Final Cut Express - a guide for beginners

by Dave Brewis

Introduction

The goal of this seminar is to introduce you to the process of editing video using Final Cut Express, a powerful piece of editing software which if used correctly will help make your finished video way more informative and entertaining. We shall also look at how to preserve your masterpiece on tape, and burn it to a DVD.

This seminar is split into four sections,

Capturing
Windows and Tools
Editing
Recording

The seminar starts on the assumption that you have already shot some video and want to edit it. We're not going to be looking at camera work at all, we're only looking at 'Post-Production'.

Section 1: Capturing

Capturing refers to importing the video from your tape into the computer so that you can edit it. To do this you need a DV camera connected to the computer via Firewire. You should connect your camera and turn it on before starting the mac, and the camera should be set to VCR mode (or equivalent).

Once you've logged on (as you ideally) you open Final Cut Express from the dock. Open a new project FILE>NEW PROJECT. Before anything else you must choose and check your settings. Firstly go to FILE>EASY SET UP and ensure NTSC DV is selected if you're using the University's camera, or PAL DV if you're using a PAL DV camera.

Next go to FILE>SYSTEM PREFERENCES: here you must choose a Scratch Disk and assign a disk for your render files. (Note your scratch disk is the area of your hard disc to which the captured video files will be recorded.) Lastly you should go to FILE>USER PREFERENCES and set your personal preferences.

Now you have finished setting your prefs you can name and save your project to the desired folder on your hard drive.. FILE>SAVE PROJECT ASÖ

Right, now you're ready to capture your video. First open the Capture Window FILE>LOG AND CAPTURE. Check you have communication with the camera by looking at the bottom of the window : ìCamera OKî. You can now control the playback of your video from within this window by either clicking on the transport controls, or using the keys J,K and L and spacebar.

There are two methods of capturing video. The first, called Batch capturing, requires you to 'Log' your clips; Final Cut will then capture everything as a batch. Note: Logging refers to the process of setting the timecode (IN point and OUT point) and naming each clip you wish to capture. We're not going to look at Batch Capturing today due to time limitations, but it's the way forward if you have a lot of 'rushes'. Note: The term 'rushes' refers to all of the video you have on tape.

We are however going to look at 'Capture Now' or 'Capturing on the fly' as it's often called.

First locate on the tape the clip you wish to capture, play back the video using the transport controls at the bottom of the window, and click on 'Capture Now'. You shall see your clip being captured. Once you've gone past the end point of the clip you wish to capture, simply press ESCAPE.

The clip is now automatically stored in your Browser Window, and you must give it a name. Simply click on the clip name and name it.

Note: Don't be tempted to capture all of your rushes. BE SELECTIVE!! Remember 5 minutes of DV is 1GB in sizeÖ roughly 13GB per hour!! Watch your rushes and decide in advance of capturing what you're likely to use, and capture only that.

Once you've finished capturing, close the Log and Capture Window and save your project.

Section 2: Windows and Tools

Before we can get to the fun stuff, you need to know a litle about the Final Cut Express interface, and what some of the vast array of tools you have at your disposal, actually do.

Let's start with the Windows.

Browser : This is where you organise your clips and media. If your project is complicated you might create separate 'bins'; these are simply folders you use to categorise your clips: you might have a bin with all of your interviews in for instance, or you may wish to create a bin for each tape you captured from. It's up to you. The Browser also contains all of your transitions and effects under the effects tabÖ but more on that later.

Viewer : This is where you will view all of your captured rushes, and where you will set IN and OUT points. It is also where you might change the parameters of certain clips which have already been added to the Timeline.

Timeline : The Timeline is where you will build your sequence: it is a linear graphical representation of your sequence through time.

Canvas : This is where you will play back your edited sequence.

Tool Palette : The tool palette contains several tools you'll use during the editing process. We're just going to learn the most used ones today. Top is the selection tool. Use this to select clips either from the Browser or in the Timeline. Use it when positioning your playhead in the Timeline. We'll look at some of the rest of the tools in the tool palette later.

Audio Meter : This shows the level of your audio during playback.

All of these windows may be opened and closed at will from the Windows menu. Remember - get used to making a window 'active' before you attempt to do something in that window. Windows can also be repositioned to suit.

Section 3: Editing

First create a new sequence. FILE>NEW SEQUENCE. Give your sequence a name by clicking on the new sequence in the Browser and typing the name. Open the sequence in the Timeline by double-clicking it.

Now you're ready to add shots to your sequence. You can do this in any order obviously but it's better to start at the beginning and end at the end, and then clean up your 'rough edit' later.

