Tips for working with Final Cut Pro

Tips for every day use...

  1. Final Cut Pro. We'll be using Final Cut Pro (or FCP) for this class. It's not the same as Final Cut Express and the file formats are not interchangeable. Once your start a project with FCP, you have to stick with FCP until you finish. If you have your own copy of the software, then you get to choose whether you'll work in FCP or Final Cut Express. If you don't have your own copy of the software, then you'll be working in Final Cut Pro for this entire project.
  2. Scratch disks. Each time you start Final Cut Pro, you need to tell the program where you are keeping your files. If you are not prompted by FCP when you start the program, then you need to go to the Final Cut menu > System Settings... > Scratch Disks. Set the scratch disks to be your external storage device (hard drive preferred, memory stick will do for small projects). You'll need to click Set... four separate times to do this.

Tips for multimedia project work flow...

Here's the general work flow for making our multimedia projects.

  1. Generate ideas and then focus on one
  2. Storyboard
  3. Script
  4. Shoot it - Mic it - Light it
  5. [FCP] Ingest and catalog media
  6. [FCP] Edit: assemble, rough cut, fine (but not final) cut
  7. [FCP, Motion] Post production: sweeten, final cut
  8. [FCP, Compressor] Output