How to find a shot by description in Final Cut Pro
A sunset, a close-up of hands, a car on a bridge: scrubbing for shots like these takes ages. Final Cut Pro 12 has Visual Search, which finds them from a description. Here's how to use it, where it falls short, and what to use instead.
With Final Cut Pro alone
Visual Search works on clips Final Cut Pro has analysed in advance. Video analysis is switched on in the import settings and started by hand for older clips.
- Open Final Cut Pro › Settings › Import and turn on Visual Search under Analyze Video.
- For clips already imported, select them and choose Modify › Analyze and Fix.
- Select a library, event or folder in the sidebar and click the Search button at the top right of the browser.
- In the search field's pop-up menu, choose Visual and describe the objects or actions in plain words.
Limits
Visual Search needs an Apple silicon Mac. Like transcript search, it skips compound, multicam and synchronized clips, and it only searches imported media. Reviewers note that visual analysis runs slower than transcription and pauses while you play footage, and Larry Jordan called the results unreliable in his review.
The same in Rescanzo
Rescanzo searches by what's in the frame in Low and Mid mode, right on your Mac, and you can write the query in Russian or English.
- Add your footage folder to Rescanzo and let indexing finish.
- Pick a mode: Low at 1 token for a quick check, or Mid at 2 tokens for careful selection.
- Describe the shot, for example "bride laughing by the window" or "drone over a forest at sunset".
- Add the good results to a collection and export it to Final Cut Pro: a ready FCPXML timeline with the found moments opens.
Which to use
If all your footage is in the library and the queries are simple, try Visual Search first. If the footage is still sitting in folders, runs to dozens of hours, or the built-in search keeps returning the wrong thing, Rescanzo lets you search before import and bring only what you need into Final Cut Pro. For the hardest queries there's Pro mode, where a cloud AI double-checks what was found.
What it costs
A description search costs 1 token in Low and 2 in Mid, however many hours are in the folder. Twenty Mid searches come to 40 tokens, less than the 50 a new account starts with.
Questions and answers
How do I write queries that find the right thing?
Describe what's visible: the object, the action, the place, the time of day. "Man in a red jacket walking across a bridge" works better than "that shot with Sergey". Too many results? Add a detail. Nothing found? Take one out.
Do I have to import everything into the library to search with Rescanzo?
No. Rescanzo searches the folder, and only the moments you pick reach Final Cut Pro via FCPXML.
Try it on your own footage
A new account gets 50 tokens: that's 25 searches in Mid mode.