Table Of ContentApple Pro Training Series
Final Cut Pro 7
Advanced Editing
Michael Wohl
Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 7 Advanced Editing
Michael Wohl
Copyright © 2010 by Michael Wohl
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Contents at a Glance
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Advanced Editing
Lesson 1 Professional Editing Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Lesson 2 Accelerating Your Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Lesson 3 Trimming Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Lesson 4 Advanced Trimming Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Lesson 5 Audio Sweetening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Lesson 6 Multicamera Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Advanced Compositing and Effects
Lesson 7 Advanced Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Lesson 8 Mastering Video Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Lesson 9 Creating Dynamic Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Lesson 10 Nesting Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Lesson 11 Variable Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Finishing Techniques
Lesson 12 The Big Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Lesson 13 Sharing Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Appendix A Working with RED Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
iii
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Table of Contents
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Advanced Editing
Lesson 1 Professional Editing Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
How the Pros Do It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Three-Point Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Insert Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Audio-Only and Video-Only Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Dragging to the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Handling Target Track Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Cameo: Tapeless Groove—Steve Purcell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Lesson 2 Accelerating Your Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Going Beyond the Double-Click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using the Recent Clips Pop-Up Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using Match Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Matching Subclip Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Viewing Master Clips in the Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Matching to the Source File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using the Replace Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Replacing One Shot with Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Replacing Using In and Out Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Replacing a Shot with Itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Ganging the Playheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
v
vi Contents
Lesson 3 Trimming Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Dynamic Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Understanding Basic Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Trimming in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Trimming from the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Using Numerical Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Extending Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Splitting Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Using Slip and Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Slipping Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Sliding Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Slipping and Sliding from the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Lesson 4 Advanced Trimming Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Using the Trim Edit Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Trimming Dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Trimming Across Multiple Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Trimming Asymmetrically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Additional Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Lesson 5 Audio Sweetening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Mastering Audio Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Matching Audio Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Removing Normalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Adjusting Levels Dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Adding Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Fading Using Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Making Uniform Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Bussing in Final Cut Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Filtering Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Applying Audio Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
The Final Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using the Audio Mixer Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Recording Live Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Contents vii
Lesson 6 Multicamera Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Editing Multicamera Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Using the Multiclip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Creating a Multiclip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Editing with a Multiclip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Trimming a Multiclip Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Collapsing a Multiclip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Working with Many Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Setting Angle Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Deleting and Adding Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Editing the Multiclip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Preset Multiclip Button Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Switching Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Separating Audio and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Applying Effects to Multiclips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Bonus Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Cameo: Digital Genesis—Edward R. Abrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Advanced Compositing and Effects
Lesson 7 Advanced Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Launching a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Using RT Extreme Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Reviewing Motion Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Resetting Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Creating a Multilayered Show Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Editing Superimposed Video Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Cropping Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Resizing and Repositioning Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Positioning Clips Precisely in the Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Distorting Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Changing Clip Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Experimenting with Composite Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Adding Graphics from a Layered Photoshop File . . . . . . . . . . 218
Adding the Logo to the Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Rotating the Surfboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
viii Contents
Creating Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Copying Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Adjusting the Text Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Adding Drop Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Creating a Travel Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Lesson 8 Mastering Video Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Applying Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Applying Filters to a Browser Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Applying a Filter to a Clip in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Using Auto Select with Multiple Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Applying a Filter with Drag and Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Applying a Filter to Multiple Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Copying and Pasting Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Modifying Filter Settings for All Clips in a Sequence . . . . . . . 247
Applying a Filter to a Portion of a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Modifying Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Changing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Adjusting a Filter’s In and Out Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Resetting Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Deleting Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Controlling Filter Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Moderating Filter Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Controlling Filter Effect Amount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Masking Filter Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Managing Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Preferred Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Creating Favorite Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Applying a Favorite Filter to a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Creating Filter Packs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Organizing the Favorites Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Moving and Preserving Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Using Specific Filter Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Understanding Corrective Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Using Utility Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Using Non-Corrective Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Using Other Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Contents ix
Lesson 9 Creating Dynamic Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Keyframing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Keyframing in the Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Modifying the Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Smoothing Your Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Moving the Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Deleting Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Controlling Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Keyframing in the Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Smoothing Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Animating Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Keyframing in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Displaying Keyframe Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Customizing Keyframe Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Editing Keyframe Graphs in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Bonus Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Lesson 10 Nesting Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317
Understanding Nested Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Basic Nesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Understanding Live Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Applying Effects to Multiple Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Applying Complex Geometric Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Applying Motion Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Add a Background Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Adjusting the Anchor Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Changing the Render Order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Reordering Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Mixing Sequence Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Using Nesting as an Editing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Marking a Sequence with In and Out Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Editing Within the Nested Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Using Pre-Trimmed Subsequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Editing the Content of a Subsequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Lesson Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
