Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 User Guide

							 Chapter 2    Final Cut Pro basics 21
Organize media in the Libraries list and the Browser
Your imported media is available in events in your library. (An event is like a folder that contains 
clips and projects.)
When you select an event in a library, its clips and projects appear in the Browser on the right.
Browser: View and sort clips and projects in the selected event.Libraries list: Select an event to view its media on the right.
You can reorganize your media however you like at any time, and you can use the Libraries list 
and the Browser to manage, rate, sort, and add keywords to your imported media. For more 
information, see Organizing libraries overview
 on page 56. 
Play back clips and projects in the Viewer
The Viewer is where you play back your video, including clips and projects with up to 1920 x 1080, 
2K, 4K, and even 5K resolution. You can play back events, projects, or individual clips in full-screen 
view or on a second display. With the Event Viewer, a separate video display that can be shown 
next to the main Viewer, you can display two clips at the same time: one from the Browser and 
one from the Timeline. For information about ways to play media, see  Play back media
 on page 78.
Resolution-independent playback: Play back video files up to 5K.
Full-screen playback: Play your video full screen, 
or on a second display.Onscreen controls: Adjust effects such as 
Transform, Crop, and Distort.
Dual viewers: Display event clips and project clips side by side.
You can also use onscreen controls, superimposed over the video in the Viewer, to adjust settings 
for a wide array of effects and transitions.
Edit your project in the Magnetic Timeline
The bottom portion of the Final Cut Pro window contains the Timeline, where you create your 
movie by adding and arranging clips and making all your edits. The Timeline in Final Cut Pro 
“magnetically” adjusts clips to fit around clips that you drag into place. If you drag clips out of 
place, the surrounding clips close up to fill the space.
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							 Chapter 2    Final Cut Pro basics 22
A Final Cut Pro project holds all of the information for your final movie, including your editing 
decisions and links to all the source clips and events. For more information about editing your 
project, see Adding clips overview
 on page 99 and Arrange clips in the Timeline on page 11 7.
Toolbar: Perform common tasks by 
clicking a button.Connected clips: Add titles and cutaway shots. In the Magnetic 
Timeline, everything stays in sync.
Audio clips: Add music 
and sound effects as 
connected clips.Primary storyline: Add  and 
arrange clips to construct 
your movie.
Media files and clips
After you import media into your Final Cut Pro library, clips representing the source media files 
appear in the Browser. A large event may hold many clips.
Media files are the raw materials you use to create your project. A media file is a video, audio, 
still-image, or graphics file on your hard disk that contains footage transferred from a camcorder 
or recording device or originally created on your computer. Media files can contain multiple 
video and audio components. Because media files—especially video files—tend to be quite 
large, projects that use a lot of footage require one or more high-capacity hard disks.
Clips represent your media, but they are not the media files themselves. The clips in a project 
simply point to (link to) the source media files on your hard disk. When you modify a clip, you 
are not modifying the media file, just the clip’s information in the project. This is known as 
nondestructive editing
, because all of the changes and effects you apply to clips in Final Cut Pro 
never affect the media itself. Trimmed or deleted pieces of clips are removed from your project 
only, not from the source clips in your library or from the source media files on your hard disk.
Project 2
Toy1
Browser clips
Media files on your hard disk
Project 3Project 1
Toy1.mov
Toy1
Toy1
Toy1
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							  23
Importing overview
Importing media into Final Cut Pro is the first step toward making your movie.
 With Final Cut Pro, you can:
 •Import from a file-based (tapeless) camera or device
 •Import from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
 •Import from a tape-based camcorder or device
 •Import from iMovie
 •Import from iPhoto and Aperture
 •Import from iTunes
 •Import from a hard disk
 •Import from a camera archive
During import, you assign your media to an event. You can also transcode your media and 
analyze your media for a variety of issues, such as color balance, the presence of people and shot 
type, and audio problems.
When you import clips (video, audio, or still images), Final Cut Pro assigns one of five default roles 
to the video and audio components of each clip: Video, Titles, Dialogue, Music, and Effects. For 
more information, see 
View and reassign roles on page 318 .
If you want to quickly back up your media (instead of taking the time to import it), you can 
create an archive.
Import media
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 24
If it’s your first import
The first time you open Final Cut Pro, it contains no media and one library containing a single 
event. You can use the event to quickly import media from your hard disk or directly from a 
connected camera, and then create a project to start editing.
