This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Filtering Clips
Now that you’ve taken the time to organize your footage into events, apply keywords and ratings, and analyze your footage, you have a lot of information to work with. Learning how to use the Filter commands will give you greater control while editing.
Search for Clips By Clip Names and Notes
Located at the top of the Events Library is the search field. This is a useful way to search for clips by name or by any notes you’ve added. Simply select one or more events you want to search in the Event Library (Command-click for multiple events). Then in the search field enter a text string you want to search for. To remove a search, just click the small x at the right of the field.
Search for Clips By a Combination of Criteria
Although the search field is convenient, using a combination of criteria lets you quickly find the clips you’re looking for. You can use multiple criteria to search with the Filter window. Categories include clip name, rating, media type, excessive shake, keywords, the presence of people, format information, date, and role.
- In the Event Library, select the event or folder you want to search.
Click the Filter button at the top-right corner of the Event Browser.
You can select unwanted keywords in the Keyword Editor and press Delete to remove them.
Use the Search field (in the upper-right corner of the browser) to search the Name and Notes columns.
In the Filter window, select search criteria, or rules. You can add additional rules using the Add Rule menu:
- Text. Find clips by their name or search any notes applied to them in List view.
- Ratings. Find clips based on the rating assigned.
- Media Type. Search for clips whose source media files are of a specific type (video, audio, or stills).
- Stabilization. Hide or show video clips that Final Cut Pro has identified as having excessive shake.
- Keywords. Search for one or more keywords.
- People. Find clips that Final Cut Pro X has identified as having people in them if you analyzed your clips.
- Format Info. Search by frame rate, reel, take, scene number, and other criteria.
- Date. Search by creation or import date, as well as apply logical rules to help specify an exact match or a range of dates.
- Roles. Find clips by their assigned roles. Earlier in the section “Organizing Clips with Roles,” you learned to assign custom roles and subroles, as well as how certain roles are automatically added.
- You can refine a search by applying additional rules. You can specify that a search must match at least one criterion or that all criteria must be met. Just use the menu in the upper-left corner and choose All or Any.
- When you’re done with a search, click the Reset button to the right of the search status icons in the upper-right corner of the Event Browser.
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By refining the Filter controls, the clips were narrowed down to only those that contained the keyword mixer, were marked as favorites, and did not have excessive shake.
Using Smart Collections
The powerful search criteria in Final Cut Pro X really let you drill down through many clips to find the results you need. To make it easier to search, Final Cut Pro X lets you save your search results as a new Smart Collection. Clips that appear in Smart Collections are not duplicate media. Rather, Smart Collections filters clips in an event, which helps you focus on the clips needed for a specific task.
CREATE A SMART COLLECTION BASED ON SEARCH CRITERIA
To create a Smart Collection, select an event in the Event Library to begin.
- Use the Filter window to perform a criteria-based search.
- Click the New Smart Collection button in the Filter window to add an untitled Smart Collection in the Event Library.
- Type to enter a new name for the Smart Collection, and press Return.
Whenever you add clips to an event that match the Smart Collection’s search criteria, they will be automatically added to the Smart Collection.
CHANGE THE CONTENTS OF A SMART COLLECTION
After you’ve created a Smart Collection, you can still modify it.
- Double-click a Smart Collection whose contents you want to change.
- In the Filter window, modify the search criteria.
- Close the Filter window to update the Smart Collection.
DELETE A SMART COLLECTION
If you decide that you no longer want a Smart Collection, select it and choose File > Delete Smart Collection (or press Command+Delete). This removes the Smart Collection from the Event Library but does not delete the associated clips.
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By storing a set of filter results as a Smart Collection, you make it easy to find your footage while in the midst of future editing sessions.