Final Cut Express Editing
a step-by-step guide prepared by Jeff Achen, Consultant www.mnvideopro.com
Final Cut Express editing basics SETTING UP YOUR PROJECT Step 1: Choose Final Cut Express > Easy Setup Step 2: Under the drop down titled “Use” select “DV-NSTC”
Step 3: Choose Final Cut Express > System Settings Step 4: Under the Scratch Disks tab, click the first “set” button to select the hard drive you wish to capture footage to. This will be the file location that you will periodically delete to make room for new project footage. (Otherwise your hard drive will fill up too quickly and you won’t have room for anything else.) OPTIONAL STEP: Feel free to set the minimum allowable free space on scratch disks to a given file size such as 10 GB. This will prevent you from capturing too much and clogging up your hard drive.
Step 5: Choose Window > Arrange > Standard Terms Scratch disk - this is the term for the portion of the hard drive you use for all your raw video footage. Raw video is captured at full resolution and therefore takes up a lot of hard drive space. It is recommended that you designate an external hard drive as your scratch disk.
CAPTURE Step 1: Connect your camera via firewire to the computer and turn the camera on in play/vcr mode. Step 2: (NOTE: DO THIS FOR EVERY NEW PROJECT) Choose File > New Project. Then choose File > Save Project As... (I recommend creating a file on your hard drive titled “Projects” where you can save your projects and all the related graphics and other files.) Step 3: Choose File > Log and Capture (Shortcut key: Command 8) Fill out the “description field,” then press play and the “now” button. This will begin capturing your footage. Repeat as necessary to capture all your footage. Esc key stops the capture process. Step 4: When you have captured all footage, choose File > Log and Capture to close the capture window. Terms Sequence - This is on video file. In most cases you only need one sequence. You can create other sequences to create different versions of your video. Clip - This is the raw footage. Each clip represents the footage you captured each time you started and stopped the capture process. Bin - You can create bins to manage your clips, sequences, or audio and graphics files.
EDITING To begin editing, you’ll first need to be familiar with the Final Cut interface. There is the Brower where you will find you clips, sequences and other files. There is the Viewer, where you preview your clips and audio/graphics files. There is the Canvas, which displays the video you have put into the timeline. The timeline is similar to iMovie’s timeline, but it features multiple lines so you can more easily layer video. Step 1: Doube click on the clip you want to work with. It will appear in the Viewer. You can now play the clip, scrub through it and set in and out points. Once you have selected the portion of the video you want to use by setting an in and out point, you can click and drag the video onto the timeline. Step 2: You can add video, audio and graphics to the video by making use of the additional video tracks. (NOTE: There are many settings that can complicate the click and drag process. Please use familiarize yourself with the timeline tabs.) The source control tabs (v1, v2, a1, a2, etc.) determine which track video/audio files will be placed on. You can double click a source control tab to disconnect it. This is useful when you wish to add cover video without the audio, or when you wish to add audio from a voice over, without the video. You can move the source control tabs up or down to place clip selections on the appropriate track in the timeline.
Step 3: You can add fades and transitions by clicking on the end of a clip in the timeline, then selecting the fade or transition from the menu on top. Choose Effects > Video transitions > Dissolve > Cross Dissolve to add a cross dissolve. In most news videos, you will not need a transition, but you will use a fade in or fade out at the beginning and end. (A cross dissolve at the beginning and end serve the same purpose as fades.)
ADJUSTING AUDIO Step 1: Click on the “Clip Overlays control. Use the pencil tools to create break points in the audio files for volume to go up or down.
TITLING/GRAPHICS Step 1: You can create name tags and video openers in LiveType. For now, I will create a template for us to use company wide. You’ll want to keep this template in a permanent folder, then open it and add the name and title for each project. Be sure to same the LiveType template as a new file in the appropriate project folder. Now you’re ready to import and place the title in your video. Step 1: Choose File > Import > Files... Step 2: Click and drag the LiveType file onto the timeline where you want it to go.
EXPORTING Step 1: You must “render” all graphics files and some of the transitions if they use graphics. To do this, choose Sequence > Render All > Both. Step 2: Now your video is ready to be exported as a quicktime file. To be sure your video is properly selected click on the sequence in the browser. Then choose File > Export > Use Quicktime Conversion. Step 3: Name your video and select the appropriate location for the file. Step 4: Format should be “Quicktime movie” and use should be “Broadband - High”. Step 5: Click save.