Rookie ALERT! Having been blessed with the good fortune to be lent a MacBook Pro M1 laptop running Final Cut Pro, I was very excited to try it out.

We have all seen a lot of 'virtual choir' videos recently. Oliver Peters took the concept a stage further and edited a whole hour and a half virtual holiday cabaret show. In Final Cut Pro, of course!

Yes, I admit it, the title is kind of clickbait. But it is true, I did work a lot on the rough cut of our latest 76-minute music documentary while sitting in a bus for hours, travelling across Iran to our next filming location.

What do actors do when the Hollywood movie machine shuts down due to Covid-19? They make a home movie of course!

Home Movie: The Princess Bride started off as an idea by Jason Reitman to raise money for the World Central Kitchen charity. It ended up being a 10 part series that is available on Quibi. Nathan Orloff had the job of stitching all the actor-shot iPhone footage together. He used Final Cut Pro X of course!

Final Cut Pro X isn't ready for prime time? Think again. The recent series of BBC1's Have I Got News For You was post produced on FCPX. Could it handle the multiple angles of composited layers in a complex multicam timeline with a tight turnaround?  The editor James Branch details the workflow.

Explosions, fire, paint, slow motion & 3D 180 - What more could you want? Daniel Fabelo runs through the Final Cut Pro X workflow he uses editing for the popular YouTube channel The Slow Mo Guys. 

It is a challenging time for us all, especially students trying to continue to learn. Rusty Earl decided to use Final Cut Pro X to document his local school district’s journey to teach remotely during COVID-19.

The Orphaned Starfish Foundation helps kids to break their cycles of abuse and poverty through technology based education. This is where filmmaking using iOS devices and editing on Final Cut Pro X is changing lives. 

Ever wanted to know the complete workflow for a series from shooting, through editing in Final Cut Pro X and then delivery? Sarah M. Deuel and David Payan have documented the entire post-production process of Rooster Teeth’s paranormal reality TV series, Haunter.

Oliver Peters talks to director Brantley Gutierrez and editor Ryan P. Adams on why Final Cut Pro X was the perfect tool to edit Paul McCartney's 'Who Cares' music video.

The Banker is a film staring Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Nia Long, and Nicholas Hoult. In theatres now and available on AppleTV+ shortly, it was shot on film and edited in Final Cut Pro X. Oliver Peters talks to the producer and editor, Joel Viertel.

Adam Schoales has a regular job every year of putting together a short 'highlights' film of the last night of the Toronto International Film Festival. This year, he thought he would do a screen capture of the 10 hour Final Cut Pro X edit process - and then speed it up to 10 minutes! 

If you've spent any time in Final Cut Pro X discussion forums, then you've probably run across posts by Tangier Clarke, a film editor based in Los Angeles. Clarke was an early convert to FCPX and recently handled the post-production finishing for the film, Jezebel. I was intrigued by the fact that Jezebel was picked up by Netflix, a streaming platform that has been driving many modern technical standards. This was a good springboard to chat with Clarke and see how FCPX fared as the editing tool of choice.

The real growth in production today is not at Hollywood studios or the creation of new broadcast channels, it's online. Digital studio Kin publishes hundreds of videos yearly. With over 5M followers and 15 million monthly views, Final Cut Pro X is the NLE that's allowed them to achieve such a prolific output.

How can you speed up your edits? If you have  a lot of dialogue in your production, one way is to use transcription. Jake Carvey details his FCPX workflow on his recent Habitat for Humanity project.

So just how efficient can Final Cut Pro X be in feature film post production? Find out from the story of the post production process of Gabriel, a new film from Portuguese Director Nuno Bernardo. (Updated with US & UK release dates)

If you want to implement a powerful new technology in your existing production pipeline, you also should be willing to step out of your comfort zone, and to adapt your workflows, so that every aspect of your production process can fully benefit from this new technology. That's what the post-production team of Producciones del Barrio in Barcelona has been doing since they moved to Final Cut Pro in 2016.

In the last of three parts of this detailed and informative Final Cut Pro X user story, Carsten Orlt details his social media workflow and how to find a platform and funding for your films. 

