The Top-Ten Things I Wish I Knew About Final Cut Pro…Ten Years Ago.

March 30th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

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I’ve been an editor for a while now at several different shops. Through those days and places I have mostly been self taught until I ended up here with SuiteTake. At SuiteTake training and skill development is not just encouraged, it’s part of our daily responsibilities. Therefor, in the recent past my learning curve has increased dramatically.

The Top Ten things I wish I knew:

10. Shift and option dragging

9. Quick Ken Burns effect

8. QuickTime vs Quicktime Conversion.

7. The Black and code button.

6. Option 1,2,3 for transition alignment

5. Esc, tab, spacebar to navigate windows

4. Apply normalization to audio in FCP

3. Disable dropped frames warning.

2. Disable rendering with caps lock.

1. Map your keyboard.

The SuiteTake Take?

If you’re an experienced editor you probably know most of these already, however, if you’re just starting out like me so many years ago you’ll be putting yourself ahead of the game by learning these tricks now and not 10 years from now.

The following video tutorial demonstrates a list of 10 efficiencies and workflows with Final Cut Pro that I wish I had known from the start. If I had these often simple tricks in my pocket from day 1 I would have saved myself countless hours and heaps of frustration.

About the Author

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Jeff has always been captivated by film and video, so it was only natural that he would attend Columbia College Chicago. He graduated with top honors and began his career as an audio and robo-cam operator for World News Leader, CNN.

 

Following CNN, Jeff came back home to Chicago and found a position that truly expanded his creative abilities with an outdoor-travel television show. Jeff traveled all across North America--from Alaska to Mexico, capturing the beauty of nature through his lens.

 

In between those video shoots Jeff was honing his editing skills by assembling both long and short form corporate videos, broadcast television, commercials, and documentaries.

 

It was his amazing shooting and editing skills that brought Jeff to Edit Creation’s attention. He joined our team in 2008 as a videographer and editor. With 8 years of experience and hundreds of projects in his archive, Jeff is a welcome addition to our team. As a videographer he shoots to edit, seeing the world through his lens. And as an editor Jeff’s vision goes well beyond the screen, tapping into the soul of the project.

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