Final Cut Pro For Beginners 2025 - Getting Started Tutorial

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

I am a 1000% newbie to FC and have seen many videos and this was by far the easiest to follow along. I have a hard time learning new skills, but once I do I get it. This was really good. Thanks!

[@NickKendall]

That's awesome to hear! Glad you found it helpful! :)

[@Liberty_Ranch]

I could not have said this better! As a complete newbie who felt overwhelmed opening FC, this video really helped me discover that I actually can understand it and use it. And I’ve watched plenty of FC videos. This is the only one that gave me hope 😂

[@iGeraudEnter10s]

facts

[@asan1050]

Nick Kendall ! Thank you for posting.

[@NickKendall]

No problem! :)

[@jeffbennett3248]

I've seen a lot of tutorials and needed a refresher and this was brilliant. well done, thank you very much. best i've seen... bravo!!

[@NickKendall]

That's so good to hear! Thanks :)

[@NayNay-f6e2w]

great tutorial Nick, i love it and it really help me as a beginner. greetings from Indonesia.

[@NickKendall]

So glad it helped! :)

[@mancerrss]

You literally is the God of straightforward tool teacher. I hope you get to do this same, super straightforward crash course videos to Apple Motion, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Davinci Resolve too. Because I just wanna be proficient on any video editor tools out there.

[@NickKendall]

Hey so glad you found it useful!! I definitely have plans for lots more content like this so keep an eye out! :)

[@andyg3752]

Great video, I’ve been using FCP for years but only make a handful of videos a year and I still learnt lots to help me improve my workflow!

[@musgroveandthepumi1604]

Thanks for talking at a normal pace. Many of the other tutorials I've seen are different. They talk real fast, like they're under some kind of time restraint. Add to that quick jump cuts between sentences and I'm forced to move on to somebody else. Glad to have found your channel. Great work!

[@NickKendall]

I appreciate it! I try to keep things relaxed and easy to follow so thanks for the feedback! :)

[@DaltonSkach]

First video on my journey towards learning FCP. Thank you for sharing, Nick!

[@NickKendall]

Let's go! Best of luck Dalton :)

[@Jamestyros4]

Thank you Nick. This has been extremely helpful. I’ve been using Final Cut Pro for iPad for a while and just started Final Cut Pro on my new MacBook Pro. Obviously a massive difference between iPad and Mac versions. Your tutorial has helped me familiarise myself with the desktop version. For example the iPad version names ‘Blade’ as ‘Cut’, and interface is so different. A learning curve but one which I am looking forward to learning. New subscriber here 😊

[@NickKendall]

Great to hear! Glad I could help! I haven't used the iPad version so really interesting to hear it's so different!! 😊

[@angelofthelight6650]

Yeah, I'm definitely downloading this one. This is everything I need, everything I've been looking for. Appreciate the video.

[@NickKendall]

Have fun :)

[@remyvegamedia]

Just got Final Cut Pro for the first time ever. I'm a musician/audio engineer and have never looked at video production software in my entire life. First tutorial ever for me haha. I'm actually really excited to get started making some videos because this sort of makes sense to me so far. Thank you!

[@NickKendall]

Welcome to the world of video editing! 😊

[@Beiunsshepherds]

Jo Nick! I have been using Premiere for over 20 years. Now was the time to switch to Final Cut and your video was basically the first I watched. I can't say how helpful this was coming from Premiere. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

[@NickKendall]

Excellent choice to jump over, glad it was helpful! I know a lot of people are making the move; I'm planning a full tutorial specifically for people moving across from Premiere! :)

[@KieranEdititng]

@@NickKendallplease do this and quick 😂

[@NickKendall]

@@KieranEdititng noted! haha

[@NicholasPiparo]

Great video! Extremely helpful how you explain your entire workflow and give analogies. I like Final Cut and I’ve been using it for a few years but I never got a solid understanding of if.

[@NickKendall]

Glad to hear it was helpful! :)

[@erinisabellabee]

Thank you so much for making this video 😭 I'm switching to FCP from Wondershare Filmora and this was SO helpful.

[@NickKendall]

You're so welcome! 😊

[@ashavari]

wooow this is the best tutorial video for a program i've ever seen! I'm so happy i moved away from the others now :D If only davinci had you for fusion tabs lmao

[@NickKendall]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful! Davinci fusion tab still confuses me too 😂

[@Thaliaintech]

this was such a helpful video, ive been editing on capcut pro and since it may go away with the ban ive been researching the smoothest transition software and you just convinced me! thank you for making this so easy to follow!

