Brian Thomas has a tip to boost the performance of older laptops - and it doesn't cost any money!

Hidden in Motion is the ability to display a grid in the Viewer, which greatly simplifies aligning elements. Here's how to display and adjust it.

Premiere's Sequence Settings panel is daunting. Even experienced editors scratch their heads over some of these options. Fortunately, Premiere has two fast ways to configure a sequence. Learn more here.

Last week, in Tip #451, I presented compression settings for audio you were posting for a podcast. YouTube and other social media settings are different, however. Here's what you need to know.

The Precision Editor in Final Cut Pro X is an incredibly useful teaching tool. If you haven't played with it, you are missing a treat. Here's what it does.

Here are some helpful tips and tricks for shooting, directing, and editing comedy shorts to capture that magic for the world to see.

Most of the time, we want text in Motion to travel in a straight line. But, when you want that text to take strange shapes, Motion makes it easy. Here's how.

Looking for a fast way to evenly light a green-screen background. Here's a tip: Look up!

Recording audio and video separately on set ensures you get the highest quality sound for your project. Using an external shotgun microphone and syncing your audio with a slate, snap, or a clap is essential. Here's how.

One of the big benefits of Final Cut Pro X is its ability to instantly save whenever you do something. Which is fine, most of the time. But, what if you want to make a protection copy of just a single project?

For filmmakers, narration is truly a powerful tool — voice-over narration helps us understand what we’re seeing. Regardless of where you are in production, here are seven reasons you should consider using voice-over narration in your project.

The default gradient settings create very abrupt changes. Here's a tip that allows you to create much smoother gradients in Motion.

The best way to control the levels in your dialog is to use the Multiband Compressor filter. This raises the softer passages in your audio, without causing the louder passages to distort. Here's a simple way to use it.

Tip #427 showed how to create LUTs using Photoshop. However, what if you need more, or want to create a radically different look for your media. That requires a 3rd-party LUT utility. Learn more here.

Each color wheel in Final Cut Pro X has four controls. These color controls can apply either to a selected clip, a group of clips, or a mask within a clip. Here's what they do.

The nighttime exterior shot is one of the greatest challenges for filmmakers on a budget. Nighttime exteriors typically require a ton of powerful lights (and generators) to illuminate your scene, but what if you don't have the budget?

Ordinarily, clicking the Play button plays your project from the current position of the playhead to the last frame. However, you can change the play range of your project by modifying the In and Out points in the Timeline. Here's how.

An adjustment layer affects all clips under it in the Timeline. Whether you use Premiere or FCP X, this masking tip can save you a ton of time.

A multicam clip in Premiere isn't a "clip," it's a sequence. And, like all sequences, you can see the clips inside - if you know where to look. Here's where.

When you import media into Final Cut Pro, the clips often contain meaningless names, such as those assigned by the camera. Although you can rename clips individually, you can also rename a selection of clips as a batch in the browser. Here's how.

Here are five tips, from PremiumBeat, of ways to improve your preparation before directing your next commercial.

Garbage masks are really useful because they help you, ah, get rid of the garbage such as light stands, or portions of the background. Here's how it works.

You might know that one thing that’s essential to getting high-quality audio is to get your microphone as close to your subject as possible. This is one of the reasons that Lavalier mics are such a great tool! Here's how to make a shotgun mic disappear.

If you need to assemble clips with different frame sizes, frame rates or codecs into the same multicam clip in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, here's a fast way to create a multicam clip with exactly the format you need.

You can embed metadata (labels) into files transcoded using the Apple Devices, Apple ProRes, MP3, MPEG-4, and QuickTime settings in Apple Compressor. Use metadata to annotate a media file with information that’s important for your workflow or for the person viewing your output file. Here's how.

Recently Patrick Flaherty opened a project that he had finished. When he played it on the timeline he got the "Sorry I lost your media" red card warning. Here's how he solved it.

There's the production side to an interview, then there's the content. This is a summary of how to improve the content of your interviews.

These four quick steps will improve skin tones in Resolve, without damaging the rest of your color grade. Here's how.

The Track Header on the left side of the Premiere timeline has two columns of blue buttons. Here's what they do.

Carsten Ress was looking for a way to export subtitles (in the closed captions format) from FCP X as text, send it to translation then import it back again as subtitles. He found this workaround that saved him a lot of time.

