Key New Features in Apple Final Cut Pro 10.8 (Mac)

This week, Apple released FCP 10.8. While this significant upgrade contains multiple new features and fixes, here are the key features and how to use them.

CAUTION: One feature that was removed in this version is the ability to burn DVDs or Blu-ray Discs. If this feature is important to you, read this workaround.

NOTE: Here’s a list of all the new features and fixes in Final Cut, Compressor, and Motion.

Enhance Light and Color

Automatically improve the color, color balance, contrast, and brightness of video or still images using the new Enhance Light and Color effect, powered by machine learning.

The best part of this feature is that after you apply these automatic settings, you can manually adjust them to improve the look further.

To apply this effect:

• Select a timeline clip.

• Open the Color Inspector (or choose Modify > Enhance Light and Color)
• Choose Color Adjustments

• Click Enhance Light & Color (top red arrow)
• If you only want to adjust exposure, disable the Color icon (lower red arrow).
• If you only want to adjust color, disable the Light button (middle red arrow).

As an example, the source image is on the left, the automatic correction is in the middle and a manual tweak to warm the midtones after the automatic correction was made is on the right.

I especially like that we can still correct colors manually after making this adjustment, or apply other color effects or filters. This automatic option provides a fast start to fixing problems.

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Smooth Slo-Mo and Frame Rate Conforming

Use Smooth Slo-Mo to create clean slow-motion visuals with an AI-enhanced algorithm on Mac models with Apple silicon. You can also use this same algorithm to match the frame rate of a clip to the frame rate of a project.

NOTE: This feature is only available on Apple-silicon systems.

To apply this effect:

• Select a range, clip, or group of clips in the timeline, then click the Retime icon at the top of the timeline (red arrow)

• Choose Smooth Slo-Mo, then a speed. (Speed options are limited to these three choices to provide the highest-quality results.)

• Make sure Video Quality, at the bottom of the Retime menu,  is set to Best (Machine Learning)

FCP will analyze the clip, then apply optical flow speed changes as determined by machine learning. Optical flow creates new frames from the existing media. Sometimes, it works great, other times, not so much. Be sure to watch the final results carefully to make sure things look OK.

Note from Apple: “Smooth Slo-Mo requires a Mac with Apple silicon. For frame sizes larger than 1920 x 1080, analysis and rendering time is necessary. Frame sizes larger than 4K require a Mac with an M2 chip or later. The largest supported frame size is 8K.”

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Advanced Search and Filtering

Use new filters in the timeline index to quickly identify clips with audio effects, video effects, retiming changes, missing media, or missing effects. Click the small, downward-pointing chevron (red arrow) to reveal the filter menu.

Apple notes: “You can search by clip name, keyword, marker (including to-do items), caption, role, note, reel, scene, camera angle, camera name, custom metadata, effect name (default or custom), or for clips in the browser using new “Starts With” and “Ends With” search options.

You can also search using keywords that are added automatically by Final Cut Pro. For example, you can search for the following:

• Clips with the missing media alert icon: Enter “missing.”
• Multicam clips: Enter “multicam.”
• Compound clips: Enter “compound.”
• Synced clips: Enter “synchronized.”
• Auditions: Enter “audition.”

I especially like quickly finding which clips are missing media or effects!

NOTE: A fast way to open the Timeline Index, ready to find stuff is to type: Cmd + F.

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Improved Effects Control

Stay organized by renaming color corrections and video effects in the inspector.

Finally, we can drag effects from the inspector to other clips in the timeline or viewer, but not Browser.

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EXTRA CREDIT

This Apple KnowledgeBase page provides links on how to use all these features.

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