Part one of Carsten Orlt's story of the making of the Visible Farmer series was very popular. In part two, he goes into great detail about exactly how he edits with Final Cut Pro X. Lots of FCPX editing tips to follow and knowledge to be had!

"When I would tell you have to pack everything you need for a year to live, produce and deliver a documentary series from the road into a 4WD and a camper trailer, would you call me crazy or jump at the opportunity?"

We are very excited to publish the first part of Carsten Orlt's amazing Final Cut Pro X user story. Making good documentaries is hard enough, but working from a mobile base adds another level of hassle and complexity!

Emmanuel Tenenbaum's excellent short film Two Dollars is this week's Vimeo Staff Pick. It was edited on Final Cut Pro X on a 2013 MacBook Pro.

When broadcast transmission deadlines are tight, you need an NLE that's fast and robust. John Matthews describes his Final Cut Pro X workflow that enables him to deliver quick turnaround shows to the BBC with ease.

A year on from Oscar winning film The Silent Child, another FCPX edited entry called Skin is in the last nominees for the 2019 best live action short film. Ronny Courtens spent time with the editor, Yuval Orr.

Rusty Earl returns to FCP.co with another great Final Cut Pro X user story. This time, a story made with a shared workflow with student editors. How did it work and how did they get around project slow downs?

When given the task of cutting a 34 angle multicam music show in Premiere Pro, Shahin Shokoui accepted the job but decided to move the project over to Final Cut Pro X. After a successful edit, he then converted the final cuts back. 

A few years ago, you needed an expensive OB van to cover a live event, even for editing and transmission later. This can now be accomplished on a table top and of course Final Cut Pro's speed helps make it the obvious choice of NLE to get inserts edited for playout. Florian Decker shares his FCPX/K2 workflow on the Globus Marathon in St. Wendel, Germany.

A few days before the 2018 Academy Awards, we published an article about the crowd-funded British short movie "The Silent Child", written by Rachel Shenton and directed by Chris Overton, that had been nominated for an Oscar.

The movie won, which was an incredible achievement considering that Rachel had never written a script before, Chris had never directed a movie before, the movie was produced with close to no budget, and it was cut with Final Cut Pro X by an editor who had never edited a narrative movie before and who actually learned FCP X on this job.

The Final Cut Pro X success stories keep on coming. This time we look at Norway's largest newspaper VG, whose TV arm switched to FCPX enabling them to expand their online media production.

With a production crew of 400 people, a cast of 200 actors and over 2000 extras, hundreds of hours of raw footage shot by several crews on 130 locations, 9 months of editing and 10 months of VFX work, Alberto Rodríguez’ and Rafael Cobos' 12.3 million dollar television series “La Peste” (The Plague) is the flagship original drama production of Movistar+, the largest VoD provider in Spain and part of media giant Téléfonica.

Do you remember Apple's 10.4 presentation from the LACPUG? Afterwards three of the filmmakers from the Apple Short Film Project got to present and talk about their entry. Sam Mestman takes a look behind the scenes of the productions with the finished films and recorded presentations from that night.

Tight turnarounds are not new in television, but in feature film production, being able to see a first cut within hours of the end of shooting is nothing but remarkable. Robin Moran explains how Final Cut Pro X gave filmmaker Ismail Basbeth and his team the speed and thus the 'creative room' to perfect his production.

Ming Lai's story about the post production of his latest feature documentary 'Visions of Warriors' is one that we are sure we will hear again a lot more in the future. Quite simply, how Final Cut Pro X made it easy for the director to finish a film without the need of an editor or expensive equipment. All in 4K as well.

MacBook Pro, Final Cut Pro X and the LA Film Community Boost Local Productions. A great FCPX user story that shows there really is no barrier to shooting and editing your own high quality film.

Following up on his article last week, Adam Schoales now posts about his latest project. This time it's a special cinema spot shot at 6K on a RED Helium and cut on Final Cut Pro X of course!

If 2017 made you want to run into a movie theatre and hide, you aren't alone. Luckily, it’s been an exceptional year for the moving image. The Toronto International Film Festival looks back at the moments that helped us maintain, find hope, and transform the way we see the world through film.

