Fast 601: Let’s Edit Some MPEG!
by Charlie
White
When
you start up 601, you’ll be happy to see a familiar sight: It’s the
Windows NT desktop! No, not really, but 601’s subset of NT’s friendly
interface helps you quickly get used to the system. On the left is the
Project Window (Fast calls it a “Rack”), where your captured clips reside.
At the top of that window are tabs that let you select and control transitions,
effects and almost everything else.
Let’s
start things off by capturing a few clips. Click on 601’s Start menu,
then select Tools and then Logging Tool, and you’re ready to go – besides
creating a logging list, you can also click on the capture icon and
you’re grabbing video and creating a logging list in the background.
Use the benefit of 601’s multitasking capability and name your clip
as it’s being captured. It’s even quicker to set a Mark In on the fly,
then a duration and the Out point is automatically calculated. If you
didn’t have a chance to name those shots when you were capturing them,
right click on the picon for that shot and select rename.
Here’s
a neat trick: Need to use a shot that spans across a time code break?
Don’t worry – go to the Properties icon on the top right of the Logging
Tool window and select Digitize Across Time Code Breaks. Wow. Never
seen that one before. By the way, if you’re going to use this, it’s
a good idea to also select Set Markers on Time Code Breaks in case you’re
dealing with an EDL with time code numbers and later wonder what the
hell happened.
Once
you’re done with capturing, a quick way to get a feel for your sequence
without using the timeline is to drag a bunch of shots from the project
Window onto 601’s desktop. As you arrange them, the shots on the bottom
play first, so situate them as you’d like to see them in a sequence.
Then lasso them with your cursor. Right click and select Preview and
you’ll be able to watch your sequence play back. 
It’s
a great way to storyboard your production! Once you have everything
arranged the way you like it, lasso and drag the group of clips onto
the timeline and there they will sit lined up right where you want them.
Another unique feature of the storyboarding is the ability to alt-double
click on a thumbnail and it will turn into a little player, a characteristic
previously seen only in Quantel’s software. Drag back and forth and
mark your ins and outs right there on the picon itself. And here’s something
you’ll like to use: any time you want to jog through a clip, use the
mouse wheel to scroll through your footage frame-by-frame – this feature
works throughout the 601 program.
However,
storyboarding isn’t the only way to edit shots. There’s also a choice
of pure timeline editing and three point editing, too. And, if you’re
a user of Adobe Premiere, Avid Media Composer, discreet logic edit,
Media 100 or almost any other NLE including Video Toaster Flyer, it’s
easy to configure the system to operate almost exactly the way you’ve
been doing for years. Interesting concept, and welcome by lots of us.
Here’s
how to configure the buttons on the interface, optional jog/shuttle
controller and the keyboard shortcuts so they will work just like your
favorite editing application. Drag the buttons you’d like to use to
the area on the interface that makes most sense to you. After you’ve
configured the interface the way you’d like, go to Fast’s Start menu,
select Project/Save Template, and there it is, saved for posterity.
Take it with you and any 601 system you encounter will feel like home.
The configuration options don’t stop there, though. Make the timeline
work the way you want by dragging to increase the size of a particular
track. As you drag to widen an audio track, it’s much easier to see
its waveform. Or, a video picon is much bigger as you drag along its
seam to increase its size. Also, right click for a context sensitive
menu that lets you add a track. And if that’s not enough, choose from
a multitude of timeline arrangements by clicking on the View Switcher
(the icon that looks like an eye at the bottom right of the timeline
itself).
Once
you get that timeline just right, try this neat trick – it’s a unique
feature of 601 – called a direct insert. For example, say the first
shot is already on your timeline. Select the second shot and insert
it directly by dragging it to the timeline from the Project window.
Nothing unique about that – yet. But as you move it over the preceding
clip, you can see precisely where the insert will happen on your master
window as well as the video window. When you see the exact frame after
which the shot belongs, drop it and it’s cut into the timeline. Neat.
Don’t
forget to take advantage of 601’s real time dissolves and wipes. In
the project window, select the 601FX tab. Select your effect and simply
drag it between two clips on the timeline. After you’ve dragged the
effect between shots, drag it to size it or enter a number for your
duration or any other parameter by right clicking and selecting that
parameter. If you want more effects than just
dissolves and wipes, they’ll need to be rendered. But the good news
is that you’re able to use any Premiere-compatible plug-ins. And, making
things less painful is 601’s unique ability to render effects in the
background. So don’t just sit there and stare at that render thermometer
– go ahead and work on your next edit, and before you know it the rendering
is done.
If the
numerous included effects aren’t enough, try converting your footage
to an avi or QuickTime 3.0 file and export it into your favorite compositing
package like Adobe After Effects. Go to Fast’s Start menu, and under
Tools select “Export Sequence as.” Then you choose avi or QT movie or
a bitmap, Targa or tiff sequence. Then decide if you want to convert
the whole movie or just a segment between the In and Out points. Click
OK and save it as your favorite codec or full frames uncompressed. Now,
after a few minutes of conversion from MPEG to AVI, the segment is ready
to massage to your heart’s content. Since it’s an uncompressed AVI,
there will be only an imperceptible loss in quality. When you’re ready
to bring it back into 601, click the right mouse in 601’s Project window,
select Load/Media Clip and the Media Import dialog box opens. As soon
as you locate your finished file, it’s ready to place onto the time
line.
Here's what I used
to write this tutorial: