Keeping Track of Footage with Reel Names and Timecode
Clips represent media files on your hard disk, but they also represent sections of your
original tapes between In and Out points. If you accidentally delete a clip’s media file
on disk, you can always recapture it from the original tape. Being able to recapture your
media from the original tapes is critical for most post-production workflows.
Final Cut Pro can identify which portion of a tape to recapture using the following
clip properties:
 Reel name: This is usually the name written on the tape label during production or
just prior to post-production.
 Media Start and End timecode: A clip’s Media Start and End timecode numbers
identify the start and end frames of the clip on your tape. Timecode is the critical link
between clips in your project, media files on disk, and the footage on your tapes.
A reel name identifies which tape a clip comes from, and timecode identifies where on
the reel a particular clip is located.
Important:
If your original tapes don’t have timecode, it is impossible to accurately
recapture your tapes because Final Cut Pro has no way of ensuring that you are
capturing the exact same frames each time. For suggestions about logging and
capturing footage without timecode, see “
Capturing Footage Without Device Control
”
on page 286.
250
Part IV
Logging, Capturing, and Importing