Intro to Final Cut Pro 7 Building the Story

Hi, welcome back to educator.com. Next lesson is on building the story.0000

Now, do not worry, I am not going to preach to you.0005

I am not going to tell you how to tell a story or how to develop your characters and create something epic.0007

But what we are going to do is sort of do a trial run of how to build a story or some sort of narrative timeline here.0013

So, what the first thing we are going to do is we are going to import clips.0020

So, let us go to Final Cut. So, here we have a new project basically.0027

So, why do not we do that? Let us create a new project from scratch.0031

Let us go to new, new project and let us import some footage here.0034

So, there are different ways to import footage.0041

Everything is going to be organized in our browser here.0043

So, you can hit file, import and navigate to your footage.0046

Here is our assets folder here. Here is all of our renders, images, video.0054

Another way to do that is we can have a Finder window open and we can...0062

Let us see. Let us navigate to our footage here.0069

And if we go to...let us see where I am keeping my footage. OK, here we go.0075

So, let us say you have your folder of video you that you have downloaded for this lesson.0080

You just go to video and you can really just drag this folder right into the browser.0085

And it is named and labeled, all ready to go.0092

Let us do this with the audio.0097

Let us do it differently. Let us create a new bin.0099

So we can hit Command-B for new bin or we can hit Control and click new bin.0101

Or we can use the pull down menus up here. So, let us give this a name.0111

Right now we are just organizing the browser. Let us import the audio.0117

Now you do not have to use the exercise files that we provided.0124

You can follow along with your own footage, your own video, your own audio, you name it.0129

So, just keep that in mind.0134

You could be bored to death with my stuff. So, let us see here.0137

So I am going to navigate. I have navigated to where I keep the audio files.0143

And I choose import. If I hold down shift or command I can select 2 at a time.0149

And there they are. They are my audio folder.0155

Actually, that is a good mistake. So, let us delete those.0158

If I double click this folder I created and I can import them directly into that.0163

So, if I hit Control->Import or I can hit Command-I.0168

I can get those two files and they go right into that folder.0176

So, as I am importing I am organizing as I go.0181

I like to have a bin for my sequences.0185

I am going to call it SEQ and put my sequence in there.0193

So, we are building here. We have our video, we have our audio.0198

And now we are ready to get started.0206

So, before we get started, just for the heck of it let us watch this.0207

It is a little short. It is a sliver from a documentary that I directed.0212

And it is basically about the world of LARPping. LARPing is Live Action Role Playing.0218

I am sure you will look it up on Google. It is worth to google.0223

So, these are just people that have a continuing game going on, a little bit of make belief.0226

Let us watch this real quick together.0231

So, we are going to try to rebuild this movie basically. And we do not have to do it perfectly.0234

And, again, you do not have to use this footage at all. You can use your own footage. So, let us take a gander.0239

...0246

OK, there is some interesting digital debris.0324

This is kind of a low res render for timing.0329

So, this gives you kind of an idea of what we are going to try to recreate.0331

So, basically what we are trying to do here is we are trying to decide on.0335

You know, what dictates the story. You, know with the music video the music.0344

You have your audio that is usually locked. You do not have to worry about audio.0351

And you are just laying down images.0353

There is a narrative story. In this case we have a documentary.0356

So, in this case what we did is we are using the interview and the guy’s name is Joe.0361

We are using his audio interview and little slivers of his video.0370

That is sort of the backbone of what dictates the pieces we are going to overlay.0375

So, you know it is really just sort of if you feel it out.0379

So you overlay some what they call B role shots.0383

We have music in there too.0386

So let us just try to wing this and learn something.0388

So, let us get back to importing real quick here. Let us see where we are at.0394

Here we go. So, here we are.0402

We need to get clips into the timeline.0405

So, different ways of starting.0409

Sometimes I just drag all the clips and I just dump them in here. I will show you.0414

I will just dump them directly into the timeline without worrying about what goes where.0419

And I will sort of reposition them all as I go.0426

That is one way to do it.0437

In fact let us create a new sequence.0445

So, we have a new sequence here.0449

Let us open up our sequence window and click new sequence, hit control and let us just call this our master build.0452

