Advanced Post-Production Tech.

FINAL CUT PRO (PRO)

Final Cut Pro is a series of non-linear video editing software programs first developed
by Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7,
runs on Intel-based Mac computers powered by macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or later. The
software allows users to log and transfer video onto a hard drive (internal or external), where
it can be edited, processed, and output to a wide variety of formats. The fully rewritten Final
Cut Pro X was introduced by Apple in 2011, with the last version of the legacy Final Cut Pro
being version 7.0.3.
Since the early 2000s, Final Cut Pro has developed a large and expanding user base, mainly
video hobbyists and independent filmmakers. It had also made inroads with film and
television editors who have traditionally used Avid Technology's Media Composer.
According to a 2007 SCRI study, Final Cut Pro made up 49% of the United States
professional editing market, with Avid at 22%. A published survey in 2008 by the American
Cinema Editors Guild placed their users at 21% Final Cut Pro (and growing from previous
surveys of this group), while all others were on an Avid system of some kind.

Features

Final Cut Pro provides non-linear, non-destructive editing of any QuickTime-

compatible video format including DV, HDV, P2 MXF (DVCProHD), XDCAM (via plug-
in), 2K, 4K, 5K, and 8K film formats and can import projects directly from iMovie for iOS. It
supports a number of simultaneously composited video tracks (limited mainly by video form
capability); unlimited audio tracks; multi-camera editing for combining video from multiple
camera sources; 360º video editing support; as well as the standard ripple, roll, slip, slide,
scrub, razor blade and time remapping edit functions. It comes with a range of video
transitions and a range of video and audio filters such as keying tools, mattes and vocal de-
poppers and de-essers. It also has multiple color correction tools including color wheels,
sliders and curves, video scopes and a selection of generators, such as slugs, test cards, and
noise.

Interface

The legacy (v. 7.0.3 and earlier) Final Cut (Pro and Express) interface was designed
around non-computerized editing work-flows, with four main windows that replicate tried-
and-trusted methods of organising, viewing and editing physical tape or film media. The
browser, where source media files (or clips) are listed, replicates the editor's traditional film
"bins" or stacks of videotapes. The Viewer, where individual media files can be previewed
and trimmed, replicates the source monitor of older tape-based systems. The Canvas
replicates the "program" monitor in such systems, where the edited material is viewed.

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The Timeline, where media are assembled into a sequence, replicates the physically edited
film or master tape of earlier systems. There is also a small Toolbox window and two audio-
level indicators for the left and right audio channels.
Both the Viewer and Canvas have a shuttle interface (for variable-speed scanning, forwards
or backwards through a clip) and a jogging interface for frame-by-frame advancing.

Browser

As in most digital non-linear editing applications, the Browser is not an interface to the
computer's file-system. It is an entirely virtual space in which references to clips (aliases) are
placed for easy access, and arranged in folders called 'bins'. Since they are only references to
clips that are on the media drive of the computer, moving or deleting a source file on the
media hard drive destroys the link between the entry in the Browser and the actual media.
This results in a 'media offline' situation, and the media must be 'reconnected'. Final Cut Pro
can search for the media itself, or the user can do this manually. If multiple clips are offline at
the same time, Final Cut can reconnect all the offline media clips that are in the relative
directory path as the first offline media clips that is reconnected.
The browser has an 'effects' tab in which video transitions and filters can be browsed and
dragged onto or between clips.

Canvas

The canvas outputs the contents of the Timeline. To add clips to the Timeline, besides
dragging them there, it is possible to drag clips from the Browser or Viewer onto the Canvas,
whereupon the so-called 'edit overlay' appears. The edit overlay has seven drop zones, into
which clips can be dragged in order to perform different edits. The default is the 'overwrite'
edit, which overwrites at an in point or the space occupied after the playhead with the
incoming clip. The 'insert' edit slots a clip into the sequence at the in point or playhead's
position, keeping the rest of the video intact, but moving it all aside so that the new clip fits.
There are also drop zones to have the application automatically insert transitions. The
'replace' edit replaces a clip in the Timeline with an incoming clip, and the 'fit to fill' edit does
the same thing, but at the same time, it adjusts the playback speed of the incoming clip so that
all of it will fit into the required space [in the Timeline]. Finally, there is the 'superimpose'
edit, which automatically places the dropped clip on the track above the clip in the Timeline,
with a duration equal to the clip below it. Unless an in or out point are set, all edits occur
from the position of the playhead in the Timeline.
Using the wireframe view on the canvas, the clip can be manipulated directly - dragging it
around in the canvas to change its position, for example, or resizing it. Precise adjustment
controls for these things are in the viewer.

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Advanced Post-Production Tech.

Viewer

The viewer has tabs for each channel of the selected clip's audio, in which the waveform for
the audio can be viewed and scrubbed, and where its volume can be key framed. The filters
tab is where effects for the clip appear and where their parameters can be adjusted and key
framed. If the clip selected is a generator (such as an oval shape), a control tab appears for
changing its geometrical properties.
Finally, the viewer's motion tab contains tools to adjust the scale, opacity, cropping, rotation,
distortion, drop shadow, motion blur and time remapping properties of a clip. Mini-timelines
to the right of each parameter allow the property to be key framed. The Viewer is not present
in Final Cut Pro X.

