Working with Projects

Every time you begin editing a new body of material, you create a new project file to contain that material. Each project may have several kinds of elements, such as QuickTime clips, music, sound effects, narration, and graphics, which you will combine to form an edited version of the material. Project elements are displayed in the Browser window under a project tab.

Opening and Closing Projects

When you launch Final Cut Pro, it will open the last project you worked on or a new untitled project. In the Browser, there is a tab with the project name on it. To work with the project file created for this lesson, you will open it from the files you transferred from the DVD in this book.

1.	Choose File > Open.
2.	In the first column of the Choose a File window, click the Macintosh HD icon; in the second column, click the FCP5 Book Files folder; and in the third column, click the Lessons folder. NOTE If you copied the FCP5 Book Files folder to a FireWire drive, select that drive in the first column.
3.	Select the Lesson 1 Project file, and click Choose. In the Browser window, Lesson 1 Project appears as a separate tab next to the Effects tab. (If you already worked on another project before starting these lessons, that project's tab may appear here as well.)
4.	In the Browser window, click the Effects tab. This is where you select effects such as video and audio transitions and filters. Effects will be covered in a later lesson. NOTE The use of tabs throughout Final Cut Pro helps maximize space in the interface while keeping windows organized.
5.	If any projects other than Lesson 1 Project are open, click the project's tab to make it the active project.
6.	To close that project, choose File > Close Project.

Identifying Project Elements

Lesson 1 Project has four different types of project elements. Each is represented by a unique icon, which can appear larger or smaller depending on what view you select. You'll learn about views in the next exercise, but in the following examples you can see two views for each icon. The first image represents the view you see in the current project, which is a list view. The second image represents an icon or picture view.

Clip

Each clip in your project represents some portion of your original captured source footage. It links back to a digital media file on your hard drive. This type of clip icon can represent video-only or video and audio combined. When viewed as a list, such as the current display in the Browser, the clip icon resembles a piece of film.

Audio Clip

An audio clip represents sound clips or files such as music, sound effects, narration, and so on. Like the video clips, these audio clips link back to the original audio files stored on your hard drive. Audio clips contain no video. The icon is an audio speaker.

Sequence

A sequence is a group of audio and video clips that have been edited together. A sequence might also contain effects and transitions you may have applied to the edited clips. When you view a sequence in the Canvas or work with it in the Timeline, Final Cut Pro links back to the media clips on the hard drive and plays just the selected portions of the clips you have identified and marked. The sequence icon resembles two pieces of overlapping film.

Bin

A bin is a folder used to organize clips and sequences in the project. The term bin comes from the days of film editing when pieces of cut film hung on hooks over large canvas containers called bins. These pieces of film, or film clips, would hang in a bin until the film editor selected them to use in a sequence.

Viewing Project Elements

You can view project elements in the Browser several different ways. You can view elements as image icons or as an alphabetized list. With a View As Icons option, you see a visual reference or thumbnail image of each video clip. Seeing a clip's thumbnail image can be a helpful reminder of your material. With the View As List option, you can see and have access to more clips in a smaller space.

1.	To see what view is currently selected, hold down the Control key and click in the empty gray space of the Name column in the Browser window. (Or, if you use a two-button mouse, right-click in the same area.) This shortcut menu contains three View As Icons options, each with a different-sized icon or image, and a View As List option. The check next to View As List indicates that it is the current view.
2.	Choose View As Medium Icons from the shortcut menu. Each video clip is now represented by a medium-sized thumbnail image of the first frame of that clip. The name and duration of the clip appear under the thumbnail image. In this view, you may have to drag the blue vertical scroll bar in the Browser to see all of the elements.
3.	Click the Browser Zoom button to see all the clips in this view. Click the Zoom button again to return to the default window size. Like other Mac OS X window Zoom buttons, this one expands the Browser to display as many elements as possible.
4.	Ctrl-click again in the Browser gray area and this time choose Text Size > Medium from the shortcut menu. This option enlarges the type identifying the project elements in the Browser and Timeline.
5.	Ctrl-click again and choose View As List and whatever text size you prefer. In this view, elements are sorted and listed by name, making it easier to see and organize a larger group of project elements.

NOTE

The lessons in this book were prepared with the View As List option for this reason. You may choose whichever view you prefer for your own editing.