USER GUIDE FOR FINAL CUT PRO X

(v. 10.2.2) FOR STONEHAM TV MEMBERS

1 Getting Started 1

1.1 Using Editshare Connect 1

1.2 Password Management 2

1.3 Using External Drives 2

2 Final Cut Pro X Interface At A Glance 3

3 Getting Started In Final Cut Pro X 4

3.1 Libraries, Events & Projects 4

3.2 Creating A Library Using Editshare Connect 4

3.3 Creating A Library Using External Hard Drive 5

3.4 Importing Media 6

3.5 Disclaimers 8

3.6 Create A New Project 9

3.7 Saving 9

4 Beginning The Editing Process 10

4.1 Favorite And Reject Feature 10

4.2 Deleting Media 10

4.3 Smart Collections 11

4.4 Keyword Collections 12

5 Beginning The Editing Process 13

5.1 In And Outs Of Editing 13

5.2 The Primary Storyline 14

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5.3 Placing Media Into Your Project 14

6 Adding Graphics, Transitions, And Effects 16

6.1 Effects 16

6.2 Photos 16

6.3 Music & Sound 16

6.4 Transitions 16

6.5 Titles 17

6.6 Generators 17

6.7 Themes 17

7 The Remaining Items In The Toolbar 18

7.1 Tools 18

7.2 Inspector & Share Destinations 19

7.3 Timeline Index & Markers 19

7.4 Timeline Clip Appearance 20

7.5 Background Tasks, Timecode & Audio Meters 20

8 Exporting Your Finished Project 21

9 Wrapping Up 23

10 Burning A Dvd 25

11 Multicam Editing 27

12 Freeze Frames & Still Images 29

12.1 Freeze Frames 29

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12.2 Still Images 29

13 Importing A Dvd 31

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1 GETTING STARTED

Welcome to Stoneham TV’s User Guide to Final Cut Pro X. In this manual, you will find all the information you need to create a new project, edit it, and share it with your viewers. First thing you will need to do is log on to EditShare Connect or connect an external hard drive. This is where all of your media will be stored for in-house editing. 1.1 USING EDITSHARE CONNECT

When you first turn on the computer and it finishes booting, you should see the EditShare Connect log-in screen already open. If not, locate the EditShare Connect icon in the Dock at the bottom of the screen and click it.

The server address should read 172.28.54.220.

Enter your user name and password. Your user name should be your first and last names, all lowercase letters. Leave the “Remember Me” checkbox unchecked, otherwise the next user to use this computer will have access to your project and media files.

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EditShare Connect log-in screen

EditShare Connect interface.

EditShare Connect icon in the Dock.

Once EditShare Connect launches, in the “Spaces” tab, locate the “Unmanaged” section and locate your directory and the public directory. Under the Mount/Unmount section, click each dropdown and choose “afp.” In the top right corner of the window, click “Launch FCP X.”

1.2 PASSWORD MANAGEMENT

If you would like to change your password, you can do so after logging in to EditShare Connect. Locate the Settings tab. The Password Change tab should be the first one listed on the left. If it’s not selected, click it. Enter your old password, your new password, and then re-enter your new password to confirm.

1.3 USING EXTERNAL DRIVES

If you choose to edit your project outside of Stoneham TV, you will use one of the MacBook Pros. In this case, you will need to use an external hard drive. Also, some members who choose to edit in-house may be required to edit using external drives.

The iMac desktop and the MacBook Pro laptop computers support external drives using USB and Thunderbolt ports. Thunderbolt connection is the preferred method for mounting external drives due to the sheer volume of data moving back and forth between the drive and computer when editing/writing video files.

When you first turn on the computer and it finishes booting, you should see the EditShare Connect log-in screen already open. Navigate to the EditShare Connect menu and select “Quit EditShare Connect” or type Command-q. Connect your external drive to the computer and launch Final Cut Pro X by clicking the icon in the Dock.

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Thunderbolt connection to computer.

Final Cut Pro X icon in the Dock

2 FINAL CUT PRO X INTERFACE AT A GLANCE

At first glance, Final Cut Pro X’s interface may seem confusing or overwhelming. Let’s go over the basic areas of the screen.

Before we clutter up this nice, clean space, let’s start under the “Libraries” section in the top left part of the screen. This area is called the Browser and is where your libraries, events, smart collections, keyword collections, projects, and media will all reside. We’ll touch upon what those are in the next section. The organizational tools in Final Cut Pro X are unlike anything Final Cut Pro has ever offered before.

