Appendix 1

The Filmmaker’s Guide to Final Cut Pro Workfl ow
Figure 2.1 DP Johnny Bishop Shoots Son using the DVX 100 on Brooks Institute stage one
The second workfl ow addition can remarkably improve the control and therefore quality of the audio
mix and fi nished sound track. See Chapter 5 for information on exporting audio and working in Pro
Tools.
The third suggestion can improve the fi nished titles especially the end title crawls. See Chapter 8 on
improving titles.
Depending on the shooting format, the fourth added step can remarkably improve the overall look
of the project. The process is simple but rather expensive for many small DV projects. The fi nal,
noncolor-corrected project is simply printed to digital videotape and taken to any good postproduction
house capable of doing tape-to-tape with your DV format. Several DV formats present problems
and may need to be dubbed (copied) to another format for tape-to-tape color correction. HDV has a
very compressed and under-sampled color space and offers less control in color correction. The
transports are also diffi cult to control in tape-to-tape and, so, most HDV projects will need to be
transferred to HD Cam. Standard DV formats have limited time code features and make tape-to-tape
deck control impossible. However, these DV tapes can be dubbed to another format for color correction.
The format of choice at most post houses is not a DV format at all, but Digi Beta. Digi Beta
offers excellent control of the tape transport as well as the color through the color correction equipment.
This is usually the same color correction equipment used for telecine. (See Chapter 1 on fi lm
workfl ow.) DVCam and DVC Pro 50 are also often dubbed to Digi Beta, however tape-to-tape is
possible from these formats. One advantage here is that the fi nal master tape is delivered on Digi
Beta, which is perhaps the most supported of all standard defi nition formats. DVC Pro HD is unique
and will not be dubbed but color corrected in DVC Pro HD.
Non-DV formats such as HD Cam and Digi Beta have a higher bandwidth and require very specialized
equipment, and this requires a fi nishing step called an online edit in the workfl ow.
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