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Chapter 18 Glossary 535
Blade tool The editing tool that allows you to cut clips in the Timeline. You can select
the Blade tool by pressing the B key.
blue laser media Blu-ray burners and players use a blue laser when working with Blu-
ray media. The blue color has a shorter wavelength, making it possible to store more
data on a disc when compared to red lasers.
blue or green screening See chroma key.
broadcast-safe Broadcast facilities have limits on the maximum values of luma and
chroma that are allowable for broadcast. If a video exceeds these limits, distortion can
appear, resulting in unacceptable transmission quality. You can use the Final Cut Pro
video scopes to make sure that the luma and chroma levels you set stay within
acceptable limits.
B-roll A term used to describe alternate footage shot to intercut with the primary
shots used in a program. B-roll is frequently used for cutaway shots.
BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) An extension of the WAV le format that includes
additional metadata such as timecode and production information.
CAF (Core Audio Format) Apple’s Core Audio Format (CAF) is a exible le format
for storing and manipulating digital audio data. It is fully supported by Core Audio
APIs on Mac OS X v10.4 and later and on Mac OS X v10.3 with QuickTime 7 or later.
CAF provides high performance and exibility, and is scalable to future ultra high-
resolution audio recording, editing, and playback.
chroma The color information contained in a video signal, consisting of hue, which
represents the color itself, and saturation, which represents the intensity of the color.
chroma key A special eects technique that allows you to derive an alpha channel
or matte from the blue or green background of a video clip in order to make it
transparent for the purpose of compositing it against other clips. Blue-screen
technology is what makes weather forecasters appear to be standing against an
animated map, when in reality they’re standing in front of a blue wall. Also known as
blue or green screening. See also alpha channel.
clip The term used to describe a video or audio asset, especially after it has been
imported into Final Cut Pro. Clips appear in the Event Browser, the Timeline, and the
media browsers. Clips in Final Cut Pro point to (link to) source media les stored on
a disk. When you modify a clip, you are not modifying the media le, just the clip’s
information in Final Cut Pro. (This is known as nondestructive editing.)
clipping Distortion occurring during the playback or recording of digital audio
because of a signal that exceeds the maximum sample value of 0 dBFS.