Are you trying to get the hang of Final Cut Pro? The thing everyone needs to grasp when starting out with FCP is just a little muscle memory. My 7 “muscle tips” are:

  1. Have a good workflow. Figure out, often through trial-and-error, what capture settings and export settings will give you the best results while also minimizing file size.
  2. Keep your files on an external hard drive. Storing your media for Final Cut Pro on the computer’s internal hard drive can fragment it, requiring the eventual reboot of the entire system. Fragmenting basically means that a 500GB hard drive will only hold a fraction of it’s capacity after you’ve deleted everything on it.
  3. Keep another copy on another hard drive. This is a common IT tip that is often heard because of the old adage, “It’s not a question of if your hard drive will fail, but when.” Keeping a backup copy (and keeping that hard drive in a different location than you primary hard drive) will give you peace of mind that even the worst case scenario is nothing to fear.
  4. Always keep your files in the same place. This tip may sound like it contradicts Tip #3, but let me explain. By this, I’m referring to keeping your media files all within the same folder for your project. If they’re scattered all over your hard drive, you’re bound to delete or move a file at some point in time and it will cost you valuable time getting your FCP project back to how it was before losing the file.
  5. Keep your clips organized into bins. Because the browser in FCP can fill up with media so quickly, I find that it helps a ton to have bins that help keep all that media organized.
  6. Duplicate every new sequence you begin. If I’m working on a sequence I’ve titled “roughcut” and the client wants a small change, I try to always Duplicate my sequence and create a new one called “roughcut2″ so I can always go back to my original rough cut in case one of use changes our mind about the direction we’ve taken with the editing.
  7. Learn the keyboard shortcuts. This is one tip I left out so of the video so I could keep it under 1 minute long. Keyboard shortcuts (or hotkeys) have been a lifesavor with my business because they’ve allowed me to work as fast as my brain can think of new ideas within Final Cut Pro and not getting my creativity hindered by the mechanics of having to physically moving the mouse along to certain places on the screen to do my most common actions.

Are there any specific muscle memory tips you’d recommend that have really sped up your own workflow? Tell us.