Blog Archives

There are many reasons to send a project from Final Cut Pro to Resolve, then bring them back into Final Cut. Fortunately, the process isn’t hard, but there are a lot of steps. Here’s what you need to know.

While human skin gray-scale and saturation values can vary by individual, skin color values are remarkably consistent. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to set skin color values to fix color problems and make on-camera talent look “normal.” This applies to all video editing software.

Most technical problems with media editing are often the result of insufficient bandwidth caused by bottlenecks in the media, the operating system, software, or hardware. This looks at each in detail to provide ideas to get your system working better.

Apple introduced new security technology with M1 Macs that affects 3rd-party RAIDs, hard disk and other external gear frequently used by professionals. Here’s what it is and how it affects you.

The Primary Storyline is an innovative way of editing and organizing clips in the Final Cut Pro Timeline. But many editors find it confusing. In this illustrated tutorial, I explain what it is, how it works and how to work-around it when you need to.

Here are 21 keyboard shortcuts that work on any Mac that can help you get your work done faster.

Apple brags about how the new M1 Max CPU can play multiple streams of 8K ProRes video in real-time. But that’s using a fully-loaded system. I wondered: How well does a new MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro CPU handle …

Apple updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.6.1 last week. All the changes were bug fixes, but one change, that didn’t make the list, suddenly made Object Tracking useful. Learn more.

Andy, from Scotland, upgraded to FCP 10.6 only to get a constant “Spinning Beach Ball of Death” every time he tried to open an existing Library. Here’s how Apple Support helped him solve this problem.

Accusonus has been improving audio for a long time. Regardless of where you edit your audio, ERA 6 can make it sound better. Here’s a look at the new ERA 6 bundle with automatic, customizable audio repair.

Yes, the new M1 MacBook Pro is very, very fast. But, the M1 did not win every race when tested against a 2013 MacBook Pro and a 2017 iMac. These twelve tests are a good comparison between performance benchmarks and real-world media processing of the improvements you can expect if you upgrade to these new systems.

When you need to get the best streaming video possible – for Mac or Windows, live or recorded – here is the gear you need, links to find it and instructions on how to get it all to work.

Recently, Apple updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.6 where one of the big new features is object tracking. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how this works and how it compares to the same feature in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use the new Object Tracker in Apple Final Cut Pro 10.6 to move text in sync with an element in the background. (Updated with improvement released with the FCP 10.6.1 update.)

On Oct. 18, 2021, Apple updated Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. Here’s a complete list what’s new and what’s fixed, based on Apple’s release notes.

Apple released new MacBook Pro laptops featuring high-performance Apple silicon chips. Given all the options, here are Larry Jordan’s recommendations for the best system for your budget.

Final Cut makes working with proxies extremely easy. The challenge, as Wes discovered, is what happens when you are working with multicam footage at a much larger size. Here’s the workflow.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about subjects related to editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the two key video scopes in Apple Final Cut Pro, how to read them and how to use them to fix color problems like color casts and dark exposure levels.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about subjects related to editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what an LTO tape drive is, the differences between LTO generations, recommendations for LTO software and how media creators can use this technology to safely archive their media and projects for decades.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains where to store media in Apple Final Cut Pro and how the storage you use affects performance. This also includes a chart detailing the speed of different storage.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains the differences between camera native, optimized and proxy media in Apple Final Cut Pro. This also includes a demo on how they are created and displayed.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what the different Browser clip line colors mean in Final Cut Pro.

Here’s another technique that I use all the time – creating highly-flexible custom Final Cut Pro title templates in Motion that I use and modify in all my FCP projects. This is fast, easy and saves TONS of time formatting and positioning titles.

These three custom shortcuts simplify and speed several repetitive aspects of my edit and I want to share them to save you time in your edits as well.

Your Mac system is acting flakey. Here are a variety of tests and trouble-shooting techniques you can use to get your system and running. (This includes a special section on trouble-shooting for media editors.)

