Tips and Tricks of Final Cut Pro - by Adam Bowen

Three Point Editing

2009-03-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes during editing you just need to switch out one clip for another. So lets say we have three clips on the timeline in a row: A, B, and C.

The client likes clip A and clip C but wants you to replace clip B with another clip all together. This is the perfect situation to use a three point edit. First thing you want to do is select the clip we want to replace. Position the "Play Head" over the clip you are interested in Replacing. As pictured Above.

Our clip in this example is Called Clip B. Once we have our playhead there we are going to hold down the "Command" key ( which has an Apple on it if you are still rockin' the old school keyboard ). While holding "Command" press the "X" key. This will place an In Point at the beginning and an Out Point at the end.

With the In and Out Points we are now ready to replace Clip B. Next we want to find our clip that we want to put in Clip B's place. To keep everything simple I am going to use Clip D. I double click on Clip D to load it in the Viewer. I don't care where the clip starts, but I do want to make sure it ends where I want it to. This is where the "Three-Point" comes in for Three-Point Editing. Two points are on the timeline, and our third point is on Clip D loaded into the Viewer.

I will mark my out point by placing the Play Head where I want it and pressing "O" on the keyboard. Its important to notice that I didn't add an In Point. So now what Final Cut Pro is going to do is determine the In Point for me based on the time left. You could use just an In Point if that was the point you wanted to set, I just happened to pick the Out Point. So now we are ready to replace our clip with the new one. Press the "Overwrite" to lay the new clip in. Clip D perfectly fills the gap of where Clip B was.

And that is Three Point Editing in Final Cut Pro. I know this tip also works on Avid Media Composer.

Adding Chapter Markers to a Final Cut Pro Project

2009-03-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

Do you need to add chapter markers to a Final Cut Pro project but either forgot or don't know how? Follow these steps to find out how.

Adding chapter markers is pretty easy in Final Cut Pro. The first step is to determine where you want the chapter markers to be. I am going to add my at every transition.

The first marker I add will be at the beginning. Final cut would automatically add one at the beginning for you, but it would assign the name of simply "chapter 1". To put my own marker at the beginning I first need to place the play head at the first frame. The yellow triangle indicates where the playhead currently is.

Once there I need to click the "M" key once to add the marker, and a second time to open the markers dialogue box.
With the box open you will want to do to things. First is name the chapter marker. I will call my "The Beginning". Right now this is simply a marker. I must click the "Add Chapter Marker" button. In the "Comment" window you will now notice the word "CHAPTER" listed in the window. This lets you know that you are good to go.

Click "OK" and repeat this process moving to each point you want a chapter marker to appear.

Ok, now its time to export. With the sequence selected in the browser, move up and click on "File" in the main menu. Move down to "Export" and select the top option "Quicktime Movie".

A new window will open. Name your file appropriately and select the location you would like to export the file to. Now for the important part. In the bottom left hand corner their are several drop down menus to choice from. You need to click on the "Markers" drop down and then move down and select the fourth option which is "Chapter Markers".

Now you can hit the save button. You have successfully exported a movie with chapter markers. I another tutorial we will take through the next steps and right into finishing a simple dvd.

Changing your Default Transition

2009-02-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

Some projects require the use of one transition repeatedly. If you are working on a project for an extended period of time, changing the default transition to something more practical can be a great time saver. By default, Final Cut uses a 30 frame (or 1 second) cross dissolve. To change this default transition to something else, you need to follow these steps.

First create or select the transition you would like to be your NEW default. Double click on it to load it into the viewer. In the top right hand corner of the viewer you will see a hand icon over top of a transition icon. We are going to drag this item over to our browser, but first we need to select the effects tab in the browser.

Once you have the effects tab highlighted twirl open the favorites folder. Now we are ready. We go back to the viewer and in the top right hand corner you are going to to see the icon with the hand over top of the transition.

Drag and drop this icon over top of the favorites folder in the browser. Almost there. You should now see a transition symbol added to that folder. Now you can right click on the icon (or control click if you don't have a two click mouse or that feature isn't enabled in your preferences.) and from the drop down box, select the option "Set Default Transition".

Your are all set. Now you can use your keyboard shortcut of "Command T" to quickly apply your new default on any cut point!