OK? Now, let us double-click that.0466

We do not really need this other sequence here. In fact let us delete this.0469

Here is how you delete a sequence. You select it, delete it, gone.0473

So, we have our master build here.0478

Close this and now we have our sequence here. Our master built.0482

Let us put the video in here.0485

Let us drop a few clips. In fact, let us drop one clip in there.0488

So, here is what happens. This is a nice thing about Final Cut.0494

Is basically asking hey do you want to adjust this timeline so it fits your settings and your footage?0497

Most of the time I hit Yes because if you do not you have to render the clip every time.0505

And that is a pain and we will get into all that eventually.0512

So, here we go. We are going to start building our story here.0517

So, let us double click this video folder here.0529

It springs up and what I want to do is get all this footage with Joe in there.0533

Because I have decided that his interview is going to dictate the piece.0540

So I brought these in. Well, how do you know which is which?0545

Well, when I was login and capturing eventually before I did not name each file specifically.0548

A part of it is because a lot of the new cameras.0557

It is sort of a time consuming thing and I was in a rush.0559

But it is OK because what we can do as we can view these as large icons.0564

And I could see, right after about well, let us see I recognize Joe.0571

I am going to drop all the Joe clips in there.0577

So I already have the first one in here 002 we. So, I am going to grab these here.0580

So, you can see I can just move these around, stay loose.0586

So, I am going to hold down command and I am going to click the clips with Joe.0590

Here we go. I am going to drop these in.0597

And for now I am going to turn this off. Shut that and here we go.0601

So, now we can see that we have to sort of start trimming which is good.0620

So, we are going to stay loose for a while here.0628

We are going to be adding tracks as we go.0634

But I just want to show you how to move clips in a timeline.0637

So, you can just going to grab these clips here.0640

I say you could always expand the view.0643

I am going to make sure this is fit to window. Yes, Good!0653

OK, so I am going to kind of go by what I already know of this clip to save some time here.0658

So, what I am going to do is shrink the timeline down hitting command minus.0663

Move this over to the side a bit cause I want to use this area to work in here.0672

I am going to re-prioritize these clips here.0676

So, if you get stuck you want to go to here, watch my movie. I was first.0682

And we first signed it in essence. Let us go back here.0690

That is an end clip here. That is the ending.0709

Here we go. OK, so there is our first clip.0725

Let us get to loosely place these over here. Ups!0734

I am going to grab and pull it over. I can pull through clips if I want.0737

I can copy and paste a clip. Let us say this clip was back over here.0743

I can command C, move my play head. Command V and there it is.0748

I am going to delete that one there.0754

OK, so we do not have to get into real detailed editing just yet.0757

So, we are just moving clips around a bit.0765

So, let us start editing.0773

I have to save this project so I am going to say Yes. Let us save this.0779

And for now we are just going to call this test edit in the test folder.0784

So, let us shave this down a bit.0795

So, let us double click this clip and it is going to pop into our viewer.0797

So, let us listen to the clip for a second here.0804

So, we are going to start with you can play, pretend at anything.0812

Another way to find that area is you can watch it visually or you can jump over to the audio.0816

And you can play that and you can listen to the audio when it is here.0826

Let us go to the beginning of that clip and use my arrow keys to navigate around back and forth.0836

Back to audio. So, here is the head of this clip here.0843

So, let me double click that again.0847

So, we are going to start when you can play.0855

Right about here. Right in there somewhere.0864

So, if I hit I for my in point it crops the clip here and the timeline.0869

Let that play for a second.0879

So, let us end on when you want to be it.0892

So, you can shave these clips and sort of edit these clips in the viewer window.0899

But you can also do it right in the timeline.0905

Snapping is a nice trick and it is really having your N key on and off.0909

Snapping basically means you can snap to. Right now, snapping.0913

See a little line there that pops the arrow keys?0919

It will snap into it. If you want to turn that off you hit N and it snaps off there.0921

I will leave it on for now.0927

So, let us try to edit this right into the timeline.0929

Alright, so before he says LARPing we are going to cut it there. You can see the sound wave there.0946

So, you can literally just grab this clip and it snaps into itself here.0953

OK, so we have got different ways of detailing these clips here.0966

Clipping them where you want them clipped.0973

So, the next thing we want to look at is moving clips into the timeline.0977

So with that said we have our clips. Here is the timeline.0983

And you want to be able to move these around.0990

Right now we are just on one track. We have got one track of video, one track of audio.0992

So, here is your play head if you press the space bar for play.0998

We can trim our clips from the timeline or in the timeline.1010

If I double click this clip it is going to pop up in my viewer window and in there we can set in and out points.1014