On July 8th, Apple released bug fix updates for Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. These updates included no new features. Here’s the list.

Seagate and Axle.ai partner to provide “Smarter Media” – edge-to-cloud mass storage with a media asset management front end. This new service, named “Lyve” is designed to provide cost effective smart media solutions for real world applications.

Smart Collections are flexible, easy to create and very, very deep. I use them for almost all my projects – except the very simplest. Here are illustrated examples of how these work.

Apple updated Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor last week and both Final Cut and Compressor got a flurry of new features. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to find missing media, including proxies, using a new search feature in Apple Final Cut Pro.

New with the 10.5.3 update to Apple Final Cut Pro is the ability to create custom Browser column layouts, save them, switch between them, even share them with other editors. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use this.

New with the 10.5.3 update to Final Cut Pro is the ability to quickly find missing media in a library. You can also use this technique to find clips by type: optimize, proxy and missing. This illustrated tutorial explains how this works.

New with the 4.5.3 update to Compressor are compression settings which simplify cropping and compressing square and vertical media. These new settings simplify the conversion of, say, horizontal media to vertical making it easier to repurpose existing assets for new uses.

Last week, Apple released updates for Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. Both Final Cut and Compressor added new features, while all three applications saw significant bug fixes. Here’s the full list of what’s new.

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the importance of readability – and other factors – when choosing fonts for a video project.

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several font design tips to help you choose which fonts to use in your next video project.

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demonstrates three font adjustment techniques that can make on-screen video text look better. While this uses Photoshop, we can actually do this in most applications on Windows or Mac.

We love the look of film, but the world has gone digital. In this guest blog, Drew Gula, from SoundStripe.com, explores the balance between digital media and creating a film look.

The ProCo Power Mute CPMD mic switch is a ruggedly-built, easy to use and reasonably quiet mic mute, well-suited for live events or recording. Here’s Larry Jordan’s detailed product review.

DPI (Dots per Inch) is a measure of image resolution. It also confuses a lot of people. Here’s an illustrated guide to where DPI matters, where it does not, and why images look bad when you scale them larger.

Recent versions of Final Cut Pro have a feature called: “Consolidate Library Media.” This tutorial looks at what this feature does, when to use it and how it can aid archiving and collaboration.

Library Properties determine fundamental media handling settings for all the media, events and projects in a Library. When you need to make changes, here’s what you need to know.

Project settings, which Apple calls “Project Properties” determine the technical specs of your project. In this illustrated tutorial, I explain what they are, how to set them and how to change them.

Voice Changer, from Accusonus, is a plug-in for most popular NLEs that creates voice effects from robot to dragon. It is fast, easy to use and a fascinating sound design tool to bring the sounds in your imagination to life.

Changing the speed of a portion of a video clip during playback is called a “variable speed change.” There’s a wide variety of reasons to change the speed of a clip, so, let me show you how to create different versions in Apple Final Cut Pro.

A fit-to-fill edit combines a replace edit with a playback speed change. It takes a marked clip in the Browser, then changes its speed to match the duration of a clip in the timeline. Here’s how to create it in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Changing the playback speed of a clip is all the rage in video today. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates two visual effects using speed effects in Final Cut Pro that can bring a special sparkle to your next project; including instant replay.

Changing the playback speed of a clip is all the rage in video today. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a fit-to-fill edit, where the speed of the inserted clip is altered to match the duration you need it to fill in the Final Cut Pro timeline.

When you export a finished project from Apple Final Cut Pro, you can specify a variety of labels with the file. What are these, how do you change them, and what applications can read them? Learn more!

“Ask Larry Anything!” is a free-form conversation about technical questions of interest to video editors. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows the best way to modify and copy titles and compound clips to retain position settings in Apple Final Cut Pro.

“Ask Larry Anything!” is a free-form conversation about technical questions of interest to video editors. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create, delete and modify proxy settings in Apple Final Cut Pro.