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You're reading from  Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing - Second Edition

Product typeBook
Published inJul 2023
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781837631674
Edition2nd Edition
Concepts
Video Editing
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Author (1)
Iain Anderson
Iain Anderson
author image
Iain Anderson

Iain Anderson is an author, editor, director, videographer, programmer, animator, and educator based in Brisbane, Australia. An Apple Certified Trainer who helped to create the new Apple Certified Final Cut Pro exams and training curriculum, Iain regularly presents at conferences, is a Lead Trainer for macProVideo, and creates educational video content for CoreMelt and many other organizations.
Read more about Iain Anderson

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Exporting for further production

While the last section focused on compressed output, in this section, you’ll learn all about high-quality output, for delivering the final product, or just your part of a larger job. You’ll learn about ProRes, audio stems, the wonders of XML and the workflows it enables, and even how to work with other editors.

In some cases, you’ll export high-quality finished files (in some flavor of ProRes) and in others, you’ll provide your original media files along with an XML file, or some kind of compressed version. It’s even possible that you might send an entire Library and everything inside it. The wider world of production uses a variety of different applications for audio and for video, and if you want to work with others, you’ll need to be able to send them something they can work with.

High-quality files are a good place to start. We’ve mentioned it before, but let’s take a deep dive into ProRes...

Archiving your work

Here, you’ll discover a workflow for making sure your work is accessible months or years after a job is completed, with no media or effects missing. The archiving process might not be exciting, but it’s definitely important. If a client comes back to you in six months wanting an urgent re-edit on a past Project, you’ll win kudos if you can get the job done quickly and easily. While it would be nice if storage was unlimited, you can’t keep every past job on your active storage forever; video is big, and expands to fill hard drives of any size.

Specifically, you’ll find out how to make sure everything’s in one place by consolidating the media and everything else you need. Then, you’ll figure out how to throw things away, first a little, and then a lot. Finally, you’ll establish how to manage your archives and recover from a backup.

In a few words? Consolidate your old jobs, and then move them somewhere...

What’s next?

Indeed, what is next? Though there’s been so much in this book already that your brain may have exploded, this section will give you a few jumping-off points to consider what the editing experience might be like for you a few years from now. While the core editing experience is likely to remain the same, there’s always going to be something new on the horizon, and it’s good to keep an eye on what’s possible.

In this section, you’ll find out where you can learn even more about editing and discuss the issues with other editors. You’ll find out a few places to discover and download new plug-ins, learn about new technologies, and also learn about helper apps to make the editing process even more fun.

The future’s bright, and while it might not be evenly distributed, it’s good to know what’s coming next.

Predicting future developments

A book is written at a given point in time, so it’s...

Summary

You’ve exported a compressed file, then many more, and finally had your edit approved. Maybe you did that many times today. Maybe you exported a higher-quality version for someone else to work on or collaborated with someone on another continent. Maybe you archived an older job, brought one back to make a change, or used a third-party app to transcribe an interview or create a wild and crazy background.

These might be the final steps in one edit, but they aren’t your last. You’ve chosen a crazy industry with many niches to fall into, one which can make people happy or change minds, not just sell sugar water. Editing can be one of the most interesting challenges a creative mind can tackle, so get out there and make something amazing. You can.

Final words

Thank you so much for reading this far. What seemed at first like a good idea during a global pandemic has become a monster, far larger and more detailed than I’d thought. While my first real editing gig was a senior video at school in 1991, and I’ve been teaching editing in Final Cut Pro since before it had an X, I’m still discovering features even now. There’s always something new to learn, a new technique to conquer, a new effect to create.

Video is becoming an ever-more important aspect of our lives, and we editors must adapt, delivering fresh kinds of moving images to a voracious audience on evolving devices and platforms. Simple shots and straight cuts have their place, but when they’re not enough, they don’t have to be.

Final Cut Pro is a key part of my creative toolkit. It’s expanded what I’m able to do and how easily I’m able to do it, letting me edit at the speed of thought and have fun at the...

Review questions

  1. If you have to deliver a piece for broadcast, which effect should you apply to the whole timeline?
  2. Where can you control clip visibility with Roles to change your timeline?
  3. Where can you control clip visibility with Roles for exporting?
  4. What are two methods for exporting an SRT file?
  5. What export option produces a file with a .mp4 container?
  6. What’s the name of the window where you can see export progress?
  7. If you’re exporting a final file for further production, would H.264 or ProRes 422 give higher-quality results?
  8. What’s the highest quality and highest data rate ProRes codec?
  9. What is an AIFF file?
  10. What command lets you open a previous version of your Library?

Review answers

  1. Broadcast Safe
  2. The Timeline Index
  3. In the Roles tab of the Share window
  4. File > Export Captions and in the Roles tab of the Share window
  5. Computer
  6. Background Tasks
  7. ProRes 422
  8. ProRes 4444 XQ
  9. A high-quality audio format
  10. File > Open Library > From Backup

Final words

Thank you so much for reading this far. What seemed at first like a good idea during a global pandemic has become a monster, far larger and more detailed than I’d thought. While my first real editing gig was a senior video at school in 1991, and I’ve been teaching editing in Final Cut Pro since before it had an X, I’m still discovering features even now. There’s always something new to learn, a new technique to conquer, a new effect to create.

Video is becoming an ever-more important aspect of our lives, and we editors must adapt, delivering fresh kinds of moving images to a voracious audience on evolving devices and platforms. Simple shots and straight cuts have their place, but when they’re not enough, they don’t have to be.

Final Cut Pro is a key part of my creative toolkit. It’s expanded what I’m able to do and how easily I’m able to do it, letting me edit at the speed of thought and have fun at the...

Review questions

  1. If you have to deliver a piece for broadcast, which effect should you apply to the whole timeline?
  2. Where can you control clip visibility with Roles to change your timeline?
  3. Where can you control clip visibility with Roles for exporting?
  4. What are two methods for exporting an SRT file?
  5. What export option produces a file with a .mp4 container?
  6. What’s the name of the window where you can see export progress?
  7. If you’re exporting a final file for further production, would H.264 or ProRes 422 give higher-quality results?
  8. What’s the highest quality and highest data rate ProRes codec?
  9. What is an AIFF file?
  10. What command lets you open a previous version of your Library?

Review answers

  1. Broadcast Safe
  2. The Timeline Index
  3. In the Roles tab of the Share window
  4. File > Export Captions and in the Roles tab of the Share window
  5. Computer
  6. Background Tasks
  7. ProRes 422
  8. ProRes 4444 XQ
  9. A high-quality audio format
  10. File > Open Library > From Backup
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Published in: Jul 2023Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781837631674
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Author (1)

author image
Iain Anderson

Iain Anderson is an author, editor, director, videographer, programmer, animator, and educator based in Brisbane, Australia. An Apple Certified Trainer who helped to create the new Apple Certified Final Cut Pro exams and training curriculum, Iain regularly presents at conferences, is a Lead Trainer for macProVideo, and creates educational video content for CoreMelt and many other organizations.
Read more about Iain Anderson

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