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

Editing numerically and with the Precision Editor

Not every editor will want to be precise; editing is, after all, an art more than it is a science. But from time to time, it can be useful to set the length of a clip (or all your clips) to a specific value, and if a client asks for "a second more on that clip", it's great to be able to achieve it in a click and four quick keystrokes (+, 1, period, return). The techniques you'll learn here cover editing with numbers, setting duration precisely, and looking deeper with the Precision Editor.

Trimming using numbers

While the comma and period shortcuts move a selected edit point (or clip) by a single frame, you can use plus and minus with timecodes to move by any amount. To illustrate how to respond to the client who asks for "a second more," follow these steps:

  1. Select an Out point on one of your clips, as follows:
    Figure 8.42: "One more second of barnyard noises"

    Figure 8.42: "One more second of barnyard noises"

    You could do this by...