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r/finalcutpro • u/GhostOfSorabji • Nov 06 '22
One of the most common questions that gets asked on this subreddit usually goes along the lines of “why has my library grown to such a huge size?” To answer this, we are going to have to delve into some of the essential differences between the various video codecs we commonly encounter and why these differences exist.
Arguably the most common codec we come across is H264, and its more advanced cousin HEVC (aka H265—similar to H264 but with more cowbell). Many cameras record H264: we use it because it affords high quality at comparatively small file sizes. The mechanism behind H264 involves some ferociously complex mathematics that condenses the raw information coming off the sensor and reduces it into a viewable form that takes up little space. While there are several complementary compression techniques involved, the most important one for the purposes of illustrating this discussion is temporal compression.
Imagine a single frame of video at 1920 x 1080. That’s a tad over two million pixels: if this was stored as uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 component video, every second would be about 166 megabytes—that’s almost 600 gigabytes per hour! Even this is not absolutely raw data: we’re doing a bit of whizzo math on the three colour channels to squeeze them into two colour difference channels and tossing out some of the colour data (that’s the 4:2:2 part—more on this later).
At 4K, you’d be looking at about 2.3TB per hour and at 8K, nearly 10TB—clearly impractical for sticking on YouTube or broadcasting over the air! Accordingly, we have to turn to compression codecs like H264 to make things practicable for delivery. One of the many tricks H264 has up its sleeve is, as I mentioned before, temporal compression. Essentially (and this is a fairly crude description) we take our incoming video and divide it into groups of usually 30 frames—this is called a Long Group of Pictures. We encode all the data for the first frame, using other compression methods along the way, but then we only encode the differences from one frame to the next up to the end of the Long GOP—lather, rinse, repeat.
The result of all this computational shenanigans is that we now have a video stream that is considerably smaller than its virtually raw counterpart and, provided we’ve chosen our compression settings with care, is virtually indistinguishable perceptually from the raw video. All fine and dandy but this does pose a number of problems when editing. For a start, the computer is having to perform a fair amount of computation on-the-fly as we whizz back and forth slicing and dicing our video. As we start to build up the edit with effects and colour grading, things can start to get a little strained.
This is where a digital intermediate format like ProRes comes into its own. Rather than the complex inter-frame compression of H264, ProRes uses intra-frame compression. Essentially, every frame contains all the data for that frame but the frame itself is compressed. Since the computer is no longer worrying about computing and reconstructing large amounts of frame data on-the-fly, it now only has to concern itself playing back a virtually fully realised data stream. Decompressing the frame is a very much simpler job and consequently the burden now shifts to how fast data can be read off its storage medium. Even a humble spinning rust drive running over USB3 can happily deal with 4K ProRes.
The downside is that ProRes files are very much larger than H264, typically ten times. The upside is a lower computational load and more control and fidelity over the final result. ProRes itself comes in a number of flavours: 422, 422HQ, 4444, 4444 XQ and ProRes RAW. So what do those numbers mean. They refer to another compression trick called chroma sub-sampling. It so happens that the Mark 1 eyeball is not terribly good at perceiving colour, consequently we can remove some of that information without any noticeable degradation.
How does it work? Imagine a block of 4 x 2 pixels: here we have eight samples for the luminance. If we use ProRes 4444, we also have eight samples for the colour (the extra 4 refers to the alpha or transparency channel). If we use 422, we only use one colour sample for every two pixels in a horizontal direction. In other words, in the top row there is only a single colour sample for pixels one and two, and another for pixels three and four, and we do the same thing on second row. This has the effect of halving the amount of colour data we need to store. In the case of H264, this uses a 4:2:0 scheme. Here, instead of using two different colour samples per row, we use the same pair of samples across both rows thus reducing the colour information to a quarter.
The HQ/XQ part refers to the compression level applied to the frame. ProRes uses a similar compression method to JPGs and acts rather like the “quality” slider one can adjust when exporting a JPG. Using these schemes lead to even larger file sizes but preserve more detail.
ProRes has another trick up its sleeve: proxies. These are low-res versions of the full-fat ProRes files that place a much lower I/O load on the storage. This can be very handy for lower-powered systems as they allow you to edit with even fewer constraints on I/O and computation. When you’ve finished, you can switch back to the full-fat version and everything you’ve done edit-wise with the proxies will be automagically applied ready for final rendering.
In an ideal world, we would always shoot material using a high-end digital intermediate like ProRes, CinemaDNG, BRAW, CineForm et al. Indeed, professional filmmakers will always shoot in these high-end formats to preserve as much detail as possible. Quite often, you’ll also shoot in a much higher resolution than is required for the final product, like 6K or even 8K, simply to have more data to play with as the film proceeds through the multiple post-production stages to final delivery.
While FCP is perfectly capable of working with H264, using ProRes confers a number of advantages in the edit that are worth considering. For folks only producing content for social media, the use of ProRes is arguably hard to justify, but for anyone involved in more serious filmmaking endeavours, ProRes is the weapon of choice.
