Final Cut Pro - Getting Started

If you're importing video plug in your fire wire cable into the camera and computer using the 4 pin (small into camera) and 6 pin (big into computer) USB fire wire cable. No need to plug in camera if not importing.

Open Final Cut Pro situated in the Applications folder.

When FCP begins to open there are different messages you may encounter, depending on your set up.

(External Device) is your camera; if you have no camera connected or its turned off or not connected correctly then you may get the message on the left.
If your not using a camera - press -- Continue
If your using a camera to import check your connections or turned on then - press -- Check Again.

(Missing Disks) you may get this warning if a previous user has moved there project folder or was using an external hard drive. EVERY USER MUST SET THEIR SCRATCH DISCS BEFORE STARTING EVERY TIME! Follow the instructions below:

NOTE: Scratch disks are your main folders where all you video content is saved and stored, you must check your scratch disk location every time you use FCP as other users will change them to their location for their project. If you don't change to your location your video renders and imports will be saved into another students folder.

Set your Scratch Disks: Go to the Final Cut Pro name to the left of the FCP file menu.
Choose System Settings

Click the top set tab and link it to your main project folder on your PC hard drive, click open and the path to you folder should display (Img 7 shows our scratch disk is connected to an external hard-drive to a folder called Process MEDIA e.g. = LaCie:Process MEDIA)

Ignore the next Set tab but follow the same procedure to make a scratch disk connection for the - Waveform Cache - Thumbnail Cache - Autosave Vault. Click OK.

Save your Final Cut Project, save it in your main project folder (the same folder as your scratch disks).

TIP:Review your footage on the camera before starting your project. Select sections to upload, take notes of the time code on the camera display e.g. 01:22 to 01:44 so you only import necessary footage so not to use up valuable hard drive space. (Video tip that helps the edit process - over record at the beginning and end of each shoot so you have spare footage to play with, try not to leave blank space (blue) between each recording as this will reset the tapes time code back to 00:00 for each clip).