Cut Lines: Using Speed Controls in Final Cut Pro 7

Event DV by Ben Balser

This month we'll look at the brand new speed controls in Final Cut Pro (FCP) 7. In Final Cut Pro 6 and earlier versions, the speed control function was called Time Remapping, but now it's just called Speed Change. It's also much easier and faster. We have four tools to work with: the Change Time window, the Speed Tool in the Timeline window, the Clip Keyframe control below each track in the Timeline window, and the Speed section of the Viewer window's Motion tab. We'll look briefly at each one and how they work. Using these four resources together can help you achieve complex speed changes and ramp them up quickly and easily.

Changing Speed in the Time Change Window
The first speed tool we’ll look at is the Change Time window (Figure 1, below). To access it, highlight a clip in the Timeline, right-click on it, and choose Change Speed from the pop-up shortcut menu that appears. You can also highlight the clip and use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+J. In this window you can control the speed of the clip by Duration, which keeps the clip’s current In and Out points on their specified frames but changes the time duration that occurs between those In and Out points. You can control the speed by the playback Rate, set as a percentage—50% being half-speed slow motion, 200% meaning playing back at twice normal speed, for example. You can also select the Reverse check box to make the clip play backward. This is handy for situations such as when a slow zoom in should be a slow zoom out. read more...