Import media into an empty event
 mTo import files from a connected camera or from a hard disk: Click the Import Media button and 
follow the instructions for importing files from a connected file-based camera, from a hard disk, 
from a tape-based camera, or from a camera archive.
 mTo create a new project: Choose File > New > Project, and follow the instructions for creating 
new projects.
Import from connected cameras
Import from file-based cameras
File-based camcorders and cameras can record video, audio, and still images. These kinds of 
devices, which record to flash-based storage media, hard disk drives (HDD), and so on, usually 
connect to your computer via a Thunderbolt or USB cable. Some devices have removable 
memory cards that you can insert into your computer instead.
If your file-based device provides a clip-spanning feature, you can import all of the media as one 
spanned clip.
To check whether your camera is compatible with Final Cut Pro, go to the Final Cut Pro X 
Supported Cameras webpage at http://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/cameras .
Import from a file-based camcorder, camera, or device
 1 Do one of the following:
 •Connect your camcorder, camera, or device to your computer, using the cable that came with 
the device, and turn it on.
If you’re using a camcorder, set it to PC Connect mode. ( The name of this transfer mode may 
be different on your device.) Your camcorder may automatically go into “connect” mode if you 
turn it on in playback mode while it’s connected to your computer. For more information, see 
the documentation that came with your camcorder.
Note:  Connecting a DVD camcorder to your Mac can cause the DVD Player application to 
open. If that happens, simply close DVD Player.
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 25
 •Remove the memory card from your camcorder or device and insert it into the card slot on 
your Mac (if it has one) or into an external card reader.
For more information about memory cards, see About memory cards and cables
 on page 45.
Note:  Some cameras require that you download and install an additional software plug-in. For 
more information, see the documentation that came with your camera.
 2 To open the Media Import window, do one of the following:
 •Choose File > Import > Media (or press Command-I).
 •Click the Import Media button on the left end of the toolbar.
 3 If necessary, select your camcorder, camera, or device from the Cameras section on the left.
The Media Import window displays all the media on your device. In this window you can preview 
the media by either playing it using the playback controls or skimming it by moving the pointer 
forward or backward over a filmstrip. 
Change the way clips appear  using these controls.The media on the 
device appears here.
Playback controls
Note:  Most modern digital cameras can shoot still images and video interchangeably. In many cases, 
the video clips and still images in those cameras appear side by side in the Media Import window.
 4 Do any of the following:
 •To change which device to import from: Click the device in the Cameras section.
 •To change the way the clips appear: Click the Clip Appearance button in the bottom-right 
corner of the Media Import window.
 •To switch between filmstrip view and list view: Click the List View and Filmstrip View buttons at the 
bottom of the Media Import window. (Connected file-based cameras and camera archives only.)
Note:  When you select a clip in list view, a filmstrip for the selected clip appears at the top of 
the Browser. The filmstrip is fully interactive, allowing access to start and end points, markers, 
and keywords.
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 26
 •To sort clips in list view by data such as duration, creation date, rating, keyword, and so on:  Click 
the column headings at the top of list view. For more information about list view, see  Import 
from a hard disk
 on page 38 .
 •To add folders of frequently used media to the Favorites section: Drag them from list view.
To remove a folder from the Favorites section, Control-click the folder and choose Remove 
from Sidebar in the shortcut menu.
 •To automatically close the Media Import window when the import begins:  Select  the “Close 
window after starting import” checkbox.
 •To add a folder to the list view by dragging: Drag the folder from the Finder to the list view and 
browse its contents in list view.
 5 Do one of the following:
 •To import all clips: Click Import All.
 •To import only some of the clips: Select each clip you want to import by Command-clicking each 
clip, and click Import Selected (the Import button changes its name).
Tip:  To select several clips located together, you can drag around the clips to enclose them 
with the selection rectangle.
 •To import portions of clips: Drag inside the filmstrip to select the range that you want, and click 
Import Selected. You can also select multiple ranges in each clip. For more information, see 
Select a range
 on page 94 .
Tip:  You can also select a clip, press the Space bar to play the clip, and press either I to set a 
start point or O to set an end point.
 6 In the window tha t appears, choose how you want to organize the imported media in your library:
 •To add the imported clips to an existing event: Select “Add to existing event,” and choose the 
event from the pop-up menu.
 •To create a new event: Select “Create new event in,” use the pop-up menu to choose the library 
in which you want to create the event, and then type a name (for example, “Chris and Kim 
Wedding”) in the text field.
