Making FCP X Work For You, Part 2

digitalfilms by Oliver Peters

Let me dive a bit deeper into last week’s post about working with Final Cut Pro X. Although fun, powerful and intuitive, FCP X can also be quite frustrating. Unlike any other NLE software, FCP X needs to be approached with a working strategy. That’s partially because certain terms and concepts have changed, but also because elements within the application do not operate with the same properties. An Event functions differently than a Project and a clip on the Primary Storyline can do different things than the same clip edited to the timeline as a Connected Clip.

Apple has not offered any “best practices” white papers. There’s a lot of anecdotal data on the web, but much of it conflicts. Plenty of folks tell you how the app works, but most don’t know what they are talking about – often projecting onto the software what they want it to become, rather than what it is today.

How many Events?

One such issue is how many Events should you place your source material into? Events have been presented as analogous to Bins or even Project files in FCP 7. This leads you to think that more Events might be better. For example, if you shot an indie film over thirty days, should you create a new Event for each shoot day? Or should it go into one big Event? read more...