Welcome back to my Final Cut Pro tutorial series.
In this part of the series I'm going to show you
how to time your primary storyline
and add some layers above it.
I’ll add some cutaways above my primary storyline
to make it more visually exciting.
This is part four of the series.
If you haven't seen parts one through three,
I’d suggest going back and watching them.
I’ve made a playlist I’ll link up top and in the description.
I’ll also add links to individual videos in my description.
If you enjoy my videos,
don’t be afraid to hit the like button below
and subscribe to my channel.
Also, if there’s a particular topic
you’d like to see explained in my future videos,
leave me a suggestion in the comments below.
In my last video,
I created a rough cut of my primary storyline.
All my clips I selected added up to about 4 minutes.
I’d like a video a little longer than that,
around 6 minutes.
I can add more clips to the end,
or ripple trim and make my existing clips longer.
I can also add gaps in between my clips.
This works especially well if your primary storyline
is interview sound bite driven.
You can add gaps between soundbites
to make speech sound more natural.
To insert a gap in between clips, first,
position the playhead where you want
to insert the gap clip.
Then, click on EDIT, INSERT GENERATOR and GAP.
A default three second gap clip
is inserted in between your clips.
Another way to insert a gap clip
is to use the keyboard shortcut OPTION + W.
You can ripple trim the length of the gap clips
to whatever you like.
When you play back your timeline,
the gap clip will be a blank screen with no sound or video.
Next, I want to talk about FCP’s blade tool.
The blade tool allows you to break a clip
into smaller sections to be moved elsewhere
or completely removed from your timeline.
To use the blade tool,
either select it from Tools pop up menu
or use keyboard shortcut B.
The pointer changes to an image of a razor blade.
Skim and click wherever you want to “blade” your clip.
Press A to go back to the select tool.
Your clip is now divided into two
separate clips that can be moved or deleted.
You can also choose the blade tool
while still using select tool with a keyboard shortcut.
Skim over to where you want to blade your clip,
and instead of selecting the blade tool,
press COMMAND B.
Your clip is bladed into two sections.
Lets skim ahead a couple seconds
and use COMMAND B to blade the clip again.
Select the middle portion and press DELETE
to remove it from your timeline.
Skim back before your cut
and press spacebar to play the clip.
When you jump in time like that is called a jump cut.
Jump cut are unpleasant to the viewer
and you generally want to avoid them.
But there is a few tricks you can use to hide jump cuts,
that I’ll go over that in one of my future videos.
I’m going to use the COMMAND Z keyboard shortcut
to undo that.
If you want to delete a clip,
but not change the timing of your storyline,
you can delete a clip and replace it with a gap clip.
Select the clip you want to delete and press SHIFT DELETE.
The clip is deleted and replace with
a gap clip of the same duration.
When you blade a clip without removing any parts of it,
it’s called a through edit, and its represented by a dashed line.
If you change you mind or make a mistake,
you can easily repair it by joining a through edit.
Press A on your keyboard to make sure
you’re using the select tool
and click on the dashed line in your clip.
Only one side of the through edit is selected.
Now, press DELETE. The through edit point is removed,
and the two segments are rejoined into a clip.
I’m going to go through my project
and add some gaps to time my storyline.
After you build and time your primary storyline,
its time to add some additional footage to your video.
If you have a soundbite based storyline,
you can add some B-roll footage
to see what the sound bites are discussing.
In a video like mine,
you can add some different angles
to make the video more interesting,
cover the gap clips, and hide some jump cuts
I talked about earlier.
Instead of inserting clips into your primary storyline
and messing up the timing,
you can layer your clips above the storyline.
As far as video goes,
your top layer will always be whats visible on screen.
Audio will be a mixed from all your layers.
To add a clip above your storyline,
press A for select tool and position your playhead
where you want to add your clip.
Use the I & O keys to select a part of the clip
you want to connect and use the connect edit button.
The clip is layered over your primary storyline.
Skim back to before the edit
and use spacebar to review your clip. You can ripple trim your clip as necessary.
Lets place the playhead before the clip ends
and connect another clip.
Pick the clip you want to connect
and use the keyboard shortcut Q.
Another layer is created on top of your storyline
because your clips overlap.
Just like I mentioned before,
the top layer will always be visible on screen.
You can ripple trim your second layer back,
and when they don’t overlap, the third layer will drop down.
Each clip above your primary storyline
has a connection point that
synchronizes it to the primary storyline.
If you move a clip in your primary storyline,
the connected clip goes with it.
You can override this behaviour by holding down
the ` (grave accent) key.
This tells FCP to ignore the connection point
and leave the connected clip where it is.
I’m going to add some different angle clips to my story line and trim them until I’m
happy with how it looks.
B-roll clips above your storyline
take over the story telling of the project.
Sometimes you may want to ripple trim
or move you connected clips.
Because each connected clip is independent,
moving or trimming one clip, does not affect the clips beside it,
like in the primary storyline.
If you like the relationship between your connected clips
and do not want to alter it,
you can create a connected storyline.
Click on the first clip and SHIFT click on your last one
to select all your clips.
Now, right click on any of the selected clips
and choose CREATE STORYLINE.
A grey bar appears above your clips.
Instead of having three connection points like before,
now there’s only one.
The clips in this created storyline
will now behave like the clips in the primary storyline.
If one clip is deleted, the other clips snap together.
Ripple trimming one clip, will now move your other clips over.
Select the grey bar above your connected storyline
and you can append edit or insert edit
clips to it just like in the primary storyline.
You can also move all the clips in the created storyline
by clicking in the grey bar above it and dragging it.
I’m going to go through my clip and add in
some secondary storyline footage
to make my video more visually interesting.
In my next video
I’m going to add some clips below my primary storyline.
I’ll add some background music and sound effects.
Make sure you hit the subscribe button
and turn on notifications so you don’t miss it.
Ask any questions you may have in the comments,
and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Once again, thanks for watching,
and I hope you come back for more.