Visual QuickStart Guide [Electronic resources] : Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X

Lisa Brenneis

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Basic Editing Step-by-Step

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of a simple rough-assembly-style edit in Final Cut Express. After you've reviewed this basic editing procedure, find out how to perform more specific types of edits in the sections that follow.

To add the first clip to your sequence:

In the Browser, press Command-N to create a new sequence.

Double-click the new sequence to open it in the Canvas and the Timeline (Figure 9.2 ).

Figure 9.2. Double-click the new sequence's icon in the Browser to open it for editing. Examine the open sequence in the Timeline to check that destination tracks are assigned correctly and that the playhead is positioned at the beginning of the sequence.

The new, empty sequence opens in the Timeline window. The Timeline's playhead is positioned at the beginning of the sequence.

Before you insert a clip in a sequence, you need to check the target tracks (the destination tracks for your clip in the sequence).

In the Timeline, check the destination track assignment for your first clip. In a new sequence, default destination tracks will already be assigned to V1, A1, and A2. If necessary, you can target different destination tracks by clicking the target track controls.

In the Browser, double-click the first clip you want to insert in your new sequence; that clip opens in the Viewer.

In the Viewer, select the portion of the clip you want to use in the sequence by setting In and Out points (Working with In and Out Points" in Chapter 8.)

Figure 9.3. Double-click the clip to open it in the Viewer; then mark In and Out points to specify which portion of the source clip you want to use.

Click the Viewer's image area and drag the clip to the Canvas window.

The Canvas edit overlay menu appears.

Drop the clip on the Overwrite edit area (Figure 9.4 ). (Overwrite is the default edit type in FCE unless you specify another type.)

Figure 9.4. Drag the source clip from the Viewer to the Canvas edit overlay; then drop the clip on the Overwrite edit area.

[View full size image]

The clip will be inserted at the beginning of your new sequence (Figure 9.5 ).

Figure 9.5. The source clip has been added to the sequence. The Timeline playhead's position was used as the sequence In point, so the clip's In point has been placed at the beginning of the sequence.

Many Ways to Make an Edit

Dragging your source clip to the Canvas edit overlay is just one way to execute an edit. Once you have defined your edit points, you can also do the following:

Drag the clip directly from the Viewer to the Timeline (Figure 9.6 ).

Figure 9.6. You can edit by dragging a clip directly from the Viewer or Browser and dropping it into a sequence in the Timeline.
Drag one or more clips directly from the Browser to the Timeline (now
that's a rough edit).
Use a keyboard shortcut to perform the edit. The keyboard shortcut for each edit type is listed in Appendix B.

To insert additional clips:

In the Timeline, park the playhead on the frame where you want your new clip to start. You can press I to set a sequence In point on that frame, but it's not required (Figure 9.7 ).

Figure 9.7. Position the Timeline playhead where you want your second clip to start; then press I to set a sequence In point.

In the Viewer, set In and Out points on your second clip (Figure 9.8 ).

Figure 9.8. The second source clip, displayed in the Viewer with In and Out points set.

Drag the clip from the image area of the Viewer to the Canvas window.

The Canvas edit overlay menu will appear.

Drop the clip on the Overwrite edit area (Figure 9.9 ).

Figure 9.9. Drag the second source clip to the Canvas edit overlay; then drop the clip on the Overwrite edit area.

The second clip will be inserted starting where you set the sequence In point (Figure 9.10 ).

Figure 9.10. The sequence displayed in the Timeline, with the second clip inserted at the sequence In point.

FCE Protocol: Three-Point Editing

In a three-point edit, you can define any three points of an edit, and Final Cut Express will calculate the fourth point for you. Here's an example:

Specify In and Out points for your source clip.
Park the playhead in the Canvas at the sequence In point (the point where you want your new clip to start).

When you insert the new clip into your sequence, Final Cut Express uses the duration of the new clip insert to calculate the sequence Out point.

At least three edit points must be set in the Viewer and Canvas to complete an edit. But if you specify fewer than three points and begin an edit, FCE will calculate your edit based on the following protocols:

If no In or Out point is set in the Canvas, the Canvas playhead location is used as the sequence In point.
If no In or Out point is set in the source, FCE assumes that you want to use the entire source clip. The playhead's location in the sequence (Timeline and Canvas) is used as the sequence In point. FCE calculates the Out point for the sequence.
If one edit point (In or Out) is set in a source clip, the second point is the beginning or the end of the media (depending on whether the user-defined point is an In or an Out point). The Canvas playhead is used as the sequence In point, and FCE calculates the Out point.

