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

Rearranging your clips

This basic part of the edit — putting things in the right order — is very important, yet deceptively simple. FCP makes it hard to get this wrong, because it's hard to break up a clip by accident, and the Magnetic Timeline means that you won't leave any gaps unless you add them on purpose.

If you're new to editing, this probably doesn't seem too strange. You're putting clips in order to tell a story, so why would you want to leave gaps in that story? It's probably a little jarring for new editors to realize that simply rearranging clips is actually not a simple operation in most other non-linear editing systems (NLEs). One of the key innovations of Final Cut Pro was to make it easier for you to experiment with your edit, letting you rearrange your clips without worrying about breaking anything. If you're an experienced editor used to juggling clips up and down to avoid clip collisions across multiple tracks...