10. FINAL CUT PRO: MEDIA ORGANIZATION - CTA [10:59 min]
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What You'll Need: Final Cut Pro
TRANSCRIPT
Hi I’m Kiarra Drew with We Make Movies.
In our previous video, Intro to Final Cut Pro X, we got you up and running as an Editor quickly. We showed you the basic workflow from bringing in your media, to editing on the timeline.
They say a little preparation goes a long way. This is true in Final Cut Pro X as well.
Investing in organizing your media in the beginning stages of making your project will help you be more efficient when you are looking for your assets during the editing process.
In this tutorial we are going to show you some of the ways you can organize and sort your Media and Events in Final Cut Pro 10.4.9.
In Final Cut, there are many different ways to achieve the same result. For our tutorial we will show you a couple different ways to organize your media.
This will get you started quickly and efficiently in the organizing workflow.
Organizing Media Already in your Project
Select Your Library > Go To the Clip Appearance icon (Film Icon) above the Browser and Select It.
Go To Group By: Click the pull-down menu. A variety of different options appear.
For the purpose of this tutorial select ‘File Type’
Media will now be Grouped by file type, (Example: Audio, Image and movie files.
Click Sort By: Notice the variety of sort options and order (Ascending, Descending)
Click on Name.
There is an option to show waveforms on a video should there be sound in the video. Click the Waveforms check-box to enable waveforms where applicable.
Toggle the contents of the Browser between film strip and list view by toggling the clip display button.
Click the disclosure triangles to hide or display the files in the header.
Changing Clip thumbnail size and the duration of video thumbnails.
Must be in FilmStrip View
Select Clip Appearance:
First adjuster is Adjust Clip Height
Move back and forth to resize thumbnails.
Second slider is called the Duration Slider.
Meaning, as you drag to the right side, you’ll notice the time duration decreasing.
doing this increases the number of thumbnails in video clips in your browser,, showing more detail of your clip
Each thumbnail represents the time shown on the right.
Example: You have a 2 minute video. Set the clip duration to 30 seconds. You will see 4 thumbnails in the video. Each thumbnail represents 30 seconds worth of video in the clip.
These controls will help you find the content you want in your clip faster.
To reset these options anytime, select “Library Name > Select Clip Appearance icon > Group By: None.
use the Shift-Z shortcut to fit all the clips back in the browser.
Rating Clips in Final Cut
We showed you in the intro video how to bring down clips and edit them in the timeline.
Another workflow is to Rate your clips in the Browser. Then bring those portions of the clips into the timeline.
For the purpose of this tutorial I am using a new Project with an empty timeline.
Hover over one of your video clips.
Select a Range by dragging across a clip, or using the I and O keys for in and out.
Go To Mark Menu > 2nd Row you’ll see Favorite, Reject, And Unrate.
You’ll also see Keyword Editor, that’s a subject that we will cover a little later in this lesson.
Save some time. Learn the Keyboard Shortcuts For Rating Clips.
Favorite = F. (These are clips/parts of the clip you want to use in your Project)
Reject = Delete Key (These are clips/parts of a clip you don’t want to use in your Project)
Unrate = U. (Clears your Selection)
Select Favorite and click
A Green line goes across the clip range you selected.
Go to another part of the clip, select it, and hit the Delete Button
A Red line goes across the clip range you selected.
Select a few different clips or other sections of a clip. Rate some of them as Favorite and some as Reject.
Filtering Clips
Go up to where it says All Clips. This is the Filter pop-up menu. Click on the menu and you’ll see specific filtering options.
Select Favorites, all the clips with the Green line are shown.
Select Rejected, all the clips with the Red line are shown.
Go back to the All Clips Selection.
Click on a green line on the clip, the clip is selected. Move the clip to the timeline either by dragging or keyboard shortcut. Add another favorite clip to the timeline.
There is now an Orange Line on the bottom of the clip. This line indicates that portion of the clip has been used.