To the right of the Browser is the Viewer. The viewer is where you can watch your clips, listen to audio, and playback any video. Wherever your mouse is, whether in the Browser or the Timeline, the video and audio will play out from the Viewer section.

Just below the Browser and Viewer is an area called the Toolbar. As the name implies, most of your tools can be found here. Favoriting, keyword editing, tools, generators, audio meters, timecode, among many other items can be located in this space.

Below the Toolbar, you’ll find the Timeline. This is where you will construct your edits to your clips, audio, and photographs into a finished program. Final Cut Pro X’s trackless Timeline has features such as the Magnetic Timeline, snapping your clips as close to the Primary Storyline as possible and keeps your clips snapped to the left.

There are a few “hidden” parts of the interface, but we’ll discuss those in a little while.

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Final Cut Pro X: A clean slate

BROWSER

TIMELINE

VIEWER

TOOLBAR

3 GETTING STARTED IN FINAL CUT PRO X

3.1 LIBRARIES, EVENTS & PROJECTS

Let’s talk about Libraries, Events, and Projects and their relationship with each other. A Library contains both Projects and Events in one place. Think of Libraries as a way to collect and organize related Projects and Events at a higher level. For example, you could use a separate Library for each of your shows, if the topics are unrelated, each of which contains its own Projects and Events. Because a Library contains both Projects and Events, it provides a single consolidated location for all your source media and edits. It’s easy to open and close Libraries to access the media you need.

Events, Collections, and Smart Collections can be thought of as containers where you store, sort, and organize all of your assets and Projects. Your media files include raw video, audio, and photos. Events exist within a specific Library.

Projects are where you edit your program.

So, the relationship is something like a Russian nesting doll, in as much as a Project is nested inside an Event, and Events are nested inside a Library. However, in one Library, you can have multiple Events, and in one Event you can have multiple Projects. Think of a TV series. The series as a whole could be a Library. Each episode would be an Event, which would contain all the media for that episode. So, each Event would have one Project, which would be the editing space for that episode.

3.2 CREATING A LIBRARY USING EDITSHARE CONNECT

Final Cut Pro X opens by default with an Untitled Library. Go to File > Close “Untitled Library.” This is because this Library would save to the computer, not your preferred storage space. Now let’s create a Library by selecting File > New > Library.

When this window opens up, in the pane to the left side, locate and select the item labeled “es-master” under the “Shared” section. Then, locate the folder with your name followed by “_1” and double-click it. Finally, at the top of the window, give your Library a descriptive title, such as “Spelunking Stoneham” or “Gardening with Mom.” Think of this as the name of your TV show, whether it’s a series or a one-time program. Click save when you’re done.

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Interface when creating a new Library.

The image to the right will be similar to what you should now see in your Browser. In this example, our TV show will be called “My Library.” You can rename a Library at any time by clicking on the text and typing the new name.

In this diagram, you see that there’s a folder called “Smart Collections” and an Event with the current date. You can rename the Event to whatever you choose, such as “Ep 001” or “Choosing Your Crops.” Click on the text and type the new name.

A Smart Collection is a fancy name for a saved search. This search updates automatically whenever new media is added or modified that matches the criteria of the search. When you first create or open a project in Final Cut Pro X a Smart Collection folder is created in the Library which contains five Smart Collections:

All Video – This displays all the video clips in your Library, regardless of which Event they are stored in.

All Audio – This displays all the audio clips in your Library, regardless of which Event they are stored in.

Favorites – This displays all clips, or portions of clips, that are flagged with a Favorite rating in your Library. This is similar to changing the pop-up menu in the top left of the Browser to “Favorites,” except the popup menu shows both clips and projects, while the Favorites Smart Collection only shows clips.

Projects – This displays all the projects in your Library, regardless of which Event they are stored in. This is a more flexible option than creating a Projects event solely to store projects, which is what I have recommended in the past.

Stills – This displays all the still images in your Library, regardless of where they are stored.

Because Library Smart Collections span the entire Library, they make finding stuff a whole lot easier. And, as you’ll learn below, you can add as many additional Smart Collections as you want.

3.3 CREATING A LIBRARY USING EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

If you are using an external drive, all necessary steps are identical to Creating a Library Using EditShare Connect in Section 3.2, except that instead of selecting “es-master” in the “Shared” section, select your external drive under the “Devices” section.

