Summary. Using Final Cut Express on an Apple computer, it is possible to create a black square or rectangle to cover a portion of the video. This is useful in an educational application for hiding captions or other elements such as sign language interpreting in a box.
Steps. The following steps can be used to perform the desired results.
- Start Final Cut Express.
- From the Final Cut Express HD menu, choose Easy Setup and be sure to have the DV-NTSC DV Converter option selected if you are using a video converter box. Click Setup when done with this setting.
- From the file menu, choose Capture. The message “Initializing Capture” should appear briefly and then the Capture preview and controls should be visible.
- There should be three buttons appearing in the lower right area of the Capture control window: Clip, Now, and Project. Click on the Now button to begin capturing the current video. Press the Esc key when done. The captured video should show up in the “Untitled Project 1” window on the left of the screen.
- Click and drag the newly captured video Untitled1 from the Untitled Project 1 area down to the V1 timeline.
- Click on the Effects tab in the upper left area of the screen. Expand the Video Generators folder. Click and drag “Slug” to the V2 area on the video timeline below. This should create a black box in the Canvas preview window.
- Under the View menu, choose Image + Wireframe. Grab a corner of the slug to resize it. Holding down the shift key while doing this will make it possible to change its shape.
- Click and drag the resized slug to position it in the desired location.
- The resulting exported video should have a black box over the area being covered by the slug.