Go back up to the Filter pop-up menu. Click and select Unused (Control-U)
This shows all the media that hasn’t been used in your project.
Click and Select All Clips (Control-C) To bring back the All Clips setting.
You have just put together the start of your timeline by using Favorites and Clip
Ratings.
Name the Project whatever you like. For purpose of this tutorial I named my Project “Project 2”
Organize your media with the techniques shown earlier. When you have finished organizing your media, you can add the Favorite clips to your timeline.
Congratulations! You are now on your way to becoming a Final Cut Pro Power Editor!
ADVANCED MEDIA ORGANIZATION:
We are going to briefly cover some advanced user created workflow searches: Keywords and Smart Collections.
Keywords
Creating and applying keywords is another way to organize your clips. Clips with keywords applied to them show up in the event, allowing you to easily find them. You can also search for keywords in the Search fields.
To Add a Keyword to a clip.
Select an Event that contains multiple video clips.
Select a Clip in the Browser.
Click the Keyword Editor button. (Keyboard Shortcut Command-K)
Keywords for Selection Box appears.
Type in “Movies” in the keyword box.
Press Enter.
A blue line has been added to your selected clip, indicating a keyword has been applied.
Select another Clip.
Type in “We Make” in the keyword box.
Press Enter.
As you enter in keywords the words start filling up the Keyword Shortcuts. You can use the corresponding keyboard shortcut to add those keywords to your clips.
Go to your Sidebar, and toggle your Event you selected open.
You now have a Keyword Collection icon.
Clips that have keywords applied are viewable in this location.
Adding a Keyword to a Clip Range and adding multiple keywords to a clip.
A clip can have multiple keywords applied to it., in addition to having a range selection with a keyword applied to the selected range.
For the purpose of this tutorial we will show you how to do both things at once.
Select a clip from the Movies Keyword Collection.
Drag a selection in part of the clip.
Click on the range selection.
Drag the selection to the We Make Keyword Collection.
The selected range is now in the We Make Keyword Collection.
Enable Skimmer Info to see keywords and other information of a clip in the Browser when skimming a clip.
View > Browser > Skimmer Info (Keyboard shortcut Control-Y)
You can disable seeing Skimmer Info by using the Keyboard Shortcut Control-Y.
Smart Collections
In your Library there is a folder called “Smart Collections” These are advanced search filters based on custom search criteria. Smart Collections allow you to quickly find media from these search results, and save them for continuous use.
Each Library contains a default folder of common Smart Collections searches.
Click on the Smart Collections folder disclosure triangle to expand the folder.
You will see 5 gear icons with labels for All Video, Audio Only, etc.
Select the Projects gear icon.
All of the Projects in the Library are shown.
Select the Audio Only gear icon.
All of your audio files in your library are shown.
Double-Click any of the default Smart Collections to view the Filter HUD and see how the search parameters are applied.
You can create and save your own Smart Collections. Allowing you to easily sort and find the media based on a variety of filters.
CREATING A CUSTOM SMART COLLECTION FILTER.
For the purpose of this tutorial select three different clips total from different Events in your Library.
Name these clips “We Make Movies.”
Select the Smart Collections Folder.
Right-Click and select New Smart Collection. (Keyboard Shortcut Option-Command N)
An Untitled Smart Collection is created.
Rename the Smart Collection “We Make Movies Search.”
Double-Click the WMMS gear icon to bring up the Filter window.
Here you can start adding in custom search parameters to customize your search.
Click the Plus icon
This brings up the search criteria fields.
Select Text.
A Text Search Filter is created.
Type in the Includes Search box. “We Make Movies”
Press Return.
Close the Filter Window.
Your custom search shows you all the media that matches your search parameters.
CONCLUSION:
As a Filmmaker, we want to get right into creating our Video to get our project out for the World to see. Organizing your media is a very important step of the editing process. Take the time at the beginning to organize your media with the techniques shown in this tutorial. With your media organized, you will become a faster and more efficient Editor.