[ This tip was first published in the October, 2004, issue of "Larry's FCP Newsletter."
Click here to subscribe. Updated August, 2006 and March, 2008.]

As I teach, I've discovered that many students need a sense of when to do what in their editing. Understanding the Final Cut Pro workflow is increasingly helpful as deadlines continue to tighten. In fact, I've discovered that virtually all sequences are never really "done," they are just released. There's always something more than can be tweaked.

I'm convinced that if it wasn't for deadlines, no video project would ever be completed.

While I make a point to discuss FCP workflow in my classes, I hadn't considered including it in this newsletter until Scott Swearington wrote:

I took a class from you in LA hosted by DV Creators (www.dvcreators.net) and you talked about your upcoming book. You spoke in some detail about organizing the editing process that minimizes undoing and redoing effects and so on -- it had about 9 or 10 steps.

Of course, I'll buy your book, but I'd suggest some of this process would be great for the newsletter -- given you have so many folks who have used FCP less than a year and so many others, like me, who've developed bad habits.

At its heart, editing is story-telling, regardless of whether that story is a feature film, wedding, corporate training, or a commercial. The best videos are always stories. And, like all stories, videos get better the more you polish them. This workflow for editing within Final Cut Pro helps you decide where to best spend your time.

Since there is never enough time to get everything done, it is important to make sure you are spending your time doing the right thing. That's where this 11-step approach can help (it started as 9 steps, I keep discovering more). In general, don't start a step until all the prior steps are complete.

Step 1: Plan your project. Develop a consistent file naming scheme. Set your scratch disks, then leave them alone. Create a project file to store all your non-timecode media. Think about who your audience is and how to reach them. Planning is never fun, but it is essential to successfully completing a project.

Step 2: Gather your media. Capture media from video tape. Ingest any tapeless files. Import audio and graphics. Use bins in the Browser to get organized and make it easy to track all the different elements of your project.

Step 3: Build your timeline. View your clips. Set In's and Out's and edit them into the Timeline. Don't worry, yet, about precision. Just make some basic decisions on which clips are in and which are out. Until you have something in the timeline, there's nothing to review and polish.

Step 4: Organize your timeline. Watch your sequence and make decisions on the order of your clips. Delete the clips that don't work. Shuffle clips around to make your story flow better. Don't worry about making each edit perfect. Concentrate on getting the flow of your story to work.

Step 5: Trim your story. Once the organization of your story is complete and your clips are in the right order, now it's time to start trimming your edit points so that your edits become invisible.

Step 6: Add transitions. There's no sense spending time putting in transitions until you've figured out the order of your clips. Transitions are fun and sexy, but you've only got limited time. Focus on what needs to be done first. Hard as it is to believe, people will still watch your program even if it only contains cuts! (Strange, but true.) They can't watch it if you never get it done.

Step 7: Add text and effects. Now that your story is complete, you can afford to spend all remaining time adding text and effects. Keep in mind that there is no right answer on effects. If it looks good, within the context of your project, then go ahead and use it. However, don't bog down too early in effects, or you'll spend all your time creating effects, only to discover that your story isn't complete.

Step 8: Mix your audio. While you've been editing your audio all along, now is the time to start adding sound effects, music, background and atmosphere. The best thing you can do to improve the quality of your picture is to improve the quality of your audio. However, don't waste time making your audio perfect until your pictures are locked.

Step 9: Color correct. This is the last step of your project - making everything look great. Whether you correct in Final Cut or Color, save this step until everything else is complete.

Step 10: Output your project. When everything is done -- or the deadline has arrived -- output your media to tape, or the web, CD, or DVD.

Step 11: Archive your project. Save that which needs to be saved, and trash that which can be archived on tape. Click here to read an article that gives you much more detail on how to set your system up for archiving.

Focus on "doing what needs to be done right now" and ignore distraction. This is a great way to get your projects done quickly and with less wasted activity.

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This tip is from the October, 2004, issue of "Larry's FCP Newsletter," a very cool FREE monthly Final Cut Pro newsletter -- subscribe at Larry's web site: www.larryjordan.biz.

Larry Jordan is a post-production consultant and an Apple-Certified Trainer in Digital Media with over 25 years experience as producer, director and editor with network, local and corporate credits. Based in Los Angeles, he's a member of both the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America.

The information in this article is believed to be accurate at the time of publication. However, the author assumes no liability in case things go wrong. Please use your best judgment in applying these suggestions.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. This newsletter has not been reviewed or sanctioned by Apple or any other third party. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned here for editorial purposes only.

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