Apple Final Cut Express 4 - Manual (Page 39)

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Understanding Projects,
Clips, and Sequences
The basic elements in Final Cut Express are projects, clips, and
sequences. Once you learn what these are and how you can
use them, you can begin working in Final Cut Express.
This chapter covers the following:
 The Building Blocks of Projects (p. 39)
 Working with Projects (p. 43)
 About the Connection Between Clips and Media Files (p. 47)
 Filenaming Considerations (p. 49)
The Building Blocks of Projects
Media files, clips, and sequences are the elements that provide the main foundation for
your work in Final Cut Express. You use projects and bins to organize these elements in
your program.
What Are Media Files?
Media files are the raw materials you use to create your movie. A media file is a video,
audio, or graphics file on your hard disk that contains footage captured from videotape
or originally created on your computer. Since media files—especially video files—tend
to be quite large, projects that use a lot of footage require one or more high-capacity
hard disks.
Many media files contain multiple tracks. For example, a typical DV media file has a
video track, audio track, and timecode track. In a Final Cut Express sequence, you can
work with each of these media tracks as separate items, either in sync or separately.
Before you can edit in Final Cut Express, you need to capture media files from a video
deck or camcorder to your hard disk.