I often forget how to do things I occasionally want to do, so I write down notes that remind me how to do them. Instead of storing these notes privately, I publish them on this blog so others can maybe benefit. Because it’s confusing, I always forget how to properly begin a video project in Final Cut Pro X. So in this blog post I explain how to do this as clearly as I can.
There are lots of tutorial videos on YouTube that explain this process, but they all tend to skip over one of the most important parts: the proper way to begin. For example, they rarely tell you which hard drive you should save your master project on, and how to do it properly. This is a vitally important detail, and something I explain how to do.
What you need to begin
I’ll assume that you already have a Mac computer with Final Cut Pro X installed on it. You will also need a fast external hard drive that connects to your computer through a high-speed port, such as Thunderbolt. Or you can use a drive with a FireWire port that you connect to your Mac on a port that’s faster than USB (or USB 2, or USB 3).
Why? You are going to save your video project on this external drive. The program itself, Final Cut Pro X, is installed on the internal drive of your computer. You are going to put your project and all of the media involved with the project on an external drive. This way the program lives on its own drive, and all of the media are separated on an external drive. Things just work better this way. You need the drive to be fast and the ports to be fast because you’re processing lots of data with high-definition video and sound. The speed keeps things from getting jittery.
Basic FCPX terminology and media management
Final Cut Pro X is used to produce full-length feature films and episodic television shows that are worked on by large studios with professional editing suites that are connected together on a network. It can do complicated stuff, and one unfortunate byproduct of this is that starting a new video project isn’t as simple as going to the top menu and selecting File > New.
This program provides a looser set of tools for initiating new video projects. When you’re ready to begin something new, you need to choose between creating a new “Library,” a new “Event,” or a new “Project.” If you use basic logic, you might think you need to select a new Project. But this is incorrect, for the most part.
There are no official rules for how you’re supposed to use Final Cut Pro X. But I’ve decided that when I begin a new video project, I start by creating a new Library. The Library is where you store all of the stuff. All of the video media goes in there. All of the sound files go in there. The main Project and the EDL (Edit Decision List) go in there. Stills. B-roll. It all goes in the Library.
So think of the Library as the thing that is your video project. This is deeply confused by the fact that Final Cut Pro X has a separate thing that it calls the Project, but don’t worry about that now. The Project you create will live in your Library, too. Yowza. This is so stupidly confusing. But whatever. Here we are. Let’s continue…
The very first time you open Final Cut Pro X, it automatically creates a new Library for you and saves it in the Movies folder on the internal hard drive of your Mac. This means that you can launch the program and start trying to use it right away, but I think this is bad. For one thing, you should avoid putting your Library on your internal hard drive. The other problem is that you never learn how to start a video project properly, and you can potentially develop poor media organization habits with this as your starting point.
Enough blah-blah-blahing. Start the tutorial already!
1) The first thing I recommend you do after launching Final Cut Pro X is to close any Libraries it opened up automatically. You don’t need to do this every time you use Final Cut, but do it now. Select “File” from the top menu, then scroll down and select “Close Library.”
2) Now that all of the Libraries are closed, go back to “File” on the top menu, and this time select “New,” and from the sub menu that opens to the right, select “Library.”
3) Next you get the screen where you need to give your Library a name. My video is me playing a cover of Prince’s song Little Red Corvette. I named my Library “little-red-corvette-cover,” but the thing you need to be aware of on this screen is the location that you’re saving your Library to. My external drive is named “ActiveDrive,” and I clicked on it to select it as the place where my Library will be saved. This is super important, and the kind of thing those crappy YouTube videos leave out.
4) Look at the screenshot above again. Notice at the top of the list of files and things that I have a folder named “DR40X-little-red” and “7DMKII-little-red”? I put those there. Before I even opened Final Cut Pro X, I transferred the video files I was going to use to a folder on my external drive. I also transferred the separately recorded audio and put them in a folder. I named the folders with the camera or recorder I used, and a bit of the project name, too. You’ll see why I did this in the next step.
5) Now that you have a new Library saved on your external drive, you’re going to want to put some media into it. In the top menu in Final Cut Pro X select “File,” then “Import,” then “Media.”
6) In the Import screen that opens up, you can navigate to the media that you need for your video. Since the media I need is already organized in the folders I made, I just navigate to those and select them. As an extra bonus, I select the box so the program will create keywords based on the names I gave the folders. Doing this will help you stay organized on bigger video projects, so it’s a good habit to adopt.
7) After you’ve imported your media, you’re brought back to the main screen of Final Cut Pro X. You can review your footage, but what you really should do is create a Project. Your video won’t have a timeline until you do this. You can simply click on the words “New Project” where the timeline is supposed to be, or you can go to the top menu and select “File,” then “New,” then “Project.”
8) After you do this, you get the screen where you give your Project a name. I called mine “little-red-project.” Final Cut Pro X automatically puts it in an Event that it automatically names after today’s date. June 7th is Prince’s birthday, by the way. 💜
After you create your Project, you can start editing away. Final Cut Pro X will automatically save everything you do. You did it!
This may not be the best way to use Final Cut Pro X, it’s just a way to use it. I may evolve how I do this as I move forward into the future, but this is how I’m doing it right now. If you found this helpful, you can easily help me at no cost. Simply click on these affiliate links before you buy something at Amazon, B&H Photo, or eBay. I get a tiny commission when you do this, even if you’re getting something silly like novelty underwear. Thanks! 😀
