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Get free email support. If your question isn't answered in the FastCut User's Guide, the Red Pill User's Guide, the Red Pill for Windows User's Guide or the FastCut FAQ (below), feel free to leave a message using the contact form below.







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Frequently Asked Questions (FastCut, fgrab)

What is the difference between 'editing mode' and 'preview mode' mode?
- In Final Cut Pro for instance you have two monitor windows, one for the single clips ('Viewer') and one for the whole movie composition ('Canvas'). In FastCut you have only one 'Monitor' window, but you can use it as 'Viewer' or as 'Canvas'. Use the 'P' button in the bottom right corner of the 'Monitor' window to switch from 'editing mode' (gray 'P') to 'preview mode' (blue 'P') and vice versa. Be aware that FastCut sometimes implicitly switches from one mode to the other. If you move the playhead slider in the 'Timeline' window, the 'Monitor' switches to 'preview mode' (if necessary). If you double-click a single clip in the 'Timeline' to load it into the 'Monitor' and maybe to re-set the in & out points, the 'Monitor' switches to 'editing mode' (if necessary) automatically.

How can I easily arrange my FastCut windows on the screen?
- Choose 'Arrange Windows' from the 'Window' menu. If you have a large screen, hold down the shift key while dragging the zoom box of the 'Timeline' window to resize the main windows titled 'Browser', 'Inspector', 'Monitor' and 'Timeline' simultaneously.

How can I duplicate clips in the timeline?
- Load the clip in the monitor by double-clicking the clip. Then drag & drop it once again from the monitor window into a track of the timeline. Alternatively you may hold down the command key while draging the clip.

How can I change the in and out point of a clip already in the timeline?
- Load the clip in the monitor by double-clicking the clip. Then use the buttons in the bottom right corner of the monitor to re-set the in and out point. The start points of the clips arranged behind the selected clip are changed automatically.

I have selected a clip / multiple clips in the timeline. Why are the menu items of the 'Movie' menu disabled?
- The timeline window is not activated (not in front).

I did not manage to apply a transition...
- Insert two clips in one track one after another. You can create a transition by setting the transition property of the first source clip. The subsequent second source clip should be placed directly after the first source clip in the timeline.

How to work with keyframes?
- Here is a screen movie which demonstrates how to animate a clip using keyframes (just a basic example).

How can I re-create the automatically opended project 'Movies/My Great Movie' at launch time?
- Hold down the shift key during launch.

I opened a project (or I launched FastCut and the default project 'Movies/My Great Movie' is opened automatically) and FastCut tries to search for some media files. What's wrong?
- It seems that some files have been moved offline. Maybe you imported a movie file from a CD and now the CD is ejected. Try to make these files available again. FastCut does not copy the files you import, only references are saved. If the search process starts after launch, abort and hold down the shift key during relaunch to replace the default project 'Movies/My Great Movie' with a new one. If troubleshooting fails, contact the support.

How can I rename clips in the 'Browser' window?
- At first, load your clip in the monitor. Then choose 'Save As...' from the 'File' menu. A dialog prompt for the new file name appears. Enter a file name and click 'Save'. The file is saved inside your FastCut project and appears in the 'Browser' window. Now you can remove the clip you originally loaded in the 'Monitor'.

How can I jump to the in or out point of a clip?
- Hold down the shift key and press the in or out point button in the bottom right corner of the 'Monitor' window.

How can I scale a clip directly with the mouse in the 'Monitor' window.
- Firstly, turn on wireframe mode by clicking the wireframe button in the bottom right corner of the 'Monitor' window. Then hold down the shift key, click on the selected clip and drag to scale the clip size.

I enabled keyframe animation in the 'Inspector' window. Now I can't change the clip parameters any more, except those parameters without a dot on the right (not animatable parameters).
- Animatable parameters can only be set if the playhead is over a keyframe, now. Select a keyframe from the popup menu and the playhead will move (exactly) to the keyframe.

What filetypes will FastCut import?
- FastCut is able to import files with the file extensions .mov, .mp3, .m4a, .aac, .aiff, .mp4, .m4v, .avi, .dv, .tiff and with the HFS file type codes 'MooV', 'TIFF', 'dvc!'.

How to get the timecode of the in and out point of a fvf clip?
- Select the fvf clip in the timeline. Then move your mouse from outside into the 'Timeline' window. A tooltip appears and brings the required information.

How to import screen movies (.fvf) in FastCut projects?
- Watch this screen movie.

How to get the associated audio comment of a .fvf file into the FastCut 'Timeline'?
- When you have already inserted the .fvf clip into the timeline ('Movie' > 'Insert Screen Movie') it is easy. Just drag and drop the fvf clip from one of your video tracks into a audio track while holding down the option key to perfrom a 'drag copy' operation.

How to apply a zoom and pan effect?
- Enable animation and create keyframes for the 'crop' parameters. You can change the crop parameters precisely in the 'Inspector' or directly in the 'Monitor' window using the crop keyboard shortcuts option+Return/Delete/arrow keys.

Everytime I put a fvf clip in the FastCut 'Timeline' it appears pixelated and very poor quality.
- Make sure that you set the 'movie size' in the 'preferences' dialog to the size of your fvf clip (=screen size). The actual output export size may be set later in the QuickTime export dialog. Also make sure that the framerate in the 'preferences' dialog is set to the framerate of your fvf clip(s) or higher. Don't decrease the framerate later in the QT export dialog; this would result in artefacts. If you want a framerate of 15 fps for instance, then capture the screen with 15 fps at the outset.

FastCut 3.0.3 brings a new motion blur feature. How to enable this?
- 'Motion Blur' can be enabled by clicking the button in the bottom right corner of the 'Monitor' when you are in 'preview mode'. While it makes motion animations appear more realistic, be aware that motion blur decreases playback performance!

Multi-pass H.264 is the default export format...
- Yes. If you want to save time, change this to single-pass encoding in the export dialog.

fgrab is slow, it doesn't reach 30 fps even though I have configured it...
- You should have at least 8 GB of free space on your startup hard disk drive. But there are also other causes worth considering.

 
Last update: Sep 20, 2018
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