FCP X Advice needed: Organizing Metadata Keywords for WWII doc-film

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Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
Starting a new documentary film about WWII that will use hundreds of files (movies, photos, music, maps). I need some advice about entering "keywords" and "favorites". Posting this because this is my very first FCP X project, and I believe anyone else working on a large project and using FCP X for the first time would benefit from any advice in this thread.

[1] For speed searching later, is it better to use abbreviations instead of full names as "keywords" to identify people or national armies/groups?
For example FDR=Roosevelt, WC=Churchill, H=Hitler, BA=British Army, PR=Polish Resistance, etc? These subjects appear in hundreds of different newsreels from sources like National Archives, Bundesarchiv, Buyout Footage.

[2] Should the Keywords Shortcuts "Ctrl 1-9" only be reserved for major themes? Such as: Ctrl 1=Genocide, Ctrl 2=Resistance, Ctrl 3=Destruction, Ctrl 4=Allies, Ctrl 5=Propaganda

[3] Or should Keywords Shortcuts "Ctrl 1-9" instead be reserved for file types such as "photo, map, poster, newsreel"

Thanks for any help / advice
 
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1- use full words. this way, you won't have to remember the abbreviations, and you'll suffer less from typos.
2 & 3- it makes sense to try to use the automation to your best advantage. consider doing multiple keyword passes, re-configuring the tagging shortcuts for each pass.
 
Hi Arnie and thanks. You mentioned automation...do you mean have FCP x apply keywords automatically? I didn't know it could. And if so how would it know what to apply? Are you talking about the standard one shot, two shot, medium shot, etc ?
 
As for the keyword shortcuts, use them for text. You can always click the magnifying glass icon in the Asset Browser search field, create a filter for media type, etc, and save that as a Smart Search. Only use keyword shortcuts for things you can't do with the advanced search feature.

Auto keywording is the People identification and shake/color correction, not personalized keywords.

Remember, using Shift and Command, you can select more than one clip at a time to apply a keyword to with the keyboard shortcut.
Once a Smart Collection for a keyword it made, you can select one or more clips, drag and drop to that Smart Collection to apply the keywords.
 
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