Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles > Digital Audio, Video > Final Cut Pro

This chapter is from the book

Connecting Clips to the Primary Storyline

As you build your rough cut, you may find that adding audio—such as narration, music, or sound effects—improves your storyline. For example, it might be nice to add music to help build momentum in the Zero to Hero project. But which edit option do you choose? You wouldn’t append music to the end of the clips. And you wouldn’t insert it between clips. Instead, you use another edit option in the toolbar to connect the clip to the primary storyline.

A connected clip could be any clip that is attached to the primary storyline in the Timeline. Connected clips remain attached where you edit them until you move or remove them. In this exercise, you will filter the Zero to Hero B-roll clips so that only the audio clips appear, and then connect a music clip to your video sequence and adjust its position in the primary storyline.

  1. In the Event Browser, from the Filter pop-up menu, choose All. Press Command-F to open the Filter window. From the Media Type pop-up menu, choose Audio Only. Close the Filter window.

    You now see just the audio clips that are part of the B-Roll Keyword Collection. Since audio clips have no thumbnails, let’s view them as a list.

  2. In the Event Browser, click the List View button. Then play the first part of the Battle Lines music clip. Viewing this clip in list view provides an expanded view of the waveform.
  3. To edit the first half of this clip, mark a start point just before the music begins, and an end point after the first series of waveform peaks.

    In the clip waveform display, notice that some of the upper parts of the waveform appear yellow and some appear red, indicating that the audio may be peaking at 0 dB. As you know from the previous exercise, you can easily adjust the volume of this clip in the Timeline.

    You could start this music at the head of the project. But it might be more fun to let the two race cars zoom by and then begin the music.

  4. To make the Timeline window active, press Command-2. Press the Up or Down Arrow key to move the playhead to the beginning of the crowd ots clip.

    As with the insert edit, when you edit a connecting clip, Final Cut Pro always places the clip at the skimmer or playhead location.

  5. In the toolbar, click the Connect button, or press the connect edit keyboard shortcut, Q. In the Timeline, play the first few clips, and then look at the thin vertical line connecting the Battle Lines music to the crowd ots clip.
    04-69.jpg

    By performing a connect edit, you connected the music to the primary storyline at the playhead location. Let’s see what happens when you reposition this clip.

  6. Drag the crowd ots clip to the right and reposition it after the crowd wide clip. Play this arrangement, and then drag the clip back to its original position.

    When you move the crowd ots clip, the music travels along because it is connected to the clip you’re dragging.

    But just because you started a connection with one clip doesn’t mean you have to keep that connection. By dragging the music later in the Timeline, you can connect it to a different clip.

  7. Drag the Battle Lines clip to the right and snap it to the head of the first Tony Schumacher clip. Notice that when you snap it to this edit point the playhead turns thick and yellow.
    04-75.jpg

    As you drag this connected clip, the thin vertical connection line relinks with another clip in the Timeline, in this case, the Tony Schumacher clip.

  8. Play the first few clips of the project.

    Now the music provides a very dynamic start to the interview clips. However, you are not limited to snapping a connected clip to an edit point. You can also shift the position of the clip left or right. You can do this by using shortcut keys to shift the clip one frame at a time, 10 frames at a time, or by entering a numerical length of time.

  9. With the Battle Lines clip selected, press the , (comma) key several times to move the clip to the left in one-frame increments. Then press the . (period) key to move the clip to the right in one-frame increments. Press Shift-, (comma) to move the clip to the left 10 frames, or press Shift-. (period) to move it to the right 10 frames.

    Sometimes you can successfully finesse clip placement by adjusting it just a few frames. Other times, you may need to move it a specific amount of time, perhaps to allow for another clip you know will be edited later.

  10. With the Battle Lines clip still selected, enter –200. Look at the Dashboard and notice that the number entry has replaced the timecode location. Press Return or Enter.

When you precede a number amount with a + (plus) or – (minus) sign, Final Cut Pro reads that number as a trim or nudge amount, even adding colons every two digits, and moving the selected clip by that amount.

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020