AC/DC, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Metallica, David Gilmour, Duran Duran, Placebo, Dixie Chicks, Zipperface, Beyoncé, Björk… You name them, James Tonkin has worked with them. In this extensive interview, he talks about the gear he takes on the road to shoot and edit concerts of the world’s greatest bands, and about his new high-end post house in London. A good read for anyone who is interested in camera gear and post production technology.

In this presentation from FCPX World at IBC, Christian Petterson from VGTV Norway explains why they exclusively use Final Cut Pro X to produce hundreds of hours of content each year for different online and linear television channels, including a 24/7 news channel.

4 weeks after Finnish/English editor Ben Mercer came to talk about his work on this major movie during FCPX World at IBC, the World War II dramaUnknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) has broken the opening weekend record at the Finnish box office, competing with the biggest international film productions in the world.

After the last few days exciting news about Final Cut Pro 10.4, time to look back at more presentations from the recent FCPX World in Broadcast event. We present a Spanish show that switched to FCPX after testing all the NLEs and a presentation from Frame.io's lead integration engineer.

FCPX World at IBC 2017 was a great experience. For the third year in a row, the Spaces building next to the Amsterdam RAI was the epicenter of everything related to Final Cut Pro X at IBC. The Club Room at Spaces was converted to a pop-up television studio where high-profile professionals from all over Europe and the USA came to showcase their work with FCP X.

How The Most Popular Music Video In History Was Shot In One Day And Edited With Final Cut Pro X In A Small Boutique Studio In Miami.

The catchy Reggaeton pop song ‘Despacito’ by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi and rapper Daddy Yankee was the inescapable Summer Hit of 2017. Just 6 months after it was released it became the most streamed song in history, with 4.6 billion plays across all streaming services. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 100 and stayed at that place for 16 weeks. The song topped the charts of 47 countries and reached the top 10 of ten others.

Ever wanted to sit in an editing class at a local Public Access TV station? Eero Johnson has very kindly published his FCPX session from a recent meeting in Bellingham, Washington where he took his students through FCPX, starting from the very basics.

We will waste no time and post part two of Jonathon Williams' popular article on shooting and editing (on FCPX of course!) a daily blog during the Red Bull X-Alps race.

Would Final Cut Pro X be up to producing a daily Vlog following a participant on the Red Bull X-Alps adventure race? In the first of this two part article, Jonathon Williams tells us his story of how he, his camera kit and his NLE coped with such a grueling task.

The community behind FCPX is like no other NLE. An example of this is the help filmmaker Emmanuel Tenenbaum received when editing his short film 'Sans Plomb.' The film has just been awarded a Staff Pick on Vimeo to go along with its many film festival showings.

While we wait for the rest of the FCP X Tour videos from NAB to get posted, here’s a last but certainly not least video from the FCP X Tour Barcelona. We couldn’t publish it sooner because some of the projects mentioned were still under NDA at the time of the recording. We hope you will enjoy the video presentation, but first some background information:

Every year, the prestigious Blanquerna School for Communication and International Relations in Barcelona prepares 1800 Spanish and international students for a professional career in Cinema and Television, Advertising, Communication, Journalism and International Relations. And they all work with Macs and Final Cut Pro X.

Today, March 24th is the theatrical release of Bokeh, an independent feature about a young couple on holiday in Iceland who wake up one morning to find that everybody else has disappeared. The co-writer/director and editor Geoffrey Orthwein takes us through the post production of the movie on Final Cut Pro X.

Time for the last instalment in this reference series of articles for filmmakers. Part five is all about collaboration with colour, VFX and audio departments. We finish with how to deliver your film for theatrical release & display.

We welcome Einar Johnson from Pixel Bokeh Productions who very kindly let us publish his story on how his company edited a highlight reel during the course of a corporate conference. Of course, FCPX was one of the stars!

Director Juanjo Giménez very kindly answered our questions about the post production of Oscar nominated live action short film Timecode. It was his first movie project on Final Cut Pro X and he was keen to try it out!

Brian Cassin goes in to great detail about how he efficiently edits a gameshow on FCPX. By using Final Cut Pro X and Lumberjack to pre-edit a season of High School Quiz Show, he saves hours, if not days of edit time.