[@Winstonfying]

Thanks Nick, you did a great job. Short, simple and clear 🙏

[@NickKendall]

Thanks! 😊👍

[@MrBryanberry]

Fantastic -- thank you so much! The video will save me oodles of time, and so much trial and error. So clear and concise without going into the weeds too much.

[@NickKendall]

Awesome, glad you liked it! :)

[@ninoblanco1378]

I am new to the MacOS ecosystem. I have been a Windows guy all my life. I really enjoyed your tutorial, thanks for bringing me up to speed.

[@NickKendall]

Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully, it made the transition a bit easier. 😊

[@thelockdownexplorer3510]

Thank you. I really struggled with the set up as I used PP before and couldn't get the hang of Library, Projects etc but you have explained it really well.

[@michellevirgilio4024]

thank you times a million! helped so much. also side note, ur energy is so comforting

[@NickKendall]

So happy to hear that! :)

[@cherygibson]

Soooooo Helpful!! I have been using imovie and have been struggling with final cut. I kept going back to imovie but this video has cleared up a lot of my confusion. TYSM!

[@NickKendall]

So happy to hear that! Once you get the hang of Final Cut it's a really powerful tool :)

[@RobertEddowes]

watching for refresher to see if i missed anything, but this is SO refreshing seeing the ease of use of the FCPX interface vs the ridiculously convoluted davinci resolve nle that is impossible to use without a masters degree in physics.

[@NickKendall]

Haha Final Cut is the way to go! :)

[@tessabarrow]

Great video, already learning more about FCPX

[@NickKendall]

😊🙌

[@Tidge-TheCrackedMug]

This was very helpful and prevented me from pulling my hair out ;-) Thank you Nick!

[@NickKendall]

Glad to hear it! 😄

[@amitbaghla3460]

amazing video brother keep it up god bless you😃😃

[@NickKendall]

Appreciate the love! 🙌

[@cpbeauvoir]

Your video is so easy to follow along. You have a new subscriber. Excited to learn from you.

[@NickKendall]

Thanks! Glad you found it helpful. 🙂

[@angelaapproved]

Wow! This was an excellent tutorial. I wish the cheatsheet didn't have a black background because I wanted to print it....but not bad enough to blackout some paper with ink. Loved the information!

[@NickKendall]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@Stephen1636]

excellent walk-through; concise and easy to follow!

[@NickKendall]

Thanks for watching! Glad it was helpful!

[@vidabee8672]

I am familiar with FCP but I think this was a great refresher! Thank you!

[@NickKendall]

You're so welcome!

[@ismaelarriaga1223]

Beginner here 🙋🏻‍♂️ I love your tutorial, very easy to follow along and natural. Thank you!

[@NickKendall]

Awesome! Glad it was helpful! :)

[@Areya-Sunshine]

Transitioning from Premiere back to FCP after many years of being away so thank you for this! I feel ready to download the program and explore! 😊

[@NickKendall]

Welcome back!! :D Glad it was helpful!

[@blekvoot]

Just what I needed, man. Thank you so much!

[@NickKendall]

You're welcome! Glad it was helpful! 😊

[@andrewforshaw7846]

Greetings from Wales:.... Superb Nick,... I like your relaxed style of presentation. The speed of delivery is good for me and the number of basic topics you present are just right to assist newbies like me as I endeavour to migrate from iMove to FCP. Thank you.

[@NickKendall]

So glad it was helpful Andrew! Thanks for the feedback! :)

[@puneetverma1847]

being a premier pro user since long time, only the fist section was the most confusing for me to get my head around! ... thanks for the video

[@nigelandsueadventures]

thanks so much Nick, this is a great starter tutorial. And from a fellow Aussie! Cheers.

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! :)

[@mustafaalshahood]

love your video mate, watched it a couple of times, big like and a big subscribe. Thanks

[@NickKendall]

Appreciate that! 🙏

[@Arisenice]

Amazing! keep it up and we need more of these tutorials

[@NickKendall]

More on the way! 😊🙌

[@MBurfield]

Hi Nick. Thanks for this content - really helpful and, like others have said, a great pace. Just one question - if one is creating a longer video with a couple of additional vertical videos from the same footage for, say, socials etc, would you create each as a separate project within the same event? Thanks, and a Happy New Year from the mountains of North Wales, UK!

