This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Rating Clips
Now that you’ve figured out how to browse your events and organize your content, it’s time to start making decisions. You need to rate your clips so you know which ones you want to use and which ones you should ignore. Final Cut Pro X has a three-choice system of ratings.
- All clips come in at a neutral state.
- You can then mark your favorite clips (or star them) to be sure to use them.
- You can also reject a clip and hide it to avoid using footage that is subpar.
Marking Favorite Clips
As you review your footage, you’ll want to take the time to mark the best shots you want to use, making it easier to find those shots while you’re in the middle of an editing session (especially if the client is in the room). Marking favorites gives you a quick way to isolate your best footage.
In the Event Browser, select a clip, or multiple clips, you want to rate.
You can also use the Select tool to choose a range (part) of a clip. This is similar to the process of creating a subclip.
- Press F or click the Favorite button in the toolbar.
A green line appears at the top of the frames you’ve marked as Favorite in the Event Browser.
You’re Not My Friend Anymore
If you change your mind about a Favorite ranking, that’s easy to amend. Just press the U key (for un-favorite) or click the Remove Ratings from the Selection button in the toolbar. To quickly reselect just the range, click the green bar or red bar.
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By making a selection and pressing the F key, you can mark that selection as a favorite for quick reference later.
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The green bars indicate regions that have been marked as favorites. The red bar shows a clip that has been rejected.
What About Subclipping?
In many editing programs you can mark an area of a longer clip and save it as a subclip. This is often used in a long interview to split the response to each question into separate clips that are easier to organize. In Final Cut Pro X you can use the Select tool to choose a range inside a clip (by dragging). A range can then be marked as a favorite. Select the favorite in your event and press Return to edit its name. You can also use the Notes column to tag the favorite with additional details to help you when editing.
Rejecting Clips
Just as you mark your best clips, you should also take the time to reject those shots you want to avoid. The Rejected rating should be used for shots that contain soft focus, bad performance, or garbled audio.
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Remember that Delete rejects a clip, whereas Command+Delete throws it in the trash (these are the same shortcuts used in the Finder).
In the Event Browser, select a clip, or multiple clips, you want to rate.
You can also use the Select tool to choose a range (part) of a clip.
- Press Delete or click the Rejected button in the toolbar.
A red line appears at the top of the frames you’ve marked as Rejected in the Event Browser.
Removing Ratings
If you want to remove the rating from a clip, it’s pretty simple. At the top-left corner of the Event Browser, click the Filter menu and choose the All Clips option to ensure that you are seeing all of your footage. You can then press U or click the Clear Rating button in the toolbar. This removes the green or red line at the top of the clips in the Event Browser.
Filtering Clips
Ratings are very useful for several tasks. You can use the Filter menu in the Event Library or corresponding keyboard shortcuts to adjust your view. This makes it easier to edit by removing substandard shots. It’s also a great way to clean up an event.
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The view on the left is the standard icon view of the event in All Clips mode (Control+C). On the right, only Favorites are shown (Control+F).
Here are a few ways to get organized using the Filter menu:
- You can choose to display just the clips that are marked as Favorites by pressing Control+F.
- If you want to hide the Rejected clips, press Control+H.
- If you need to free up disk space, press Control+Delete to see only your Rejected clips. You can then select this media and press Command+Delete to remove it from the event and your hard drive. For more information, see “Deleting Footage” at the end of this chapter. Just be careful; if a media file contains both Favorite and Rejected ranges, all the media is discarded with this method.
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The purple keywords are generated by Final Cut Pro X when you analyze imported media. The blue keywords were added on import or using the Keyword Editor.