Final Cut Pro X Essentials - Importing Files Video Lecture | Final Cut Pro Essentials: A Complete Guide - Video & Sound Editing

now that we understand Final Cut Pro X's
working environment it's time to start
working within the program in this
section will cover how to import files
from transcoding to creating proxies the
focus of this lesson is to know how to
use the media import window what choices
need to be made and what the
ramifications are importing media into
Final Cut Pro 10 is really simple
and there's actually four different ways
to get to the media import window so let
me show you those four different ways
first we can go up to file import media
and it'll bring up the window I can use
the keyboard shortcut command I and it
will bring up the window I can click on
this import media button and it will
bring up the window and then there's
another button that's just over here
which is what it collapses into which is
the import media button as well which is
this down arrow so if I click on that it
brings up the window very very cool
whenever I click on those or bring up
the media window it will want to import
that media into whatever event you have
highlighted so right now I have the
event importing files highlighted so if
I click on import media and brings it up
it's actually going to default to
bringing in those files into my
importing files event I can create a new
event or I could choose a different
event if I had one listed as well we
have all these different options on the
right side of the screen so let me first
bring up a clip so you can see how the
media import window works with clips
chosen I have this clip here and it's
real exciting shot it's a pan from a
window to a pot upside down a flower pot
and real exciting but it's going to show
you some movement so if I just scrub
here I can scrub over all this and it'll
show me the clip and I can go forward
and backwards and do whatever in any
speed you want and you can go through
and say you have the same clip over and
over and over again and you just want to
bring in just the best take this would
be a best way to do that as well you can
play the file from beginning to end by
just pressing play and not having to
scrub it and this is in real time now
that I've shown you that I'm working
with some footage
that is Apple ProRes four four four now
these files can be quite hefty in fact
some of them are 35 to about 50 seconds
and they range from like two gigs all
the way up to about seven gigs very big
files so because of that we probably
will want to optimize the media or if I
want to keep the original color space I
can create proxy media so I can go back
to that original file so let's get to
all the options on the media import
window it's really quite simple and what
it's going to do is save you from having
to use some other program to transcode
and change all your files it can do that
all for you and it actually can do it
running in the background so you can
work with the original files while you
edit and when it finally optimizes
either creating the optimized media or
creating the proxy media it'll replace
it and you will not really notice at all
other than your computer is running in
the background while it's doing this so
you might have some resources taken by
that in fact you will but how much it
affects you well it depends on what your
computer has in it and its ability to do
those things but those are also the
reasons why you might create optimized
media and proxy meeting at the begin
with because you just don't have the
resources within your computer to handle
those large files what you might want to
do is create optimized or proxy media
now when doing that creating optimized
media creates a Apple ProRes 4 to 2 file
which is the optimized file format for
Final Cut Pro 10 or you can create proxy
media which is Apple ProRes 4 to 2 proxy
file if you want to create bolts you can
have both checked if you want to have
one you can have one checked and really
the goal there is whatever you're trying
to achieve if you are okay with just
transcoding it to 4 to 2 then you can
have that you can uncheck the proxy
button there and you can just work on a
one path there and just stay with that
and not have to go back to the original
file or if you want to go back to the
original you can uncheck this and create
proxy media and at the end relink to the
original file and you can export from
your original native footage I skipped
over a little bit which is what is
happening to your files so we have two
options you can either copy to a library
or leave files in place now the big
difference between these is copied to
library is actually going to make a new
copy of your file and put it within your
library so if you are doing some kind of
collaborative work or you need really
simple archive
or what-have-you so that everything is
nice and contained in one place copy
them to the library if you have an issue
of hard drive space or you don't need to
be neat in that way you can leave files
in place because really if you're
copying to a library you're actually
making now two copies of that original
file and what that's going to do is fill
up your hard drive so if you have
limited resources as far as that goes
you might want to choose leave files in
place and all that's going to do is go
hey Final Cut Pro these files live over
here and it's just going to link to
those and it's going to be accessing
those from their original location
instead of going and finding their own
new file that was created just for the
sake of organization and keeping
everything together so for us we're
going to copy to library and we're going
to create proxy media because I like
that this is pro res 444 I want to keep
that color space in mind so when I get
to the end I want to relink with my
original native footage and so I'm going
to choose those now the cool thing is is
I get to the keywords section and it
actually will import metadata from
finder tags from folders so it'll keep
the folder structure and information
there so if you organize all your
footage by take by camera by shot type
or our scene or whatever way you're
organizing them it'll actually bring
those folders in in that organization
and keep those for you as well it will
find people so it will tell you one shot
two shot medium shot wide shot it will
organize those things for you and it'll
consolidate to find people on your
results and then lastly it actually will
create smart collections and analyze
your shots so it will organize it for
you without you having to it probably
won't be exactly perfect depending on
the type of work you're doing it might
be exactly perfect if you're doing just
those types of shots but either way it's
going to save you time because it's
going to organize it for you and you can
just go and spend a little bit of time
and reorganize it to whatever workflow
that works best for you next we're going
to video and on the video tab there if
we go down to it if you have a pull down
on your video it can remove the pull
down if you want it to analyze for color
balance you can do that so that it has
information so it already analyzed it so
if you want to auto correct the color it
will do that for you and it might be
depending on your workflow what you need
to do if you don't have a whole lot of
time for color grading or if you just
are okay with its auto correct then you
can just go ahead and choose that and it
doesn't really simply for you or you can
have it not
and you have all the control you'd like
next you can go to audio and you can
analyze and have it fix audio problems
it can separate mono and group stereo
audio and then it can also remove silent
channels so depending on your workflow
what you're doing with the video or what
you're doing with the audio it can do
all those things for you and then you
have the choice to close the window
after starting import which is going to
be nice and it's going to do the
processes in the background and I'll
show you that in a second so what I'm
going to do is these are all shots that
I did for the purpose of showing you how
to create proxy media copying to the
library and if I go to import selected
and click on it it's now working on
transcoding into proxies for me of those
original files now these files that are
here accessible to me right now those
are the original files but if I go right
here actually showing me the percentage
of the work that's happening in
background tasks and if I click on it it
will show me what it's actually doing
and I can show the process of what it's
doing for all these so it's this is
copying the files and this is the
transcoding section so it'll actually
show me the percentage of happening with
those and it'll keep working until it
gets to 100% when it gets to a hundred
percent it's actually automatically
going to change what these videos that
are up here are linked to those new
copied and transcoded files you can
start working on it immediately if your
computer has the resources to keep up
with it and it will automatically
replace those when it's ready so that's
very very cool and you can just start
editing right off the bat so that is the
media import window up next we're going
to be covering file management and
organization in Final Cut Pro 10