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38Final Cut Pro User Guide
Import spanned clips into Final Cut Pro
Some file-based camcorders or devices that have more than one memory card slot can
record one shot over multiple memory cards. The resulting shot is called a spanned clip.
A good way to import a spanned clip is to connect your camera or card reader to your Mac
and create a camera archive for each memory card. You can store the camera archives on
your Mac or on an external storage device until you’re ready to import the spanned clip.
(Even if you’re importing the spanned clip immediately, it’s useful to make a camera archive
so that you have a backup of the spanned clip’s footage.) When you’re ready to import, you
can mount all of the camera archives and import the spanned clip.
Create a camera archive for each memory card
1. Connect your camcorder or camera to your Mac and turn on the device, or connect your
card reader and memory card to your Mac. If you’ll be saving the camera archives to an
external storage device, connect that as well.
Note: Some cameras require that you download and install an additional software plug-
in. See the documentation that came with your camera.
2. In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:
• Choose File > Import > Media (or press Command-I).
• Click the Import Media button on the left side of the toolbar.
3. In the Media Import window, select a memory card to archive from the list of cameras on
the left.
4. Click the Create Archive button at the bottom-left corner of the window.
5. In the “Create Camera Archive as” field, type a name for the archive.
6. Click the Destination pop-up menu, choose a location to save the archive, then click OK.
Note: To protect your media, it’s recommended that you save your archive to a storage
device or partition different from the one where you store the media files used with
Final Cut Pro.
7. To create camera archives for each of the memory cards that contain a portion of the
spanned clip, repeat steps 3 through 6.