What is a project in FinalCut Pro? Seems to make no sense

Terminology:

Premiere - Project, in FCP - Library

Premiere - Sequence, in FCP - Project

Premiere - Bin, in FCP - Event

To work in FCP efficiently and effectively, you really have to forget how you worked on other systems and embrace the FCP workflow. Trying to force FCP to work like Premiere, Avid, etc. will lead to frustration.

Really recommend the Ripple Training Course for FCP ($$$).

MtD

Reword your statement and it's perfectly logical.

Click anything in the Browser pane to highlight it.

Double-click it to open it in the Timeline pane.

"Selected" is not the same as "opening."

I have taught FCP for a decade and a half. I have found the folks who keep using the terminology from other NLEs have the most problems adapting to FCP, which has VERY different terms for things.

Besides the terminology and organization about which Ian, Meg and Tom already gave very good advice, there is an important matter that seems to have not been addressed and that is the supposed copies of projects.

Pay good attention to the name above the timeline. This tells you which project is being edited. From what you described, it appears that you created projects but kept editing the same. For example, you may have project A open in the timeline; when creating a new project B look at the name that shows above the timeline: it’s still A, so no you were not editing B and have change s somehow affecting A; you were editing A all along. Double-click on B and see.

As to “no tracks like every other”: yes, it’s different (and in my opinion better), but if you can’t work with it, even after so long, maybe it’s not for you, and that’s ok, there are alternatives.

To me, a Library is a database. It's where I keep (reference to) all of my stock footage and music/sound effects on my "system" (9 external hard drives). It is, IRL, just a text file that keeps track of everything you need to use for your video production(s). [For the record: you can keep as many Libraries available inside Final Cut as you want, or need... and navigate between them from within the application. I usually only keep one Library loaded at a time, unless I need to move material from older libraries into the new one.]

An Event, again, for *me*, is usually a span of time that I spend working on various ideas (I am a template developer) — example: Jan-Mar 2025 is something I'd name an event. Events help me keep ideas organized in time. If I need to look something up, I can find the timestamps any exports or templates I've developed and immediately go to the Event I was working in when the videos/templates were produced.

I also use Events to organize my Stock footage and audio clips with further subcategories created with Keyword and Smart Collections. For example, I have ALL stockfootage in a Stockfootage event and Smart Collections automatically arranging footage by Aspect ratio as well as Frame Rates and Keyword Collections organizing all the stockfootage by source (e.g. Pond5, Pexels, Mixkit, etc. etc.) so I know right away to whom to apply screen credits.

A Project has different purposes, depending. I have to develop templates that work in various video aspects: 16:9, 9:16, 2:1, etc.. etc.. etc... so I'll create projects with those aspect ratios for testing. I occasionally need to test various templates in different frame rate scenarios, so I'll create projects for each frame rate. Projects can become long (more than an hour) of just raw footage for testing and staging. Videos produced tend to be products of a subsection of a project varying from about 30 seconds to several minutes demonstrating new templates. These are typically Demo/Tutorial videos for products under development. Subsections are exported using the Range tool — no need to export an entire project when it's not needed or make another project that's just the material to be exported.

It took me less than a week to learn/accept/master the Final Cut interface. I had a head start — the Final Cut Pro X UI is (IMO) based on a piece of software that came out in the 1990s called HyperEngine-AV (by Arboretum Systems) which was the first "trackless" video editing software I ever came across and I had used for awhile. (No coincidence that FCPX came out about 6 months after HyperEngine-AV became Open Source software???)

The fact that you even mentioned Vegas means you're coming from the Windows platform — I'm sure that is contributing significantly to your inability to quickly adjust to the Apple way of doing things. There have been a wide variety of suggestions in this thread on using Final Cut. It is a testament to the huge amount of flexibility the software offers video producers with so many different kinds of workflows.

To me: Final Cut Pro is a *playground* and/or a laboratory for all kinds of experimentation. I definitely use it in different ways than most will and I'm "in it" every day.

No video was used in the production of this still created in Final Cut Pro (just previously made Motion templates and made after I wrote the above and just before I sent this post...corny as it is):

It sounds like you’re make duplicate projects that have recursive components.

To understand the basics of the application you should look the introduction programs offered online. For an excellent introduction to FCP start with Steve Martin’s 60 minute intro. 

Learn FCP in Under 60 Minutes - YouTube

There is also Final Cut Bro getting started 

 https://youtu.be/L3bZ-ETKZ8U

For a more in depth introduction use the Izzy video tutorials. The version is a bit dated but the principles are the same.

Final Cut Pro Tutorial | Izzy Video

Different users have different ways of working with the application. It’s flexible for different use situations.

I think of a library as a single production. Each event is a separate scene. Each scene has its own project. Some editors like to work with one library with a single event. Some like to work with events as folders for scene content, and a separate event to hold projects. A number of years ago I was working for a company where we preferred to use one library for each client. This worked well as there were elements that repeated across productions. There is no one true path for everybody and every situation.

wolfhardfromleer wrote:

And if you open a project. Work something in the timeline. Open another project. Suddenly the timeline is already filled with the exact stuff that is in the other project. Ok. You delete it to start a new project. But, shocker, everything is deleted from the first project, too!!!!

If I have a Project (Premier speak = Sequence) open on the timeline, and then go to File > New > Project and create a new project, when I click on OK in the New Project dialog box - the new project appears (empty) on the timeline. Is that not happening for you?

If not try trashing your preference and retest.

MtD

Final Cut Pro User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Forget the nomenclature and just use the app.

Alternatively if you prefer a more traditional app try the free version of DaVinci Resolve. It has more than FCP minus the Voice Isolation and Magic Mask.

If, after a year of using it, you are still confused, my best advice is go back to Premiere Pro. You're just not going to get it. FCP isn't for everyone. Yes, it is VERY different.