5 Best Features of Final Cut Pro X

Hey! So last month I talked about my favourite features of Adobe Premiere but today is the turn of FCPX, so I'm going to share with you my personal top 5 features of Final Cut Pro.

MAGNETIC TIMELINE

This is going to be a bit of a controversial opinion, as so many people absolutely hate it. If you're used to the freedom of scattering things around all over your timeline like you can in Premiere, then this is a bit of an adjustment, however it is honestly one of my favourite things and can save a huge amount of time. Everything is kept really neat, which makes my brain happy if I'm needing to be a bit speedy on an edit.

If I ever need to work on a more complex edit where a magnetic timeline may get in the way, I simply build my edit on top of a 'gap' and merge everything down when I'm done.

MULTICAMS

I will never get over how easy it is to create multicam clips in FCPX. It usually works like a dream and makes it so easy to switch between cameras during a long 3+ camera edit, whilst keeping everything tidy in your main timeline.

THE INDEX

When I'm constructing an edit, particularly if it's non-linear, I really like to map out my music track with tags so that I can easily recall where I wanted certain moments to happen throughout the course of the film. You can either apply them to your gap if you're going to be working on top of one of those, or you can apply them straight to your music track.

This is where the Index comes into play. Click on your index, and it will show you everything contained in your timeline.

Now select tags only.

It will show you any tags you have, including keywords you may have applied to your footage.

Now if I select to JUST see the markers I have in my timeline, I can see a list of those specifically.

To go to it in the timeline, all I need to do is click on it!

COMPOUND CLIPS

A bit like a multicam, these can help to keep a bunch of shots seperate form your main timeline. They can also be used to transfer edits from one Event to another. Premiere too has a similar feature, but I find this tool to be just that bit more user-friendly in FCPX.

Compound clips show up in your event browser and can even be exported from there, meaning you can send specific sections of an edit across to a client or colleague without needing to render and export the whole thing.

SKIMMING

The skimming tool is so useful if you need to find something specific within your footage. Simply press S on your keyboard and you can 'skim' along your footage by dragging your cursor along the clip or the whole timeline. You can even use this tool to skim over effects in your effects panel to preview them before applying them to your clips!

These are just a few of the tools I really love to use in FCPX. What are your favourites? Feel free to comment below, or get in touch to chat about my bespoke video editing services.

Thanks for reading!