[@NickKendall]

Happy New Year to you as well! You can create a separate project within the same event, or you can create a new event in the same library and put your project within that. It's really up to you and what suits your workflow 😊 I do both depending on the videos I'm working on!

[@superamario6464]

Nick...this is brilliant. Thank you!

[@NickKendall]

Hope it's helpful! :)

[@superamario6464]

@@NickKendall very. Putting this kind of content out there....thank you

[@Satizzfiedbeatz]

just got final cut pro and i never used it i used a bunch of editing subscriptions but they never work as i want them to this is the only video that help me get to work ASAP

[@NickKendall]

Great to hear!! :)

[@anferneecooper]

I dont normally comment on videos, but this one was really informational and well done

[@NickKendall]

Hey thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate it and glad the video was helpful! :)

[@downtown9508]

Thanks man. did my first video with your help. Looks terrible but it's a first step. I struggled to convert my F Log footage to a rec 709. Finally I figured it out and the footage still looks terrible. Maybe I overexposed. Or maybe I have the wrong rec709 lut. It's still all very confusing.

[@NickKendall]

Hey congrats on your first video man!! Huge first step; here's to many more! It can definitely be tricky converting from log to rec 709. Let me know if there's anything I can help with!

[@garycard1826]

Great concise video. Well done. Thanks. What resolution should I select for KZbin and do I export using Social Media from my MAC?

[@NickKendall]

I have another video on best export settings, but for KZbin go 4k if you can, and for vertical videos, 1080p will do the job.

[@DJDEEM1]

Thank you for the refresher. I haven't used FCPX in a while since Apple upgraded me out of most of their products with the M1 chip. Anyway, I'm back up and running thanks to Open Core Legacy Patcher. I'll ride that until the wheels fall off and hopefully a have a new MacBook Pro by then. Thanks for sharing.

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! :)

[@benjaminpastrana9662]

More than excellent tutorial, peaceful voice🙌

[@NickKendall]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@MicahTek]

Just switched from fcp for iPad to fcpx I’m glad I found this video

[@NickKendall]

Nice!

[@zanasantos2338]

Perfect content very well explained!

[@NickKendall]

Glad it helped!

[@Neazzy]

Super useful! thank you so much! I am currently transitioning from Da vinci resolve to FCP and this helped a ton! Subscribed :)

[@NickKendall]

Nice, good luck with the transition! :)

[@tradeincenterprises583]

Straight to the point thanks

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MrEhannah]

Thank you, for the great information. Really helpful!!!

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Spring_Boott]

can you tell how to blur a certain part of screen for a certain time. For example if there's a 2 pc screen in video and want to blur those screens for 10sec. How can one do that?

[@danieldonovan6686]

thanks, for this helpful tutorial

[@NickKendall]

No problem :)

[@WeAreTheWorld-RO]

Thank you so much for this! As a new channel, I've been struggling to provide better and better quality for my videos. And this is exactly the kind of content I was looking for. Nicely explained, concise, simply awesome. :) Thank you! One more sub from me with this occasion.

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! 😊🙌

[@marknorfolk1316]

Hi Nick, I'm moving from FCP7 to FCPX and am concentrating hard on your tutorial. Any tips in how to change the layout using an additional monitor?

[@NickKendall]

My personal favourite setup with a second monitor is to full screen my preview window on one and have my timeline and controls on the other. There should be a button in the top right when you connect the second screen to be able to do this!

[@marknorfolk1316]

@@NickKendall Thank you I'll give that a go. Is there a way to include the timeline as well? I sometimes like to get right inside the audio waveform cutting music. Thank you.

[@ilhamfitri_1703]

do you have part 2 ? to dive more about FCP other functional

[@NickKendall]

I have a lot of other FCP tutorial videos, plus a course on the way! 🙌

[@mapleskunk]

Thanks. Easy to follow.

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful!

[@angusbabb4913]

Excellent ,thank you !!