USB is known for its variety of connectors. Recently, I was reading Wikipedia and discovered this illustration which helps explain the options.

Each custom project preset you create (such as Broadcast HD 720) is saved as a separate file in your computer. Here's how to move them.

If your NLE does not support adjusting text in 3D space, there's an easy way to create the effect of text receding into the distance. Here's how.

In addition to the Razor tool, which cuts individual timeline clips wherever you click it, there are two keyboard shortcuts which can cut multiple clips at the same time. But they don't behave the same way. Here's what you need to know.

Continuous playback allows you to quickly review clips in the Browser without constantly selecting them and pressing Play. Here's how.

When it comes to creating animation or a motion graphic video, the hardest thing for folks new to the art is to figure out the timing. How long should a scene last? Or a piece of text hold on screen? How fast are the transitions? Here are some thoughts that can help.

Parameter behaviors are a very intriguing part of Motion that allow you to animate a setting, not just an element. These provide unlimited creative potential and the best way to see what they can do is to play with them. Here's how.

Smart rendering is, essentially, media optimization before and during editing. It allows you to create better quality output by avoiding re-compression where possible. Here's what you need to know.

A reader pointed out a very fast way to create a poster frame for a QuickTime movie. Here are the steps.

There's a very cool feature that allows you to quickly adjust audio volume across a selected range of clips. But, it isn't where you expect. Here's what you need to know.

Here are twelve tips that will help you manage the massive amount of media that any documentary generates.

A tracking mask allows you to put a moving object into a different background. Mocha Pro 2020 makes this much easier than before. Here's how.

Comparison View is a relatively new feature in Premiere that allows you to compare two different frames in the same sequence at the same time. Here's how it works.

As media creators, there's a lot of confusion over whether we should use H.264 or HEVC to compress our files for distribution on the web. Here's my current thinking.

The Library in Final Cut is the master file that holds everything related to a project. However, what you may not know is that you have a lot of control over where FCP X actually stores files for a library. And many of them don't even need to be in the Library! Here's what you need to know.

Larger production companies use a system of naming and organizing media to enable editors to find the media they need quickly. If you are looking for a system, here's one that works for me.

Motion Blur softens the edges of moving objects. Whether you use it or not is purely a matter of personal taste. But creating it is easy in Motion. Here's how.

A split edit describes an edit where the audio and video edit at different times. Here's a fast way to create one.

Tracking moving shapes is hard. The new Area Brush simplifies selecting different shapes. Here's how.

I'd been using Final Cut Pro X for years before I discovered this tip. So simple. So helpful...!

Hidden within the Premiere timeline is a powerful trimming tool: Dynamic Trim. This feature shows the last frame of the outgoing clip and the first frame of the incoming clip, allowing you to easily trim between them. Here's how it works.

The viewer's eye follows movement. But, what do you do when you are shooting a box? Here's a great - yet simple - trick.

Your 4K video can do double-duty as a still video shoot. Stills won't be as "perfect" as a high-resolution still camera, but they can be pretty darn good. Here's what you need to know.

Hidden in Applications > Utilities is a powerful measurement tool called: Activity Monitor. Here's how to use it to measure the amount of RAM your system uses - and which applications use the most.

Timecode is a label for every frame of video in a clip, or the sequence itself. Think of timecode as the address of a house, it allows us to quickly find any frame in a clip. But, what if you need to change it? Here's how.

This technique uses Apple Motion to create an animated split screen template for Final Cut Pro X. If you only need to create split screens once, use Final Cut. If you need to create split screens more than once, it is much easier to create them as a template in Motion. Here's how.

So which is better: putting lots of assets in one library, or splitting assets across multiple libraries. The answer is: "It Depends." Smile... Here are the details.

Regardless of how you edit, here are ten tips that can improve how you shoot and use slow motion.

You've got your head buried in the details of your edit, but you need to take a quick look at the big picture of the entire Timeline. The problem is typing Plus or Minus takes forever...! What to do?

When picking stock footage, remember that our first mission is to tell a story. Here are three things to keep in mind.

You can easily drag clips or projects from one Event to another in the same library. But, what happens if we want to move media or projects between libraries? Well, we have options.

Hidden in Activity Monitor is the ability to display disk activity in the dock. Here's how to turn it on.

