The Rant

Whatever rationale or excuse you may have for not using keyboard shortcuts as much as possible when you’re editing in Final Cut Pro, you’re flat out wrong.

In my years of teaching and working with other editors, I think I’ve heard all the excuses and here are a few of the most prevalent:

That’s great, but I’m not a “computer person” and I’m doing just fine my way.

These are usually the same people who, when under the gun, can be heard whining about “all the bugs in FCP” as well. They are slow. They stress over deadlines. They’re hard for Producers to work alongside. They don’t do as much quality finishing and fine tuning of their work because they waste their efforts just getting the basics done. They’re the people who, because they are not really interested in the software that they spend hours of every day immersed in, find them themselves fighting it. News flash: if you’re a professional FCP editor, you are a “computer person”–the question is only as to whether or not you are a skilled computer person who wants to master their craft and the tools they use to practice it.

I’ve tried some shortcuts, but they’re awkward

Sure they are, until you get used to them, which you will. All of the operations in FCP are awkward until you get used to them. You should be dealing with the initial awkwardness of shortcuts as soon as possible because the longer you allow yourself get used to kludgy GUI, mouse and menu-surfing workflows (and getting used to their even greater awkwardness), the harder it will be to retrain yourself. It is a matter of training and discipline and the purpose of this blog is to make that easier.

I use [please insert name of 3rd party input device here] and that works great for me.

Bulky colored keyboard with a bunch of extra buttons and sliders and crap? Contour Pro? These things are not all bad, but no substitute for understanding how to work with a stock editing setup using the keyboard Steve gave ya. You have to tote all that junk around to every gig now, right? I guess you’ll need to install some drivers, too. What happens if Jet Blue loses your bag full of tricks? You’ll be lost when you get to the edit bay. In fact, you run the risk of looking like an FCP greenhorn. That stuff takes up a lot of desk real estate too. Ever see how much open desk you have in an edit trailer with a couple of big tape decks, a Kona breakout box, black-burst generator box, video router, a mile of cables and your coffee mug crammed in? Man-up and loose those training wheels!

Sounds good, but I just don’t have time for this right now

Well, that’s why we’re here. Learn shortcuts one at a time. Pour your coffee and hit the page every morning. If there’s a shortcut that’s new to you, use it all day. We’ll re-run ‘em all in time (updated and in different order), so this can be an ongoing learning process and it’s a heck of a lot easier than looking at a chart crammed with a couple hundred random shortcuts. Here you will not only get the keys, you’ll get some context and some tips on how to best use them.  If you have a trick or a new angle on one of the shortcuts here, by all means leave a comment!

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The bottom line is this: there’s simply no excuse not to use keyboard shortcuts if you are a pro or want to develop into one. That they save time is demonstrably true and for the freelancer, time is money. If you’re salaried, then time gives you the opportunity to finesse your work and make it even better. You will be less stressed, you’ll look more professional and you’ll have more fun editing. If you adopt the spirit of shortcuts specifically and software mastery generally, you will make a better living living and better art.