Category: DVD
Make A Final Cut Pro Movie Into MPEG-2 For DVD Studio Pro
My client has a trailer she made for her film and wants to put it on a DVD without a menu. Just a simple DVD that plays the trailer as soon as she puts it in a DVD player. If only everything was that easy… I will list two ways to do this and it is completely up to you, the user, which method you want to use.
So you exported the file from Final Cut Pro as a self contained file. I will list the two ways to encode the file then I will show you how to make a simple DVD that plays the trailer without menus.
1) This is the easiest way to encode a FCP movie file to MPEG-2. In DVD Studio Pro click on the Import button located on the top of the bottom left window.
Select the FCP movie and Import it into DVD Studio Pro.
DVD Studio Pro will encode the media file for you automatically. Which is perfectly fine if you have a project that doesn’t require you to alter the MPEG-2 file because of time length or quality.
2) Open Compressor 2. Grab your FCP Movie File and drop it into the Batch Window. Next to your file is a pull down box.
Click on it and select New Default Setting—>MPEG-2.
Click on the pull down box again and select Audio Formats—->Dolby 2.0
Select the Default MPEG-2 in the Batch Window and notice in the Inspector Window you can now manually control how you want to encode the MPEG-2.
Most of the settings are fine, click on the Quality tab in the inspector. Select Two Pass VBR Best from the pull down menu next to Mode. The slider under Average Bit Rate is where you can control how the MPEG-2 will be encoded as far as time. Move it up will increase the file size and quality of MPEG-2. Slide it down and you can encode it at a lower bit rate which will allow you to have a longer MPEG-2 file to import into your project. This is helpful when your project is longer in time than the defaults in the Settings Menu.
Click on the Save As… button and enter a name for your new setting.
Select the Dolby 2.0 in the Batch Window to open it up in the Inspector Window. This is where you can customize the audio as well. I prefer the default settings but wanted to show you how to customize your audio as well. It is better to encode your audio to .ac3 or Dolby 2.0 in Compressor as compared to dumping the file in DVD Studio Pro which automatically compresses it to QuickTime Audio as a larger file size.
Click the submit button and Compressor will encode your FCP Project into a customized MPEG-2.
DVD Studio Pro
If you used Compressor to encode, import the footage into DVD Studio Pro. The next part is universal, regardless which method you used. Select both the Video and Audio in the Asset window and drag and drop it to the right, onto the Timeline Track.
Next is to select your DVD in the Outline Tab.
That will select the DVD in the Inspector Window. Underneath the Name of your DVD is a dropdown menu for First Play. Select Tracks and Stories/Track 1/Chapter 1.
You just told the DVD to play the track that you placed the MPEG-2 in. No menu needed. Now select Build from the top toolbar.
It will ask you for a folder to choose. Create a new folder and name it trailer or whatever you want. Click OK. It will make you DVD in that folder. To test it to see if it worked open Apple’s DVD Player located in your Applications Folder. Once DVD Player is open, go to File—>Open and select the folder you just named, you will see two more folders. Select the VIDEO_TS Folder and hit Choose. If your trailer begins to play, it works.
Go back to DVD Studio Pro and Click on Format from the top toolbar. That will open a new menu. Everything should be set up for you to put a DVD in your computer and click the Burn button. If by chance under Source the Location bar is empty click on Choose… button and find the folder where you Built the DVD in the last step and select it. Now you can burn the Disc.
Whew… That was a long post. Sorry about that. I’m tired and going to bed… Any questions?
Make Chapter Markers For DVD Studio Pro in Final Cut Pro
Here is a quick tutorial on how to make chapter markers in Final Cut Pro so they appear in DVD Studio Pro as chapters.
First thing to do in your finished film or project is to locate where you want to place your chapter markers. There is no need to place a marker in the beginning of your project, DVD Studio Pro does that for you. Great placement for chapters would be at each sequence in your project, not at every scene. Make sure nothing is selected in your project timeline and find the exact time where you want your chapter marker to begin and hit the “m” key. You will notice on top of the timeline a small green marker. Hit the “m” key again to open the “Edit Marker” window. IMPORTANT: If you have any media selected the marker will appear in the media file and the chapter marker will not work, make sure it appears on top of the timeline.
Name the chapter what you want and click on the “Add Chapter Marker” button. In the Comment section you’ll notice that it automatically adds <CHAPTER>. Click OK and your Chapter Marker is set. Continue this process throughout your project until you are ready to export.
To export your project with chapter markers goto the top menu–>File, select Export and select QuickTime Movie…
Once the save window opens select where you want to save it. To keep your project organized, I highly suggest you create a New Folder and name the folder Exports under your project folder, before you save it make sure you select Chapter Markers from the drop down menu on the bottom of the screen. Now go ahead and save it.
