, though, and I'm really pleased with the result, as is the band! I filmed it in Ramsgate in October last year when we had five days of gloriously sunny weather and Paul (of Tracing Arcs) and I had a great time in the evenings sitting outside pubs drinking cold cider.

Perthshire Artists – Debbie Dobson

Genie and I filmed this video of Debbie Dobson last Autumn (2011). Finally, after a busy few months, I found the time to edit the footage and upload the final cut to our YouTube channel (Ivy Cottage Industries).

The music is by Tracing Arcs.

Enjoy!