There are three exceptions to the three-point editing rules:

Fit to Fill editing requires four user-specified points, because FCE adjusts the speed of the specified source clip to fill a specified sequence duration.
Replace editing ignores the In and Out points set in the source clip and uses the boundaries of the clip under the Canvas playhead as sequence In and Out points. Replace edits affect the target track media. To replace an audio track, turn off targeting for all video tracks.
If In and Out points are set for both the source clip and the sequence, FCE ignores the source clip's Out point and uses the clip's In point and the sequence In and Out points.

Specifying target tracks

Each time you add clips to a sequence, you can specify which tracks the media will occupy. You specify target tracks using the Timeline's target track controls (Figure 9.11 ): the lozenge-shaped icons located on the left in the Timeline. The Destination (right) side of the control identifies the track. Set the Source control (the left side of the control) to specify which source track is assigned to that destination track and whether the track is enabled to receive a source clip. You can target one video target track plus one audio target track for each audio track in your source clip.

Figure 9.11. The target track controls in the Timeline. A control's left side identifies which source clip track is assigned to this destination track; the right side identifies the destination track by number. Timeline base tracks are enabled by default; you can click either side of the control to
disconnect (disable) a track.

For more information on targeting and mapping track assignments, see "Mapping Timeline target track assignments" in Chapter 10.

To select target tracks in the Timeline:

Figure 9.12. Set a target track by connecting a video Source control. The Source control is connected to the destination indicator when the track is targeted.

To use audio only from an audio+video clip:

Figure 9.13. Click to disconnect a Video Source control. Audio tracks remain targeted.

To use one channel of two-channel audio from the source clip:

Figure 9.14. With A2 targeting turned off, channel 2 audio is excluded from the sequence.

FCE Protocol: Lock vs. Target" in Chapter 10 to learn the hows and whys of track locking.

When you are ready for big-time multitrack editing, be aware that FCE offers a raft of keyboard shortcuts for target track selection. Check them out in Appendix B, "Keyboard Shortcuts."

Moving the playhead

You can jump the playhead to the edit point of your choice with a single keystroke or mouse click. Most of these shortcuts work in the Viewer as well.

To move the playhead to the In point:

To jump the playhead to an adjacent edit point:

Do one of the following:

FCE Protocol: Editing Multiple Tracks in Final Cut Express

Final Cut Express sequences can have multiple video and audio tracks. The first video clip you add to a sequence will be the base layer (V1). Video frames you place on track 2 (V2) are superimposed over any video frames at the same point in time on track 1. In a sequence with multiple layers, the base track becomes the background, and media on each higher-numbered track obscures the media on tracks below it. The result appears in the Canvas (after a little rendering).

Audio tracks A1 and A2 are the designated base tracks for stereo audio. Final Cut Express can mix and play back several audio tracks in a sequence in real time.

How Many Audio Tracks?

The number of audio tracks you can mix in real time depends on your Macintosh's configuration (available RAM, processor speed, hard drive data transfer rate, and so on), the number of audio files requiring real-time sample rate conversion or filtering, and the number of simultaneous audio transitions you have included in your sequence. You can specify how many tracks you want FCE to attempt to handle in real time by setting the Real-Time Audio Mixing preference (see "Specifying User Preferences and System Settings" in Chapter 3). However, increasing your real-time audio track budget is no guarantee that you'll be able to play back the number of tracks you specify, and if you set this preference too high, you could trigger dropped frames during playback or dropouts in audio.

Eight tracks of real-time audio is the FCE default setup, but you can have up to 99 tracks in a sequence.

In calculating the number of audio tracks you need for a sequence, note that each simultaneous audio crossfade or transition increases the track count by one. So if your sequence requires seven audio tracks, adding a pair of crossfades increases the count to nine tracks. It may also require rendering to preview.

You can reduce your audio track overhead by choosing Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown. Mixdown renders all the audio tracks in a sequence along with their transitions, and it filters and consolidates them into one render file. For more information on working with audio in FCE, see Chapter 12, "Audio Tools and Techniques."