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Tip #998: Slip Your Way to Better B-roll

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #998: Slip Your Way to Better B-roll

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

The Slip tool in action, changing content without changing position or duration.

Topic $TipTopic

There’s a tool hidden in Final Cut that offers a faster way to select the best section of B-roll for your projects. We all know how to trim the edges of a clip. But, Final Cut also allows us to trim the content of a clip – using the Slip tool. Here’s how.

  • Select the Trim tool (Shortcut: T).
  • Click in the middle of a timeline clip and drag left or right.
  • As you do, the content of the clip changes, but not its duration or location in the timeline.

I use this technique constantly to quickly select the portion of a clip I want to use for B-roll and edit it to the timeline.

I then trim the edges of the clip to set its position and duration exactly the way I want.

Finally, I use the Slip tool (which is what we are doing when we drag the Trim tool in the middle of a clip – we are “slipping” the content) to select a different portion of the clip.

Slipping allows me to select the best portion of a clip after first setting its timing.


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