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David M. reports:
FYI, I updated to Big Sur & FCP 10.5.2. I got continuous crashes on opening FCP until I uninstalled all Core Melt apps.
Everything is now fine. Didn’t lose any work.
Larry adds: Thanks, David, for the heads up.
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Looking for better ways to organize and find media in Final Cut Pro? The secret is keywords. These three articles illustrate how keywords can help you get organized.
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Hidden in a corner of the Final Cut Pro interface is the Quick Export button. This is a fast way to get your projects out of Final Cut using just the mouse.
As the screen shot illustrates, in the top right corner of the Final Cut interface is the Send icon.
Click it to display the list of all current export destinations.
Using this menu, you can export the current project in the timeline using a single mouse click.
EXTRA CREDIT
To change the options displayed in this menu, either choose Add Destination from the bottom of this menu or go to: Final Cut Pro > Preferences > Destinations.
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Neat Video makes an effect that removes video noise, which occurs when shooting in low-light situations. The filter creates amazing results, but takes forever to render.
This workaround was suggested by Brian Galford.
The Neat Video filter will render the entire duration of any clip it is applied to. So the key to faster rendering is to only apply the effect to those portions of a clip that need it.
For example, if you apply the filter to a ten second clip, but five seconds are covered by B-roll, cut the underlying clip containing the effect at the start and end of the shot above it. That way, only the visible part of the clip will render.
As well, if you’ve applied the filter to the entire underlying clip, be sure to remove or disable it from those portions that are covered by another clip.
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In the old days, we would create a timeline, then add clips to it based upon the shots we liked. This worked, but it wasn’t very efficient.
The reason it wasn’t efficient was that these timelines containing “selects” didn’t tell us anything about the contents of the clips. Suddenly, our selects morphed into multiple timelines, renaming clip segments… like Topsy, it could quickly get out of control.
Instead, FCP offers keywords.
In the Browser, set an In and an Out marking a clip range that you like, then assign one or more keywords describing that section. For example: Scene, actor, interior/exterior, angle, content… whatever is important to you.
NOTE: To open the Keyword Editor either click the key icon in the top left corner of Final Cut, or type Cmd + K.
Enter as many keywords as you like, separated by commas. (See screen shot).
To view all the clips containing a specific keyword, twirl down the Event containing the media you want to search and click the name of the keyword. Only those segments containing that keyword are displayed in the Browser.
EXTRA CREDIT
To reveal all clips, again, click the name of the Event.
For more powerful searches, use the Search Filter. Here’s a tutorial from my website that illustrates this in more detail.
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Keywords are a very flexible way to organize clips and clip segments. They are also very, very fast.
Tip #1751 presented the basics of creating keywords. Here are some more tips.
For more powerful searches, use the Search Filter. Here’s a tutorial from my website that illustrates this in more detail.
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(I discovered this tip while researching my recent PowerUP webinar illustrating New Features in Apple Compressor & Final Cut Pro.)
One of the new features in the 10.5.3 update to Final Cut Pro is custom Column Sets. These determine the columns of metadata that appear in List view in the Browser.
In the past, we could Control-click any column header when in List view in the Browser and choose from a variety of data fields. Then, we could drag column headers left or right to change the order. Those options were expanded in this update.
Now, we can create an unlimited number of Column Sets, each with different data fields and organization.
NOTE: Here’s a link that explains this feature in more detail.
The tip behind this feature is to avoid starting with the Column Editor (simply because it provides an overwhelming list of choices).
Instead, Control-click any column header (red arrow in screen shot), make sure the Default Column Set is checked, then choose Save Column Set As.
This duplicates the default set, allowing you to configuring columns with many of the fields you will ultimately want to use already included in the set.
EXTRA CREDIT
Once you create the duplicate, you can open the Column Editor and add any missing fields that you need. It is always easier to start with a mostly-complete project than build a new one from scratch.
You can switch between them as often as you want.
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(I discovered this tip while researching my recent PowerUP webinar illustrating New Features in Apple Compressor & Final Cut Pro.)
We are all familiar with importing clips using the Media Import window. However, there are two lesser known ways to import clips; one of which was broken until the latest release. Both of these are faster.
DRAG and DROP
We can drag clips from the Finder into either the Timeline or Browser.
NOTE: All clips that you drag into Final Cut will follow current Import preferences.
COPY / PASTE
You can copy clips from the Finder and paste them into the Final Cut timeline.
NOTE: All clips that are pasted into Final Cut will follow current Import preferences.
Clips pasted into the Timeline will edit into the Primary storyline in the order in which they were selected.
EXTRA CREDIT
While you can copy/paste clips into the Timeline, you can not copy/paste clips into the Browser.
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Last week, as part of updates to all their media applications, Apple updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.5.3. The new version improves the Browser, metadata and search, as well as quashing a variety of bugs.
Here’s the complete list of new features and fixes, as released by Apple:
Here’s a link to Apple’s Release Notes for Final Cut Pro.
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The Browser in Final Cut Pro holds a wealth of technical information about clips and projects. While we’ve always been able to view this information, we’ve never been able to organize it.
Until now.
With the 10.5.3 update to Final Cut, Apple added the ability to create and share column sets. That is, we can select which columns we want to display in the Browser, save those changes and share them with others.
“The column settings include available columns, column order, column width, column visibility, and custom metadata fields. You can easily copy column sets to another computer, or share them with friends and colleagues so that the same column sets are available in their browser.” (Apple Help)
NOTE: This is exactly the same concept as creating a new keyboard shortcut command set.
What you’ve done is create a master list of fields that can be displayed in the Browser. However, just because you have access, doesn’t mean you need to display all of them.
EXTRA CREDIT
What works best for me is to use the Column Editor to make sure you have the fields you want, then Control-click a Browser column header and uncheck those items you don’t want to view at this time.
Then, save the Column set so that the next time you open the Browser, your new custom column organization will be retained.
You can create as many different column sets as you need, depending upon the tasks you need to accomplish at that time.