Final Cut Pro is an awesome video editing application,
and there are indeed a lot of PROS to Final Cut Pro.
If you've worked with other video editing applications or you're just
a person who thinks logically, some of the naming schemes within Final Cut Pro
just don't make a whole lot of sense.
So let's FINALy CUT out any PROlonged confusion and talk about libraries,
events, and projects within Final Cut Pro.
So here's my Final Cut Pro application right after I have
finished working on a video.
So right here you'll see it says April library and then
different events.
And I have no projects actually within this event.
So let's talk about what all of that means, starting with
libraries...because having fun, isn't hard when you've got a library card!
When it comes to Final Cut Pro, your library is where everything is stored.
All of your projects, all of your events, all of your media, everything
is in your Final Cut Pro library.
And you can choose where you want your library to be stored.
It can be internal to your computer or on an external drive.
I personally try to be really good about cleaning
projects and media once I'm done working on them and I don't need them
anymore, which means I just keep them on my computer's internal drive because
that gives the best performance
and it seems to be the most reliable. You can, however, put
your library on an external drive.
It's just really important to make sure that that drive is
fast enough to edit from because otherwise it will DRIVE you crazy.
And speaking of things that will drive you crazy,
one big mistake that I see people make is that they use one Final Cut Pro
library for everything forever. [cue that sound clip from The Sandlot]
And there's no real intuitive reason not to do that when you're just starting
out with Final Cut Pro, but it can cause a lot of problems down the line.
So just because a library sounds like some big, all encompassing thing,
you can create as many libraries as you want.
There are some people who create a separate library for every single
project that they're working on,
and that can be a really smart thing to do, especially if you're
working with clients or you're kind of taking on some bigger projects.
So what I do personally, just to keep things organized, is
I create a "monthly" library.
So right here in my Final Cut Pro you'll see it says April library, but as
I'm recording this it's actually May,
so I MAY need to create a new library in order to do that.
I just go to File > New and click on Library.
And I'm just going to call this May Library. By default when you
create a library, it creates "Smart Collections" and also a default event.
Every library needs to have at least one event in it,
and that's what these little folders are down here.
I don't use Smart Collections personally, so I just delete
that to keep things organized.
And I organize my events by
video number.
So I should actually delete this 297 because the video I'm working on
right now– this one is video 297.
So in my May library, I will create a new event called 297.
You could give it a title, a date, whatever you want to name yours.
And then I will just delete this other event here.
So right now I've made a new library.
I've MAYde a new library and I have an event in that library and there's
nothing in that event right now.
Now every library needs to have at least one event in it, but there
is no limit to the number of events that you can have within the library.
And then what I do to keep things organized is once I'm done with
everything, and I know I'm not going to need those projects anymore.
I just delete that library at the end of the month.
I don't keep my project files.
I do archive all of my footage onto a server, just my raw footage, but I don't
usually keep any of my project files
unless it's for something really special or for a client
project or something like that.
Otherwise I just delete it and move on.
And so far that has been fine. [knocks on wood]
Now, as I've been talking about libraries I've also been mentioning
events a lot.
And EVENTually we're going to have to talk about what that is,
so let's do that right now.
An event is a collection of all your source material within a library.
Some other editing applications call these "bins" or "folders" or "projects."
Final Cut Pro calls them "events."
For example, this video that I'm filming right now, when I'm
done with all the footage, it's all going to go into this event.
I'm just going to import all that footage right into this event.
Anytime you import any kind of media into Final Cut Pro, it's going to have
you choose an event to add it to. In this case, you can add to an existing
event, which is what I would want.
Or you could create a brand new event in a specific library.
If you just drag and drop media to a timeline, like you're already
working on a project and just drop something from your desktop into that
timeline, it will automatically add it to the event for that timeline.
So here's an example from a previous video.
This event has all of the raw footage.
There are camera angles,
there are screen recordings, there's B roll and all kinds of other
clips all within this one event.
And the event will hold all of the source media for your project,
so that includes everything like footage and graphics and
music and speaking of music,
Thank you to Artlist for sponsoring this video.
If you've been here for a while, you might know that Artlist was the
first money I invested into my YouTube channel back when I started it in 2017.
And since then Artlist's catalog of royalty free music has only
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There are some genuinely great songs here,
and one of my favorite new features is that a lot of tracks are being
updated with separate vocal and instrumental versions, which gives
you more creative options to choose from.
And Artlist's licensing is still the best that I've seen.
The Personal plan is great for independent content creators
since you're able to use Artlist music on your personal channel, across
all of the most popular platforms. You also have the option with the Personal
plan to choose a monthly subscription.
The Unlimited plan takes it even further and allows you to use all of
their music on any platform, personally or commercially, in perpetuity.