Timeline

Clips can be edited together in timelines called sequences. Sequences can be nested inside
other sequences, so that a filter or transition can be applied to the grouped clips.
The Timeline in Final Cut Pro allows 99 video tracks to be layered on top of each other. If a
clip is higher [in the timeline] than another, then it obscures whatever is below it. The size of
a video clip can be altered, and the clips can be cropped, among many other settings that can
be changed. Opacity levels can also be altered, as well as animated over the course of the clip
using keyframes, defined either on a graphical overlay, or in the Viewer's 'motion' tab, where
precise percentage opacity values can be entered. Final Cut also has more than a dozen
common compositing modes that can be applied to clips, such as Add, Subtract, Difference,
Screen, Multiply, Overlay, and Travel Matte Luma/Alpha.
The compositing mode for a clip is changed by control-clicking or right-clicking on the clip
and selecting it from the cascading con-textual menu, or by selecting the mode from the
application's 'modify' menu. For either matte modes, the clip that will perform the key is
placed overneath the fill clip on the Timeline.
For more advanced compositing Final Cut Pro is compatible with
Apple's Shake (discontinued) and Apple Motion software.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Final Cut Pro uses a set of hot-keys to select the tools. There are almost 400 keyboard
commands that allow the user to increase the speed of edits. This combined with the
nonlinear approach that digital editing, provides Final Cut Pro users with several editing
options.
Users can also set their own customisable keyboard preferences.

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File format

A Final Cut Pro Project technically consists of separate files:

 Project File
 Media Source Files
 Render Files, Cache Files
The location of the Media and the Render/Cache Files is not standardised. Final Cut Pro can
be configured where to store them. Some users have a central directory where they store all
their Source/Render/Cache files, some set those file paths to their specific project directory,
so that they have all project files at one place.
After having finished a project, one can erase everything but the project file, to save disk
space, and at a later time Final Cut Pro can re-capture/re-link all source data and recalculate
all render and cache data, provided it can access all linked sources.

Project file
The first versions of Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express used a binary file which contained
all montage information such as timecode information, clip's in/out-points, size/crop/position,
composition nesting, filter settings, automation data, etc.
More recent editions of Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express, before Final Cut Pro X, used the
file extension. fcp .
The latest version of Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, uses a new file
extension; .fcpx . Apple has come under some criticism for not supporting the
older .fcp project files, when it does support importing iMovie projects ( .imovieproj files).
[14]
This concern has been addressed through the use of third party software, allowing for the
migration of legacy FCP file formats into working FCPX libraries and projects. The software
is called 7toX[15] and was developed by Philip Hodgetts.

Media source files

Either captured from tape or loaded/imported from the file system.

Render files, cache files, etc.

Files which are generated by Final Cut Pro, i.e. audio waveform display, filter effects, etc.

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Advanced Post-Production Tech.

Library Manager
A library contains multiple events and projects in the same location. ... Each event in
the library refers to media on your Mac or storage device, and a database file keeps track of
where everything is. When you select an event in the library, the media it contains appears as
clips in the browser.

Event Manager
Overview. Event Manager X fulfills Final Cut Pro X's inability to manage Events or
Projects that are hidden or on unmounted storage devices. And with Sets, Event Manager X
allows you to manage combinations of Events and Projects to easily transition between jobs
or clients.

Magnetic Timeline
The bottom portion of the Final Cut Pro window contains the timeline, where you
create your movie by adding and arranging clips and making all your edits.
The timeline “magnetically” adjusts clips to fit around clips that you drag into place.

Dashboard
The Dashboard is a dynamic interface that presents the current timecode of your clips
in either the Event Browser or Timeline - depending on which area is currently active. At the
left of the Dashboard is the Background Tasks button.

Color Correction
Final Cut Pro X has not been a stranger to color correction. Since its inception, Final
Cut allowed you to color correct using a tool called the color board. There were pucks
assigned to Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows that you could move up or down to
adjust color, saturation or exposure as needed.

Insert
This page refers to the meaning it used to have in linear tape-to-tape editing.
Sometimes you want to insert a new video clip over top of existing video footage. For
example, you might have a lengthy shot of a person speaking and you'd like to insert a few
cutaway shots to break it up and make it more interesting.

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Advanced Post-Production Tech.

Over Write
In an overwrite edit, one or more source clips overwrite any clips in the primary
storyline or a selected storyline, starting at a range selection start point or the playhead or
skimmer position. No clip items are rippled forward, so the duration of your project remains
the same.

Fit to Fill
The Fit to Fill "Replace with Retime to Fit" edit will always use the Timeline clip's
duration and speed up or slow down the clip you're dragging to compensate for any
difference in length.

Master File
The Master File command is often used to create a high-quality “master file” of a
completed project, which serves as the source media for the final stages of professional post-
production or broadcast and distribution. Select one or more projects or clips in the browser.

Hand Brake
Handbrake is an open-source video transcoder available for Linux, Mac, and
Windows. Everyone can use Handbrake to make videos for free. Handbrake is a post-
production tool. Its primary purpose is to convert videos from supported source formats to
MP4 or MKV format.

Compressor
Compressor tightly integrates with Final Cut Pro to add custom output settings,
distributed encoding, and extensive delivery features. With support for 360° video, HDR,
HEVC, and MXF output, it's the most powerful, flexible way to export your Final Cut
Pro projects.

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