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3.4 IMPORTING MEDIA

To get photos, audio, and video into Final Cut Pro X, you must import them. First, ensure your SD card or external storage are connected to the computer. The SD card should be label side up when inserting into the SD card slot in the back of the iMac. There are numerous ways to initiate the import dialogue. Two options are to press Command+i on the keyboard, or go to File > Import > Media.

Another option is located in the Toolbar immediately below the Browser. Click on the downward pointing arrow.

The final method of importing media is by clicking “Import Media” in the empty Browser pane.

Once you’ve selected your method of initiating the Import dialogue, the image below will be similar to what you will see:

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File > Import > Media

The Toolbar

The Media Import window.

From this window, depending on from where you’re obtaining your media, whether from a camera, an SD card, an external hard drive, or a thumb drive, your procedure may vary.

Locate the device, card, or folder from where you’re importing your media in the sidebar to the left. Your clips, photos, audio files, etc., will be listed in the center pane and at the top will be a preview. Select multiple clips in the list using the Shift key (for files listed consecutively) or Command key (for non-consecutive files) while selecting. You can also optionally select an entire folder to import.

On the right pane, make sure you are adding to the correct event, most likely the one you just created. Select to have your files copied to the Library and create optimized media. Keywords and analyzing are optional, but may improve your editing experience. Once you’re all set, click the Import button. Files will import and optimize in the background. You are all set to begin editing immediately! Depending upon your level or organization before importing, you may be looking at a Browser that resembles this:

From here, you can see that selecting “Find people” in the Keyword section of the import dialogue yields a series of Smart Collections with descriptors for the type of shot used (Close Up Show, Medium Shot, One Person, etc.). In addition, the media was organized ahead of time into folders and Keywords were created based on those folders (Archival, Broll, Images, etc.).

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If you are not excited about how the media is presented to you, you can view the assets in a list view. To do this, in the bottom left corner of the Browser, select the “Show clips in list view” icon.

You can also choose how the media is displayed to you in filmstrip view by toggling the clip appearance button and thumbnail duration slider in the bottom right corner of the Browser.

3.5 DISCLAIMERS

Stoneham TV now requires that our members include a disclaimer at the beginning and end of each of their programs. These disclaimers should be 10 seconds each and will count towards the total runtime of their shows. Please keep this in mind if you are trying to keep your program to within a certain duration.

To obtain the disclaimers, open your Import dialogue and locate the public_1 device (the Public folder you mounted in EditShare Connect) in the left side panel. Locate and select the “Disclaimer Intro.jpg” and “Disclaimer Outro.jpg” files and click “Import.” Only place these in your Timeline after you have placed media from your program into the Timeline to ensure

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Clip appearance and filmstrip thumbnail duration.

your Project has the correct settings for the format of your program. Placing media into your Timeline is covered in Section 5.3. You can add cross dissolves to smooth the appearance of the disclaimer images.

If you are not editing with EditShare Connect and need to obtain copies of the disclaimers, speak with a Stoneham TV employee and they will be able to assist you.

3.6 CREATE A NEW PROJECT

You have a Library, an Event, you have your media imported. Now you just need a Project. Simple! Just go to the menubar and select File > New > Project.

When prompted, name your Project and click OK.

You are now set to begin editing!

3.7 SAVING

One of the greatest features in Final Cut Pro X is the autosave feature. Every time you do anything in the program, it automatically saves your project. So, if the program crashes while you’re editing or there’s a power outage, your editing decisions are safe. Also, you can undo everything you have done since opening Final Cut Pro X on any given editing session.

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4 BEGINNING THE EDITING PROCESS

4.1 FAVORITE AND REJECT FEATURE

Final Cut Pro X has some great features to get some basic editing decisions made before you even put anything into your Project. You can actually select clips and clip segments as Favorites or Reject them. In the Toolbar you will find the buttons for Favoriting, Rejecting, and Removing the Ratings.

NOTE: Rejecting media does NOT delete the media and can be “unrejected” by going to the top of the Browser and choosing “Rejected” or “Show all” and removing the rating on the rejected clips. Also note that rejected clips will still be stored in your media storage space and count towards your total media storage quota.

Using this great feature in Final Cut Pro X, you can streamline your editing process by hiding clutter. For example, if you record an event, such as a ceremony or parade in town and there is significant downtime during the event, you can choose to Reject those portions. It will appear to split the original clip, hiding the rejected content.

