Final Cut Pro X Essentials - File Management and Organization Video Lecture | Final Cut Pro Essentials: A Complete Guide - Video & Sound Editing

up to this point we've covered the
editing environment and how to import
assets in this segment we'll go over
file management and organization
covering the finder file structure
adding tags and metadata as well as how
to navigate a library will explain how
to relink files what's different about
events and the creation of both smart
and keyword collections Final Cut Pro 10
is different than all other non-linear
editors and it really is defined by its
file management and organization system
this is where you can go all the way
down to the finer level to add metadata
and information that will then become
searchable and accessible within Final
Cut Pro it's going to save you time when
searching it's going to give you
multiple ways to find any given asset
and it's going to increase your
productivity because everything is so
easily accessed now if I just imported
footage into my event here from the
finder from folders that I already
created it would actually turn those
into keyword collections and it would
make those searchable but I want to go a
little bit deeper than that and add
finder tags so then you can add it to
individual files to create another level
of organization so let's take a look at
how to create finder tags so I'm going
to open up here this is finder where I
have some assets here and I have these
four clips that were shot on an action
cam and they're mounted on a helmet
while riding a bike and what I want to
do is I'm going to highlight all of them
so I'm gonna click on the first one and
hold down the shift button and click on
the last one and that's going to
highlight them all if I press ctrl and
click it's going to bring down this menu
and I'm going to go down here to tags
and this is a place where I'm adding
finder tags a finder tag is just going
to be another way of creating a keyword
collection within Final Cut what I'm
going to do is I'm going to add the
number 4 and the letter K because this
is 4k footage and I intend to make a
montage of all the 4k footage that have
in this test video I added those tags so
now all four of those clips have those
finder tags on them then when I import
them into my project which I'm going to
do now so I'm going to come here I'm
going to click on the event management
organization and I'm going to ctrl click
and I'm going to go import media I can
so come here and click on that button
there and I'm going to come down to my
footage and if I come down and I click
on bike and I go imported selection it
now imported those so I can look here
and a keyword collection has been made
with bike but it also has been made for
4k also 4k tests and all the other
different tags that I have on these you
might say this is lots of places to
search for the same thing but if I
brought in more footage it would
populate based on those keyword tags
those finder tags and you would be able
to have an expanded ability to have
things segregated or segmented into
different folders so that you can find
them in multiple places but you can also
organize them differently depending on
what your need or use will be now those
all show up within this event and the
event is a place to store and organize
your assets it's a place where the
keyword collections will happen and
think of the keyword collections as
folders but they're smart folders and it
will group and sort all of your assets
in those it's a place to group and sort
the next level organization is called a
smart collection now smart collection it
auto populates with five default folders
within there which are five smart
collections and that is all video audio
favorites projects and stills now I have
one called missing and we'll get to that
one in a second I've added that one
already just for the sake of our example
here but if I wanted to create a smart
collection I would go over here and I
press control button and click that come
down to new library smart collection and
what I want to do is I'm going to make
one that's called 4k now this is
becoming really redundant at this point
but if it was some other search criteria
you'd understand so I'm gonna press that
and nothing's populating it because I
have not given any filters to do so so
if I double click on my smart collection
and this works for all smart collections
even the ones that are defaulted if you
double click on them you can add or
subtract filters and what I'm going to
do is I'm going to go and add a keyword
filter now if you look all these
different filters you can add filters
for just about every single type of
metadata you could possibly put on here
so you can have a really narrow focus of
your search or a really wide one now
we're going to do pretty wide but we're
just going to do it on a keyword now you
can see that it actually Auto populates
all of this information from all of our
metadata all of our
keyword tags or finder tags that we've
already created so I'm gonna uncheck
them all and I'm just going to check for
K and as I import more assets that have
that finder tag on them it's going to
populate that folder with those assets
so it's going to be very helpful for
when I get to that montage that I'm
going to go and edit that it's going to
be populated with all the footage I need
to create that montage so very simple
but a very unique and strong way of
organization so I'm going to do that and
so now my 4k has been populated now you
can copy collections between folders and
between events every library you create
comes with those five smart collections
that default you can rename any
collection or adjust its search criteria
so if I come over here to favorites I
