Saving your Reel with Final Cut Pro

A.  Select the part of your movie to export (optional)
  1. Set your IN and OUT points around the section of the movie you would like to export by using the I key for the IN point and the O key for the OUT point.  These should be located at the top of the timeline.

B.  Begin your movie export

  1. From the File menu, choose Export - Using QuickTime Conversion...
  2. Next to Format, make sure that QuickTime Movie is selected, and click Options...

C.  Video Settings

  1. Under the Video box, click Settings...
  2. Next to Compressor, select either MPEG-4 Video or Sorenson 3.  (These codecs provide the highest quality video designed for web storage.)
  3. Set Frames per second to 15.
  4. Check Key frame every and change the value to 300.
  5. Check Limit data rate to and change the value to 40 K/sec.  (This can be adjusted higher for better quality, but will result in a much larger filesize.)
  6. Click OK.
  7. Under the Video box, click Size...
  8. Check Use custom size.
  9. Enter 320 for the Width and 240 for the Height.  (This can be adjusted higher for better quality, but will result in a larger filesize.  Make sure that whatever you choose has a 4:3 ratio.)
  10. Click OK.

D.  Audio Settings

  1. Under the Sound box, click Settings...
  2. Next to Compressor, select either MPEG-4 Audio or QDesign Music 2.  (These codecs provide the highest quality audio designed for web storage.)
  3. Next to Rate, select 22.050 Hz (22,050 hertz or 22.050 Kilohertz).
  4. Next to Size, make sure that 16 bit is checked.
  5. Next to Use, check Mono.
  6. Click Options...
  7. Set the Bit Rate to 32 Kbits/second.
  8. Click OK.

E.  Finish your movie export

  1. Click OK.
  2. Make sure that Prepare for Internet Streaming is checked, and select Fast Start - Compressed Header.
  3. Press the OK button to store your settings.
  4. In the File name box, type in a name for your movie file.  Make sure that your movie name ends with a .mov extension (i.e. Lastname.mov).
  5. IMPORTANT:  Make sure that you check the box next to Self-Contained.  If you do not, it will not play at all online or on any other computer.
  6. Now you should save the movie file to somewhere easy to remember, like your desktop.