Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 5

Before you work with projects, which you'll do in the next section, let's take a minute to review the non-linear editing process and some of the terminology you'll need to know. Final Cut Pro follows the normal conventions of the nonlinear editing process. That process usually begins with capturing material from the original source tape, thereby converting it into digital media files. The media files are actually QuickTime movies that play like any other QuickTime movie on your computer. One file is created for each portion of source footage you choose to capture. Each media file may be a different length, as measured in minutes, seconds, and frames.

The Final Cut Pro editing process is nondestructive, which means that you never make changes to the actual media files. Instead, you work with clips that represent these media files. For example, you can change the audio level or add an effect to a clip inside Final Cut Pro, which causes the media file to be played back with those changes. But the actual media file itself is still unchanged.

You choose edit points on clips and combine clips with other edited clips to form a sequence. When you edit the sequence of shots together, you are not actually making changes to your original media. You are only specifying what portions and in what order you want Final Cut Pro to show you the original media. You can change your mind over and over again about the placement or length of a shot without affecting the original captured media clips.

You can also save the initial captured media files to a separate hard drive connected through FireWire, or to a CD or DVD. The material in the accompanying DVD in this book has already been captured for the purposes of preparing these lessons. You will learn to capture your own source footage and export it in different ways in later lessons.