Auditions are a little-understood feature in Final Cut Pro that are designed to speed the preview process by helping you quickly compare clips in the timeline. For example:
B-ROLL EXAMPLE
Footage courtesy: John Putch “Route 30, Too!” (www.route30trilogy.com)
Let’s say I have an interview over which I want to add B-roll. But which B-roll clip looks best?
In the Browser I set Ins and Outs for the B-roll clips I want to compare. (It is normal for each clip to have a different duration.) Then, while pressing Cmd, I click inside the selected area for each of the three clips to select them.
NOTE: While is is normal to set Ins and Outs for Audition clips, it is not required. An Audition can contain an entire clip, or just a portion of the clip. Also, there’s no practical limit on the number of clips in an Audition or their duration, as long as you have at least two.
Creating an Audition does not change any of your source clips. You can modify or remove the In or Out on the source clip without affecting the Audition. Once created, the Audition acts like a stand-alone clip.
With the B-roll segments selected go to Clip > Audition > Create (shortcut: Cmd + Y). A new clip appears in the Browser with a small spotlight icon in the top left corner. This indicates it is an Audition, which is simply a collection of clips.
NOTE: While you can create Auditions in the Timeline, the process is limited and awkward. It is far easier to create the Audition in the Browser.
Edit that Audition clip into position in the timeline. Since this is for B-roll, we’ll put it above the interview.
Now the fun starts. Either choose Clip > Audition > Preview or type Control + Cmd + Y. Several things happen at once:
COOL TIP: To see the contents of an Audition, without automatically playing the timeline, click the Audition icon in the top left corner of the Timeline clip.
In the Preview window, click one of the partial images to the left or right of the main image to change the preview clip. Notice, when you do so, that the duration of the clip changes in the timeline.
As fast as you can switch between clips, you can preview all the different clips in the Audition as many times as you want – until you find the one you like. At which point, click Done. This locks in your choice.
When you select the clip you want, go to Clip > Audition > Finalize Audition (shortcut: Shift + Option + Y). This releases all the unused clips in the Audition and leaves just the one selected clip in the timeline.
MODIFY AN AUDITION
In the past, you could update an Audition simply by dragging a new file into the Preview window or on top of the Audition clip in the timeline. But that no longer seems to work. Instead, to add a clip to an Audition:
USE AUDITIONS FOR AUDIO
You can easily use Auditions for audio, the process is the same. This is a very useful technique for quickly comparing sound effects, music cues or voice overs to see which “fits” the best.
USE AUDITIONS FOR EFFECTS
A hidden feature of an Audition is that we can use it to test different effects on the same clip.
You need to use the Clip > Audition menu to convert a Timeline clip into an Audition the first time.
Once a clip exists as an Audition in the Timeline, a new menu appears when you Control+click the clip. You can also use this contextual menu to preview the Audition or duplicate the clip, again, to add more effects.
In this example, I’ve applied three different effects to three versions of the same clip. (The three dots at the bottom of the center image indicate the number of copies, or clips, are contained in that Audition.)
To test these different effects:
At this point, you can use Clip > Audition > Preview (shortcut: Cntrl + Cmd + Y) to preview the different effects by selecting them in the Audition preview window.
When you find the effect you like, click Done.
When you are happy, choose Clip > Audition > Finalize Audition, or Control+click the Audition clip and select Finalize Audition.
SUMMARY
Auditions are a fast, flexible tool that quickly preview different clips, sounds and/or effects in the Timeline. They are easy to create, simple to use and a worthwhile addition to your Final Cut toolset.
