How do I import files into Final Cut Pro?

Tapeless Ingest Using Log And Transfer

As new technologies develop so do the possibilities for recording and capturing media.  We now have options to create digital files as we shoot.  Instead of capturing the footage, you need only transfer, or ingest, the digital files into your project and begin editing immediately.

You can even edit in the foreground while you ingest in the background.

In Final Cut set either the project or a bin as the logging bin.  Then choose File>Log and Transfer, or press Command-Shift 8.  The Log and Transfer window opens.

If you don’t have a card with footage to transfer, but do have digital video files on your computer, you can point FCP7 to their location.

In the Browse area:  click the Add Volume button and navigate to where your footage is located.

If no image is present in the Preview area, click the first clip in the list, then click the Play button under the image to play.  You can scrub using the scrubber bar just as you would in the Viewer window.

Mark In and Out points to identify the portions of the clip that you want to transfer.  You

To ingest the clip into your project, click the Add Clip to Queue button beneath the transport button.

The clip will appear in the Transfer Queue, the gear icon will spin while the clip is transferred and there will be a progress bar indicating the amount of transfer.  When the transfer is complete the clip is removed from the list.

Remember you can transfer all your clips at one time by selecting them or, Command-A and dragging them as a group to the Transfer Queue.

When transferring is complete, close the Log and Transfer window, and go back to the Browser window.

In the Tapeless ingest, Apple will use Apple ProRes, which is a variable bit rate, high quality codec that has lower processing requirements.

Getting your footage into Final Cut Pro - The Three Ways: Capture, Transfer and Import.  

First of three parts.

Capture

There are three ways to capture footage into Final Cut -   Now, Clip and Batch. 

Now is the down and dirty way.  What you are doing is basically telling Final Cut Pro to ingest whatever audio or video footage is on either a tape, a FireWire drive or some other device that is supported.  You can use the transport controls in the Log and Capture window to control the viewing of your footage by simply selecting Now.  Always remember, your footage is going to be captured in Final Cut in whatever resolution you have set up in Easy Setup.  The keyboard shortcut Shift-C will start the immediate capture of your FireWire or capture card's audio/video streams.

Shortcut to open the Log and Capture window is Command-8

Capture Clip.

This in some ways can be the most painstaking way of ingesting because you are basically marking INs and OUT points on your footage to ingest precisely what footage you want to edit with one clip at a time. You are basically marking the clip, capturing the clip, marking  the clip, capturing the clip and so on. Again you can use the Transport Controls or the keyboard shortcuts (J - Rewrind, K - Pause and L - Play).

Everything you capture gets put onto the scratch disk, and then added to the logging bin in your project.  Every so often, you might want to save, (Command-S) to upade the project file as you go.  A note on capturing one clip at a time.

Remember to include enough footage on either end of your clip - handles - so that you have enough video or audio material to fine tune your edit points.

Batch Capture

Batch capture can sometimes be the best route for ingesting.  It's basically the same as Clip capture, only instead of actually capturing the clip you simply log the clip.  You mark an In and Out point as you have done before and then simply select the Log Clip button in the Capture window.  This logs the clip for later ingest.  So you can log as many clips as you want and then at the end of a logging session, just ingest or Batch Capture the clips all at one time.  After you've finished logging, select the offline cips in the project you wish to batch capture and select Batch.   Shortcut for Batch Capure is Control-C - this will initiate the capture of multiple clips you've already logged in the Browser.

Tomorrow -- Log and Transfer.

What's the difference between the Razor Blade and Razor Blade All tools?

The Razor Blade tool allows you to split a clip into two or more pieces.  You would probably use the Razor Blade tools to get rid of undesired parts of any particular clip (s).  The key difference is that the Razor Blade All tool (shortcut is bb) selects an edit point in all unlocked tracks at the playhead location, whereas Razor Blade tool just creates an edit point in linked tracks of a single clip (shortcut is b).

I use this one effect a lot.  How do I make it  a favorite?

First of all adjust a filter's parameters to the way you want them in the Viewer.  Then drag the filter to the Favorite's bin in the Brower's Effects tab. The keyboard shortcut is Option-F.  This will automatically add an effect to the Favorites bin in the Broswer and the Transition and Filter Favorties in the Effects menu.

Can you put a filter on a nested sequence and if you do, will it change the original sequence?

The answer is no.  It will only effect the nested sequence.   And for those of you who aren't familiar with nesting.  Nesting lets you group a series of clips together into a single container within a sequence.   Nests can be created with clips already edited in a sequence or by dragging a sequence inside another one.  More on nesting in our newsletter next week.