FCP workflow basics; labelling/organising selected shots

[Michael Weitzel]

Hi Elin, (maybe out of ignorance) I work similarly (also no power-user!). What I end up doing is to import a whole tape as one clip into FCP. Then i work through that clip and cut every scene into a sub-clip which I then name according to my liking. What I usually do is use a sequential number to start with and then if I have already a rough idea of the sequences I add a sequence identifier and then a descriptive label for the sub-clip (e.g. “074 Seq2 cat jumping off fence”). I then use Bins for organizing the material for each sequence

There will probably be a lot of eye-rolling about this ‘system’ but so far I haven’t found anything better for myself… – Mike.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Michael Weitzel] “What I end up doing is to import a whole tape as one clip into FCP.”

The big negative to this approach is when the original clip gets corrupted or the original clip accidentally gets deleted or moved. Then you’ve lost all the subclips that are associated with it. Don’t know how many times I’ve seen this happen over the years, but it happens often.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Elin grome] “I ingested the whole 12 hours cos I have the disk space and because I understand that its easier to work this way.”

Not really. Why would it be easier to ingest 12 hours of material for 2 minute promo? You Log the tape first by watching it and selecting what you will need to make the edit. I would expect you would digitize no more than 2 hours of material for this cut. Just because you have the space doesn’t mean you digitize everything. That’s a waste of 12 hours quite honestly.

We cut 2 minute stories all the time from 2 to 6 hours of material. We spend 2 hours shuttling through all the material and logging the selects which is usually about 30 minutes worth of material. Then we edit from that because it would be a waste of time and disc space to capture 6 hours of material.

I have 76 hours of material for a 2 hour documentary but I’m not going to digitize all 76 hours just because we have 40TB of storage available.

[Elin grome] “Now I am going through the footage and selecting my shots, then dragging those into 5 or 6 different sequences according the type (crowds, action, whatever) the problem is that I would then like to specifically label/identify those individual shots within the sequence/timeline – so I can find, say smiling child quickly with my “crowds” sequence – but i cant find a way of doing this and i dont want to end up having to scrub through my sequence every time to look for a specific shot, “

It’s called Logging. You watch the shots, you log them and drop them into Bins. So you have a Bin of Crowds a Bin of People and so on. Most of use put some sort of notation on a particularly good shot like all CAPS or labeling the clips with a color.

I’m assuming you captured all your rolls as one long clip which really creates a lot of problems in the edit. The best you can do now is create Bins for all your shots instead of sequences and use your Viewer to create In / Out points and move the shots into properly labeled bins.

Then the next thing you need to do is go to the DVD Section of Creative Cow and order Shane Ross’ “Getting Organized in Final Cut Pro.” Your method is doing nothing but making your job harder than it should be. It’s easy to just let tapes digitize in with no organization, but it makes the editing process slower. Shane will show you the proper way to organize your material so you’re set up correctly to begin with.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Steven Gonzales]

You can add a description to the original clip in the browser, using one of the empty columns of information available there.

Then you can use “find” to search for your key term. You could also export a batch list and import that into Excel, and sort by your search terms to have a listing.

Organizing your footage in a sequence is not the best way to work. Shane Ross, who posts here frequently, has a DVD on project organization within Final Cut, and you could probably gain a lot from that tutorial:

https://training.creativecow.net/dvd_store/get_organized_fcp/get_organized_fcp.html

[Bob Pierce]

You should know that you can customize your bin display. I’ve created a custom bin layout where I have a a comment field displayed right next to the keyframe. In this comment field I’ll make notes (“Smiling child”). Much easier than searching through a sequence.
Bob Pierce

http://www.lightstreamassociates.com

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[Elin Grome]

I learnt from an editor friend that if you have the space then this is the easiest way to work – saves chopping and changing tapes and allows you to view the footage faster and more intuitively than through a deck… which to be honest has been my experience, well from the limited experience I have…

but thanks, I greatly value another perspective and shall look into what you’ve said,

Ta

N

It’s all the those pesky details :p

[Steven Gonzales]

Alas, the easiest way to work is not the best way to work.

[Andy Mees]

Elin
If you have the time (overnight?) and the disc space/capacity for it, and if it suits your workflow, then it really doesn’t matter a jot that you ingest all footage first (as you have done) and then log later … as long as you DO log the footage, which clearly you are doing, then everything is fine.

(The problem is when folks ingest hours or raw source footage and DONT log … then you waste hours scrubbing back and forward looking for shots lost in a morass of footage the most of which you simply don’t want nor will ever need.)

Your particular logging method, of creating selects reels may not be the best way of handling things for your purposes though. As already advised, a better method would be to organize your selected shots as subclips within selects bins (crows, action whatever) in the project’s browser tab and use the plentiful logging fields available to each clip to add the logging info … thats what those fields are there for after all. If you do that then finding the footage you want is super quick and easy.
Cheers
Andy

[Robert Due]

I agree that using the columns to do “keyword” searches is a great method, but I have to add that putting clips or takes into sequences is also a good method.
For example, if you have multiple takes of a scene you can easily rule out bad takes or see, back to back, the different interpretations of a performance.
I think my clients appreciate the ability to see takes edited down in a quick succession. Makes weeding out the bad easier. I actually create a master sequence of all takes (except for false starts or obviously bad takes) and then I duplicate that sequence and remove even more from the duplicated sequence until I get down to a “select” few.

This works for me, perhaps not everyone.

Robert Due
Editor / Colorist
INDEPENDENT EDIT

[David Bogie]

[Elin grome] “I learnt from an editor friend that if you have the space then this is the easiest way to work – saves chopping and changing tapes and allows you to view the footage faster and more intuitively than through a deck… which to be honest has been my experience, well from the limited experience I have… “

Your friend was wrong. Very wrong.
It’s not a question of style, there are good and bad practices in this business and capturing everything just because you don’t know any different is one of the more egregious and lazy ways to approach video editing.

we’re not telling you to edit your material before you capture it just because it saves space. We’re telling you that this is a best practice among professional editors who work efficiently in order to make money for themselves and their companies. You don’t even need to know why capturing only useful material is a good idea but Walter gave you several of the better reasons.

bogiesan