That means forever.
This is the plan that I use
and it's great for anyone who works with clients, creates commercial work, or has
multiple channels on a single platform.
There's a link in the description that will get you two extra months
for free on your subscription.
And thank you again to Artlist for sponsoring this video and for just
being so kind and supportive to me and my channel over the years.
I really appreciate it.
You've helped me to make a lot of great projects.
And speaking of projects, let's talk about Final Cut Pro projects!
Within Final Cut Pro, projects are the actual timelines
where you will edit your work.
So I'm going back to my Final Cut Pro here's a library, the April library.
Here's an event for video 296 within there.
I have all of my footage and my media, but I also have the
actual project file itself.
And if I open up that project file, now you will see the timeline where I was
actually editing the project together, and embarrassingly enough and wearing
the exact same shirt that I'm wearing today. (I don't know why that's embarrassing, but it is.)
But just like, there's no limit to the number of events
you can have within a library,
there's no limit to the number of projects you can have within an event.
In this case, I only have the one project because it was just one video, but if I
wanted to make like another version for social media, I can create a new project.
I could call that, "Myspace Edition" so I could post it to Myspace.
We'll do vertical video because it's what's hip
right now.
And now I've created another project file in this event,
so now I can add this footage to that project, or I could even
copy and paste stuff from this timeline to the timeline in here.
And now I can edit separate projects.
This is also great if you're working on revisions, because you can have your
project file, you can right click on it and then click "Duplicate Project,"
and now you've duplicated the project.
So if I want to keep this version and not mess with it, but make revisions
to it over here, I can do that without upsetting the original project.
And all of that is located within this one single event.
So as soon as I go into another event, all of that media disappears.
I don't need to be searching through all the footage from this video over here
when it comes time to go through the footage from this video
that I'm recording right now.
And that's where events really do help keep things super organized.
So it's almost like a nesting doll where the library is the bigger doll,
the event is a smaller one, and the projects are smaller ones within that.
It's kind of a boring doll because there's only three layers.
But now if you're somebody who does edit a lot of videos, you probably know the
importance of keeping things organized.
And for the most part, it's pretty easy to keep your libraries, your events, and your
projects organized within Final Cut Pro,
but
some things that can go wrong.
So here are a few strategies I've been using for years now to help
keep things running smoothly.
Final Cut Pro libraries are kind of like goldfish because they'll grow to take up
whatever amount of space you give them.
This computer has a two terabyte hard drive, and even if I'm working
on a relatively short video, it could easily expand to take
up 1200 gigabytes or something
if I let it.
So right here, you'll see this one project currently is taking up 150
gigabytes of space on the hard drive.
If you notice your Final Cut Pro library is starting to get large and in charge,
all you need to do is take charge, click on the library, select File and
then go to "Delete Generated Library Files."
This is not going to delete any of your actual footage files,
this is just going to delete the rendered out versions
that Final Cut Pro has created and now stored within your
library on your computer.
So I select everything.
Delete the render files, delete all of them.
Delete optimize media, delete proxy media,
click ok,
and now sometimes you need to reopen the application.
So this library is 150 gigabytes.
If I close out Final Cut Pro
and then reopen it,
you should see that your library size shrinks significantly,
sometimes only ending up at like a few kilobytes.
And you can still go back into all your project files after you've done that.
It just means that if you make any changes, Final Cut will need to re-render
all the footage before you export it.
But again, because footage can get messy and things can get disorganized,
at the end of every month
when I know that I'm done with everything, I just go into my Movies folder,
find the library I'm finished with, and then I just delete it–
send it to the trash with the rest of the garbage.
And now when I reopen Final Cut Pro the April library is gone and it's
only the May library with one event.
You do need to have at least one library within Final Cut by default, that will
be called the "Untitled" library, but it's of course a very good idea to
give that a title. And for my workflow, since now I'm using this May library,
the video I'm working on right now will be 297.
When I'm done with that, or I'm ready to work on the next
video, I will create a new event.
I will call that 298 because it's going to be video 298.
When I'm working on 298,
at that point I can probably go back and delete 297 just to keep the library
a little bit smaller and to keep things more organized. Or sometimes I'll just
leave them there for the whole month.
Whatever works for you is totally okay.
Just be sure you know, where everything is going,
you know why it's there, and that you're the one in charge of how much space
it's taking up and where things are.
So by making sure that you understand libraries, events, and projects within
Final Cut Pro, and keeping an eye on how you manage and organize them, you
can stay a cut above the other Final Cut Pros. And speaking of things that
are a cut above, thank you to everyone who helps support my channel through
Patreon and YouTube Channel Memberships.
And if you do want to make more PROgress in Final Cut Pro check
out these videos right here.