We can edit clips directly in the timeline.1029

We can pull them longer or shorter. We can edit those on the fly.1032

Here we have tracks. We can add tracks or delete tracks.1045

So, adding tracks. There is a few ways to do that.1050

You can add a track meaning more tracks for audio, more tracks for video.1054

You go to sequence. You can insert tracks here.1059

You can choose a number of tracks you would like to add.1064

I have one to each. That is one way to do it.1068

Or you can simply hold down control over the grey area here and just hit add track.1072

Add track. Add more tracks.1078

I think you can add up to 99 tracks.1082

So, yeah, it is a nice way to edit right here directly in the timeline.1085

If you want to delete, cover multy track editing.1093

If you want to delete a clip you simply select the clip and hit delete or you can command X.1101

Command Z that. Make it pop back up there.1118

When you want to split clips you can use the blade tool.1124

That is one of the most common way in Final Cut.1127

You can basically take a clip and you can use the blade tool or hit the letter B.1132

And you can just shop right where the play head is and you can split your clip in half here.1139

Sometimes you have a big long piece of footage and you just want to start chopping the fat out of there, so to speak.1150

So, that is one way to do it.1155

Unlinking clips.1164

So, unlinking clips is important because there is times where you just want to have the audio or just the video.1165

Let me find something here we can use.1178

So, let us say we have the inter title for instance.1183

And we really do not want this audio to be attached to the video.1190

So, what you want to do is you want to select the clip and then you can unlink it by hitting command L.1196

And now the underline is gone. These clips are no longer connected to each other.1204

So, you can hit L again and they are linked back.1210

Like I said, if you see the little tiny underline under the name of the title of that clip and it reappears and link, unlink.1216

Now, these 2 they are unlinked. You can detach them from each other.1230

You can see how the time code of the duration of that clip changes.1234

OK creating markers. Markers are important when you have your edit going.1242

Because let us say there is a certain point in your edit.1247

Where you want to create a marker to remind yourself.1251

Whether it is an audio or music comes in here, edit this here.1257

So, if you hit the letter M, for instance, you can make a marker appear on your timeline.1260

And if you have your play head on that marker and you hit M again it pops up the information.1268

And you get to put a special note there you know.1275

I will just put door slam here.1281

You can have comments in there if you hit M again. Make your comments.1284

Any important information you need to put in these markers they are right there for you.1288

You can add markers to clips. You can select the clip, hit M.1294

Sometimes when you are doing a music video or something you can do markers on the fly.1301

Let it play and just keeping them at certain beats when you want to have a title come in or something like that.1307

So, markers are pretty useful I must say.1315

Audio adjustments. So in Final Cut you can get in there and really just audio.1323

In this case let me find something with a little more audio in it.1332

Let us double click this clip here. It appears in your viewer window here.1335

And here is where we can make all kinds of audio adjustments.1339

You can move your meter here and you can go up and down. You can pan the audio.1342

If you wanted to have specific areas you can select your pen tool and you can set key frames here.1352

You can have your audio rise up and down. Back to your pen tool.1362

You can raise the audio up here.1371

So, you can see it is a pretty powerful tool to be able to go in here and just adjust audio as you see fit.1374

You can add effects to your audio which we will get into later.1386

So, it is just kind of goes on and on.1395

The next thing here we want to cover is creating sub clips. So, sub clips are.1398

Let us say you have a sequence where you really do not want to use the master build timeline to go through the edit.1405

Let us say you have a long interview with someone and it is like an hour interview.1419

You might just want to build a new sequence for that.1422

And then that is considered a sub clip and in that clip. For instance let us make a sub clip.1425

There is a new sequence. I will just call this sub clip.1435

We will open that up and we will just throw some footage in there for now.1450

And let us say that there are certain points in this long interview we had.1459

So, we are making a sub clip just so we can sort of trim out the fat and watch a long clip.1468

And then we could bring that in into the other master build.1477

And a lot of the ways I do that is copy and paste.1481

For instance, let us say I wanted the end of this clip here.1485

I will drop it here, delete here.1490

I can then command C go back to my master build and paste it right in there.1493

Another way I can do that in my sub clip.1501

Seek sequence, I can double click and it shows up in my viewer window here and I drop it in this way through the viewer.1504

It is a lot to know. Do not get overwhelmed.1518

You have got to take it slowly.1521

So, thanks for watching educator.com. I will see you soon.1523