Help me make my supercut, um, super.
August 8, 2013 6:55 PM Subscribe
I am working on a supercut of material from lots of different movies. I need your help figuring out the right tools and workflow for the project.
My source material is currently in a bunch of different forms: DVDs, streaming video from Netflix, streaming video from YouTube. I need to get all this material into a format that I can edit in Final Cut Pro 6.
I have a Mac Powerbook and an external drive for storage. I'd like to do this as simply as possible. I would love to hear specific thoughts about what programs to use, or even just general thoughts about how to streamline the process.
My source material is currently in a bunch of different forms: DVDs, streaming video from Netflix, streaming video from YouTube. I need to get all this material into a format that I can edit in Final Cut Pro 6.
I have a Mac Powerbook and an external drive for storage. I'd like to do this as simply as possible. I would love to hear specific thoughts about what programs to use, or even just general thoughts about how to streamline the process.
Mixing multiple sources will be the annoying part, IMO.
It looks like HandBrake is available for Mac. You can put a bunch of files in a queue and leave it to do its thing. It's mostly focused on people who want to compress the shit out of things so you've got to fight against that a little to be good quality, but find settings that look okay and will open in Final Cut, then convert any files that won't work into that same format.
posted by RobotHero at 7:40 PM on August 8, 2013
It looks like HandBrake is available for Mac. You can put a bunch of files in a queue and leave it to do its thing. It's mostly focused on people who want to compress the shit out of things so you've got to fight against that a little to be good quality, but find settings that look okay and will open in Final Cut, then convert any files that won't work into that same format.
posted by RobotHero at 7:40 PM on August 8, 2013
Don't bother with rips from youtube or netflix. The former you'll have to either rip FLV files from which will be mildly annoying to deal with and low quality, and get compressed again once you export from final cut and maybe even again when you upload to youtube. You'll be getting in to this territory mildly.
Step one is rip the dvds you have with something like mactheripper, and then get all the other stuff you want from torrents. It's not like ripping it from youtube or netflix is any more legal, and then you already have it in usable file formats.
Don't be discouraged about using a powerbook for this if that's what you have(is it a macbook pro or a powerbook?) The video you're editing isn't even HD, and people were editing video on powerbooks for years with no problems. There's just a lot of people on the internet who get alarmed at the thought of doing work on older computers when software has just gotten more bloated, and HD video does need more power to work with. Final cut 6 on a powerbook will handle dvd resolution editing no problem.
If you do have a macbook pro and not a powerbook though, hunt down a copy of an older version of a premiere. I've used both, and i find premiere to just be easier to work with. Especially when i'm chopping video to make little clips like this. Adobe's version of the timeline somehow just agrees with my brain more, but it's totally a personal preference thing. Final cut seems to be faster at almost everything because it's made by apple and such, for what it's worth. If you have a slow machine you might be ahead using a version of premiere that came out around the time that machine did.
posted by emptythought at 8:28 PM on August 8, 2013
Step one is rip the dvds you have with something like mactheripper, and then get all the other stuff you want from torrents. It's not like ripping it from youtube or netflix is any more legal, and then you already have it in usable file formats.
Don't be discouraged about using a powerbook for this if that's what you have(is it a macbook pro or a powerbook?) The video you're editing isn't even HD, and people were editing video on powerbooks for years with no problems. There's just a lot of people on the internet who get alarmed at the thought of doing work on older computers when software has just gotten more bloated, and HD video does need more power to work with. Final cut 6 on a powerbook will handle dvd resolution editing no problem.
If you do have a macbook pro and not a powerbook though, hunt down a copy of an older version of a premiere. I've used both, and i find premiere to just be easier to work with. Especially when i'm chopping video to make little clips like this. Adobe's version of the timeline somehow just agrees with my brain more, but it's totally a personal preference thing. Final cut seems to be faster at almost everything because it's made by apple and such, for what it's worth. If you have a slow machine you might be ahead using a version of premiere that came out around the time that machine did.
posted by emptythought at 8:28 PM on August 8, 2013
Response by poster: Sorry, yes, it is a MacBook Pro! I only wish I had one of these babies, but alas.
posted by Mender at 8:39 PM on August 8, 2013
posted by Mender at 8:39 PM on August 8, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
I think it's going to be a painful, painful experience on even the fastest of Powerbooks, especially if you're thinking of using HD sources/outputting to HD..
posted by mariokrat at 7:14 PM on August 8, 2013