Book Image

Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing

By : Iain Anderson
Book Image

Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing

By: Iain Anderson

Overview of this book

Final Cut Pro (also known as FCP, previously Final Cut Pro X) is Apple’s efficient and accessible video editing software for everyone, offering powerful features that experienced editors and novices will find useful. FCP is the quickest way to transform your raw clips into a finished piece, so if speed is important, make this a key tool in your editing arsenal. Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing is a comprehensive best practice guide for all editors. You’ll not only learn how to use the features but also find out which ones are the most important and when you should use them. With the help of practical examples, the book will show you how typical footage can be assembled, trimmed, colored, and finessed to produce a finished edit, exploring a variety of techniques. As you progress through the book, you’ll follow a standard editing workflow to get the feel of working on real-world projects and answer self-assessment questions to make sure that you’re on track. By the end of this Final Cut Pro book, you’ll be well versed with the key features of this app and have all the tools you need to create impressive edits.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Importing and Organizing
7
Section 2: Rough Cut to Fine Cut
13
Section 3: Finishing and Exporting

Understanding the color workflow

Though there are many ways to approach color correction, the goal is always the same: to make the image look better. At the very least, you'll want all your shots to match, to look like they belong together. Your subjects shouldn't bounce around between light and dark, or between yellow and orange; it's distracting and unappealing:

Figure 11.1: Ideally, the Leaning Tower of Pisa shouldn't look dark in one shot, then bright in the next

Figure 11.1: Ideally, the Leaning Tower of Pisa shouldn't look dark in one shot, then bright in the next

Getting the basics of exposure, saturation, and white balance sorted is usually called primary color correction. To make those first basic fixes, you might start out with an automatic adjustment like Balance Color or Match Color, before adding several manual adjustments such as the Color Board and/or Color Wheels.

To take it further, secondary color correction is all about being selective, making changes to just parts of the image. You might brighten up someone&apos...