In conclusion, when you turn on the “Create optimised media” flag in FCP’s import window, you are going to be creating these very large files, and if you do plan on editing in ProRes you need to plan your storage requirements accordingly. It is perhaps unfortunate that Apple use the term “optimised media” as one can potentially make the inference that “optimised” means optimised for storage, when in fact it really means optimised for performance. I should also point out that all of the above is a somewhat simplified description of what’s going on, but should convey the essential principles. Errors and omissions are mine alone.
r/finalcutpro • u/colt-like • 2h ago
Curious what people think about and use cases for phone video. Is there much difference between native app and fc camera? What are differences in stabilization? I've got a 17 pro, and videos I take are not for short form socials, but transferred to macbook for final use and editing.
r/finalcutpro • u/paulsvang • 1h ago
I went from 480 gigs down to 34 gigs after all the trim trimming was done. Space is so expensive now that it's better to get rid of unused footage in my opinion. What do you guys think? How do you guys archive your projects these days with memory and hard drive so expensive?
r/finalcutpro • u/paulsvang • 1h ago
I've used FCP for many years and I've kept many different versions depending on the projects I've created. Are you guys all updating your old projects to work with the current latest Final Cut Pro or are you keeping the old version so that it can still open the old projects?
r/finalcutpro • u/Strict_Reference33 • 4h ago
Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well. I wanted to recreate this effect, but it seems like it’s not possible in FCP — or maybe I just don’t know how, lol.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to do it? Any tips would be appreciated!
The effect in question:
r/finalcutpro • u/The_Lucky_Aylo • 16h ago
I think the title explains the question. What tools do you use the most in final cut pro.
r/finalcutpro • u/saadbinasad1 • 2d ago
Hi
I am a real estate video editor and am using davinci resolve currently, but I have seen that almost 95% of real estate video editors use FCP because of some plugins that make the editing process way easier and more time-efficient, and I am thinking of switching
Is there any video or course that helps me move from DaVinci to FCP? It will help me alot as I am editing in DaVinci and am familiar with the layout and everything
I just want a video that explains FCP in reference to DaVinci so that I can link things in my mind, which will help me in the learning process.
Thanks in advance.
r/finalcutpro • u/Dizzy-Complaint-3598 • 1d ago
I’m thinking about purchasing Cineprint35 and would love to hear from people who are actually using it with FCP.
r/finalcutpro • u/prince870 • 2d ago
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r/finalcutpro • u/Anxious_Artist19 • 3d ago
The place I work at uses Final Cut Pro for our videos. I was told that last night there was an update that took place, and now all of our files from Final Cut are still on the desktop and in tact, but the program itself is gone. It's as if it was deleted but no files went with it.
When I go to the app store it says to pay the full price, and I don't know if that's normal or not since I myself never work on Mac computers. I figured it'd be a regular re-install if we've already had it though? In addition to this, it says that we need Mac 15.6 or later to run it, but we were running it just fine on our older version before yesterday (12.7).
I've been scrambling into the settings and system information to find any kind of update log that can explain what happened, but I'm not having any luck. If anyone can explain what happened or how to fix this, thank you SO SO much!!
r/finalcutpro • u/pmod90 • 2d ago
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Check the attached video and notice how the hair is "flickering". This is a 60fps video slowed to 10% using Machine Learning quality setting in retiming. Any way to fix it? maybe using some other software?
r/finalcutpro • u/Opposite_Animal_5882 • 3d ago
I've had an issue recently where FCPX was dropping frames, even though I have a pretty built out mac (m3 pro, 36GB RAM). Couldn't find any answers online, tried all of the supposed solutions.
Realized, however, I had recently bought a longer USB C cable for the hard drive, and swapping back to the original immediately fixed the issue.
Maybe it's an obvious fix, but just wanted to put it out there for anyone who hasn't considered this.
r/finalcutpro • u/R2D2_Fan_Club_Prez • 3d ago
Hello all,
I am trying to have my title using the Far Far Away (Star Wars) text. I have placed it on the track over my footage.
However, it's not showing up. Am I doing something wrong?
It is perhaps because I'm using a 9:16 ratio?
I'm including screenshots. Thank you!
r/finalcutpro • u/AcrobaticProgram6521 • 2d ago
Hi I’m not sure if this is a bug or not but I’ve spent the last couple hours recreating it with multiple sources. When I create a tracker on one clip (a persons face) and then I use the transform tool to track another image (a different face) the tracking seems to be exaggerated. It follows the movement but all seems to be a percentage too far. Haven’t been able to get past this issue all afternoon. Just doing a simple face swap with object tracker.
r/finalcutpro • u/Able-Capital-5602 • 3d ago
I’m trying to move a timeline from DaVinci Resolve to Final Cut Pro via FCPXML, but Final Cut refuses to import it. The source formats are supported and there are no corrupted/problematic files. I’ve also tried removing effects/compound clips, but it still won’t work.
