How to crop, zoom, center video clips?

Thank you, Tom! I definitely need to get your book.

I expected this to be as simple as in iMovie. (I take it that if I did this editing in iMovie, those changes wouldn't transfer into Final Cut Express?)

I looked up "cropping clips" in the index, trying to relate it to the wireframe (also "wireframe," "zoom," etc.) and didn't see what I needed addressed. I didn't consider it as a motion or keyframe issue, but instead was looking for something like iMovie's tools which, as I recall, treats it more statically.

(On edit: That's why I said "Dumb as it may be" -- I wasn't sure what exactly to seek.)

Thanks for your help.

Message was edited by: monicadale

Yes, I meant the XML export/import. (Part of my problem may be lacking vocabulary to figure out what I'm looking for!)

QuickTime would mean it's already in a permanent form and not editable, am I right? (I really need the audio capabilities of FCE so have to work in that.)

While I have the "ear" of an expert, I had to convert a 2003 home video from "vob" files (?) -- a video_ts folder -- and found a "Wondershare" program for this. Would you recommend this, or is there a better way or a better program?

Many thanks again.

Sorry, I thought I had it but still don't... I'm seeing how to zoom in, or move around, on stills over time -- what I'm trying to do is zoom in on a video clip, using the wireframe rather than xy coordinates. I can't seem to move the video frame independently of the wireframe, or vice-versa.

I think I have to take this one up with my one-to-one Apple guy. 😟

Oh! I thought I could reposition the center of the wireframe to create a new "center" for the video image.

Here are the directions from iMovie's manual for doing what I want to do in Final Cut Express:

***
Cropping video clips or still images
If you have still images or video in which the subject of interest is small or distant in the shot, you can crop it to get a close-up of a particular part.

Cropping is also useful if you have media of different sizes that don’t fit within your project’s aspect ratio. In such a case, you can crop the video or photo so that it fits the aspect ratio.

The maximum crop is 50 percent of the image’s original size. If your video is high definition (or your photo is high resolution), you can get in quite close without much noticeable loss of image quality.

You can crop video in a project or in your source video. If you make a change in your source video, the change will be reflected in any future project to which you add the altered video. Your source video does not reflect changes you make to video clips in the project.

To crop a clip or still image:

Select a video clip or photo, and then click the Crop button.

In the viewer, click Crop and drag to resize and reposition the green cropping rectangle to focus on the part of the image you want.

The aspect ratio of the crop rectangle matches the aspect ratio of the current project you have selected in your Project Library. If no project is selected, then the crop rectangle has a 16x9 (widescreen) aspect ratio.
***

So the cropped area filled the entire screen, rather than moving within it. Maybe the wireframe isn't what I want...

I understand that, but was just trying to point to the function I'm looking for in FCE, particularly in case my terminology isn't correct.

Thanks. 🙂

Ohhhh!!!!! My video image itself was so tiny, I was looking at too small an area and wasn't clear on the distinctions between the black area vs. the wireframe vs. the clip. So I was thinking I had to position the video clip inside of the wireframe in some way, as if the wireframe were the black area (whatever that is called)!

I was looking at the thing too close-in -- in other words, "trees" but no "forest."

Big "duh" and "thank you!!!" 😀