It will save all the information where you placed the chapter markers in Final Cut Pro. Once you import it into DVD Studio Pro and place it into the track the markers will appear exactly where you placed it earlier. Success.
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To The Rescue
I received an email on Friday from April with Lilac Films asking for some help on Final Cut Pro or if I could recommend someone. I called her and asked her how could I help.
She was past her deadline and had gone through three editors. She had a completed film but wanted to go back in and fine tune some edits. I told her I was available on Saturday. We made arrangements and she drove up to Greensboro from Raleigh with her Intel iMac and external hard drive. We set up her computer and opened her project located on her external hard drive and what do you know. The media files could not be located. I was alerted and searched for the files. No luck.
After talking with her a bit I knew right away what her previous editor did. I’ll call him Dude. Dude had his own external hard drive from which he was working off of and saved the project over to her external hard drive. You think that would be OK. It would if you did it in iMovie. Not Final Cut Pro. If Dude knew what he was doing he would’ve used the media manager and copied the project onto her external hard drive. That was not the case. So she drove to Greensboro to find out that we could not do any work to her project. I know how frustrating that must be. I showed her some FCP tips and we wrapped up the session. She called Dude and scheduled a pick up for his hard drive so we could extract the files from it. Done.
Sunday I drove to Raleigh in the afternoon. She worked on the audio all morning and used some of the tips I showed her. Very cool and she did a really good job too. I showed her how to add chapter markers in Final Cut Pro and then exported the movie file with the markers embedded.
We then encoded the Final Cut Pro files in Compressor and then added it to DVD Studio Pro. While the files were encoding I created overlay menus in Photoshop for the DVD. Once the files were DVD ready, I quickly placed everything and connected all the buttons and files. Build and Format, Done.
I couldn’t show her at a slow pace how we did the DVD due to time constrains, but we got the DVD done and that made her very happy. That is what I love about what I do…anytime I can come in and help a filmmaker or producer to tie up loose ends that makes my day.
There was one last thing for me to do. Use Media Manager in Final Cut Pro and transfer the project and media files over to her external hard drive from Dude’s external hard drive. April was happy and so was I, and I made a new professional friend. How sweet is that?
Road Trip: Charlotte – Neighborhood Theater
This Sunday my brother, his girl, my wife and I are all heading to Charlotte to see Ronnie Baker Brooks perform with The Legendary Blues Revue. I’ve driven as far as Georgia to see Ronnie perform so Charlotte is a welcome. This will be the first time my bro gets to see him perform live, so I’m psyched to introduce him to Ronnie. I shot this video with Blake and Tony at Chips Bar and Grille in Winder, GA and had a great time doing it.
This is from a promo DVD I put together for him so I could introduce my skills to one of my favorite Blues act. Tickets are still available so head down to Charlotte and catch some great music. Hope to see you there.
Series DVD Volume 6
That’s right you Punk Rock fans I’m currently encoding content for the next installment of Series DVD.
The next step after I’m finished is to the press to stamp out a few thousand. For the next few nights (probably till Sunday night) I will be posting tutorials and content from Series DVD Volume 6. Here is the first look at the trailer that Blake Faucette put together earlier today.
Blake is the sole proprietary owner and operator of Series DVD.
[Audio] Interview with Blake Faucette of Series DVD
Click Button to Play Podcast
[display_podcast]
Blake Faucette has worked on many independent film projects in several roles such as producer, director, editor and against his better judgment, sometimes actor. He is the creator of Series DVD: Metal and Hardcore, a DVD series containing live music, videos, interviews and other bonus material. Currently, he is working on completing two feature film projects: Superhuman and Blood Feud. He also helped produce Ninjas VS Pirates (with director Micah Moore) which became an Internet sensation through Ifilms. “My main goal is to work with independent filmmakers to produce quality projects and help to find them distribution for their work.
Thanks Blake great interview and I look forward working with you in the near future. I will be posting tutorials from Series DVD Vol 6.
This and other podcasts are available to download at itunes. If you have never used itunes and need help to download and install it click here.
You can click the “ipod” icon on the sidebar to take you directly to my podcast site.
Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD
Until I need HD DVDs I’m going to let the elite of the broadcast world fight over it. Experts consider this format debate of DVDs like the 80’s version of VHS vs Betamax. Betamax had better quality but because of the format and size of VHS it won in the minds of the consumer. Does anyone remember seeing a family lugging around a betamax video camera recording those precious memories? 
If you do and had a father recording you as a child with that behemoth then you need to give him a big hug cause that was a mess.
Regardless which format comes out on top we will be moving forward to one of the two. If you have money and want to throw it around be my guest and help the industry decide which way this DVD debate will go. Or if you have a project for me and you prefer one over the other then that is what I’ll use…Until then I can wait.
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