Starting a New Project in Final Cut Before starting a Final Cut project, you have to plan your production workfl ow. It is important to create a folder, on your External Hard Drive, or appropriate Media Drive, in which not only your Final Cut Project, but all related fi les, will be stored.

Your Project Folder will be used to store:• Your Final Cut Project File• All Media Files, such as Video Clips, Still Images and Audio• Final Cut Render Files• Final Cut’s Autosave Vault

1. Creating a Project FolderIf you already have a project folder, which stores some of the media fi les you will be using in Final Cut, you can use this to store your Final Cut Project. If you do not have a folder, you need to create one.To Create a Project Folder on the Project Folder on the Project Folder Media HD or an External Drive:

1) Navigate the Finder to go into the directory where you would like to create your Finder to go into the directory where you would like to create your FinderProject Folder.

2) Go to File > New Folder. A new folder will appear in the directory, called ‘untitled folder’.3) Click on the ‘untitled folder’ text once to high-light it. Then type an appropriate name for your Project Folder.

2. Creating a New Project

Naming Conventions

If you are using your external Hard Drive, you may wish to just simply name the folder with the title of the project. If you have modules for several projects on the same drive, you may also wish to include the module title.If you are using the internal Media HD of the

computer, it would be more appropriate to name the folder with your Name and Course. This is so that other students, and staff, know who’s work the folder contains. If you just name a project folder on the computer ‘Ani-mation’, or ‘Work’, or ‘Project’, chances are that it will be deleted.

Click the Final Cut Express icon in the Dock, to launch the application.

If the icon is not in the dock, navigate to the Applications folder in the Finder, and double click the Final Cut Express icon to launch the application.

Final Cut Express will now start up.

Unless you have a camcorder connected at the time of starting Final Cut Express, it will bring up a dialogue box entitled External A/V. This informs you that it can not fi nd a camcorder connected to the computer. Do not worry about this; just click ‘Continue’.

If the Project which opens is not a blank (untitled) project, but somebody else’s work, you need to close their project and start a new one of your own. To do this:1) Go to File > Close Project.2) If Close Project is not listed, click in the

Browser window. Browser window. Browser Then go to File > Close Project.3) Some of the Windows will disappear. This is normal.d) To create the New Project, go to File > New Project.A NEW FINAL CUT PROJECT

3. Saving the ProjectIn the Browser window, the Tab at the front should be Browser window, the Tab at the front should be Browsercalled Untitled Project. The fi rst thing we need to do is to save the project.1) Go to File > Save Project As.2) A dialog box will open, asking you to name the project, and choose where to save it.3) Type a Name for the Project. Use a naming convention which is logical, and makes sense; as it is possible to have many Final Cut Projects for one modules’ work.

4. Setting the Video Standard

1) Go to the Final Cut Express menu, and select Easy Setup.2) In the Setup For pull-down menu, select ‘DV-PAL’. DV-PAL may already be selected.3) Click Setup.4) A box will appear telling you that Final Cut can not locate an external AV device. This is because there is no Camcorder attached to the computer. Do not worry about this message, just click Continue.

We now have to set the Scratch Disks. This tells Final Cut where it should store Captured (from Captured (from Capturedvideo tape) and Render fi les, and the Render fi les, and the Render Autosave Vault, where it saves backups of your project.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL NEED TO PERFORM THIS STEP EVERY TIME YOU OPEN UP YOUR FINAL CUT PROJECT, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THIS IS ON THE SAME COMPUTER OR A DIFFERENT ONE. THIS IS BECAUSE THE SCRATCH DISK SETTING IS STORED ON THE COMPUTER, AND NOT IN THE FINAL CUT PROJECT.FAILURE TO DO THIS IN FULL, EVERY TIME YOU OPEN UP FINAL CUT EXPRESS, COULD END UP WITH YOU LOSING SOME OF YOUR WORK.

1) Go to the Final Cut Express menu, and select System Settings.2) The System Settings box will open, with the Scratch Disks tab selected.3) You need to set the fi rst line, of the main scratch disk box, to the

Project Folder you created. To do this, click the Project Folder you created. To do this, click the Project Folder Set button, navigate to the drive which contains your project folder, and click to high-light your project folder.4) Click Choose. The fi rst line of the main scratch disk settings should now tell you that it is set to your Project Folder.5) You do not need to set any more lines in the main scratch disks box.6) Next, set the following 3 settings to the same Project Folder:

Waveform Cache Thumbnail Cache Autosave Vault

5. Setting the Scratch Disks

Congratulations! You are now ready to begin working in Final Cut Express.

Document Compiled by Aaron Kay, CCAV, University of WestminsterProduced as part of the CCAV Training Program.

ALL SCRATCH DISKS SET

FIRST SCRATCH DISK SET

4) If you do not see the Finder Navigation columns, click the ‘arrow’ next to the name dialog box.5) Navigate to the Drive on which the Project Folder is stored, and Click the Project Folder to high-light it. You will be saving your Final Cut Project in the Project Folder you made earlier.6) Once you have set both the Project Name, and the Save Location, check that they are both set correctly, then click Save.7) The Browser Tab which used to say ‘untitled project’ should now have the project name you specifi ed when you saved the project.

THIS IS WHERE YOUR PROJECT WILL BE STORED

RISK OFDATA LOSS

CAUTIONIF YOU DO NOT CHECK THIS, AND END UP STARTING, OR COMPLETING YOUR PROJECT USING THE NTSC TV STANDARD, YOU WILL HAVE TO START FROM THE BEGINNING AGAIN USING THE PAL TV STANDARD.

(note: its is not crucial if you have it set on another DV-PAL setting, but try to stick to ‘DV-PAL’ on its own, unless you are changing it for a reason). RISK OF

STARTING AGAIN

SELECTPROJECT FOLDER

ON THE MEDIA HD ON AN EXTERNAL HD

SELECTPROJECTFOLDER One Last Thing...

To ensure that some of these changes are saved with the Project, go to File > Save All.

All screenshots in this document © Apple Computer, and are reproduced for information purposes.

‘Hazard Symbols’ are used for illustrative purposes, and symbols used do not denote the hazard shown with regards to the procedures described in this document.

Intended for use with Final Cut Express version 2.