To mark a portion of media as a Favorite or Rejected, click on the media in the Browser. Press the spacebar to play. Using the i and o keys on the keyboard, set the in and out points of the media to be Favorited or Rejected. Once you have made your selection, press F to Favorite or Delete to Reject. Another option is to click the star icons in the Toolbar.

4.2 DELETING MEDIA

The keyboard shortcut for the Reject function is the large delete key to the top right of the keyboard. As a result, if you import an item that you actually want to remove from your storage, you need to move that item to the trash. The only ways to do this is to select the item(s) to be deleted and press Command+delete (the larger delete button) on the keyboard, or right-clicking the item and selecting “Move to Trash.”

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FAVORITE REMOVE RATING

REJECT

4.3 SMART COLLECTIONS

As mentioned in Section 3.2, a Smart Collection is a fancy name for a saved search. This search updates automatically whenever new media is added or modified that matches the criteria of the search.

To create a Smart Collection for an Event, first select an Event. To create a Smart Collection for a Library, first select the Library.

While you can create a Smart Collection from the File menu is it much easier to start by first creating a search. To do so, click the small magnifying glass in the top right corner of the Browser.

This opens what Apple calls the Filter window; essentially a search option window. Select the criteria you want to search for by clicking the Plus icon in the top right corner of the search window. You can search on multiple criteria.

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In this example, we are searching for all media that meets the following conditions: • Not a video clip with audio (this would include media that is either video-only or stills) • Rated as a Favorite • Includes either an Animals or Scenery keyword We have disabled searching for Text stored in either the file name or Notes field by unchecking the checkbox for Text. As you can imagine, Smart Collection Searches can be as simple or complex as you want.

Click New Library Smart Collection at the bottom to save this search.

It now immediately appears as “Untitled” in the Smart Collections folder.

Rename the Smart Collection by clicking the name and entering the text you want to name it. Press Return to accept the name change.

If the name is too long to display fully in the Browser, drag the vertical line separating the Library List from the Browser to expand the width of the Library List.

Anytime you want to see all the clips that meet your search criteria, simply click the name of the Smart Collection in the Library List. As new clips are added that meet these criteria, or as clips are deleted, the Smart Collection dynamically changes so that the search results are always current.

4.4 KEYWORD COLLECTIONS

In addition to Smart Collections, you can apply Keywords to clips and portions of clips. For example, if you are working on a show that involves still images, interviews, music, and B-roll, you may want to have keywords for each of those items.

Clicking on the key-shaped icon in the Toolbar will open the Keyword Editor. You can program shortcut keystrokes to quickly add and remove additional keywords from your media. There’s no limit to how many keywords you can create or how many items belong in a Keyword Collection.

Once you create Keyword Collections, you can drag and drop additional media onto those Keyword Collections to add them.

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5 BEGINNING THE EDITING PROCESS

You’re doing great, and have done a lot already. You’ve mounted your EditShare space or external hard drive, created a new Library, imported your media, Favorited and Rejected clips, and created Smart Collections. Now let’s get some media into your Project!

5.1 IN AND OUTS OF EDITING

If you’ve edited before, this should feel familiar. First, in the Browser move the mouse to the clip you wish to view. Immediately you may notice that without selecting a clip or playing, you’re seeing movement and hearing sound from the clip. This is a feature called “Skimming.” Wherever the mouse is when hovering over a clip, it will show the video and play the audio for that specific frame. The Skimmer has a reddish glow to it. This feature can be toggled on and off with the S key for both video and audio, and Shift+S for audio only.

Using the mouse, you can place the playhead approximately where you’d like to begin selecting your clip. Don’t worry if you don’t get it exact. You can use the left and right arrows to advance or reverse in single-frame increments.

Also, you have the J, K, and L keys to assist. J will play in reverse. If you press it multiple times, the speed will increase. L does the same, but in a forward direction. K stops playback. The spacebar will also start and stop normal playback. If you want to playback or reverse slowly, hold down the J and K keys to reverse slo-mo playback, or hold down the K and L keys for slo-mo playback.

So, you got your playhead at the beginning of the clip you’d like to use. Now, to set your in-point (the first frame that you want to see in your Project), press the I key.

You’ll notice that you now have a yellow rectangle surrounding your current clip, or at least a portion of it. This shows what your current selection is.

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The J, K, and L keys: an editor’s right-hand keys.

