12/8/24, 8:53 AM FCP FAQ – Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing

Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing

The ultimate guide to editing video with FCP for Mac

FCP FAQ
This is a list of responses to all the most common questions I’ve heard from students and read
on forums, in a concertina format — just click a question to read the answer.

I’ll keep growing this over time, but if you have any questions about Final Cut Pro that I haven’t
answered here, please post a message to me on Twitter, @funwithstuff.

Help! Something’s not working!

Why does my Library take so much space? △

You've probably enabled Background render. This feature is
good for complex timelines, but it creates large render files in
ProRes 422 format. If your Mac is fast enough to render your
timeline in real-time, you can turn this off.
If you do leave Background render turned off (in Preferences,
under Playback) you can still render selected parts of the timeline
on request:
1. Make a selection, with the Select tool or the Range
Selection tool.
2. Press ⌃R to render the selection.
One other possibility is that you're creating Optimized (ProRes
422) versions of your clips during import, and this probably isn't
necessary either. Most Macs can edit most native clips without
transcoding to any other format, and Optimized clips are huge.
Don't create Optimized clips unless you know you have to, and if
you can't edit the native files, consider making Proxy files instead
of Optimized. Note that there's an option in Preferences under
Playback to "Create optimized media for multicam clips" which
you may want to turn off too.

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Once you've turned off Background render and confirmed that

your Mac doesn't need Optimized media, you can delete
unwanted files by selecting your Library, choosing File > Delete
Generated Library Files, then checking all the boxes in the dialog
that appears.

There are windows and panes everywhere. How can I reset my △

workspace?

Type ⌘0 (zero) to choose the Default workspace, and explore

Window > Workspaces for other preset options. You can save
your own custom workspaces too.

I’ve lost everything! Is there a backup? △

Final Cut Pro periodically takes a backup of each Library you
work on. These small date-stamped backups are stored in your
home directory, in Movies > Final Cut Backups, and can be
accessed with File > Open Library > From Backup.
However, your media is not included in these backups, so always
make sure you have a spare copy of the media you shot (or were
provided) on a separate drive so you can relink to it if needed.
One good working strategy is to copy your video files to a Library
on an external SSD, and back up those video files to a second
spare drive. That way, you'll be able to recover from the failure of
either your Mac (because you can take the external drive to
another Mac) or the external SSD (because you can reunite the
Library backups on your Mac with the media backups on the
second spare drive).

Why does FCP keep crashing? △

If Final Cut Pro is crashing, you've probably got a problem with
your preferences, with a third-party plug-in, or possibly with a

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corrupt Library. None of these are common, but you might

experience them eventually.
Preferences are easy — throw them away and reset to your
previous settings. Plug-ins are a little trickier; you can try
disabling plug-ins, or removing them from your timelines, to see if
things improve. Most plug-ins are stable, but the more complex a
plug-in is, the more likely it'll have issues.
For a corrupt Library, it might be worth making a new Library.
Drag your current timeline(s) from your old, unstable Library to
the new clean library. If prompted, copy the media too. You may
wish to copy across all your old media too, though used media
will come across with the timeline. In some circumstances, it can
help to make a new timeline, then copy all the contents from your
old timeline, and paste them into the new one.
This area can be complex, so try Apple's official advice and
FCPX.TV's troubleshooting list too.

I’ve been editing for ages and I don’t like the magnetic timeline △
— things keep moving around!

FCP works a little differently, but it's much faster once you get
used to it. The spine of your edit is the primary storyline, and
everything else is connected to it: video above, audio below. If
you move or trim a clip on the primary storyline, any clips
connected to it will move. Imagine a sound effect connected to a
particular point on a video clip — it's going to stay in sync.
But if you don't want it to stay in sync, it doesn't have to. Hold
down the ` key (AKA ~) as you move the clip on the primary
storyline, and connected clips will stay put. Another option is to
press P to move to the Position Tool. In this mode, moving a clip
leaves a gap, and dropping it to the primary storyline erases
whatever was there, the same way that Premiere works most of
the time.
After a while, you'll probably find that you don't need these two
solutions as much as you thought you would, but it's good to
know they're there.

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In general, you'll have best results in most projects if you work

with the magnetic timeline and don't try to fight it. However, if
you're editing a music video, you might want to put the music on
the primary storyline, then connect everything else above it. You
can then use connected storylines to keep groups of clips
together, enabling rippling and clip reordering away from the
primary storyline. There's much more on this in Final Cut Pro
Efficient Editing, in Chapters 6 and 7.

