10 Things You're Doing Wrong In Final Cut Pro

Hello you beautiful soul. After watching this, I can pretty much guarantee you'll be a better and more efficient Final Cut Pro editor. None of these mean you're bad at editing, they're just things nobody told you.

Here are 10 things you're probably doing wrong, and the fix for each one.

01Not Using Save Effects Preset

If you use the same look on every edit, the same color grade, the same LUT, sharpening on every clip, the same audio effects, stop dragging them on one by one. Set a clip up how you like it, then click Save Effects Preset at the bottom of the inspector, change the category to Custom, and name it. Now in your effects browser under Custom, just drag that preset onto any clip and every effect comes in at the exact settings you want. Works for audio effects too. Huge time saver.

02Not Using Snapshots

Say you're about to make some big changes and you're not sure you'll like them. Duplicating the project feels safe, but here's the catch: a duplicate is still tied to the original, so editing a compound or multicam clip changes it in both. Snapshots fix that. Right-click and hit Snapshot Project and it freezes exactly how your project looks right now, compound and multicam clips included. If you decide later that your changes look horrible, just revert to the snapshot. I take one after my rough edit, one after color, one after sound design, so I've always got drafts to fall back on.

03Not Keeping Your Sound Effects Inside Final Cut

Nothing wastes more time than dragging in a sound effect from outside FCP, realizing it doesn't work, and heading back out to find another, all while guessing from a filename. Instead, get all your SFX inside Final Cut so you can see the waveform, play them instantly, and search. Make one main folder with all your sound effects, right-click and hit Make Alias, copy that alias with Command C, then paste it into Macintosh HD / Library / Audio / Apple Loops / Apple / Final Cut Pro Sound Effects. Now everything's right there in the software. This one honestly saves me hours.

04Fighting the Magnetic Timeline

The magnetic timeline is a big part of what makes Final Cut so fast, so learn to work with it instead of killing it with a gap clip. A few tips: deleting a clip with connected media deletes that media too, so before you delete, press the grave / tilde key (that orange icon pops up) and then hit delete, and your connected sound effects stay put. Hold the tilde key to drag any clip freely. Want to reposition without everything snapping around? Press P for the position tool, hold tilde, and move it. And to change the connection point of connected media, click off it, then select it while holding Option and Command.

05Not Using Your Video Scopes When Color Grading

Most people would have no idea a subject's skin tones are off if they weren't looking at the vectorscope. Crop into the skin, check it against the skin tone indicator line, and adjust until the skin is actually the right color. I'd also turn on range check (View → Range Check), which throws zebras over anything that's over or underexposed. Both are essential for accurate grades.

06Not Creating Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Aside from putting my SFX in the software, custom shortcuts are the single biggest way I sped up my editing. Instead of reaching for Command and then B to make a cut, press Option Command K, duplicate the default keyboard, search "blade," and swap Command B for just B. I also mapped minus and plus to lower and raise the volume by a decibel, plus a bunch of others. One easy key instead of a combo, every single time.

07Replaying Footage Without Shift + ?

You made a change, added a title or a speed ramp, and you want to see it play out. Instead of parking your playhead, hitting space, and scrubbing back, press Shift + ?. It plays a few seconds before your playhead, through the part you're working on, and a few seconds after, then drops you right back where you started so you can keep tweaking. I like it so much I mapped it to just the question mark key.

08Keeping Background Render On

Press Command comma, go to Playback, and turn background rendering off. It slows your machine down while you edit and balloons your library sizes, and you don't really need it because Final Cut renders on export anyway. If one clip is choppy, select it and press Control R to render just that clip. And if your computer's old and struggles with your camera footage, don't background render, make proxies: select the clips, right-click, Transcode Media, Create Proxy Media (ProRes proxy at 50% is a good balance). Then switch to View → Proxy Only to edit smoothly, and back to Optimized/Original before you export.

09Adjusting Audio the Fidgety Way

If raising and lowering audio always feels too twitchy to land on the right decibel, hold Command while you drag up or down. It slows the whole thing way down for precise adjustments, night and day difference. And to lower or raise just one loud section, grab the Range tool (R), select that part, and press Control minus or Control plus to nudge it a decibel at a time.

10Not Using Final Cut's Organizational Features

This is one of my favorite things about the software. A few quick ones: press F to favorite a clip while you browse, hit Command K to add keywords so you can find similar clips later, and set up smart collections. My favorite trick: make a new smart collection, double-click the gear, hit the plus and add Ratings (so it grabs your favorites), then hit plus again, add Used Media, and switch it to Unused. Now you've got every clip you favorited but haven't used yet in one easy place.