Using the same methods, move the playhead to where you want your out-point to be and set it by pressing the O key. (I for In, O for Out.) You can check your selection by pressing the / key. 5.2 THE PRIMARY STORYLINE

Every project in Final Cut Pro X is based around the Primary Storyline, identified by the dark stripe across the Timeline. The Primary Storyline contains the clips that drive your project. By default, clips in the Primary Storyline interact with each other and incoming clips. This interaction is similar to that of two magnets: attraction or repulsion.

When you drag a new clip from the Browser to the far right of the project, that clip is attracted to the end of the Primary Storyline, and "magnetically" snaps to the preceding clip. Dragging a clip between two existing clips creates a repulsion that pushes the existing clips far enough apart to insert the new clip.

These two behaviors form the basic concepts of the magnetic storyline: As you add clips, shift clips around to change their order, or remove clips, the magnetic storyline keeps the clips snapped together, ensuring that the clips play back-to-back in a continuous stream. Knowing the basic concepts of a primary storyline as the magnetic backbone of a project, you can start assembling your first edit.

5.3 PLACING MEDIA INTO YOUR PROJECT

You’ve made a selection, how do I get this into my Project? Well, that all depends. Are you Connecting a clip, Inserting a clip, or Appending a clip? We’ll cover those three methods of moving a clip into your Project and what the differences are.

Below the Browser in the Toolbar, you’ll notice these icons:

These icons are buttons for each of the methods of moving a clip into your Project. Left to right, they are Connect, Insert, and Append. The icons make it fairly clear what each does.

Connect will take your current clip and attach it to the Primary Storyline at the point the playhead is located. This is useful for cutaways to B-roll, images, graphics, or a music bed.

Insert will create a break where the playhead is in the Timeline and insert your current clip selection in the Browser.

Append will place your current clip selection after the last frame of video in your Timeline.

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You can also use the dropdown to the right of these icons to choose to only place video or audio into the Timeline. This can be useful if you are placing only audio, such a music, or video such as B-roll or still images over the Primary Storyline.

Optionally, you can use the keyboard shortcuts of Q, W, or E. A good way to remember these are the Q has a tail, much like a Connected clip. W has the point in the middle, wedging its way between the ends, like an Inserted clip. The Appended clip is placed at the end of the project, and “end” begins with “E.”

Using these keystrokes, you will form the foundation of your project. Set your in and out points, move your clip to the Timeline as either a Connected, Inserted, or Appended clip.

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6 ADDING GRAPHICS, TRANSITIONS, AND EFFECTS

In the Toolbar, you’ll notice several icons on the right side of the screen we haven’t yet covered. These are highly specific Browsers for various effects and media.

Left to right, these are Effects, Photos, Music & Sound, Transitions, Titles, Generators, and Themes.

6.1 EFFECTS

These are video and audio effects that you can use to give your clips a specific look or sound. They are separated by audio and video, and also categorized. Plus, you can search for a specific item by title! Give your show the look of a 1950s TV or a gritty horror film, or one of many other looks! You can preview how your clip will look or sound by hovering over an effect and pressing the spacebar or L key.

6.2 PHOTOS

If there are images in the iPhoto library, they would show up here for use in your project. However, there very likely won’t be any located here, but on your own personal drive or storage space, and will need to be imported as described in Section 3.4.

6.3 MUSIC & SOUND

If there are music files in iTunes, they would be displayed here and could be used in your project. However, there very likely won’t be any located here, but on your own personal drive or storage space, and will need to be imported as described in Section 3.4. There are, however, many sound effects from Final Cut Pro X, iLife, and iMovie. Also, if you have Garageband (a separate program) open and have created your own music, the music from this program will be available for use.

6.4 TRANSITIONS

All of your video transitions are housed here. Everything from cross dissolves to wipes to many other variations much more interesting than a simple cut. Audio transitions between clips are automatic when you apply a video transition. You can preview what a transition does by

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Browsers, to sweeten your project.

hovering over the transition and pressing the spacebar or L key. The default transition is a 15-frame (or 1/2 second) cross dissolve and can be applied by using Command-T.

6.5 TITLES

Any text that you wish to add to your project will be done through this Browser. Much more than basic outline text and scrolls, you have lots of options here for titles, lower thirds, credits, and more. From here, you’ll add custom still and animated text. Additionally, custom graphics can be created using Motion (a separate program).