Importing and Organizing

What’s a Project, an Event and a Library? △

A Library holds one or more Events, and an Event holds Projects
and clips.

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From Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing, p20.

You should usually make a new Library for each job you might do
for a client, and I recommend starting its name with the ISO-
standard date format "YYYY-MM" to make everything alphabetize
neatly.
Events are like folders; make as many or as few as you want.
Simple jobs might need just one, complex jobs might use plenty.
Projects are sequences, timelines, or edits.
To avoid any confusion, I avoid the word "project" as much as
possible, and I prefer to use the term "timeline" when talking

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about an edit, and "job" when talking about the overall video task
undertaken for a client.

How should I import and store my video files? △

There are a few different ways to work here, but if you're new to
the app or to editing, or if you work alone, I recommend storing
media inside the Library, because not much can go wrong. You
can import directly from an SD card or your iPhone to a Library,
and there's no need to copy it to your hard drive first.
If you do copy your media files to a hard drive, or you're editing
from files you've been given, you can instead reference external
media files, outside of your Library. This keeps your Library size
down, because the (large) media files are never added to your
Library.
Be careful though, because you now have to remember to move
your media and your media-free Library, and you'll probably have
to relink your media if you move to a different Mac or a different
storage device. If you're comfortable with more advanced
workflows like collaboration, you'll want to use external media so
you can repeatedly exchange small Libraries.
There's more on this in Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing, in Chapter
3.

How do I organise my clips? △

Try not to make "stringout" timelines. Instead, first use keywords
to organize your clips. Bring up the Keywords window with ⌘K,
type keywords in at the top, or expand the window and use the
keyword shortcut fields. When you add a keyword, a matching
keyword collection is added to that clip's event, and you can see
all clips with a certain keyword in each matching keyword
collection.
It's much better than folders, because you can use multiple
keywords on a single clip, so you can find a clip in multiple
places.
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Once you've done that, master J/K/L for playback, I and O for
marking In and Out, and use F to mark Favorite ranges on the best
parts of your clips. It takes a little time, but once you're done, you
can instantly see only the best (Favorite) parts of all your clips by
choosing "Favorites" from the Clip Filtering menu at the top of the
Browser.
Chapters 4 and 5 in Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing cover this
process in detail.

Editing techniques

How can I use additional hardware to control FCP? △

Download the free app CommandPost from commandpost.io. It's
an excellent, supported app which allows the use of third-party
control surfaces like the excellent Monogram, as well as simple
MIDI devices.
With a little configuration, you can hook up a dial or button to
control a slider or feature in Final Cut Pro, which can enable much
faster workflows than a keyboard with a pointing device.
CommandPost also enables many other kinds of hidden tricks and
techniques in Final Cut Pro, and is well worth exploring. Be sure to
send the developers a donation if you find it useful.

Does it matter what frame rate I use? △

In general, you should deliver to the requirements, which are likely
to be 24, 25 or 29.97fps. If your videos are only going to be seen
on the web, there are no special requirements regarding frame
rate.
One important consideration is that if you're using a camera on
which you cannot control the frame rate, you should probably
match that source frame rate in your deliverables. This is less of a
problem today, but older iPhones couldn't create 25fps files
(today you can activate "Show PAL Formats" in settings) and

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some cheaper cameras are limited to the main frame rate of the
country they're sold in.
There's a further consideration for phones in that you often can't
control the shutter speed separate from the frame rate. That's an
issue, because if your light source and shutter speed are
mismatched, you'll often see banding in the final video. If you're
on a phone and shooting indoors, you may wish to use 25fps in
PAL countries and 29.97fps in NTSC countries to avoid banding
problems, as they're hard to remove later.
Lastly, if you are creating an advertisement, and there's any
chance it could be repurposed for broadcast TV or pre-movie
cinema distribution, make sure to use the correct frame rate. In
PAL countries, that means 25fps, and in NTSC countries, it means
29.97fps for TV or 24fps for cinema. (Cinemas in PAL countries
will take 24 and 25fps material for pre-movie ads.)
If you've already chosen one frame rate and want to switch to
another, know that you can't change the frame rate of a project
which has content inside it. Instead, create a new timeline at the
correct frame rate, then copy the contents of your old timeline
and paste them into the new one. Some edits will shift a little, so
check them.
There's a lot more discussion about banding and camera settings
in Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing, in Chapter 2.

I want to scale a clip over time — how can I make it smoother △

and more controllable than the Ken Burns effect?