Back in March 2016 I took a prototype Jellyfish portable started storage unit out on the road for a broadcast Final Cut Pro X edit. A few months later, I took a shipping model out on another high pressure, quick turnaround broadcast job. What’s new, what's changed and how did it perform?

On to part four of this masterclass in filmmaking and it's a bumper issue! Sam Mestman and Patrick Southern this time talk about group workflows and finishing. As always, lots of info and great tips. Possibly a two cups of coffee article.

Time for part three of Sam Mestman and Patrick Southern's very popular series on the workflow, techniques and tips needed in getting a 5K feature made, from shooting, right through to distribution. This time it is all about editing in FCPX and they also include a rundown of essential third-party tools.

We publish part two of Sam Mestman & Patrick Southern's popular workflow series. This time they look at setting up Final Cut Pro X ready for editing and using tools to organise footage within Libraries. As always, lots of very detailed & valuable battle tested information for film makers.

Patrick Southern and Sam Mestman take us on a detailed walk-through of the workflow involved in the post production of a feature. We start with part one, on set where the capture of logging information is essential to cut time and costs in post production. With the first part containing over 4000 words of wisdom, this series will be the 'go to' post production reference for future filmmakers.

In his presentation at the FCP X TOUR Barcelona, David López walked us through the NLE testing process they went through for Salvados, a hugely popular prime time TV show in Spain. Moving forward from FCP7 they considered Avid and tested DaVinci Resolve, FCP X and Premiere Pro CC. They finally adopted Final Cut Pro X, and David explains why exactly the other NLEs were not selected. Video included!

During the FCP X Tour in Barcelona we had the pleasure of having a live FaceTime conversation with Marc Bach in California. Hegives an honest opinion about FCP X 10.3 and tells us why he thinks that some of his colleagues still don’t want to hear anything good about it. Videos included!

This is an interesting Final Cut Pro X user story from a number of perspectives. A passion for drifting led Aaron Losey to make a five and a half hour documentary of his event filled pilgrimage to the Ebisu Circuit in Japan.

Benjamin Mercer, an award-winning Finnish/English editor, received cheers and loud applause from the audience at the FCP X Tour Barcelona when he explained his workflows and his editing process for an epic war-drama movie that he is currently cutting in FCPX. (Two demo videos included!)

Two more videos from the recent FCPX Tour@IBC 2016. In these just published videos, we have a documentary series shot on iPhones and a certified Adobe and Avid trainer explains why he prefers Final Cut Pro X.

Time for two more videos from the recent FCPX Tour at IBC. Two completely different presentations, one a large 72TB 3D project and the other from a FCPX veteran!

If there is one quality you can use to single Final Cut Pro X out from the rest of the NLEs out there, it's the program's ease of great visual storytelling. Rusty Earl details how he used FCPX to construct the historical documentary 'Dawn of Day."

Time for the third set of videos we are publishing from the FCPX Tour@IBC 2016. Supermeet keynote speaker Duncan Shepherd talks 360 & Paul McCartney and Alex Gollner takes 360 video underwater!

If you couldn't make the recent FCPX Tour in Amsterdam during IBC, you really missed out. Not a worry though as all the presentations were recorded and we will be publishing them right here on a regular basis. Here are the first two:

We love Final Cut Pro X user stories here on FCP.co, especially when they feature a specific workflow. In this article, Brian King runs through his process and techniques for editing a music video on FCPX.

Every month new VR videos appear that push the boundaries of what this medium can do. This is the story of how editor Duncan Shepherd put Final Cut Pro X at the heart of ‘Pure McCartney VR,’ a series of five innovative Paul McCartney VR video films made by Jaunt.

FCPX shines in handling 62TB of RED Epic Dragon 4K RAW footage, 10TB of BMCC ProRes footage, 1,2TB of external audio clips and over 34.000 exported files for a groundbreaking 3D augmented reality project. Ronny Courtens looks at The Forever Project, which ended up being post produced on Final Cut Pro X.