To learn more about events, see Organizing libraries overview
 on page 56.
Note:  You can set storage locations for each of your libraries using the Library Properties 
inspector. For more information, see Manage storage locations
 on page 434.
 7 If you want to create optimized or proxy media, analyze the video, or analyze the audio, select 
the relevant checkboxes in the Transcoding, Keywords, Video, and Audio sections.
If you don’t set Final Cut Pro to analyze your media during the import process, you can analyze it 
later (if necessary) in the Browser.
Note:  Some import options are available only when you import files from a storage device. For more 
information, see Organize files while importing
 on page 42 and Import from a hard disk on page 38 .
 8 Click Import.
By default, the Media Import window closes when you click Import. You can begin working with 
your clips in the Browser. Final Cut Pro imports your media in the background.
If you selected any options in the previous step, Final Cut Pro transcodes and optimizes the 
files after the import process is complete. You can view the progress of the import and other 
background tasks in the Background Tasks window. 
 9 When background tasks are completed, disconnect the camcorder, camera, or device.
You can create an archive from your file-based or tape-based camera or device. For more 
information, see Create and manage camera archives
 on page 435.
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 27
Reimport a clip
Two situations warrant reimporting a clip:
 •If the clip was not completely imported: If you cancel or quit Final Cut Pro before an import is 
finished, a Camera icon appears on the bottom-left corner of the clip. This icon indicates that 
Final Cut Pro is using the media on the camera for playback (instead of using the QuickTime 
file that was created during import).
Camera icon
To play a clip with a Camera icon, Final Cut Pro locates the media on either a connected 
camera or in a connected, available camera archive. (See Access media on an archive or disk 
image
 on page 41 for more information.) If Final Cut Pro can’t locate the media in one of those 
locations, the clip will go offline and display the Missing Camera alert icon.
 •If the clip’s source media file is not available: If a clip’s source media file is moved or deleted, or 
the volume it is located on is disconnected from the computer, a Missing File icon is displayed 
on the clip. To restore the clip, you can reimport it.
See Alert icons
 on page 438  for more information about alert icons.
When you reimport a clip, Final Cut Pro automatically connects to the necessary camera or 
camera archive. There is no need to manually mount a camera archive before reimporting. 
 1 Do one of the following:
 •Connect the camera that contains the clip to your computer, and turn it on. This will bring the 
clip online, but the clip will still display the Camera icon in the lower-left corner.
 •Insert the memory card that contains the clip in your computer or connected card reader.
See About memory cards and cables
 on page 45 for more information.
 •Make sure the camera archive that contains the clip is located in one of the Final Cut Pro 
camera archives.
See Create and manage camera archives
 on page 435 for more information.
 2 In Final Cut P ro, do one of the following:
 •To reimport one clip: Select the clip in the Browser.
 •To reimport all clips in an event: Select the event in the Libraries list.
 3 Choose File > Imp ort > R eimport from Camera/Archive.
The clip or clips are reimported.
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 28
Import spanned clips
Some file-based camcorders or devices that have more than one memory card slot can record 
one shot over multiple memory cards. The resulting shot is called a spanned clip.
A good way to import a spanned clip into Final Cut Pro is to attach your camera or card reader to 
your local system and create a camera archive for each memory card. You can store the camera 
archives on your local system or on an external storage device until you are ready to import the 
spanned clip. (Even if you are importing the spanned clip immediately, it’s useful to make the 
camera archive so you have a backup of the footage that makes up the spanned clip.) Then, when 
you’re ready to import, you can mount all of the camera archives and import the spanned clip.
Create a camera archive for each memory card
 1 Connect your camcorder or camera to your computer and turn it on, or connect your card 
reader and memory card to your computer. If you’ll be saving the camera archives to an external 
storage device, connect that as well.
Note:  Some cameras require that you download and install an additional software plug-in. For 
more information, see the documentation that came with your camera.
 2 In Final Cut P ro, do one of the following:
 •Choose File > Import > Media (or press Command-I).
 •Click the Import Media button on the left end of the toolbar.
The Media Import window appears. 
 3 Select a memory card to archive from the list of cameras on the left.
 4 Click the Create Archive button at the bottom-left corner of the window.
 5 In the “Create Camera Archive as” field, type a name for the archive.
 6 Choose a location to save the archive from the Destination pop-up menu, and click OK.
Note:  To protect your media, it is recommended that you save your archive to a disk or partition 
different from the one where you store the media files used with Final Cut Pro.