Ken Burns has built-in smooth starts and endings, but it's not very
controllable, and keyframing can't be make smooth. For the
smoothest results, use a third-party effect (built in Motion) to
control scale.
One popular free option is Alex4D Smooth Move, which allows for
smooth starts and endings, rotation, repositioning during scaling,
plus a delayed start or early finish. Note that if you use this on
clips that are smaller than the frame size (like a logo in the corner
of the screen) you might see cropping if you zoom in (0% to
20%) so use negative numbers instead (e.g. -10% to 0%). While
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you can't set negative numbers with the sliders, just drag on the
numbers next to the sliders instead.

How do I make sure I’m looking at the clip I’m adjusting in the △
Inspector?

Always ⌥-click on the clip you want to adjust, because this

moves the playhead at the same time it selects the clip. This way,
you'll never be editing a clip you're not looking at.

I want a clip’s audio to start or end separate from the video. How △
do I detach the audio?

Don't detach audio! Instead, expand the audio by double-clicking

on the audio waveform, or choosing Edit > Expand Audio. Any
edits to the audio will be retained this way, but you won't separate
the audio and the video, and you can't send things out of sync.
For more, look at p260 in Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing.
With all that said, you can detach the audio if you really need to,
using Clip > Detach Audio. A good reason to do this is if you need
to cheat an edit, moving the audio and video out of sync.

How do I change the duration of a clip or transition? △

Select it, then type ⌃D, then the number of frames or a timecode,
then press return. From p276 in Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing:
Here are some examples, remembering that you only hold ⌃ while
pressing D, and you'll need to press return at the end of each
one:
⌃D4. = make the selected clip 4 seconds long, an absolute
change
⌃D+2. = make the selected clip 2 seconds longer, a relative
change
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⌃D1 = make the selected clip 1 frame long — handy for time-
lapses or animation sequences

Color Correction

What’s a basic color correction workflow? △

You'll want to begin with shot-to-shot matching, making sure that
each shot roughly matches the next in terms of exposure and
white balance. Careful shooting makes this much easier, and the
Color Balance feature can help too. Manual corrections are
easiest with the Color Board or Color Wheels.
After you've got the basics down, add additional color corrections
(Color Wheels and many kinds of Curves) to control contrast,
selective color corrections, and fancier effects like vignettes,
color grading, and tracked color corrections. You might also want
to explore adjustment layers to correct entire scenes.
There's a whole lot more about color correction in Chapter 11 of
Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing.

How do I use Adjustment Layers? △

Anything you apply to an adjustment layer applies to all the clips
beneath it, so you can apply a color correction to adjust an entire
scene, or use an effect on an adjustment layer to zoom in
everything. Adjustment Layers aren't built-in to Final Cut Pro, but
they're free and easy to find with a quick search. Here's one from
Ripple Training. (You could also make your own with Motion — it's
just a Title with the text removed.)
There is one limitation, which is that when you use an adjustment
layer, the source material is downscaled to the resolution of your
timeline. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, as the source
material will eventually be downscaled to your timeline when
exported, but if you use an adjustment layer that has a built-in
feature to scale your footage up (a punch-in), you might get a
softer result than you might have expected.
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To avoid quality loss with adjustment layers, you should work in a

timeline that matches the horizontal resolution of your source
footage. For example, if you shoot in UHD 4K and want to deliver
1080p, you should work in a UHD 4K timeline. Modern Macs
won't have any problem with this. Another good way to work is to
use a "plain" adjustment layer and apply a punch-in effect to that
adjustment layer.
Note that if you only use adjustment layers for color correction,
you shouldn't face any quality problems.

Why is my iPhone footage so bright? △

By default, an iPhone shoots in HDR Dolby Vision, and if you add
it to an SDR timeline, you’ll see blown-out images. The correct fix
is to add an effect, HDR Tools, from the Color category. When
applied, choose the “HLG to Rec. 709 SDR” option from its menu
in the Inspector.
To make this an easier process in future, it’s best to press the
Save Effects Preset button in the Inspector, and make a new
Effects Preset with just that HDR Tools effect included. When
you’ve done that, right-click the Effects Preset in the Effects
pane, and choose “Make Default Video Effect”. Now you can
apply it whenever you need by just pressing ⌥E.

Shortcuts

What are the best keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro? △
Here's a two-page printable PDF of all the best keyboard
shortcuts for FCP, with the same page size as Final Cut Pro
Efficient Editing so you can trim it down and keep it inside:
Important Final Cut Pro Shortcuts Download

Note that these are all default shortcuts, and you can make your
own shortcuts in the Command Editor. Choose Final Cut Pro >
Commands > Customize, or press ⌥⌘K.
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Some commands, like Apply Color Correction from Previous Clip,

aren't in the menus at all, and don't work until you create custom
shortcuts for them. Here's an enthusiastic video of mine with
instructions.

