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How I Edit and Organize My Final Cut Pro Projects

15:40 video

It’s been almost two years since I started my YouTube channel. I started editing with Premiere Pro on a PC, moved to LumaFusion on iPad, and finally to Final Cut Pro when I went back to the Mac. After about a year with Final Cut, I’ve standardized on a workflow that works for me most of the time. Skillshare sponsored this video. This isn’t a start-to-finish deep dive; I’m assuming you have some Final Cut experience, and a few things might make your life easier: templates from an organized event library, multicam editing, where to get music and maybe skipping color grading.

Organizing the library (and making it a template)

A new library comes with a smart collection and an event named for the creation date. I don’t use the defaults; I organize by type of footage:

  • A role, B role, C role (you never know how many types of footage I’ll have), and a Z Other event, so it’s always at the bottom.
  • A Assets (always at the top) for things I reuse in many videos: YouTube audio (music from the YouTube audio library), images/PNG files and sounds.
  • The project file inside the A role event, where I do the editing.

You don’t need to set this up every time. In your Movies folder, the library is a file you can rename (for example, “FCP template”) and compress. Double-clicking that zip extracts a new library you can rename for each project, with all your assets and events already there.

Importing

I use the CalDigit SOHO dock to connect SD cards; Final Cut Pro sees the card and asks you to import. I choose the file, pick the destination event (A role) and import. I have two cameras: the main camera and a secondary one; additional angles or synced recordings go into the A role. B role is secondary footage that sits on top of A role. I also record audio separately with a Zoom F6 connected to an MKH-416 microphone, “which together are amazing,” and that audio goes into the A role as well.

Multicam editing

Select the audio and the two A role camera angles, right-click and choose New Multicam Clip, which synchronizes everything. Then do the rough cut: focus on the audio waveform (make it larger to see where to cut), delete what you don’t need, and switch angles with the number keys (1, 2) or by clicking, even while playing. I cut it down to a single rough cut of about 10 minutes.

B-roll

With the A role rough cut done, I add B-roll on top for context. For example, when I’m talking about the webcam on the iMac, I use a close-up of the camera cutout; when I’m describing connecting an external display, I drag in that clip. Remove the volume on the B-roll clip, and it plays over my voice.

Transitions and sounds

I always have a transition at the start (“Hey, I’m Jerry”): from the built-in transitions in Final Cut’s Lights category, I drag the Bloom transition and shorten it to about 15 frames, and add the iPhone message-sending sound, lowered about 12 dB because it’s too loud.

For more, there are third-party plugins: MotionVFX has hundreds or thousands of kits, transitions and effects. They’re not a sponsor, but I like one called mTuber 2, of which I mostly use the zoom (in and out, for emphasis) and the little animations that remind people to subscribe. Using it is as easy as the built-in effects: drag it in, expand or shrink it, and adjust settings.

Music

In YouTube Studio, the Audio Library (at the bottom of the menu) has thousands of songs you can filter by genre, mood, artist and duration, and download for free. There are plenty of paid services, but I just need very light music to cover room noise under my recordings. If you want something dramatic for B-roll or a suspenseful buildup, you can find it there too. I drag the music under my video, cut it where the video ends and lower the volume to about -41 dB so it plays quietly in the background.

Color grading

I don’t do any anymore. I tried for a long time, but I use two 8-bit Sony a6400 cameras (they shoot 8-bit even in S-Log), and I spent far more time grading than getting videos out. I shoot with the color profile off, so the colors you see come out of the camera, and I’m pretty happy with them. I recommend setting the white balance (use a gray card) to the light in your room so it stays consistent no matter the window light. I let the camera handle the color science.

Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on illustration, design, freelancing, filmmaking and more. The spot recommended Ali Abdool’s productivity class for creators, which covers managing time, attention and ideas. I liked his time-management section, which taught me that work expands to fill your time and that I need to set and keep schedules. The first 1,000 people who use the link in my description get a one-month free trial of Skillshare Premium.

I’m coming up on the two-year anniversary of the channel; let me know if you’d like other behind-the-scenes processes.

In this video

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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