Transparent backgrounds are the default setting in Motion 5.x. But, if not, here's how to create them.

Normally, when we think of "offline clips," we think of media that is inaccessible. While it is true that we can't edit or playback offline clips, we can still organize them. Here's how.

I am SUCH a fan of keyboard shortcuts. Once you start using them, you'll be amazed at how much time they save so you can concentrate on telling your story.

Two simple steps and you'll never lose a compressed file again. Here's what you need to know.

The new Title tool in Premiere is really great, when it isn't also driving me nuts. The problem is that I can never remember when I can edit the text and when I can move it. Here's how to tell.

Trimming the start (top) and end (tail) of a clip is something that we need to do SO OFTEN, that this tip alone can save you hours.

Adding more RAM affects more than just performance - especially on laptop systems. Learn more here.

The Project Panel display hasn't changed much since the initial release of Premiere - until recently. This tip showcases some new options.

As projects get more complex, matching settings becomes increasingly tricky. Here's a fast way to copy one or more settings from one element to another.

Audio components allow us to see and modify individual audio channels in a clip. This can be done from the Browser or Timeline. Here's how.

There are many ways to export media from any NLE. But only one provides the highest-quality with the greatest flexibility for later use.

Here are three steps to quickly level the horizon in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Audio levels must never exceed 0 dB - except, ah, there are a few places where they can. Read more here.

Here are three tips to help you stay focused when editing non-scripted material.

The audio track headers in Premiere provide lots of control over what happens when editing in your sequence. This tip explains the audio controls.

New in the 10.4.7 version of Final Cut Pro X is the ability to select one or more GPUs for rendering and output. Here's how and where to set this.

There's no perfect place to store your media. But here are some thoughts to consider for your next project.

The video track headers in Premiere provide lots of control over what happens when editing in your sequence. This tip explains the video icons.

For some reason, when exporting a 4K project using YouTube share settings, the export settings default to the wrong color space. Here's the work-around.

Not every symbol is an emoji. In fact, there are dozens of useful symbols hidden in every Mac keyboard. Each is just a key-press away. Here's how to find them.

Premiere comes pre-installed with four sets of keyboard shortcuts. Here's how to select the ones you like the best.

The Hand tool allows you to move around the Timeline, but there are much better ways to move. Read this.

Poster frames are a visual indicator for the contents of a media clip. Here's a fast technique to create a custom poster frame for a media clip.

Different media formats provide different benefits. Here's a quick summary to help you decide which to use in your next project.

Yes, vertical video drives all traditional editors nuts. But, with kajillions of cell phones out there, vertical video is now a common format. Here's how to edit it in Final Cut Pro X.

Normally, when we have problems, we open Disk Utility and perform First Aid on our boot disk. But, that won't fix many problems. Here's a better way.

Highly-compressed media often requires transcoding into an intermediate codec for editing. With the latest versions of Premiere, you now have more options.

Keywords provide more and better ways to find clips, but they also allow us to create subclips. Here's how.

The range for audio gain was expanded to +15 dB. Here's how to make the adjustment.

There are multiple ways to apply an effect. Here are two (and a half) ways that can save you time immediately.

RAIDs are collections of hard drives or SSDs designed for high-performance with high capacity. However, setting the wrong "level" can slow your system or put your data at risk. Here's what you need to know.

Cache files are work files used by Premiere to find, display, edit and render media. However, they take up space and aren't needed all the time. Here are some maintenance tips.

Wouldn't it be cool to apply your favorite effect with a single keyboard shortcut? Well, you can. But, by default, this feature isn't turned on. Here's how to enable it.

Preferences are exactly that - your preference on how you want Premiere to work. However, as this tip illustrates, here are five preference settings that can materially affect performance.

We spend more time trimming clips than we do reviewing or editing them. So, anything we can do to speed trimming saves hours of time; even on short projects. Here are some tricks.

All too often, we only copy the files we think we need from the camera card. In general, this is a really bad idea. Here's why.

Here are two ways to export just part of a sequence or a clip from Premiere Pro. This technique also gives you the most options in export.

A recent new feature in Final Cut allows exporting multiple files at the same time. This vastly speeds the process of sharing a file. Here's how this works.

Dropped frames are bad. They indicate your system is not able to play the current video format smoothly in real-time. However, the dropped frame warning is turned off by default. Here's how to turn it on.