Tips/a good tutorial on editing/organizing a HUGE file?

I've been asked by some family members to edit some wedding party material into a quick short item, but the material is basically two huge takes both about 45 minutes. I've edited some amateur shorts where it was a matter of choosing good takes and putting them together, but don't know how to best handle these huge shots. It seems the logical course would be to first cut them up into parts before even trying to edit, but don't know what best way is while keeping everything organized. Does FCPX still have an easy way to use markers to separate one big file into multiple scenes? What's a good tutorial for this?

Thanks!

1. Import your footage.
2. Keywording. (i.e.: Groom Prep, Bride Prep, Ceremony, Reception, Cake, First Dance, etc.)
3. Rough Cut. In Event Browser, go to the imported footage & start placing In/Out points with keyboard shortcuts, I and O, using J,K,L to transport forward or reverse the footage. Cmd + K will bring up your keyword editor. You can customize the keyword shortcut keys also. You should also rate your favorite clips.
4. Once keywording is complete. You should have a basic rough cut in each keyword collection. Highlight them and drop them in your timeline using keyboard shortcut E or W (Q is connected clips, unless you want to have a b-roll).
5. Create your story by rearranging, fine cutting, adding b-roll and soundtrack.
6. Tweak, title, and color (stylize).
7. Export.

If the footage if from two camera's running at the same time, sync using multicam.

Here's some tutorial vidoes:

Great stillmotion tutorial on mini-stories: vimeo.com/28298787

A quick youtube search came up with this, using FCPX:
(not my workflow but it's something to work with)


Good luck.

Sai wrote: Does FCPX still have an easy way to use markers to separate one big file into multiple scenes? What's a good tutorial for this?

Absolutely!

You can select parts of a clip and mark it with keywords and favourites. You can also select sections and use the backspace key to mark that section as rejected (and then hide the rejected areas).

Using this combination you can easily split the large file in to smaller sections within the event browser and instantly know what is in each section of the clip and find what you're looking for.

For example, select the section where the exchange of rings occurs then hit CMD+K to bring up the keyword editor and enter a new keyword, e.g. 'Rings'. Notice that in the Event there is now a Rings keyword. clicking on that keyword with bring up only that section of the video.

Is this the sort of thing you were looking for?

Sai wrote: … Does FCPX still have an easy way to use markers to separate one big file into multiple scenes? What's a good tutorial for this? …

on fcp.co's front page, the actual episode of MacBreakStudio
www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1247-...s-in-final-cut-pro-x
shows a smart way to organize smart collections even smarter ...

a few general words:
• there's no need in FCPX to 'physically cut' longer clips into smaller ones! The usage of keywords and smart-collections has the same effect - but better!
• you can apply more than one keyword to a clip …
• you can apply keywords 'overlapping' to a bigger clip ... which makes parts/bins completely obsolete
to explain what I mean: a 20sec clip, keywordA is from 0-12sec, keywordB is 9-18
• you can rank clips by applying 'favorite'
…

Thanks everyone!