So, select your first shot from your captured rushes by locating the clip name in the Browser, and opening it in the Viewer by double-clicking it. Now you set your IN and OUT points. Using the playhead controls at the bottom of the Viewer or using the spacebar and arrow keys, locate the start of the shot and press 'I' to set the IN point. Locate the OUT point and press 'O'. You can then add this shot to the Timeline by dragging the clip from the Viewer to the Timeline or by dragging it to the Canvas - your choice!! Repeat this process for the second shot and third shot and so on, and play back your sequence at any time by clicking in the Timeline to make it active, dragging your playhead to the desired position, and hitting spacebar or using the transport controls at the base of the Canvas Window.

Let's say you have now finished your rough edit, and it's time to clean it up.

Final Cut Express places at your disposal many powerful editing tools to clean up your edit. There are in fact many different ways to do the same thing.

Let's look at the least powerful - but probably the easiest to learn - way to edit your sequence... Timeline Editing.

As all the clips in your sequence are represented by bars you'd think you'd be able to shorten those clips or cut bits out of those clips by clicking on those bars and changing themÖ and you can!

First select the zoom tool and zoom in to the area of your sequence you wish to change. (Tip: By holding 'Alt' down you can zoom out.)

Say you want to delete one of your clipsÖ click on the bar and press DELETE. Obviously this will leave a black hole in your sequence, so try again, this time by holding SHIFT down while you press DELETEÖ this closes the gap for you.

You can of course close the gap manually by selecting the arrow tools from the tool palette and selecting everything 'downstream' and dragging those clips into position.

By the way, when dragging clips like this in the Timeline they will always 'snap' to edit points or 'snap' to the playhead. This is very useful as you'll discover, but if you wish you can turn snapping off by clicking on the Snap Toggle at the top right corner of the Timeline.

Now, let's say you wish to chop the end off a clip because it's too long. Position the playhead at the point at which you'd like to cut, click on the Cutting Tool from the TOOL MENU, and Cut. You can then select the piece of clip you don't want and using SHIFT-DELETE lose it.

There's a much better way to shorten or lengthen a clip however, and that's by using the Ripple Tool. Select the Ripple Tool from the TOOL PALETTE. Click on the side of the edit point you wish to change, and then click again holding down the mouse button while dragging to either lengthen or shorten the clip. You can always play back that part of the sequence to see how it looks and if you're not happy about it go EDIT>UNDO (Pomme : Z) and try again.

You'll notice that whenever I've edited video (the image) in the Timeline I have been editing the audio (the sound) with it. For instance when I've shortened a video clip, I've shortened the corresponding audio too. This is because the audio and video are linked. If I wish I can turn linking off and edit either the video or audio by itself. I do this by clicking on the Link Toggle in the top right hand corner of the Timeline.

Now let's say you wish to add a clip, in the middle somewhere. Go back to your rushes in the Browser, double-click to open it in the Viewer, set your IN and OUT points like before. In the Timeline, position the playhead at the point at which you want to insert the clip. Now drag the clip from the Viewer to the Canvas until it hovers over the INSERT tabÖ just release and Voila! ...your clip is added to your sequence.

Basically you could create a very cleanly edited sequence just using what you've learnt so far.

A more advanced way of editing is by using the TRIM EDIT Window. This takes time to learn but you can see how it works by double-clicking any Edit Point in your Timeline. (Note: An Edit Point is the line separating the end of one clip and the beginning of another in the Timeline.) Double-click on an edit point and the TRIM EDIT Window will appear:you will see two monitors which represent both sides of the edit pointÖ the end of the Incoming shot in the left hand window and the start of the Outgoing shot in the right hand windowÖ confused yet..?? Theres perhaps not enough time in this seminar to get to grips with editing in this way, but suffice to say this view allows you to lengthen or shorten either side of the edit point or indeed lengthen one and shorten the other simultaneously. If you wish to edit like a pro, learn to edit in this way.

Right, back to the fun stuffÖ Let's say you have a clean edit of your sequence, and you wish to add a little 'oomphh'...

Adding Transitions and Effects...

'Transitions' are basically effects between clips and are added to edit points. A Cross Dissolve or Fade is an example of a transition. An 'effect' is something which is applied to a clip in its entirety.. for instance you may wish to slow a clip.. or change the colours of a clip.

Final Cut Express contains a good array of effects and transitions. All transitions and effects can be found under the effects tab in the Browser. Effects can also be found in the Effects Menu.

Let's add a Cross Dissolve to one of our edit points..

