The overall process of putting together your video in Final Cut Pro can be roughly broken down into six steps. Many of these workflow steps don’t necessarily have to happen in this order. The first step is to import your media into Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro recognizes and works with most cameras and devices out there. And you can even bring in media from another Apple application such as iMovie.

The next step is to Organize the media that you’ve imported using Libraries and Events. You can rate your clips as Favorites or Rejected, as well as create keyword collections and smart collections. These organizational tools allow you to quickly access and work with your best footage. After you’ve organized your media, the next step is to edit your video.

You’ll create a Project and edit clips onto the project timeline. Final Cut Pro allows for what’s called ‘non-destructive’ editing, which means that your original media is left untouched when you edit it. Once you’ve added your clips to your timeline, you can then re-arrange them, make them longer or shorter, try out different clips, add music, sound effects, titles and cutaways.

You can also add video effects transitions between clips and slow down or speed up your clips. During this step you can really tweak your video in detail. You can use the precision editor, you can key frame video and audio effects. You can correct the color of your video and add composite motion graphics. 

The final step is Sharing Your Video by sending it directly out of Final Cut Pro to the web, iTunes, iPhones, iPads, iPhones, iPods or Apple TV or just create a file. You’ll also have a vast number of choices about the quality and size of your final video output. Or you can just burn a disc of your completed video. Understanding the basic editing workflow for Final Cut Pro is essential as you move forward with learning how the program works.

© Michael Rosenblum & Lisa Lambden 2015