Final Cut Basics

*Welcome to Final Cut * 
Final Cut is an industry standard video editor that is used by many professional filmmakers and editors.
There are five essential windows in Final Cut.
 
This is where all of your video is stored. It acts as a library for all of your clips (video /
photo / sound). It also holds sequences. Sequences are where individual scenes in your
movie are stored. Consider sequences as a container for your assembled video. The
Browser also usually has the Effects tab. If it doesn’t appear, go to window --effects

-Viewer
This is where you preview your media before taking it into the timeline.



This is where your video is constructed. It is a visual representation of how your video is
aligned and will play.  It is where you can modify and re-arrange the video clips. There is
a play-head that runs across the top most grey bar. It plays the video and can be
controlled with the space bar. The forward and backwards arrow keys move the play-
head (when stopped) forwards and backwards one frame at a time.  The timeline consists
of tracks. Each video clip has one track of video and two tracks of audio. Video is stored
on the top bars and audio on the bottom. You can have up to 99 tracks.

-Canvas:
The canvas plays video that is assembled on the timeline.  Where the timeline is a
flowchart of your video, the Canvas is the video monitor displaying what the flowchart
holds. The Canvas not only plays what is on the timeline, but things can be modified in
the Canvas as well as the timeline.

Tools:
When editing you will be using a set of tools. (This is similar to Photoshop)
*Arrow- Used to select the video
Edit Selction- Select an entire portion of your timeline
Select Track Buttons- moves tracks in the timeline
Roll Edit Button- When selected at a point when two video tracks meet (in the timeline)
and dragged to the left or right, it will add video to one track and subtract video from the
other.
Slip Edit – Moves clips content (in and out points) without moving their spots in the
timeline
*Razor Blade – Cuts clips in the timeline
*Zoom in and Out – Zooms in and out of the timeline. Used to make finer edits, or to
see an entire project at once.
Crop and Distort – Used to crop video clips and distort them
Pen Tools – Used to modify keyframes
* = tools that you use most often


Getting Started:
1)   Make a project folder and call it something
2) Set the Scratch Disks  (Final Cut Pro--- System Settings – Click Set on all four
prompts and select the project folder
3) Go to File- Import – your video clips (probably .mov files)
4) Grab the video clips from the Browser and put them into the Timeline.
5) Move the playhead to where you want to start playing the video and press the
space bar to play or stop
6) Use the Blade tool to make cuts    Keyboard shortcut: B
7) Use the Arrow tool to move clips around  Keyboard shortcut A
8) If you don’t like something, got to Edit – undo  Keyboard short- Command Z
9) Save your project and put it in your project folder

Transitions (fades, dissolves etc)  While the majority of your shots should be straight cuts, there may be a time where you feel the need to add a transition between shots or a fade in / fade out. You can find the transitions in the effect window. Just drag them down and to the spot on the timeline where you’d like the transition to take effect.