Lesson 1. Projects and Interface

Goals Open Final Cut Pro   Explore the FCP interface   Work with projects and bins   View source clips and sequences   Work with the Timeline   Apply labels to clips, bins, and sequences   Work with the Tool palette and audio meters   Control Timeline tracks   Zoom and position the Timeline   Use keyboard shortcuts   Access shortcut menus

This lesson will get you started in Final Cut Pro at the project level, just as you would begin an Avid editing session. Projects and sequences are handled a little differently in Final Cut Pro than they are on an Avid Media Composer system. For example, in FCP you can work with multiple projects and sequences open at the same time. Another difference is that in Avid, you are asked to choose among projects from a Select Project dialog, while in FCP, a project is created and opened for you automatically when you open the program. However, both programs allow you to set a preference to automatically start the last project on startup. The FCP interface is similar to Avid’s if you compare the functions of each window, although FCP uses different names for some of the same functions.