Old Mac Love—Making an HD video on a cheap eBay G4 Power Mac.
Final Cut Express Feature Overview and Mini-Tutorial for Fan Videos.
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Okay, so you want to know some of the specifics of editing on an old Mac? Well, I thought I'd put my money where my mouth was, so I made an HD fanvid entirely in an old G4 that I got off of eBay for $150 (plus $35 shipping).
The video is "Mad World" (click on link to view streaming video and also download HD video).
Click on screenshot to view the video. (Mind you, I'm not pretending to be the best editor out there! LOL.)
Technical Specs of Mac:
- Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver 2002" 1 GHz Dual CPU.
- 1.5 GB RAM (maximum this machine can take).
- Final Cut Express HD (version 3.0).
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Lots of hard drive space (because I can never have enough!).
I needed a 1 GHz machine because HD requires at least that. The dual CPU was a plus, because Final Cut is aware of both processors and so editing is faster. While I have a copy of Final Cut Express 3.5, I instead opted to use Final Cut Express 3.0, because it can be less expensive on eBay and also because I wanted to emphasize that any version of Final Cut Express can still give you lots of options and effects.
Editing speed: Okay, I won't lie, this circa 2002 machine is not going to compete with my little Intel Mac Mini! But still, editing was not that bad. I was concerned that perhaps HD editing would be uncomfortably glacial, but no! Sometimes I had to wait a couple minutes for an effect to render, but other than that, editing was fairly smooth. Exporting the finished video out did take a little longer (approximately 20 or so minutes for an uncompresed MOV) but I was prepared for that.
Technical Notes and Vidding Info:
Preparing the source HD clips: The source clips used in this video had some quality loss, which explains some of the "blocky" appearance you'll see in the video. It's a long story which I've decided to spare you. Suffice it to say that for reasons too tedious to explain here, I used some clips which had been processed a few times to different formats. Ordinarily vidders won't need to do that and so the quality will be better.
The original HD clips were from downloaded MKV files. In order to make them editable in Final Cut, I then either converted to the ProRes codec or Apple Intermediate codec (or some other HD codec) following this tutorial. (Free forum membership required to view tutorial.) But, since converting the MKV files is glacially slow, even on a Core 2 Duo Intel Mac, I started converting them to MJPEG AVI following this tutorial. (Yet again, free forum membership required to view. Don't worry, we won't bite! LOL.) The second tutorial uses a much faster process, and while Final Cut users will get the "red bar of doom" (clips will need rendering) the final quality isn't too bad.
The MJPEG AVI tutorial is the process I recommend for any G4 vidders, because the other process described in the first tutorial is slow on an Intel Mac, so on a G4 it would be nothing less than torture!
Converting standard definition (SD) clips: If you don't need to work in HD but are using downloaded clips or DVD rips, follow this tutorial to convert your footage to DV MOV for editing in Final Cut. One additional note: The tutorial mentions buying the $20 MPEG-2 plug-in (to allow the video conversion application MPEG Streamclip to recognize ripped DVD files) as being optional. For those using old Macs, I think it is nearly essential. The other workaround for ripping a DVD (the software Handbrake) is very slow on a G4, and should be avoided whenever possible.
What's possible with Final Cut Express 3.0 HD and other versions of Final Cut Express:
Faking keyframing of filters. The one big thing that versions 3.0 (and below) of Final Cut Express lack are keyframes on filters. Keyframes are used to change the status of a filter. Like you can set a filter to start out as 0% blur at the start of a clip, and progress gradually (using keyframes) to 100% blur by the end. Or 100% saturation at the beginning, to 20% saturation at the end.
Well, Final Cut Express 3.0 can't do that. (But Final Cut Express 3.5 and above can.) But, for many effects, there is a workaround for Final Cut Express 3.0 and lower, and I used this workaround a few times in this video.
Like in 1:59 in "Mad World," the clip is full color. But by the end, it is desaturated and grainy.
How do you do this in any version of Final Cut that doesn't support keyframes in filters?
Workaround: Double up the clip! As you see in the screenshot below, double up the clip with the effect. Gradually lower the opacity of the upper clip to reveal the effects on the identical lower clip.
The way to do this is to first add the starting effect (let's say full color) in your original clip. Do anything else you intend to do with the clip—zoom in, slow up or speed down—just whatever needs to be done. When you're finished, highlight the clip in the timeline and press the Apple+C key to "copy." Then go to the end of your timeline (which should be right after the clip you've been working on) and press Apple+P. A new clip will be pasted into the timeline. Select this copied identical clip and movie it right above the original clip. Then add whatever "ending effect" (let's say no color saturation) to this clip. Then click on the keyframe/opacity control at the bottom left corner of Final Cut to set the opacity levels of the top clip. Click on the "pen" tool (toolbar strip along the right side of screen) to set points where the top clip will fade away, revealing the effects in the bottom clip.
Garbage Matte: (Masking off part of an image, or image-in-image). All versions of Final Cut Express support garbage matte, and there are some excellent freebie Final Cut filters that are available for you!
