how to do this?

Hey video guys, question for you. I have a 1 hour long video and I want to edit it in a specific way. Id like to fast forward major parts of it, and then during some highlights slow it down to normal speed.. often seen in movies and stuff.

Is that possible with off the shelf software like Final Cut?

Hey video guys, question for you. I have a 1 hour long video and I want to edit it in a specific way. Id like to fast forward major parts of it, and then during some highlights slow it down to normal speed.. often seen in movies and stuff.

 

Is that possible with off the shelf software like Final Cut?

Yes you can in Final Cut, it's called time remapping. There are heaps of online tutorials, it is reasonably simple, but probably can't be explained in a couple of lines in a thread.

Yes, you can make it, basically two ways: 1) constant speed remap 2) variable speed remap (with Final Cut Pro, Motion, Shake).

1)

Right click on the clip, select the "Speed" command, and in there set the wished speed, and check the "Frame blending" checkbox. Do not forget to cut the clip, because this will valid for the entire length of the clip.

2)

Double click on the clip. In the Viewer window select the Motion tab. In therein select the Time remap tringle. In there you have several options, Constant Speed, Variable Speed, the speed curve changes accordingly. You can use keyframes as well to limit the effect.

Play with it.

2/b)

For extreme slow downs I recommend to use Motion, and its Optical flow retiming features, where the missing frames (in case of slowdown you will have missing frames if you have shot with normal speed) will be calculated using a sophisticated method. Check the intro of my tutorial (third task):

After Dive Tutorial Intro

Best,

Jules

Good stuff Jules. I might add that it is easiest to cut the one our film up (assuming it is a single file now) first. Put the cuts right before the slow down points. Once you have worked out a speed you like for the fast stuff, you can copy (select clip and "cmd c") and paste attributes (select next clip with single click and "opt v", check "basic motion"). This way you can apply the speed up to each clip and get the same look and feel. You may also want to "ease in and out" of each fast clip.

-shawn

Thanks guys, thats exactly what I was looking for. I'll start playing with it.

Another question for you Final Cut owners. (i use FCE btw). When I watch tutorials I always see people just drag in videos, add dissolve effects, and play them immediately. When i drag in a video (mp4) i cant do anything unless I render it, and anything I do to it causes me to have to render it again. Is that normal?

Did you transcode the MP4 to AIC or Pro Res? Does FCE even use Pro Res? Sorry I forget.

Problem is AVCHD/MP4 is processor intensive, so a lesser computer will not have r/t effects without transcoding to an intermediate codec.

Are you saying I should first transcode the clips to AIC, and then import into FCE? Or can FCE transcode to AIC?

What is the source of your MP4 fileS?

a flip mino, which does 720p.

Ok you can either use Quicktime Player to export to AIC or Pro Res. Or you can use MPEGSlipstream to transcode.

Solved this?

I somehow missed your previous post. Ill try it out later today. On my way to a geocache hike.

Not sure about FCE, but with Final Cut Pro you can just import as Pro Res 422. Don't bother with the Pro Res 422 HQ.

Many are having difficulties working with the AVC Mpg 4 codecs, the NLEs have just not been able to keep up. And even one company's AVC H.264 codec is not the same as another's AVC H.264. That plus the Mpg 4 compression really degrades the quality of the footage.

Steve

Hi all, i got it to work. Used mpegstreamclip (not slipstream ) to convert to AIC, and then i could do everything pretty quickly in FCE. I was also able to adjust speed of small sections of the clip. Thanks!

Used mpegstreamclip (not slipstream )

It was a test to see if you had lateral thinking... Seriously I don't know why I always call it slipstream... it's been like 3 years and I still do it.