 7 Repeat steps 3 through 6 to create camera archives for each of the memory cards that contain a 
portion of the spanned clip.
See Create and manage camera archives
 on page 435 for more information about creating 
camera archives.
Import a spanned clip
 1 If the media you want to import is on an external storage device or memory card, connect the 
device to your computer and turn it on.
 2 To open the Media Import window, do one of the following:
 •Choose File > Import > Media (or press Command-I).
 •Click the Import Media button on the left end of the toolbar.
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 29
 3 In the Devices section on the left side of the Media Import window, select your computer’s hard 
disk or the connected external storage device or memory card that contains the spanned clip 
camera archives.
 4 Use the list view at the bottom of the window to navigate to and open the camera archives.
Important:  If the camera archives that make up the spanned clip are not all available, you can 
import each camera archive separately. Each portion of the spanned clip will be imported into 
Final Cut Pro as a separate clip.
If all portions of the spanned clip are available, all the mounted camera archives show a clip 
with the same duration. An icon indicating that the spanned clip is complete appears on the 
spanned clip.
If one or more camera archives are missing, an icon appears on the spanned clip to indicate 
which part of the spanned clip is available—the beginning, middle, or end. You can select each 
camera archive to see the different icons.
Indicates that all 
portions of the spanned 
clip are available.
Indicates that the end 
portion of the spanned 
clip is available.
Indicates that the 
beginning portion of the 
spanned clip is available.
Indicates that the middle 
portion of the spanned 
clip is available.
 5 Click Import All to import the spanned clip.
 6 Choose how you want to organize the imported media in your library:
 •To add the imported media to an existing event: Select “Add to existing event,” and choose the 
event from the pop-up menu.
 •To create a new event: Select “Create new event in,” use the pop-up menu to choose the library 
in which you want to create the event, and then type a name (for example, “Chris and Kim 
Wedding”) in the text field.
To learn more about events, see Organizing libraries overview
 on page 56.
Note:  You can set storage locations for each of your libraries using the Library Properties 
inspector. For more information, see Manage storage locations
 on page 434.
 7 If you want to create optimized or proxy media, analyze the video, or analyze the audio, select 
the relevant checkboxes in the Transcoding, Keywords, Video and Audio sections.
If you don’t set Final Cut Pro to analyze your media during the import process, you can analyze it 
later (if necessary) in the Browser.
Note:  Some import options are available only when you import files from a storage device. For 
more information, see Organize files while importing
 on page 42 and Import from a hard disk on 
page 38 .
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							 Chapter 3    Import media 30
 8 Click Import.
By default, the Media Import window closes when you click Import. You can begin working with 
your clips in the Browser. Final Cut Pro imports your media in the background.
If you selected any options in the previous step, Final Cut Pro transcodes and optimizes the 
files after the import process is complete. You can view the progress of the import and other 
background tasks in the Background Tasks window. 
Import from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Importing media from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is the same as importing it from a file-based 
camcorder, camera, or device.
Import from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
 1 Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer using the Dock Connector to USB 
cable that came with it. (If another application opens, close it.) Then turn on your device and 
unlock it.
 2 In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:
 •Choose File > Import > Media (or press Command-I).
 •Click the Import Media button on the left end of the toolbar.
The Media Import window appears.
 3 If necessary, select your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from the Cameras section on the left.
The Media Import window displays all the media on your device. In this window you can preview 
the media by either playing it using the playback controls or skimming it by moving the pointer 
forward or backward over a filmstrip. 
You can also do any of the following:
 •To change which device to import from: Click the device in the Cameras section.
 •To change the way the clips appear: Click the Clip Appearance button in the bottom-right 
corner of the Media Import window.
 •To switch between filmstrip view and list view: Click the List View and Filmstrip View buttons at the 
bottom of the Media Import window. (Connected file-based cameras and camera archives only.)
Note:  When you select a clip in list view, a filmstrip for the selected clip appears at the top of 
the Browser. The filmstrip is fully interactive, allowing access to start and end points, markers, 
and keywords.
 •To sort clips in list view by data such as duration, creation date, rating, keyword, and so on:  Click 
the column headings at the top of list view. For more information about list view, see  Import 
from a hard disk
 on page 38 .
Tip:  If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod contains both video clips and still images and you want 
see one or the other, click the File Type column heading to separate the video clips and 
still images.
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