(F.C.P.) Final Cut Pro Basics

After Opening Final Cut Pro, creating a New Final Cut Pro Project and saving it to your Firewire drive in an appropriate folder: 

Menu Bar>Final Cut Pro>User Preferences

General tab

Unclick “open last project”

Unclick “report dropped frames” 

Editing tab

Notice still frame duration

Timeline tab

Controls what your timeline looks like, what information is shown in your timeline.

Render control tab

Change render quality to speed up renders, will require a full  render when you are done rendering though.

Menu Bar>Final Cut Pro>System Settings

Set Scratch Disk to your Firewire drive (top option). Ignore the other options except the "Autosave Vault" set this to your drive as well. This step is very important. After you are done Make sure your folder layout looks like this image below.

Easy Setup

DV-NTSC

Basic Interface

Browser, Viewer, Canvas, Timeline, Tools, Audio Meters 

Tips

•To get to a “standard” interface layout, select Window>Arrange>Standard

•Option click off FCP to hide it and reveal the finder.

•The windows are active sensitive so you will need to clilck on them or hit "command key"-1,2,3, or 4 

Collecting Content:

File>Import>files: Select your video files

Import Photoshop layered files: with layers intact, imports it as a sequence

Capture Video

Tips:

You can simply drag files to the FCP browser.

 

Capturing video

Make sure you have set your scratch discs from above.

Plug in a 6pin to 4pin firewire cable into your camera and computer. Turn the camera on and put it in playback mode.

Launch the Log and Capture window: If it give you a warning about not recognizing your video deck (camera) then you will probably need to restart the computer and try again.

 

Clip Settings Tab

Make sure Audio and Video boxes are checked if you want to capture them. If you only want one then click the appropriate one.

Tip: By default you don’t hear audio when it captures even if you are actually capturing it. If you want to hear audio while you are capturing check the “preview” button in this tab” –not recommended for slower computers.

Capture Settings Tab

Check to make sure your Scratch Disck is set appropriately

Logging Tab (Three Ways to Capture)

Capture Now: Simple play your video in the Log and Capture window and hit “Capture Now” button. Make sure you leave some pre-roll and post-roll before and after the portion you wish to capture. Essentially what this means is that you capture slighty (5sec) more then you need on each end of the clip.

Capture Clips (1 clip at a time): You can mark the in and out points of the portion you want with the buttons on the left and right under the video display in Log and Capture then click the “Clip” button to capture the segment. The computer will then go back and record your clip automatically

Batch Capture: You can mark in and out point as above but then click the “Log Clip” button.  You can do this for as many clips as you want. When you set all the times you then go and press the “batch” button.

*NOTE—You must have no timecode breaks on your tape. Timecode breaks happen when there is empty space (nothing recorded) between two recorded section of your tape. Avoid this by always starting recording slightly overlapped with your last recording. If you have not played back your initial recording then want to record again you will not need to worry about the step above it should continue the timecode without problem.

The captured Clips should automatically show up in your browser when the process is complete.

 

Now you’re ready to start constructing your video

Remember the basic workflow is to double click a clip from your browser which opens it in your viewer, then mark an in and out point. Then place it in your Timeline by dragging or F9 or clicking the yellow button on the Canvas. After it is in the timeline you can preview in the Browser.