TillyGen and Final Cut Pro

What this is about

Final Cut Pro is the fast lane of Mac-based post: magnetic timeline, background rendering, and a library model where keyword collections replace folder trees. Solo editors and small studios choose it for turnaround — the interview cut delivered the same week. Speed depends on retrieval, and retrieval depends on tagging done once, early, against a stable vocabulary. That vocabulary should not be invented at import: the TillyGen shot list already names scenes, locations and setups, so its terms become the keyword set, and the shot list PDF stays open as the checklist the rough cut is assembled against.

An integration is good when nobody talks about it any more: the data is where it is needed and nobody exports anything.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• Keyword collections named from the shot list's scenes and locations make every plan term a one-click filter over all footage
• A clip carries several plan keywords at once — scene three, rooftop, host — which folders could never express
• The shot list PDF works as the assembly checklist: each row finds its clip, and unfound rows are the pickup list
• Library organization per production keeps the plan's project boundary intact on disk as well

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Create the library for the production and define keyword collections from the TillyGen shot list before importing — scenes, locations, recurring people.
2. Import the footage and tag while viewing: every clip receives its scene keyword plus whatever else from the plan vocabulary applies.
3. Assemble the rough cut with the shot list PDF beside the timeline, checking off rows as their material lands in the story.
4. Treat unchecked rows as decisions: shoot a pickup, restructure the scene, or strike it — each answer goes back to whoever owns the plan.
5. Archive the library with the plan PDFs inside its folder, so a re-edit in a year reopens with its own map.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Tagging postponed to 'later': three hundred untagged clips make every keyword collection a lie and every search a scrub session
• Keyword vocabulary drifting from the plan — 'roof', 'rooftop' and 'terrace' now split one location's footage three ways

With TillyGen

The shot list in TillyGen is the controlled vocabulary; Final Cut applies it to footage. When the words match, finding material is instant — and the rough cut audits itself against the plan for free.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.