Saving time when you are editing can create some more opportunities for you later on in a post workflow. Now I know this is news to everyone out there, but its true. I’m going to briefly provide 7 tips I find useful getting through a cut in FCP. You may be aware of some of these – maybe I can shed some light on them.

1) Get Organized – From the moment you import, ingest, digitize… bring any footage in to FCP, log it. Give each clip a unique filename and log note. Filenames could be as simple as the name of the project and a series of numbers following it. Then I like to use the log note to be more specific about the clip. Writing exactly what might appear in the clip. There are many other fields to take advantage of in the log and capture/transfer window. I will say, logging P2 media from a P2 card or a fire store is quite time consuming… I like to import all the footage I need, as is, with the weird filenames give to each clip by the camera. I have built and Automator Action to batch rename all the clips I ingested. After doing that, you will have to re-import them into FCP. Once the footage is back in, then go through your footage and place log notes with the clips. Now this may seem like a lot to go through, but until Apple provides us a better way of batch ingesting media, this is the solution I have developed.

2) Button Bars – Button bars are relatively new to FCP, but they are powerful little buttons nevertheless. You may know where they are, but not know how to modify or use them. From the “Tools” menu, choose “Button Bar.” From here you can search for may keyboard shortcuts, menu commands, filters and other operations. Drag the commands/buttons into the bars above the browser, viewer, and timeline. Each of those places you can load up buttons that are specific for that window. This personally is one of my favorite tips to share with users. You can save button layouts by right clicking the button bar are choosing Save. Load them the same way.

3) Display Layouts – Here’s one I’m sure you already know about. Maybe I can take it to the next leave for you. I have 4 or 5 main display layouts for my FCP workspace. I will recommend running two displays if you can, even if its two 19” monitors. They don’t have to be big, just something to allow you to spread things out when needed. I recommend the following layouts:
a. Rough / Initial cutting – I use this layout when I need to see a long list of clips all at once. As a side note, you can right click in the column headers of the browser window and turn on and off new columns. I like to turn on the Thumbs column.
b. Long Timeline – If you have two monitors, stretch it all the way out! Use both monitors. If you have one monitor, use the entire length of the bottom of the screen.
c. Motion Control – Great for when you need to see a lot of the motion tab all at once. Make the browser small and place it down next to the timeline. Make the canvas window small, but not tiny. Use most of the space at the top for the viewer.
d. Also give yourself a setup for color correction. If you do a lot of if, you will find it very handy.

4) Keyboard Commands – As a general rule of them, if you go for a menu command or another control more than three times in five minutes, learn the keyboard command. You can find a list of keyboard shortcuts in the Tools menu, and in the manual. You can also modify these just as you would in any other app.

5) Create a quick rough cut – The less time you spend with the mouse, the better. You can do 85% of your rough cut using only the keyboard. Doing this will increase your speed, and your ability to move through footage quickly. Here are some key keyboard commands for doing this.
a. J, K, L -> transport controls for your active window.
b. I or / -> punch in
c. O or * -> punch out
d. F9, F10 -> Insert, Overwrite edits for media from the viewer to the timeline.
e. Q -> toggles between the viewer and the canvas windows. If your timeline is the active window, you can use “Q” to switch back to the viewer.

6) Copy & Paste Attributes – In the timeline you can use the standard “apple+C” command to copy a selected clips attributes. Attributes can include, basic motion, crop, distort, filters, speed, and content. Once copied, you can select one or multiple clips in the timeline and paste attributes on to it using a “option+V.” You can also right click on the clip and choose paste attributes, but the keyboard is as always, quicker. You can also use this for audio clips. This is a great feature if you apply a filter pack to one clip, modify to fit to your liking, and the apply it to other clips in that scene.

7) Picture Lock – One of my favorite but least used stages of a post project. Picture lock is after your producer/director has approved all clips, cuts and takes in a project and approves it to go forward with graphics, color correction, and other finishing that does not require the cut of the project to change. The quick this can be achieved, the more time, and more attention your finishing person can spend on refining your look.

That’s all for now. Check back in a month for some more. Happy editing.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Bag of Tricks, Final Cut Pro 6, Final Cut Pro Studio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.