6.6 GENERATORS

Background, textures, solid colors, and other visual elements are here. If you need a gradient, a stone or granite texture, or one of many other elements on your project, check here. Many of them have moving elements.

6.7 THEMES

The Themes Browser contains still more categories of titles. These sometimes elaborate clips reflect a very specific theme such as sports, cinema, or a comic book. A theme just might give your project the added personality it needs.

Most of these items found in the Browsers are customizable, so if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, you may just need to change things around a little bit. To add any of these items to your Project, simply drag and drop.

NOTE: Some items may need to be dropped as a Connected clip (such as graphics), while transitions and effects will need to be placed over a pre-existing clip.

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7 THE REMAINING ITEMS IN THE TOOLBAR

In Sections 5 and 6, we covered a number of icons in the Toolbar. Let’s finish up with the other icons.

7.1 TOOLS

Under the Browser, you’ll see a single icon with a dropdown arrow next to it. This is your Tool Palette. Here you will find a number of tools to help with your editing process. The letters to the right are the keyboard shortcuts for each tool.

Select Tool, also known as the Arrow Tool, is the default tool that you will use most frequently.

Trim Tool, when positioned on the left or right edge of an edit point, it anticipated that you want to trim just the start or end point of a clip by displaying the Trim icon. Position the tool directly over the edit point and a Roll icon appears that allows you to adjust both sides of the edit point at the same time. Position the Trim tool over the body of a lip and you can slip the clip content while maintaining the current clip position and duration.

Position Tool, when used to drag a clip, gives you the freedom to manually place a clip at a specific location without moving any other clips. However, when you position one clip over another, the other clips will not move out of the way and you will overwrite that portion of the original clip.

Range Selection Tool can be used for several purposes, such as choosing a portion of a clip or across multiple clips to delete, reposition, or add an effect to.

Blade Tool is used when you need to make a cut to a clip. This could be in order to delete a portion of a clip, among other reasons.

Zoom Tool is used when you want to zoom in to a portion of your Project in order to make a more detailed edit for audio or video. Using this tool, click in the Timeline where you’d like to zoom in. Optionally, you can click and drag over a portion of your Project in order to zoom to the selection.

Hand Tool can be used to change your view of your Project. It doesn’t actually move any media and can be substituted by rolling the mouse’s trackball left or right.

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The Tool Palette.

7.2 INSPECTOR & SHARE DESTINATIONS

To the far right of the Toolbar are two icons, one is called the Inspector, one Share Destinations.

The Inspector’s role changes depending upon what clip or media you have selected. Any adjustments to color, sound, shape, opacity, text, or any other variable will be performed in the Inspector.

The Share Destinations icon toggles the dialogue for exporting your finished Project.

7.3 TIMELINE INDEX & MARKERS

In the bottom left corner of Final Cut Pro X is the Timeline Index button.

The Timeline Index pane lists clips and tags, such as keywords, in the current project in order of appearance. The Timeline Index provides a textual way to navigate your project. A gray highlight bar indicates the clip that is currently selected in the Timeline. This is a searchable pane, meaning you can search for a specific clip or keyword to only have those listed.

Also in the Timeline Index, you can view Markers. Let’s say you have chapter markers for specific segments of your story, or you’re editing along and discover you are missing a still image, or need to verify they spelling of someone’s name on a lower third. Don’t just make a mental note of it and hope you remember. Use the M key.

In your Project, when the playhead reaches, or is placed, in a point where you’d like a Marker, press the M key. A nondescript blue Marker will be connected to that location on whatever clip you have selected. If no clips are selected, it will be placed on the clip currently under your mouse. If your mouse is not touching any clips, it will place the Marker on the top-most clip.

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Timeline Index

If you then double-click on a Marker, you will get a small pane to open up. You can actually change the role of this Marker from being a simple Marker to becoming a To-Do Item. You can see completed and incomplete To-Do Items in your Timeline Index in the Tags section.

7.4 TIMELINE CLIP APPEARANCE

Similar to the Browser Clip Appearance, the Timeline Clip Appearance will give you options to zoom in or out and also give you options to change how your clips are displayed.

Maybe you only want to see audio waveforms, or only video thumbnails. Maybe you want smaller video thumbnails, or no waveforms and no thumbnails to maximize your screen’s real estate. It’s up to you.

If you get confused, or end up with way too many panes open, you can always to go Window > Revert to Original Layout to restore the program to its original layout.

