With the release of FCPX, many of these tutorials are now outdated. Of course, not everyone will upgrade immediately (or at all). Because of this, I will be no longer adding new tutorials, but I will keep this site up as long as I feel it still serves a purpose.

In the meantime, I am launching a site designed to help editors in other ways. As an editor, I realized a large amount of my time was spent working on things that related to editing, but not actual editing. This site is for all editors who use a Mac, and is chock full of tips and tricks to help you get done with the mundane stuff, and get Back to the Edit.

Check it out at backtotheedit.com.

As a Holiday present, I am happy to release Visual Enhancement Pro, a great filter for Enhancing security footage. This filter utilizes state of the art technologies like Fournier Tonal Tightening and Spectral Information Replacement, previously only available to Crime Scene Investigators and spy agencies.

See more and download the plugin here.

Sure, the glitz and glamor of effects is fun, but what can really set an editor apart is their mastery of the little things. Have a hundred jpegs with faulty color profiles? Having trouble with blurry pictures or shaky text? This list from Oliver Peters at digitalfilms covers those, and some other great tips.

Read the tutorial here.

Now this is cool. But cool in a very very nerdy way. A hidden menu in Final Cut that gives you some way cool toys, and way more info than you’ll know what to do with. Jon Chappell shows you how to access the menu, and what everything does over at LAFCPUG. Check your hard drive’s performance or fit the Tool Bench into your layout… and more.

Read the (super geeky) tutorial here.

A large portion of what you learn about Final Cut will come from experience- sitting in front of the program and actually editing. And in doing that, it can be easy to miss the simple things. Jeff from SuiteTake has this great list of “The Top-Ten Things I Wish I Knew About Final Cut Pro…Ten Years Ago.”

Watch the video tutorial here.

All the tutorials on this site wil do you no good unless you know the order to do them in. That’s why workflow is a huge buzzword now (and should stay one, in my opinion). CJ Bruce from The Final Cut Pro breaks down the bare bones workflow in the manual, and adds his own two cents. This is a must read if you’re just starting out, or have run into problems with workflow in the past.

Read the tutorial here.

After paying the money and setting the date to take the Final Cut Certification test, it can be nerve racking to even know what to study. Laura Dahl, an Apple Certified Trainer, has created a series of flash cards that I would have loved to have when I was studying.

Check them out here.

Shortcuts speed up work speed incredibly in Final Cut Pro. Learning a new one every day will make you a much faster editor, but it’s pretty difficult to keep them all straight. It’s handy to keep a list of the shortcuts close by, so you’ll always be able to find what you need. This list is put out by Noble Desktop. While it is for FCP 5, not much has changed for shortcuts in FCP 6. If anyone can find one for FCP 6, let me know.

Download the shortcut list here.

Alex Gollner has a quick tip on how to speed up navigating through multiple tabs.

Read the tip here.

From Creative Cow-

Creative Cow Leader Shane Ross is one of a very small handful of the world’s most respected FCP experts. Over the course of years answering questions, he’s compiled a real-world list of the questions that are truly the most frequently asked. He calls them Shane’s Stock Answers. We call them the information you really need for working with FCP. Here in Part 3, he covers QuickTime issues, timecode management, P2 tips and much more, including one of the most frequently questions of all: how to open new projects in older versions of FCP.

Read the FAQ here.

Also, check out The Ultimate Real-world FCP FAQ Part 1 and Part 2.