Setting Up a Movie in Logic Pro

In this chapter, we will go over how to set up a movie file in Logic Pro. It’s important to know how to set up a movie file properly, including how to import a movie file, remove or replace an existing video, change the movie size, extract an audio file from a movie, and review movie project settings, to make sure everything works smoothly.

Knowing how to work with movie files in Logic Pro also helps improve and optimize your working environment for greater efficiency.

We will cover the following topics:

• Opening, saving, and closing a Logic Pro session
• Opening a movie file in Logic Pro
• Importing a movie file
• Saving a session with a movie file

Technical requirements

To follow along with this chapter, you will need a Mac computer with Logic Pro and QuickTime software installed. You will also need to use movie files provided with this book: https://packt.link/hxCer.

For easier access, before beginning the Logic Pro session, you can place the Logic Pro icon onto the dock on the desktop. To do this, navigate to the Applications folder, shown in Figure 4.1, and locate the Logic Pro app.

Figure 4.1: Applications folder

Next, drag and drop the Logic Pro icon onto the Apple dock, like so:

Figure 4.2: Logic Pro in the Apple dock

Opening, saving, and closing a Logic Pro session

To launch Logic Pro, double-click on the Logic Pro icon in the dock.

A Logic Pro session and a dialog box will open. Click on the Audio tab in the dialog box and set the Number of tracks field to 1. Then click Create.

Figure 4.3: Logic Pro session dialog box

Logic Pro will create a single audio track:

Figure 4.4: Open the Logic Pro session with a single audio track

The next step is to save the Logic Pro session. To do this, go to File and hit Save. Give the session a name and select the location of where you want the file to be saved.

Once the session is saved, to close and quit, click on Logic Pro in the upper left corner and hit Quit Logic Pro from the drop-down menu.

Now that we’ve reviewed how to open, save, and close a Logic Pro session, next we will go over how to open a movie file in Logic Pro.

Opening a movie file in Logic Pro

There are a few ways to open a movie file in Logic. Let’s look at them:

• The first option is to simply drag and drop the movie file into the Logic Pro workspace:

Figure 4.5: Dragging a movie file into a Logic Pro session

• The second option is to go to the Logic Pro menu and click on File, then Movie, then Open Movie (or use the shortcut Option + CMD + O):

Figure 4.6: Logic Pro file menu

• The third option is to open Global Tracks (using the shortcut G) and then right-click on the global tracks and select Movie from the pop-up menu. This will make your movie track visible. An additional way to open the movie track is to hit Option + G and click on the box next to Movie. Then click on the up and down arrows on the movie track to open the menu, shown in Figure 4.7, and select Open Movie…:

Figure 4.7: Opening a movie in Global...

Importing a movie file

To review the entire movie file process, we will use the Mercedes-Benz.mov file, which you can find through the link in the Technical requirements section. You can import the file using any of the three methods we discussed, before moving on to the first stage.

Extracting audio from a movie file

After opening the movie file, an Open Movie dialog box will appear. As shown in Figure 4.9, Logic Pro gives you options to open or not to open a movie file, and the option to extract or not extract the audio track.

Figure 4.9: Open Movie dialog box

There may be times when only the audio file needs to be extracted without opening the movie and vice versa, but in general, Open the movie and Extract the audio track should be checked. Make sure that you do that now.

Setting up the sample rate

After selecting the option for opening the movie and extracting the audio track, Logic Pro will open another dialog box, prompting you to confirm...

Saving a session with a movie file

Make sure to save your session with a movie file. To do so, go to File, then Save (or use the shortcut CMD + S). In the Save dialog box, give your movie a name, save it in a place where you can easily find it, and make sure that Movie file is checked (you can see this option at the bottom of Figure 4.20):

Figure 4.20: Saving a session with a movie file

After the Logic Pro session with the movie file is saved, every time you open an existing project, Logic Pro will automatically load the same movie into the session, without having to search for it on the hard drive. Doing this will improve and speed up your workflow.

After saving the session, close and quit the Logic Pro session by going to Logic Pro, then Quit Logic Pro:

Figure 4.21: Quitting a Logic Pro session

Summary

In this chapter, we discussed how to open and launch a Logic Pro session. We also discussed how to open a movie file, extract an audio file that was attached to the movie file, adjust and set up the sample and frame rate, and change the movie size aspect ratio.

Understanding these steps and processes will help you to work more effectively with a movie file in Logic Pro.

In the next chapter, we’ll learn how to properly align the movie file and sync Logic Pro to picture.