7.5 BACKGROUND TASKS, TIMECODE & AUDIO METERS

Dead center of your screen is the Dashboard. This contains your Background Tasks display, Timecode, and Audio Meters.

If you click on the circular shape with the percentage in the middle, you will open the Background Tasks window. Here you will see the progress for any background tasks, such as imported media being transcoded or your Project being rendered.

The numbers in the middle of the Dashboard are the timecode of the selected clip. As you play a clip or your project, the timecode changes. It is an 8-digit number, representing hours, minutes, seconds, and frames.

The Audio Meters in the Dashboard are admittedly quite small. However, if you click on the Audio Meters, it will break out into a separate pane in Final Cut Pro X, where you can more clearly see what levels your audio is at. Make sure your audio doesn’t go too high or too low. Generally, we like to keep our audio between -6 and -12 dB.

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The Dashboard.

Timeline Clip Appearance

Marker, To-Dos, and Chapters

8 EXPORTING YOUR FINISHED PROJECT

Exporting your Project is probably the easiest part of the entire process. If you simply go to File > Share > Finish Program (default), you will be brought to the Finish Program window. Enter a descriptive file name, such as “Stoneham Spelunkers - 079 - Cave Dwellers” where “Stoneham Spelunkers” is the series title, “079” is the episode number, and “Cave Dwellers” is the episode title.

You don’t need to worry about the Description or the Tags. However, you can enter your name in the Creator field, in order to let the Programmer properly identify the producer of the program.

Click “Next.”

Set the destination as “Desktop” in the sidebar and click “Save.”

Once the file finishes exporting, the file will be on the desktop. From here, drag and drop the file to either the HD inbox or the SD inbox icon, depending on your program.

To find out what format your program is, locate your Project in Final Cut Pro X and click it.

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Then, ensuring the Inspector is visible on the right side of the screen, using Command+4 to toggle it on or off, or clicking the Inspector icon in the Toolbar, look for the HD or SD identifier.

If you don’t know, ask a Stoneham TV employee to assist you.

Once you know for sure which format your program is, drag and drop to the appropriate folder on the Desktop to begin submitting your program.

You only have the ability to add items to these inboxes, but not to view or edit. If you erroneously submit a file, notify a Stoneham TV staff member to correct the error.

Depending upon the file size, the transfer could take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.

Fill out a Cablecast Request Form and deliver to the Programming & Training Coordinator.

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9 WRAPPING UP

Once you have completed all of your editing, exporting, and all other housekeeping, quit Final Cut Pro.

If you would like to save a copy of your finished project file onto your own media storage device, connect your USB or Thunderbolt-supported device to the computer and drag and drop the file you saved to the Desktop into your device.

Once completed, move the file on the Desktop to the Trash and empty the Trash.

If using EditShare Connect, click on the EditShare Connect icon in the Dock at the bottom of the screen.

In EditShare Connect, click “Unmount All” and then click “Quit.”

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EditShare Connect icon in the Dock.

If you were editing using an external hard drive, eject the drive by either right-clicking and selecting the eject option, or drag and drop the drive to the Trash.

Go to the Apple menu in the top left corner of the screen and select “Shut Down…” and then click “Shut Down.”

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10 BURNING A DVD

Although we no longer require a DVD copy to play your program on Stoneham TV (we do request a DVD copy for archival purposes at this time, however), we understand that some of you may prefer a DVD copy for your own archive. To do that, first speak with a Stoneham TV staff member to obtain a USB SuperDrive.

Once the SuperDrive is connected the computer via USB port, insert a blank DVD into the slot.

Navigate to the Share dialogue either by toggling the Share icon in the Toolbar or going to File > Share > DVD… .

Enter your program information and title in the metadata fields in the DVD dialogue box and click the Settings tab.

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USB SuperDrive

Verify that the Output Device is set as HL-DT-ST DVDRW GX50N or a device other than “Hard Drive.” Choose your Disc template, When disc loads option, and add a background image if you’d like. Click “Share.”

When your DVD is finished burning, you will receive a notification that the Share has been completed and your DVD will eject.

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11 MULTICAM EDITING

A huge improvement over previous versions of Final Cut Pro is the Multicam Editing feature. If you cover an event with multiple cameras, such as a concert or multi-camera interview, this feature will make your editing process move right along.

Once you have imported your videos, select the two or more clips you’d like to “switch” between, much like a live shoot in the studio. Click on the first clip and then Command-click on the others.

