3 Mind-Blowing Final Cut Pro Hacks Every Editor Should Know

Well hello there! Let's cut out the fluff and get straight into these three hacks. The first one alone will erase a whole category of frustration.

Hack 1: Add a transition where FCP says no

Isn't this annoying? Final Cut refuses to add a transition between two clips. You may know the reason: there's no spare media left at the end of one (or both) of the clips, which is what that red edge means, and transitions need extra media to work with. You could trim the clip, but maybe you want every frame of it, or you hit record and started talking immediately, so there's nothing to trim.

Do this instead: select the clip and press Option Command Up Arrow to lift it out of the primary storyline. Go to the end of the clip, one frame over, and press Shift H to create a hold frame, pausing the clip on that frame. Trim the tail to length (Option Right Bracket or drag), then blast it back into the storyline with Option Command Down Arrow. Now the transition applies without complaint, because it's feeding on the hold frame's media. The vast majority of the time, the pause is completely invisible; only a really long transition might give it away. I use this in almost every edit one way or another.

Hack 2: Your sound effects inside FCP

Leaving Final Cut to drag in sound effects from a Finder folder is slow, and you can't preview them properly. Take your master sound effects folder (create one if needed), right-click it, and hit Make Alias: a linked folder that automatically receives anything you add to the main one. Copy the alias with Command C, then go to Macintosh HD, Library, Audio, Apple Loops, Apple, Final Cut Pro Sound Effects and paste it. Every sound you own is now browsable and previewable inside FCP's sound effects browser.

Hack 3: A favorites folder for your presets

This one I learned from my long-haired buddy Dylan Bates, The Final Cut Bro. You own a pile of plugins but consistently use a handful of presets, and remembering which pack holds which one is a pain.

Go to Movies, Motion Templates, open Titles, and create a folder named Favorites. To pin it to the top of the list, put a star emoji in front of the name (Control Command Space opens the emoji picker). Open a second Finder window, hunt down your most-used presets (for me that's Pro Zooms and Pro Burns from Dylan's packs), and copy them into Favorites. Back in FCP: one starred folder at the top of your titles with everything you actually use. Works for effects and transitions too.

Bonus for the perfectionists: if copied presets annoyingly sit in their own little sub-sections, pop into the preset folder, right-click the Motion file, Open With, Other, and choose TextEdit. Press Command F and search for "theme," then delete or rename whatever sits inside that theme tag sandwich. Do it for each stray preset, reopen Final Cut, and they'll all sit nice and neat next to each other.

Have a great day, and go check out the cinematic sound design tutorial next.