Masking, aka "garbage matte," in Final Cut Express 3.0.
One of the great things about Final Cut Express is that you get the full effects of garbage matte—not limited versions like with other consumer-grade video editors (like Vegas Movie Studio or Premiere Elements). Here's a good freebie garbage matte for you to download. Also be on the lookout for "Paul Crisp" free garbage mattes. I can't seem to find a link to his page now, but there are various links from rapidshare and so forth if you start looking.
Garbage mattes (the same thing as Sony Vegas's "cookie cutter" effect—it's just a garbage matte! I don't know why Sony had to give it a different name! LOL) allow you to trim parts of a video image away to just get the bit you want, in order to do "picture in picture" or overlays. Since Final Cut Express allows 99 video tracks (compared to, for example, Vegas Movie Studio's 4 tracks) there is a lot of layering you can do!
Composite Mode: Screens and overlays again! All versions of Final Cut Express allow various types of composite modes, like "screen," "overlay," "hard light," "soft light" and several more. In the above garbage matte, I used an overlay composite mode to make the matted image (Guy and Marian) blend into the background a little better. Composite mode can also be used to make a gradient coloring effect over your whole clip, and many other effects.
Filters, filters, filters: Almost all of the effects used in this video were from Final Cut's default filters, or from freebie filters available online. As a general rule, most Final Cut filters are available for both Final Cut Pro and Express, though some filters and plug-ins require at least FCE 4.
Filter effect by Lyric, used in combination with other stock FCE effects.
There are a few spots in the video where I used a third party filter. The first is at 1:23 (Lyric's "watercolor" filter), then 1:26 (Lyric's bad reception filter), and the last is at 2:50 (pictured above, "Convolver," also by Lyric). I chose Lyric's filters because they were affordable ($50 for a large set of nice effects) and because I'd always enjoyed using their freebie "Shadow Highlight" filter (download at the bottom of this page).
But there are a lot of vidders who don't buy any additional filters and yet get some pretty amazing effects with what ships with Final Cut (and with help from the freebie plug ins available). I do a lot of tweaking of filters and combining of filters, and one of my favorite things to do is to "double up" (like I show above in the "fake keyframe" entry) and use some blend mode like soft light or overlay. There are a lot of options for effects.
The Titles and Watermark: LiveType in action! The animated end titles and the "shimmering" watermark are courtesy LiveType, the titling application that ships with Final Cut Express 3 and above. (Be advised, however, that version 4 of FCE has less LiveType media, but a lot of the effects are still available to you, and I'm almost certain that all the animated effects you see in this video are also available in FCE 4's version of LiveType.) Animations add an extra pizzazz to a video, and while I'm not sure I want to have a "shimmering" metallic-like watermark in all my fanvids, it was kind of cool to see it could be done.
A FANTASTIC example of a first video made in Final Cut: Heathra (YouTube username HeathDances) was already an amazingly skilled vidder when she switched to the Mac, but her first video in Final Cut exceeded everyone's expectations! Watch her "Lucas North Fan Video." (Download link is listed on the YouTube video info.) Warning, video contains intense imagry and fast-paced flashing images. This is an intense, amazingly edited video!
Click on above image to see Heathra's video on YouTube.
The effects, the timing, and the concept are breathtaking. But lest you think that she had to use all the most advanced features that will only be available in Final Cut Pro (she is using FCP 7 currently), no, that's not the case at all. Most of the effects she uses (pans, zooms, quick cuts with the help of timing markers, keyframed filters) are available in all versions of Final Cut Express (though you need 3.5 or above for the keyframed effects). And while a few of the filter effects she used are from third party filters, similar effects can be had with FCE's stock filters (with the exception of the "bad reception TV" filter, and a similar effect could be purchased from Lyric). And even Final Cut Express 3.0 or below could possibly be capable of achieving the keyframed filters, with the "double up" trick (as described earlier in this page).
Mac Blast from the Past: A bit of perspective. Here I've been talking about how this 1 GHz Dual CPU G4 isn't as fast as my current Intel Mac—and that's true! I love the speed of my new Mac. But at the same time, I can't forget that my earlier fan videos were made on a G4 that is slower than this Quicksilver machine. I first got started with vidding in early 2006, with my (at the time) year-old G4 Mac Mini. (Even though the Mini had a 1.25 GHz CPU and faster RAM, etc, it's rated as slower than the Quicksilver because the Quicksilver has dual CPUs and Final Cut uses both processors.) Here are two videos made on this G4 Mac Mini: "I am Guy of Gisborne" (effects heavy!) and "Trouble." (Links open to new window.)
MORE TO COME. This tutorial is just getting started! LOL.
Since I can't possibly explain all the features and instruct you on every part of Final Cut, I do recommend some good Final Cut books. They can be found cheaply on Amazon marketplace. Consulting Final Cut books helped me a lot during my first months of using the software—if only I had consulted the books more frequently!
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