Nobody is really surprised anymore to hear that yet another feature film has been edited on Final Cut Pro 10. But when Lance Bachelder posted a message saying he had used Final Cut on his latest production, he got my attention. Why? Because I knew that, although Lance has always had an open mind towards the new Final Cut Pro, he did not want to use it for his professional work. Until now...

Angry Birds and Final Cut Pro X. Two things we didn't expect to write in a headline! When it came to editing an Angry Birds commercial for Sydney's Luna Park, Tom Fossey from Rhino Post Production knew which NLE could quickly tame Red, Chuck and Bomb. (They have names?)

VR or virtual reality was the hot topic on the show floor at this year's NAB. But who is making content and how is it made you may ask? We spoke to New Deal Studios about their recent work shooting & editing 3D 360 virtual reality on features, commercial projects and music videos.

A company with an impressive list of VFX movie credits such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers and Hugo is now pushing the boundaries in the editing, VFX and colour correction of VR. Unlike many production companies, New Deal Studios has gained early expertise in 3D 360 video productions - where different images are sent to each eye to create 3D depth in all directions, which is known as ‘stereoscopic 360 video’.

Armand Dijcks very kindly describes how he made the stunning cinemagraphs from images taken by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers on the International Space Station. Final Cut Pro X's optical flow was the tool to smooth the large resolution timelapses.

Benjamin Armes, the videographer for the School of Information at the University of Michigan has very kindly put together a few FCPX editing tips in a user story about a recent project. 

Time for the last set of videos from the recent FCP Exchange event that was held during NAB 2016. Making the switch to FCPX, a new Mac based slomotion application and a great large scale use story.

The presentation videos from FCP Exchange at NAB 2016 have gone down very well, so time to post the next four! Media management, Final Cut Pro X power tips, colour grading and a great case study.

The Jellyfish and Final Cut Pro X go on the road for a real broadcast job. Cutting edge portable shared storage on a budget, but with all of the performance you need. How did it cope with the strain of continuous records and multiple edit clients? Peter Wiggins takes the new cnidarian for a mission critical swim.

Swiss national television network Radio Télévision Suisse handles 800 hours of on-air content each year in its Post Production department, with FCP X and a ShareStation Enterprise shared storage system. Ronny Courtens explains why RTS chose FCP X, the shared storage system and how the combination of speed and performance is perfect for their needs. Lots of info, lots of pictures and lots of videos, so get a large coffee and enjoy. Worth an email to anybody who thinks FCP X is not a professional tool as well!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is the new comedy war film from Paramount Studios starring Tina Fey. We asked director Glenn Ficarra, Editor Jan Kovac, Assistant Editor Kevin Bailey and Apprentice Editor Esther Sokolow how the film was made, what was different from Focus and of course how well Final Cut Pro X performed?

We think you know the answer already, but again their detailed workflow is well worth a read. Especially if you are going to cut your next Hollywood feature film on Final Cut Pro X!

Not only did 'What Happened, Miss Simone" open the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, it's also on the nominee list to win the best documentary feature at the 2016 Oscars. The editor, Joshua L Pearson and Tim Moyle, the assistant editor tell FCP.co about how the film was edited on FCPX with special emphasis on managing and keywording a lot of archive.

Take five teams of filmmakers, give them iPhones to shoot on, Final Cut Pro X running on shared storage to edit with and 36 hours to complete a three minute film. Sam Mestman tells us about We Make Movies' latest community film project. 

How does Final Cut Pro X perform when it comes to editing a comedy web series? Michael Hadley from Screen D'Or Pictures tells us about his workflow on Knights of New Jersey and how FCPX was the best choice of NLE.

I recently took delivery of a new iMac 27-inch with Retina 5K display. So what better opportunity to test it out than the hardest broadcast job I do all year. So how did it and Final Cut Pro X cope? The last two years were with a Mac Pro, would it be fast enough?

We are back with a great user story. David Tillman describes his journey from being put off by FCPX from the initial scare stories to how he embraced Apple's new generation NLE cutting two high profile documentaries. A great read, we think his story will echo a lot of other editor's experiences.