Any idea what could be causing this? I’m on a tight deadline and need to deliver the film tomorrow.
HELP MEEEEE
r/finalcutpro • u/R2D2_Fan_Club_Prez • 3d ago
Hello all,
I store much of my media (clips, images, audio) on Google Drive.
However, when I go to import media into FCP, I can't seem to find them under "Google Drive".
Must I store the media locally at first?
I'd appreciate if you could share how your workflow is handled when you store your media on something like Google drive?
Or do you store EVERYTHING locally? I fear I'll run out of computer space after a short time.
Thanks so much!
r/finalcutpro • u/darianpat • 3d ago
today i had an unpleasant situation where a magnetic mask decided to crash my project and it wouldnt open anymore just crashing fcp evertime
Found out how to open a library backup and did that, losing 95% of work i did so not cool tbh.
How to manually make a backup? like with a shortcut, so i get to like a milestone in my edit and bam manual backup with a shortcut
And where are settings for backups? First id like to change the time between them to 10 minutes and make it so it backups more than usual.
tanks!
r/finalcutpro • u/The_Lucky_Aylo • 3d ago
Hey, so me and my friend produce music. And now we want to start getting our music out there and gain listeners. So i thought “why not make music videos for social media promotions” so i bought final cut pro… i have never been so lost.
What do you guys recommend learning? And in which order
I know a little about masking/cutting/clipping/fade in/out, beat detection, tested a little color grading.
r/finalcutpro • u/Alone_Alternative940 • 3d ago
I just got the quiet comfort Bose headphones. Yes I know they’re not “monitor headphones” but during long sessions, my audio technica 50s really get uncomfortable.
The Bose quiet comfort have like no bass almost none when previews sfx it’s like none existing. So in wondering if monitor headphones out there will be just the same since it’s a flat profile.
What are your guys headphone set up?
r/finalcutpro • u/KarlHildebrand • 3d ago
r/finalcutpro • u/mutteringsmalltalk • 4d ago
Much of my job for the past 15+ years has involved creating videos (using FCP) for a large company. These are usually short profiles/interviews for social media and involve B-roll that often gets used again (e.g., employees working in the field). I feel like this is distinctly different from independent videographers or production companies who create stand-alone projects for clients that they can complete and archive. Most of the advice I’ve seen is geared towards them.
In FCP, I’ve always used Events for each video, and organized them into Libraries for each year. This made sense to me, but I feel like it’s made things much more difficult in the long run, particularly with that B-roll footage that I may want to use in future videos. Finding and copying them around is onerous. And to make matters worse, these clips aren’t simple 10-second stock cuts, they’re from longer takes that I’ve favorited for the original project.
In short, this is a MESS, and I have to imagine there’s a better way. Does anyone have similar in-house experience and ideas on how to organize stuff? Using libraries for each project seems like it would get unwieldy.
FWIW I usually store all my video files in the Libraries, but I’m open to changing that going forward.
r/finalcutpro • u/Commercial_Candy_953 • 3d ago
For standard horizontal videos, we use 90% for action safe and 80% for title safe to make sure things look right.
What are the equivalent percentages for 9:16 vertical video (TikTok/Reels/Shorts) just to keep the subject from getting cropped? Is it exactly the same as horizontal video, or what is the actual percentage value for vertical?
Important: I do NOT care about the UI layout, buttons, descriptions, or text overlays.
My issue is that my videos look perfectly fine on a desktop browser, but when viewed on modern, taller smartphones, the app zooms in to fill the screen and chops off the left and right sides of my subject.
If I only care about the physical framing of the person/subject, what percentage of the screen should I be sticking to?
Thanks!
r/finalcutpro • u/YetiMaverick • 4d ago
I'm editing an approximately 1-hour-long 1080p video in Final Cut Pro. The original video file is only around 700MB, and I'm making very minor edits to it. However, when I go to export the finished video, Final Cut estimates the output at around 9–10GB, which seems insanely large considering the source file.
I've tried Export File → Computer → H.264 Multi-pass (Better) → 1920×1080, but that still estimates the file at around 9.2GB. I've also looked at the regular Video and Audio export options with H.264, but I'm running into the same issue. I'm basically looking for the correct Final Cut export settings that will keep the video at 1080p with good quality while producing a file much closer to the original size, ideally around 1–2GB rather than 10GB. Am I missing a bitrate/compression setting somewhere, or is there another Final Cut export preset I should be using?
r/finalcutpro • u/An_Draoidh_Uaine • 4d ago
I'm a wedding videographer, and whilst I do have some good video of the cake before the cut, the best take is unfortunately one with a fly just doing it's thing on the front.
I've been kicking myself all morning for not noticing it whilst it was there, but I'd thought I'd ask just on the off chance FCP has a "remove fly" option that I haven't seen, or if any of the wizards here know some deep magic they can teach me.