Simply select Cross Dissolve from the Browser and drag it on to an edit point. Play it back to see what it looks like. Transitions are 1 second (30 frames) in length by default. Perhaps it looks too long? In that case double-click the transition: this will open in the Viewer. You can change the length of the dissolve here - try typing in 15 (which is 15 frames : half a second) and press return. Now play it back again - you'll see it's shorter.

Try adding a fade to black. Zoom in on the last clip in your sequence. Select 'Fade in Fade Out dissolve' from the Browser and drag and drop it on the end of the clip in the Timeline. Play it back. Your last clip should fade to black. Perhaps it's too short? Simply double-click on it and change the length in the Viewer.

About Rendering...

When you add an effect or transition or new audio to your Timeline you may need to render it in order to see the image and hear the audio during playback.

You will know if a clip needs rendering by looking at the render line located just above the scrubber bar at the top of the Timeline. If the render line is anything other than grey above a clip or a transition it needs rendering. If the render line is red, you will need to render the clip to see it during playback. If it is green you will be able to view the clip during playback, but it will still need to be rendered before printing to tape.

You render a clip or a transition by selecting it and Go SEQUENCE>RENDER.. (or Pomme : R).

Editing Audio..

The Audio you use in your final sequence may come from various sources - the inherent audio from imported clips for instance, or music imported from a CD. As a rule you should add your audio on separate tracks in the Timeline (clip audio on track 1, music on track 2 etc).

Before we look at audio quality let's have a look at how to import music from a CD, in case you wish to add some 'mood' to your sequence.

Insert your CD into the mac's CD drive. Go FILE>IMPORT>FILES.. and select the track you require from the disc. The track will appear in the Browser. You may name the track if you like. (Note: CD music is stored at 44.1KHz and your NTSC or PAL sequence is 48Khz: you may need to export your track at 48Khz and then re-import it, if once you've added it to the Timeline it plays back intermittently. Refer to the Online Help for how to do this.)

Audio quality is incredibly important. Viewers will often forgive poor images but will find poor audio difficult to tolerate. Audio quality is generally only as good as how it was recorded in the first place, although you can eliminate some problems using audio filters.

Editing your audio should be the last step in editing your sequence.

The most important aspect to audio are your audio levels - both the overall audio levels and the comparative levels between clips.

The only way to judge your audio levels is by playing back your sequence whilst watching your Audio Meter. You can absolutely not judge the level of your audio simply by listening using the computer's speakers.

There are two things to look out for when you watch your Audio Meters. The 'peaks' and the 'range'. The peaks are the 'loudest' points in your audio. The peaks should peak at around :6 to :4 on the scale and should certainly not go higher than 0.

The 'range' refers to the difference between the loudest and quietest points in your audio. This can often be difficult to change depending on where those points occur. You should try to reduce the range within acceptable levelsÖ if your audio peaks at say :4 and the majority of your audio is at around :20, then that's about fine.

Section 4: Recording

Once you've finished your sequence you can either record it back to tape to preserve it, or burn a DVD, or both! Remember if you might want to make changes to your sequence at a later date you will want to keep your Final Cut Express file and captured media on the hard disc. If you are not able to do this due to limited disc space, you should record your sequence to tape, as you will be able to recapture your edited sequence. Note: DV which is recorded to tape and then recaptured is lossless... this is to say that you will retain image and audio quality.

Burning a DVD is a handy way to distribute your work but remember you will not be able to recapture your video from the DVD. This is because DVDs store video in a compressed format (MPEG2.) So if you wish to preserve your finished work with a view to re-using it then record it back to DV tape.

Recording to tape

First make sure the tape in your camera is not protected and is in the correct place to begin recording. Click on the Timeline containing your finished sequence. Go FILE>PRINT TO VIDEO. You will see some options here, you can add black or colour bars or a title to the start of your sequence. As a rule you should always add some black to give your camera the chance to get up to recording speed before the sequence begins.

Click on OK. You should see a message asking to press record on the camera. Do this and then click OK. Your sequence will be recorded to tape. Once finished Final Cut Express will revert back to the standard window set.

Remember to check your recording by playing it back!

Summary

Here's a quick summary of the order in which you should tackle your project :

Connect your camera to the computer with Firewire cable.
Turn on your camera set to VCR mode (or equivalent).
Boot up the mac and log on.
Open Final Cut Express and define/check your settings, then save your project.
Capture your desired rushes.
Create a New Sequence and give it a name.
View your rushes/shots and setting IN and OUT points add them to your Timeline in order.
Re-Edit/Clean your sequence as desired, adding music if required.
Add Transitions and Effects if desired.
Check your Audio for good levels and change if necessary.
Print your sequence back to Video Tape.
Save your sequence for iDVD if required.

O, and errr GOOD LUCK!!