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

Duplicating Projects

Final Cut Pro saves all the time in the background: everything you do is saved automatically as you work. The one downside is that if you were to make a crazy, experimental change and then suffer a crash, you could lose some work. For safety, it's therefore best to duplicate a Project before you make significant changes, and certainly before you begin a new round of changes based on client feedback.

These are the steps to duplicate a Project:

  1. Click once in the Browser pane to give it focus.
  2. Right-click on your current project in the Browser, then choose Duplicate, or press ⌘D. (Alternatively, in version 10.4.9 you can also use the small menu to the right of the project name in the central gray bar.)
  3. Double-click this new Project to edit it, and check that its name is showing in the middle of the interface.

That last step is important: always immediately double-click on the new Project to make sure you're editing the newest...