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TRANSCRIPT

In the previous videos we have given you an intro to cinematography, by going over the different types of shots, what they mean and how they impact the audience. 

Next, you planned a shotlist and filmed your mini-movie with 5 unique shots in FilmicPro. We started to assemble the edit using the Storyboard feature in iMovie and we can bring that project right into FinalCutPro and polish the edit right where we left off. To bring the project over, open iMovie on your iPhone, select the Project you want to import, tap the SHARE SQUARE, select OPTIONS, and select PROJECT, tap DONE in the corner, and then AIRDROP it over to your Mac. 

Once it’s Airdropped, open Final Cut Pro and select FILE, NEW, LIBRARY. Name your Library “Smartphone Studio Mini Movie”. Now let’s bring your iMovie project into Final Cut Pro. Select IMPORT, then iMOVIE iOS PROJECTS. Your project should be in your DOWNLOADS folder. 

You’ll see Final Cut Pro automatically creates an EVENT with the title of the Storyboard Template you chose and inside it is the work in progress timeline and your media clips.

If you didn’t start your edit in iMovie then you’ll need to airdrop your individual clips to your Mac and then drag those files into your new EVENT in Final Cut Pro. Select FILE, NEW PROJECT to create a timeline to edit in.

You will want to start your scene with your establishing or environmental shot, then refer back to the order of your storyboard shots on how you want to “string out” your movie. 

Find the shot that matches your storyboard, select the range, by either selecting R on the keyboard and dragging on your mouse until you have a yellow highlight box, or move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the selection, and hit the I key to set the in point. Go to where you want the end of the clip to be, and hit the O key to set your out point. 

Now, either drag the selection directly into the magnetic timeline and release the mouse to make the edit or hit the E key to have your selection added to the end of your edit. 

Repeat this step for each scene and clip you want to use. Soon you will have your first edit of your movie, called a string out. 

Once all of your shots are in the timeline, play it back by pressing the space bar and make sure everything is in order. If anything is out of order simply click and drag the clips before and after each other until they are in the correct order. 

Now, whether you started in iMovie or just created your timeline in Final Cut Pro, you’re ready to start refining and polishing. 

Use this next pass to shorten the clips and to make sure everything flows. You can do this by dragging the edges of each clip to the right or left to extend or shorten them.

Keep trimming your timeline until your mini movie flows the way you want it to and every shot seamlessly cuts to the next.

Now let’s add titles and music. 

Let’s start out by replacing our default title from iMovie with a Basic 3D title. 

Go up to Titles and Effects Generator. 

Select Titles, 

Under titles, find the Basic 3D title. 

Select it and drag down and over the original title until the box is highlighted. Release the mouse.

An option menu will pop up. 

Select Replace.

Your title has now been replaced with the Basic 3D title. Notice that your new title keeps the same name as what you typed in iMovie. 

If you didn’t start your film in iMovie then move your playhead to the beginning of your movie and find and select the basic title. 

Either click and drag the title where you want it in the timeline or press the Q key to put the title on top of the clip. You can also move the title to the very beginning of the clip. Double click the title to edit the text and put your own title to it. 

Music and sound effects are very important. They help to convey and reinforce the mood and tone of the visuals.

Find a few sound effects in the Sound Effects sidebar to add to your mini movie. Use around 5, one for each shot. 

Now comes the finishing touch, finding music for your mini movie. You can use the music provided in Final Cut Pro, or find some royalty free music in various music sites to use. 

Don’t spend too much time searching, for now just learn the process of finding and importing them into final cut pro. 

When you are done and are satisfied with your mini movie,you will want to make a file to share to your social media pages. 

Select the Share icon, upper right (Arrow going up in a box)

And select the YouTube and Facebook preset setting. Double check to see that all the settings are correct. 

Click Next. 

Select a location to save the file. Then click save. Final Cut will export the file, you should see a notification when you have successfully shared the file