[@NickKendall]

No problem! 😊

[@Jbotw23]

thanks im going to do this on the free trial

[@NickKendall]

Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions 😊

[@FeniaMM]

Hey awesome this was so helpful 🎉❤ My video of 20 minutes is 54GB. Just followed your instructions but this is tooooo much for KZbin. I am German and sometimes I don’t get the words had to replay more often. Would be nice if you don’t swallow so many word 😂😅😮❤ love your content

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! I'll try to be more careful with my words! 😄😅 Also, a video that's 20 minutes should be closer 10gb. 54gb is probably too big. I have another video on export settings, I recommend giving that a watch! :)

[@iamangelab]

This was amazing thank you

[@NickKendall]

You're welcome! Glad it was helpful!

[@garryhughes3837]

Thanks. Very helpful.

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! :)

[@GigawattGarage]

I really need to try and either learn FCP or DavResolve, and I've been using Vegas Pro for over 10 years. I just want to be able to edit on the mac vs a PC. Vegas is just so easy and all the others have so many things that just seem backwards to me coming from vegas.

[@NickKendall]

You might find that FCP is much more intuitive than you'd expect, but at the end of the day it's always good to use what you're most comfortable with 😊

[@MikeBarnhill]

Great video thanks!! Can you crop horizontal movies into vertical clips to use for Instagram or TikTok?

[@NickKendall]

Yes, you can! I might make another video about this. Just right click your project and then hit 'duplicate project as' and then select the vertical video format. Make sure 'smart conform' is selected and it will automatically resize everything!

[@MikeBarnhill]

@@NickKendall awesome thanks so much for the reply!

[@totoroutes5389]

What is that curved monitor/display that you use?

[@NickKendall]

It's an LG 38WN95c :)

[@tamilcoupleinlondon]

hey Nick!! Thanks for this video. Can U please tell us how did you connect your macbook to that large curved Monitor?? If you can make a video on that it would be nice Please. I have a macbook pro and Im thinkin to buy a monitor screen.

[@NickKendall]

Hey! It just connects via USB C. I actually have a 2 or 3 videos talking about my ultrawide so feel free to check them out :)

[@donnyp462]

i see you don't have a studio display either. when i plug my macbook into my samsung odyssey g5 (3440x1440), i have a super small font at the standard resolution. sometimes very blurry too. i have already bought “betterdisplay”, but i can't see any real improvement here. i can reduce the resolution, but then everything is really big. do you have any tips or how did you solve the problem?

[@NickKendall]

Dang that's really frustrating! It might be a limitation of your monitor unfortunately. I have heard of people having this issue when connecting macs into non-Apple displays. Thankfully I don't have this issue on my LG monitor.

[@donnyp462]

@@NickKendall thanks for your reply! I figured out thats indeed a monitor issue.. :)

[@Joey-n-Kiwi]

Good vlog, very informative…👍

[@NickKendall]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@Gamerlingual]

Is the new base model M4 Pro Chip enough for Final Cut Pro? I considered Davinci Resolve, but I don’t want to spend an extra $400 for 48GB of RAM.

[@NickKendall]

100%! I'm still using an M1 Pro Macbook with 16gb of ram and FCP runs perfectly :) The M4 Pro will breeze through 🙌

[@taneshasmart929]

Thank you!

[@NickKendall]

You're welcome!

[@rogerhummel3023]

I noticed that you are using a stand for your MacBook. What is the name of the particular stand you are using and where do I get one?

[@NickKendall]

It's just a basic foldable one from Amazon :)

[@tomdidit4216]

Hello there Nick. Great video. Just liked and sub. I have a small YT channel that focuses on motorcycle restoration. Can you recommend an AI video editor that can edit 5hrs of raw footage into 30 min final video? My videos currently take me 30 hours to edit (i use iMovie) :(

[@NickKendall]

Unfortunately I don't think AI has progressed quite that far yet to be able to edit together that much footage. You might like text-based editing though; it created a transcript from your video which you can then just edit like a text document and this will cut out and video you delete from the text. One I know of is called Descript and I also know CapCut has text based editing. I hope that's some help!

[@AlwaysBolttheBird]

awesome tutorial thank you. one question. when you import media into the library does it copy the video files into the library or keep them in the original location

[@NickKendall]

Great question; if you go to the menu bar and select Final Cut Pro > Settings > Import, there is an option at the top to either copy files into the library or leave files in place. I personally leave them in place so it doesn't double up my storage. :)

[@AlwaysBolttheBird]

@@NickKendallthanks. I keep my video files on a nas and wanted to make sure the didn’t copy to my laptop. Again great video and thanks for the reply

[@randyromanmusic]

Nick, just moved from Windows Magix Movie Studio to FCP. Thanks for the head start. Right now my footage and music are grouped and locked. How do you separate them for editing? Did not see that in workspace setup.

