Okay, I've a bit more time here to address work flow issues. Lord knows there are many and most editors have their own style. Some, in my opinion, developed work flow habits out of sheer laziness or, in some cases, ignorance. Let me start; I've known lots of shooters of different abilities who love to shoot but hate the editing process. Tooooo bad as they are missing out on the most rewarding aspect of the process. Me, I love to edit, absolutely love to create something worthwhile out of a melange of clips. Where an editor gets lazy is often in the very beginning when they must log and capture their footage. I know several who will L & C the entire tape and go from there. I emphatically say this is the wrong way to do it and will add both time and eventual possible confusion later on. Most decent NLEs have a Batch Capture feature which should be taken advantage of. Go through your tape and log both the in and out points of each clip allowing at least 30 frames of footage both before and after the clip you want. Next, NAME THAT CLIP and log it. This may take some time to do but it will be worth it in the end. After you have done that for each clip from the tape that you want, then you can hit the batch capture button and let the computer do the work. Once captured, all your individually named clips will be in the logging bin with timecode from the tape you used. Hit SAVE, and hit it again every 5 minutes or so....it will save you heartache in the end. Hitting Save will save you hours and hours of post production work should your computer or application crash. If you don't, all the work will be lost within the time period of your last auto save or manual save to the time it crashed on you. I very, very rarely will have a crash but it is an important habit to get in to. Logging and capturing is the only part of the process I don't care for but we all have to do it.
You do not need to learn all your keyboard shortcuts but learn the ones you will be using regularly like, close gap, ripple delete, lock video layers, lock audio layers, zoom(z) and, the j,k, & l keys for playback and forth purposes, also learn the select timeline layer shortcuts(t) and the blade tool-B. Use the A to change back to the select arrow.
Don't fall in love with your footage. If you have 3 hours of great shark shots, it doesn't mean that you should use them all. Boredom will be the name of that game. I generally fast forward through my footage(saving time) when something really good catches my eye, I then go back over it and decide if it is a clip I want to use. Its rare I take a more than a few minutes off an hours tape. This can save tons of time as well. It doesn't mean I have wasted the tape. I may have other clips on it for a later and differently themed piece.
Have a general storyboard idea in mind for when you are ready to put clips in a timeline. I once produced a video off of a song that kept playing over and over in my head. Thus, I had the song before I ever had the footage. It all came together and won a competition or two.
I could bore you to death talking about editing, I love to do it and learn more about it and I encourage others to do the same. So, if there is anything specifically more you wish to know, let it fly and I will try to help.
Steve
Actually I really like the way FCP handles transitions and fades, it doesn't mess with your timeline! Unlike my old Windows ULEAD setup which would eat into my timeline every time I made a transition as the dissolve or whatever would cannibalize the clip's in and out points.