Right-click on your selection and choose “New Multicam Clip.”

Enter the name for the new Multicam Clip and click “OK.”

By default, the Multicam Clip will be created using the audio, so ensure that both cameras are capturing audio when you are recording. If you are missing audio on one of your cameras, there are other options for syncing your video. The most common other option would be “First Marker on the Angle.” To access this option, click on the “Use Custom Settings” button and choose the dropdown list next to Angle Synchronization.

Once you choose OK, Final Cut Pro will synchronize your camera angles and create a new Multicam Clip in your Browser. You can identify Multicam Clips by the icon in the top left corner of the thumbnail.

Bring the clip into your Timeline as outlined in Section 5.3.

In the menubar, go to Window > Viewer Display > Show Angles.

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You now have a new pane in Final Cut Pro X that will show all of your camera angles for that Multicam Clip. You can click on the Settings dropdown in the top right of the Viewer to choose 2, 4, 8, or 16 angles to view. In the top left, you’ll see three icons. These display what method of switching between clips you will be using: video and audio, just video, or just audio. Most likely, you’ll only be switching video, so select the middle icon.

You’re now ready to begin editing your Multicam Clip. To do this, begin playback by pressing the spacebar, L-key, or the play button beneath the viewer. To make cuts, just click on whichever camera angle you’d like to use. Final Cut Pro X will make marks in the Timeline to identify where to switch. Once you stop playback, the cuts and switches will be made.

NOTE: If you don’t like a cut and choose to undo (Command+z), it will undo all edits made in the Multi-clip since the last time playback was stopped. Depending on your preferences, instead of undoing possibly dozens of edits for a single error, consider using the Trim tool (Section 7.1).

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12 FREEZE FRAMES & STILL IMAGES

12.1 FREEZE FRAMES

You can easily create freeze-frame clips from any video clip. Freeze-frame clips hold a particular frame in place, temporarily stopping the action onscreen. You can create freeze frame clips from clips in the Timeline or the Browser. If you create a freeze frame clip from the Browser, it is attached to the Primary Storyline at the playhead location as a connected clip.

NOTE: A freeze-frame clip preserves any attributes that were applied to the source clip, such as settings and effects.

In the Timeline or the Browser, move the skimmer or playhead to the frame you want to freeze.

Choose Edit > Add Freeze Frame, or press Option-F.

How the freeze frame is added to the project depends on whether the freeze frame was created from the Timeline or the Browser. If you created the freeze frame from a clip in the Timeline, a new freeze frame clip is inserted at the skimmer or playhead location in the Timeline. If you created the freeze frame from a clip in the Browser, a new freeze frame clip is attached as a connected clip at the playhead location in the Timeline.

12.2 STILL IMAGES

A drawback of the freeze frame option is that the image isn’t added to the assets in your Browser. If you want a still image in the assets, maybe for later use, use in another project, or any number of reasons, this may be a better option.

Locate the frame you wish to save as a still image and place the playhead at that location. Navigate to the menubar and select File > Share > Save Current Frame.…

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NOTE: A still image preserves any attributes that were applied to the source clip, such as settings and effects.

Save the image as you would any document, making sure to save it to your media space in the EditShare Server (es-master) or external hard drive. Then, import the image as you would any other media as described in Section 3.4.

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13 IMPORTING A DVD

Much like VHS, mini-DV, LaserDiscs, and sending smoke signals, DVDs are rapidly becoming a dated technology. As a result, there is presently (and likely permanently) no simple way to capture media from a playable DVD in Final Cut Pro X. So, we have created this workaround for getting media off a DVD.

NOTE: This will only work for non-copyrighted DVDs. After connecting a SuperDrive DVD Burner/Player to your workstation, insert the DVD you want to rip.

Click the HandBrake icon in the Dock.

When HandBrake opens, select your DVD (not Remote Disc) from the Devices left side panel and click “Open.”

HandBrake will then scan your source DVD for several seconds. Once it has completed its scan, select the source title from the dropdown (most likely the first item listed). In the destination file space, click “Browse” to choose what location you’d like to save the file (either your EditShare space or external hard drive). Enter the file name and click “Save.”

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HandBrake icon in the Dock.

In the toolbar, select “Toggle Presets” to open the Presets side panel. Choose “DVD Rip for FCP X.” Click “Add to Queue” and then click “Start.”

Once it has completed, you will be notified and you can import the file into Final Cut Pro X as outlined in Section 3.4.

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