[@InTodaysVideo]

Thanks Nick for this video. What is the best third party source for Final Cut Pro effects, titles and transitions?

[@NickKendall]

The best one I've used in the past is Motion Array :)

[@finalcutpromastery]

Nice video !

[@NickKendall]

Thanks!

[@videogal33]

Thanks for great audio man, I am concerned about upgrading my mac to Big Sur because I shoot AVCHD. What operating system are you using on your mac? Can you us AVCHD files?

[@fahim9501]

Thank you Nick. It was really helpful. Nice, easy and on point.

[@NickKendall]

Glad to help! :)

[@Ghost_Waifu]

Thank you so much, this was really helpful!!

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! 😊🙌

[@Rob_Beynon]

Frustrated by Filmora and their preatory approach. Baffled by Fusion in Resolve. Not going to do enough to warrant Premiere. So, looking at FCP> THis was a hugely useful introduction - thank you.

[@NickKendall]

So glad it was useful! :)

[@barddzen]

Why when I export does my video look "boxed" in Quicktime? It's not full screen. I shot some video in 4k 30fps used your tutorial to stitch everything together and my shared/exported video in Quicktime looks boxed and smaller and doesn't fill up the entire QT window. Where did I go wrong?

[@aaravpopli9499]

can you please share all the third party effects, transition, titles, etc?

[@hahahorse-sv7mr]

I just wanna say thank u and It helps a lot

[@NickKendall]

So glad to hear it helped! :)

[@kluserandi]

Gutes Turtoial aber wiso erähnst du nicht das man (11:50 ) nach dem ( I ) und ( O ) einfach ( E ) drücken kan um das video einzufügen ? Oder arbeitest du nicht damit ?

[@kluserandi]

google transalate englisch : Good tutorial but why don't you realize that (11:50) after the (I) and (O) you can simply press (E) to insert the video? Or do you not work with it?

[@melinamacdonald3048]

Hi Nick, I found as I followed your tutorial that when i got to the Transform section all the options for all the headings dont open up for me to adjust at all. I'm trying to problem shoot this however not sure if this has to do with when I imported the footage thats 4K at the beginning of the project (first time i've used final cut as an imovie baby so just did it all oon auto pilot instead of how you did it). Any suggestions?

[@NickKendall]

Hey Melina, do you have a timestamp of the section of the video you're struggling with? :)

[@Rosewolf29]

I’ve been thinking about getting FCP for a while but not sure how good it would be for Nightcore videos. Anyone know?

[@JaninesBabblings]

Hi Nick, I’m new to FCP, currently using CapCut which I find very easy to use. I’m stuck on right clicking to make folder New Keyword Collection, there is no right mouse click even if I use the shortcut keys. Please help.

[@NickKendall]

Hmm what exactly do you mean when you say there is no right click? Are you right clicking directly on the event in Final Cut?

[@nonamebrojones5545]

I only miss the V1 A1 A2 A3 A4 labels since I mix 8 tracks of audio with all my projects. Other than that, I love the new FCP!

[@manogar817]

Please make more videos on FCP

[@NickKendall]

Noted! :)

[@benedictcoltman1983]

Superb, thank you

[@NickKendall]

Welcome 😊

[@ItsEzlan]

Thanks for this, I just needed some good simple pointers , I've recently just got my M3 Macbook Pro, I've been using DR on my windows system but found a torrent for FCP, so thought I'd give a try 😊

[@Dragon_Shots]

Do you think this is easier or harder to use than premeire pro?

[@NickKendall]

Personally, I think it's a lot easier! 😊

[@xxviking1999xx]

Really good video

[@NickKendall]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Silverhorse32]

What kind of keyboard do you use?

[@NickKendall]

Logitech MX Keys and a Nuphy Air96 v2

[@RoxanneDisla]

How do you add your face to the clips that show the software?

[@Lostinthemoors]

If a 'Keyword selection' is a 'folder'...then what's a folder for?

[@Ezduztube]

Thank you great video 👍🏻

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful!

Great video thanks

[@NickKendall]

Glad it was helpful! :)

[@anjaligadekar3000]

Thanks

[@NickKendall]

No problem :)

[@mikamulperi]

Think Event as global media folder across projects