Stop Doing These 10 Things in Final Cut Pro

Part 2 of the things you're doing wrong in Final Cut. Some of these build on part 1, so let's get into ten more habits worth dropping and what to do instead.

01Maneuvering clips the hard way

In part 1 we covered the tilde key for moving clips freely. Here are more. With the trim tool (T), you can do a slip edit to find an earlier or later part of a clip without changing its position or duration, and hold the tilde key to keep connected media from moving. Quick tip: hold T instead of clicking it and it springs back to your previous tool when you let go (works for any tool). Hold T and Option while you drag to do a slide edit, which moves a clip between two others without leaving a gap. And to drop a B-roll clip down into your primary storyline, select it and press Option Command Down; to lift a clip above the storyline, Option Command Up.

02Not using the animation editors to keyframe effects

If you're a visual person, keyframing effects in the animation editor beats the inspector. Say you want a muffled sound effect to gradually kick in: right-click the clip and hit Show Audio Animation (or Control A), then drop keyframes with Option K where you want the effect to start and where it should hit full strength, and drag the amount up and down between them. Same works for video, Control V for video animation, on something like a Gaussian blur. These editors let you actually see when an effect happens and by how much.

03Not setting default titles, effects, and transitions

Use the same title, effect, or transition all the time? Control + right-click it and hit make default. Then Control T drops your default title, Option E adds your default effect, and Command T adds your default transition (think Title, Effect, Transition). You can even set a default lower third, mine's an adjustment layer, with Control Shift T.

04Not using adjustment layers

Adjustment layers look like titles, but anything you add or adjust on them affects everything underneath on the timeline. Drop one over your clips, add a LUT, and you've graded the whole stack at once, which is huge when you're busting out color fast. They're also great for baking in a letterbox, and I use them most to scale, rotate, and reposition my entire timeline at will. They're free too, my buddy Dylan Bates, The Final Cut Bro, has some free ones.

05Trying out LUTs and effects inefficiently

Stop applying a LUT, deleting it, trying another, deleting again. Instead, select a LUT and press Option Y to audition the clip, which duplicates it so you can try different looks. Add another LUT, tweak a curve, press Option Y again for a new option. Then press Control Option Left or Right arrow to instantly jump between all your looks. You could have 20 in there for a near side-by-side comparison. (Double-click the clip to see the audition and scroll through them too.)

06Not using custom workspaces

Different tasks want different layouts. For color grading I pop my scopes up with Command 7, run a 2-up vectorscope over luma waveform, pull up my color wheels with Command 6, shrink the scopes, and push the timeline down. Then I save it with Window → Workspaces → Save Workspace As. One click sets it up next time. Make one for audio, one for importing and keywording, and a standard editing layout too.

07Trimming the old-fashioned way

If you still press Command B to cut, then select the leftover and delete, stop. Just press Option right bracket to trim the clip to your skimmer (or Option left bracket for the start), which cuts out two steps. In part 1 I mapped these to just left and right bracket. For fine work, select the end of a clip and press period to extend a frame or comma to trim a frame, and hold Shift to jump 10 frames at a time. Or hold R to temporarily grab the range tool, drag to select, and delete.

08Not treating your voice audio

Bad audio kills a good video. The two built-in tools I use on basically every edit are the Compressor, which evens out your quietest and loudest parts to a consistent level, and the Limiter, which stops your voice from peaking and helps set your overall level. If you just want one-click better voice, add the free built-in Voice Over Enhancement effect and pick one of its four options. And if you've got echo or background noise, try the newer Voice Isolation feature.

09Thinking wheels and the color board are your only tools

The color curves are incredible. Shot too blue? Use the color picker to select the blue, and the curve jumps to that color and drops a point at that brightness (shadows low, highlights high). Pull down to remove the cyan, and hold Option while dragging for slower, finer moves. Curves are great for grading too: push cyan into your shadows and pull it from your highlights, do the reverse on the orange curve, then add an S-curve on the luma for contrast, and you've got a quick complementary grade. Bonus: open a hue/sat curve, go to Luma vs Sat, and gently drop the saturation in your darkest shadows and brightest highlights to keep the grade clean and natural, a precision move you can't do with the wheels or board.

10Messy, unorganized audio

Do yourself a favor and use audio roles and subroles. Right-click a clip, hit Assign Audio Roles, and set your music as Music, your typing and dog sounds as Foley, and so on (make your own with Edit Roles, then the plus sign to add and color one). Once they're set, open your index and you can move roles around, collapse all but one, or mute entire roles. I like dialogue up top, then hard sound effects or foley, then ambience, then music, a clean color-coded timeline that makes editing and later sound-design changes way easier.