How do I move around the timeline quickly? △

There are a few keys worth knowing.
Space is play/pause, but to move more quickly, use JKL — J to
play backwards, K to pause, and L to play forwards. Repeated
presses of J or L increase speed.
↑ and ↓ arrows move to the first frame of the previous or next
clip in the timeline, and ← and → arrows move between frames.
⇧← and ⇧→ move ten frames at a time. Hold those down if you
want to move more quickly.
Be sure to check out the list of the best keyboard shortcuts in the
nearby FAQ here too.

How do I move a clip or an edit point with the keyboard? △

Use the comma and period keys to move a selected clip or edit
point by a single frame. Add ⇧ to those keys to move by ten
frames. If you also want to select edit points with the keyboard,
you can use [ and ] to select nearby out and in points, or \ to
select both for a roll operation.

Titles and Text

How do I quickly control text settings? △

If you've already created one title, and want to make other titles
that look the same, there are a couple of easy solutions.
You could ⌥-drag the first title to make a copy somewhere else,
or just copy and paste. That's fine as a first step, but it's not easy
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to make a change if the client changes their mind about the style.
A better long-term approach is to create a Text Style using the
menu at the top of the Text Inspector, where it probably says
"Normal". From that menu, choose "Save All Format and
Appearance Attributes" and give the style a name. Now, from any
title, you can choose a pre-saved style and all your text will match
your standard. Text Styles are common to your system, and can
be used in any library, so they're a great way to keep your titles
consistent over time.
Find out more about titles in Chapter 15 of Final Cut Pro Efficient
Editing.

How can I remove old Text Styles? △

When you design a title for a client, it's a good idea to save a Text
Style, using the menu at the top of the Text Inspector. If you've
never done this, you can click at the top, where it says Normal,
then Save Format Attributes.
Conversely, if you've done this a number of times over many
years, you might want to clean this menu up, but finding where
those presets hide isn't so straightforward — they're deep in your
Library.
First, Quit FCP. In the Finder, head to your home directory, then
press ⌘⇧. (command-shift-period) to show hidden items. (You
can repeat this shortcut later to hide hidden items.)
Open Library, then navigate through to Application
Support/Motion/Library/Text Styles. Here's the path, in reverse
order:

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Each Text Style has three files to define it, so delete all three for
each entry you want to remove. Here's an example where one of
Text Styles is selected:

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What’s the best title? △

There are so many great titles out there, from LenoFX,
motionVFX, FxFactory, BretFX.com and more, that I don't want to
pick just one. I have many banks of titles so I have options to
show clients.
Still, I was to choose just one title, it would be the Custom title,
built-in to FCP. It's immensely customizable and it's easy to
produce great work. Always change the font and tweak a few
settings to make a title your own, though.
In Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing, look on p640 for more
information.

More information about Final Cut Pro

Where’s the best place to talk to other FCP users? △

Head to the fcp.co forums and start there. You can also search
"Final Cut Pro" on Facebook to find a number of groups with
thousands of helpful people.

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Where is the FCP manual? △

Here's the official Final Cut Pro User Guide. Of course, if you're
looking for my book, it's available on the home page of this site.

Are all updates free? Is there a subscription? △

Final Cut Pro is an outright purchase from the Mac App Store
(US$299) and is not available on subscription. For Education
purchasers, Final Cut Pro is also available in an Education bundle
with Motion, Compressor, Logic Pro and LiveStatge.
All updates so far (since the initial release in 2011) have been free.
Updates to Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing are also free, and we're
planning to release updates with each major release of FCP.
Minor updates to FCP will be covered here on this site. Please
note that if you buy the paperback edition, you'll receive an
electronic update when a new version of the book is released.

I heard Final Cut Pro isn’t professional. Is it any good? △

Yes. Because the app wasn't perfect at launch, many existing
professionals wrote it off and never looked back; sadly these
opinions have stuck around. Today, Final Cut Pro is an excellent
tool that's been used to create Oscar-winning short films, full-
length features for Netflix, many of the most popular YouTube
channels, and everything in between.
For a whole lot more on the launch of Final Cut Pro, watch the
excellent film Off The Tracks by Brad Olsen.

You can read the book on paper, or electronically.

BUY THE BOOK

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