Ingesting the media

For longer-form videos that require categorization and grading of clip quality, there are two distinct methods of ingesting media into Final Cut Pro. One is to pre-assemble the folder structure in Mac’s Finder and then, when they are imported, Keyword Collections will be set up automatically for you to use in the initial assembly. These Keyword Collections will take on the name of the folder that you set up in the Finder. The second method is to drag the footage into the Keyword Collections that are discussed in Chapter 2.

There is a simple variation for really short videos. Video clips that are in any Finder folder can be dragged directly into a project in the timeline. A direct drag is also a good option for importing single clips, stills, or music clips when a video is nearly complete and just needs something done to fill a gap.

Ingestion using the Import window will achieve the same result as the first method, but dragging is best if you are creating...