Some additional tips on how to “look” at footage while making selects: Most projects are fairly prescribed about what shots will be used. Few editing assignments will give you the challenge of coming up with something purely creative out the footage you’ve been provided. But on those rare instances where you are looked upon to be as much of an artist as the DP or Director, you will need to look at your raw material with an eye for its potential beyond being a clip in a sequence of other clips.

• Look for movement and counter-movement within the composition of the screen that you can combine with other shots that “lead” your eye in a direction.
• Look at something and ask yourself what you wish you could combine with that shot to create a flow, and you will be alert for that shot if it appears later in the footage.
• Look for opportunities to use negative space in a shot that could be combined in layers with other shots to create depth.
• Look for “junk” to use for character or texture over other footage, like swish, film run, scratches or light leaks.

• Tape reel IDs should make some kind of sense. If not, change them.
• Sort all of the clips by clip start time. Then, quickly compare the clip end time to the timecode of the next clip’s start time just to be sure that there hasn’t been a gap in the footage that was accidentally overlooked, and if so, check the tape to see why.
• Check each clip duration to see that it makes sense. Sometimes the logger will mark an out point after a timecode break giving a clip a crazy duration like 2 hours and 20 seconds when it should only be a 20 second clip. If it looks fishy, check the tape. If you need to adjust the log outpoint, be sure to give yourself 5+ seconds of post-roll past the outpoint. The problem could also be an in-point, but that is unusual.
• Check to be sure that the timecode format is consistent with what is actually on the tape. Sometimes the logging is done manually without the benefit of copying the timecode from the actual source. This can cause the log to have non-drop frame timecode, but the tapes are drop frame.
• For multi-camera shoots with sync-generated timecode, you should have identical timecode on all of your ISO tapes and line feed, if any. However, if you have only been given one log sheet for the selects, you will have to do a few summersaults with your clip to use the same numbers. See the demo.

Video Demo: Cloning clip data to other camera ISO recordings for batch capture

If you are logging from tapes for the first time, you have a few options. Some editors prefer to log each take or scene separately, others prefer to just capture whole timecode hours regardless of what scenes or takes are recorded in them. A lot depends on the kind of footage. Each way has its own arguments for and against it. If you log every scene or take, it’s a lot of work, but the end result is highly organized and quickly accessible. If you simply capture whole tapes, you will save logging time, but you will have to go through and make markers or sub-clips to navigate the material. Another reason for not doing huge clips is the greater possibility that some kind of data corruption can occur in the middle of a clip making the whole clip useless. If corruption occurs some time after the project has been ongoing, and many parts of the clip are scattered all over the sequence, you will have a lot of work to do to manually re-insert an alternately logged and captured version of that clip. I tend to front-load the logging labor unless I’m really in a time crunch.

Log clip names according to scenes/takes, or with reasonable name descriptors that anyone else could understand. Do not use slashes [\ or /], punctuation, or use anything but letters and numbers in the name because it could cause problems for the computer’s file directory and perhaps cause crashes.

Indicate “select” choices with either markers, color or bin column notations if you have time. This is especially useful if you are collaborating with other people. When you are working with clients or directors one-on-one, you will make a good impression on them by being prepared, so know where everything is and have as much reference information available to find things quickly. Your time together should be spent as efficiently as possible.

Remember that FCP will create a default “Unknown” filename on your media drive if you do not log the clip name before you digitize. If this occurs, you will have difficulty reconnecting the media file to the clip in your bin if you move your media to another location or change the media drive’s name.

If the workflow of your project will require that you perform a high resolution re-digitizing process for final completion (such as a film shoot with low quality dailies but full quality audio, then a separate color correction layoff later on), consider setting up your System Settings in FCP so that you can capture separate audio files from your video sources. This will give you a media folder of video only and another for audio only, which will serve its purpose when you delete your old low resolution video files to make way for your final color corrected footage. More on this later in the “Online Finishing” chapter.

For tapeless shoots, hopefully you will be given a firewire drive that has nothing but the footage you need for your edit. If this is the case, then simply drag and drop or import the folders of clips into your project. Unfortunately, however, you may be given clips with the default hexadecimal names given to each clip from the MXF extraction to process QuickTime. Check file creation dates to see if you can sort by shoot date. It will give you a broad starting point for sorting out the shoot.

Video Demo: FCP project setup

The first folder has a space before the name so that it sorts on top. The last folder is named to sort on the bottom. Everything else in between should represent only the folders you will need to access the material for your edit. My rules for bin structure are:

At the end of the day, the work-in-progress sequence folder, “_Edits” will ONLY have works-in-progress that are being used and in consideration for screening. Anything else goes in the “zzzNG” folder. No exceptions!

• NEVER use the word “Final” or “Master” if the sequence is NOT final or a master. Never, never, never.
• If you need to make folders of “Music”, “Sound Effects”, and “Voiceover”, nest them in a master folder called “Audio” to reduce clutter.
• Any sequences created or sound or color correction preparation should go in its own folder. Since they are a subset of Edits, I suggest putting them there.
• Anything that you receive as a render from AfterEffects or whatever should go in the “Renders” folder. This should correspond to another Finder level folder called “Renders” that you would create as part of setting up an AfterEffects project.

When the box of stuff finally arrives in your edit room, the first thing you should do is take everything out and look at it. Duh! But incredibly enough, sometimes people THINK they’ve sent you what you want, but they sent something else, or they didn’t send it at all. Open all of the tape and disc cases and confirm that there’s actually a tape or disc in it. If there are concerns about what you have in your hands, call the production company immediately. There are some facilities that require that you or an assistant to put barcode stickers on everything and begin making an inventory list.

When you are ready to deal with your tapes, remember, the first thing you always do is to pop the record tab so that you cannot accidentally erase it. If your tapes haven’t already been labeled, name them making sure to mark both the tape and the case. Try to keep them in chronological order too. Rewind them in a VTR, not a camera. Do not store them anyplace where there is direct sunlight, high humidity, temperature extremes, or magnetic fields such as speakers, telephones, or magnetized tools. Clearly label the container box so it doesn’t get stacked away in the wrong place.

Discs of other things like ALE files, logos, sound, etc. should be labeled too. I like to copy off each disc that comes in onto the harddrive you will be using for the project, each disc in its own folder, named according to the disc label name. This provides you with easy, centralized access to the material, but also permits the original discs to serve as a backup. You want to handle the original discs as little as possible for risk of scratching or losing them.