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

Adjusting video properties

In this section, you'll find out how to control how a clip is presented, by adjusting its blend mode, position, scale, cropping, and corner positions. You'll discover various ways to change these video properties in the Video tab of the Inspector, and in the Viewer directly. Video properties will allow you to zoom in or crop to a particular part of the frame, to shrink a clip down for a picture-in-picture effect, or to let one clip visually interact with the clips below it:

Figure 12.1: The Video tab in the Inspector has many options

Figure 12.1: The Video tab in the Inspector has many options

There are many reasons to tweak how a clip looks in this way, and you'll find these controls straightforward.

After the  previous chapter, Chapter 11, Play with Light: Color Correction and Grading, you're probably used to ⌥-clicking, and the same rules apply here:

  • To make sure you're viewing the clip you're editing, always ⌥-click...