Loreak, the official Spanish submission in the best foreign language film category for the 2016 Oscars has already received many great reviews. The editor, Raul Lopez Romero tells us how the film was shot on a Red Epic at 5K, then ingested and edited with Final Cut Pro X running on a previous generation 2009 Mac Pro.

If FCPX's film moment was with Focus, then this article is surely the television equivalent. We learn how Copenhagen based Metronome Productions' staff of 200 produce 300 hours of broadcast television using Final Cut Pro X.

The awards keep on coming! This time San Diego based M2 Digital Post picked up three Emmy Awards for their spot for Wings-N-Things. One part of Final Cut Pro X made the post production easy!

'Best of the Bronx' won the category of Outstanding Community Service PSA campaign at the recent 58th New York Emmy Awards. Walter Garaicoa tells FCP.co how the spots were shot on DSLRs and edited using Final Cut Pro X.

Many more companies are turning to video to help build their business. Jonathan Edwards understands that and uses Final Cut Pro X to make films that get brands exposed on websites & social media. If the images look familiar, that's because Sony picked up his work for for THFKDLF as the background for their media cloud services website.

We all now know that FCPX can edit Hollywood feature films, but the tools it provides are there for every production, large or small. Holodad is a science fiction film made on a budget, but big on the special effects. It has also been made a Kickstarter Staff Pick.

We feature users stories on FCP.co that are small and large. This is a large one! Award winning adverting agency 72andSunny look after brands such as adidas, ESPN, Google, Starbucks and Samsung with Cantemo Portal and Final Cut Pro X.

We have had many Final Cut Pro X user stories here on FCP.co across many genres, feature films, sport and episodic programming to name a few. One area we haven't covered is comedy, that is until now. Nuno Bernardo from beActive entertainment tells us how the TV3 documentary 'The Stand Ups' was cut on FCPX. 

Did we ever think that we would write a headline that included naked swimming and Final Cut Pro X? No we didn't, but this story from Matt Holder gave us the ideal opportunity to do exactly that.  Essential reading if you shoot and edit quick turnaround edits for social media. An FCPX user story au naturel!

We have been accused of being Canon biased on FCP.co. Not so. It's just that there seems to be more people shooting video on Canons than Nikon DSLRs. So when we saw this video, we thought we would post it on the front page.

We are very pleased to publish part two of the story of how the Hollywood feature film Focus was cut on Final Cut Pro X.

This time we concentrate on how it was used and how the Libraries, Events and Projects were set up. Exactly how did Jan Kovac edit? What keyboard and control surfaces did he use? How did he trim? (Yes we asked that dynamic trimming question!) And the biggest job of all, how did he and his team keep everything organised?

We finish off with what Jan Kovac the Editor and the Directors Glenn Ficarra & John Requa liked about FCPX, what they didn’t like and some good ideas for the future.

From convincing the Hollywood Studio to use FCPX, to how the movie was actually edited right down to keywords and trimming, we publish our biggest Final Cut Pro X article so far.

This is not just a cut and paste from the Apple article, we have new interviews, new pictures and most importantly, lots more detail.

With unique access to the Editor Jan Kovac, the Directors Glenn Ficarra, & John Requa, Light Iron CEO Michael Cioni, Technology Consultant Sam Mestman and First Assistant Editor Mike Matzdorff, we follow the groundbreaking story of the post production of Focus on Final Cut Pro X.

This short film shows the construction of the Leadenhall Building in London. 2 years and 8 terabytes of 5K & 7K timelapses/hyperlapses all edited (in the end) on Final Cut Pro X then published at 4K resolution. A stunning FCPX user story.

We are very pleased to publish the story of how the wonderful short film 'Watchtower of Turkey' was made. Nominated as Best Video of 2014 on Vimeo, Final Cut Pro X provided all the tools for Leonardo Dalessandri to produce a spectacular and inspirational piece of work. 

As promised, we return with the second part of our look back at the Final Cut Pro X user stories of 2014. It all got very interesting, very tekkie and very, very creative.

We take a look back at the Final Cut Pro X user stories we posted during 2014 on FCP.co. The year started early with 10.1 and the new Mac Pro, high profile jobs and announcements over the Summer and finished off with some very creative examples of FCPX in action at the end. Enjoy a jolly good read, we did!