Final Cut Order of Operations

[Jeff Meyer]

It’s more typical to do audio at the end, but if you need to apply the same NR to one clip then doing that up front works fine.

So noise reduction, then cuts, then take one clip and make your keying, cropping, and scaling effects. Copy that clip like you typically would. Select all of your other clips, hold Option and press V to paste attributes. Check the boxes you want to paste – probably Basic Motion and Filters. Now drop your bottom layer underneath the keyed video. If you have a few different scaling effects you want using different layers could be helpful. Ex.
Layer 6 – close up
Layer 5 – close up bg
Layer 4 – medium close up
Layer 3 – medium close up bg
Layer 2 – medium shot
Layer 1 – medium shot bg
Then you can use the tool on shortcut key “T” to select everything to the right for that particular layer and paste attributes to those clips.

I tend to avoid nesting sequences where possible.

Hope this is helpful.

[Travis Roesler]

Holy crap… I didn’t even know that most of that was possible!

[Travis Roesler]

Hey Jeff, thank you so much for the reply. Now that I had a little more time to take it in, I can formulate a moderately intelligent response. I repasted your response and put some questions in bold underneath…

It’s more typical to do audio at the end, but if you need to apply the same NR to one clip then doing that up front works fine.

So noise reduction, then cuts, then take one clip and make your keying, cropping, and scaling effects. Copy that clip like you typically would.

Ok… so I make my edits to once clip, then I go to edit and copy? FCP will know to take the attributes from the one clip? That’s pretty cool

Select all of your other clips, hold Option and press V to paste attributes. Check the boxes you want to paste – probably Basic Motion and Filters.

Ok cool… I’ve had a tough time applying changes to multiple clips at a time but I was also attempting to add filters to multiple clips at a time. I clearly see the “paste attributes” tab in the FCP edit menu. So once I hit “past attributes” it will prompt me for which attributes I want to paste? That is absolutely incredible and will save me hours.

Now drop your bottom layer underneath the keyed video. If you have a few different scaling effects you want using different layers could be helpful. Ex.
Layer 6 – close up
Layer 5 – close up bg
Layer 4 – medium close up
Layer 3 – medium close up bg
Layer 2 – medium shot
Layer 1 – medium shot bg

Ok so after I have applied my filters, I put my drop JPG in there and render. Forgive me for being a novice but I don’t really know what you mean by layers. Every time I need to change the size of a clip, I go to the canvas and I use the wireframe to drag it around to where I need it. A slight pain in the ass but it gets the job done. are you telling me that I can apply a specific wireframe scaling effect to a “layer” and then make that layer apply to a specific clip by using a shortcut? That would be absolutely amazing.

Then you can use the tool on shortcut key “T” to select everything to the right for that particular layer and paste attributes to those clips.

I’m not sure that I understand… I think my lack of “layer” knowledge is crushing my ability to grasp this one. I know what a layer is in photoshop!

I tend to avoid nesting sequences where possible.

yea nothing good has come from me nesting sequences either

Jeff, I really can’t thank you enough… I think you’ve probably saved me about 30,000 hours and a lot of cursing with this one response. I wish you nothing but good things in the future. Your help is much appreciated!

—Travis