double click on it now I can add a
keyword as well so it can be a favorite
with a keyword and it's going to change
those things I'm not going to use I'm
going to close this you can rename any
of these collections so say you just end
up not using one of them and you want to
rename it instead of creating a new one
you can do that you can delete any of
the collections if you'd like or you can
delete an entire folder the keyword or
smart collections are really a great
place to organize if you want to get to
a smart collection really quick option
command n key or like I said which is
ctrl + click now you can actually add
more metadata to any of your files just
through using the inspector information
within Final Cut so let's go into this
bike keyword collection and what I'm
going to do is I'm going to change some
of the information actually add some
information so on all of them because
they are all shot on the same camera I'm
going to highlight them all by hitting
shift clicking on the first in the last
video here and I'm going to go over to
camera name and I'm going to add FDR X
1000 V because that's what they are shot
on I can press ENTER and now it has that
camera name on it so now if I created a
smart collection and I want to go
FDR X 1000 V I do that and then I can
add search criteria I want to add format
info I'm going to say camera name
includes FDR X 1000 V
and press Enter oh I'm sorry
there it is one zero missing FDR so it's
very sensitive to how you type at all
1000 V maybe I type ode there it is
so I made a typo one night and naming
the camera and that's how sensitive it
can be so I'm probably going to want to
go in here and go back to bike highlight
all of these go in my camera info add a
zero so it's now FDR X 1000 V and then
if I look up here look it's gone now
because it's that sensitive so I'll come
back in here I'll add a zero and there
it is so very very very strong you're
adding that from your inspector window
so if you click on anything you can add
a whole bunch information so you can do
camera angle
take number scene number real number you
can add notes and you can do all sorts
of different information here and on
this tab here you can add it to the
audio you can look at the settings and
you can add all sorts of metadata then
then will be searchable through a smart
collection or just searching in general
now lastly let's take a look at how to
relink a file Apple is very very smart
and a lot of times it will just populate
and find your files but there are
certain occasions when you can move a
file say if you move it out of a library
or if you delete a file or move the hard
drive that it's on that it will find
that that file is missing so I already
actually made a smart collection that's
called missing and I had to work really
hard to make this file go missing to
relink it it's really simple I highlight
it I go up to file relink files and now
it has this clip that's here I can go
locate selected and I know that it's on
my desktop so this is it right here I
can click it and I go choose and it
looks like it found it now if I press
cancel it wouldn't relink but I want to
press relink files and now it already
linked them and tada there it is alright
lastly we want to cover the organization
tools they are the Greenstar the empty
star the red X and the key and they're
found just over here on the left of the
screen on the gray bar and you can see
they're all right here all
four in a row right next to the import
footage button and what they do is they
mark favorites they remove favorites or
any other kind of rating they will mark
as rejected or you can add a keyword in
the keyword editor so let's take a look
at how those work now you can access
them all by clicking on the buttons or
by hitting their hotkeys so let's start
off with the favorite button here now I
really like this clip right here and so
I want to mark that as a favorite so I
can press F and you'll see that it adds
a little green bar on the thumbnail
there or I can come over here and press
the green star so if I want to remove
that but then I realize I want to add it
again and I don't want to hit my
keyboard shortcut for whatever reason I
can just click on there and there it is
it marked it as a favorite now it's Auto
populated in my smart collection and
it's easy as that now say I want to mark
this as rejected because I have a better
shot of it better angle maybe there's
something on the lens I don't know there
can be a lot of reasons for rejection
right so let's go over here and all we
do is we press the red X now the red X
comes up and all that does is reject the
selection so the backspace key will get
that and we can add back to my favorites
and then backspace it removes it there
or if I want to get rid of the rating
altogether I can press U and then lastly
we'll cover the key
now the key shows or hides the key word
editor and command K will bring that up
or I can just press the key itself these
are all the keywords I already have on
this clip and I want to add something
more so we're going to add pool and
we're going to add Chico and we're going
to add daytime now every time I add a
keyword it creates a new keyword
collection here and I can just click on
Chico here and sure enough there's the
clip and those are all the tools and
essentials for keeping organized keeping
great file management and if you do and
keep up with those tools and you do a
lot of preparation setting up all of
your organization from the get-go you're
going to have a lot easier time when
editing everything is going to come
together a lot quicker
and it's going to be right at your
fingertips to keep your creative flow
going in our next segment we're going to
be covering working in the timeline