What Features Does Apple Final Cut Pro Still Need?

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Larry

Last week, Apple released a statement responding to a petition from hundreds of Final Cut Pro editors that Apple recommit to continued, active development of Final Cut. Apple answered, in part:

“While we believe we have plans in place to help address your important feature requests, we also recognize the need to build on those efforts and work alongside you to help support your film and TV projects and keep you posted on important updates.”

NOTE: Read their entire statement here.
– – –

For many years, Apple offered editors the ability to suggest features using the “Provide Feedback to Apple” form in Final Cut Pro. However, this form presents several problems:

Apple never responds to suggestions made using this form. So we have no idea whether anyone in decision-making authority at Apple actually reads these.

NOTE: Apple has told me on several occasions that these are read. However, “read” and “act upon” are not the same.

When we provide feedback to Apple, we have no idea what anyone else is suggesting. We can neither agree nor disagree with the need for a specific feature.
There’s no way to reinforce how important – or unimportant – a feature is because we don’t know what’s suggested.
Apple has a long tradition of “not invented here.” If Apple engineers decide something is a good idea, it gets developed. If a user suggests a good idea, it is frequently ignored.

I created this article to begin an active and open discussion of missing features in Final Cut. If you think something needs to be added, suggest it in the comments. It’s not as good as a web-centered, multi-user database with instant vote totals. But it’s available today and gets us started.

If you have a feature, suggest it.
If you think a suggestion is good, reinforce it.
If you think a suggestion could be better, improve it.
If you think a suggestion is misguided, comment.

NOTE: All comments are moderated – so be polite. Inflammatory or off-topic comments will be removed.

My hope is to inform the Final Cut community, Apple and the advisory panel they hope to create so that the features Apple adds are actually those desired by editors.

Share this link with your friends on social media. Spread the word. Because, if there’s no interest in adding new features, that tell’s Apple something, as well.

Don’t wait for Apple to convene an advisory panel – let your voice be heard now.

LARRY’S TOP FIVE FEATURES

To get the discussion started, here are my top five feature requests for Final Cut Pro:

Scrolling timeline. As a project plays, the timeline should scroll to keep the playhead in view.
Effective speech-to-text creation, integration and editing.
Either develop an audio application specifically for mixing audio to picture or provide tighter round-trip integration with Logic Pro for audio mixing. The current audio mixing capability in Final Cut is limited and clunky. Audio mixing should be as easy in Final Cut as it is in Premiere to Audition.
Better, smoother collaboration features when editors are not on the same network. Adobe was so convinced this is an essential feature, they bought Frame.io. Perhaps include better media management and review tools.
Fix all the bugs in creating both DVD and Blu-ray Discs. The future may be downloads, but thousands of editors make their living creating physical media for clients. Burning DVDs/Blu-ray Discs in Final Cut has not worked properly since FCP X was first released. Support burning multiple movies to disk. Support custom menus. Support stories. Support multiple languages in both audio and captions.

I’m sure you have your own list. Share it in the comments and let’s get the conversation started. Spread the word.

Bookmark the permalink.

151 Responses to What Features Does Apple Final Cut Pro Still Need?

← Older Comments Newer Comments →

Dejan says:

May 23, 2022 at 3:53 am

Generally speaking, exporting timelines for audio mixing and color grading needs to be improved. In particular:

Sending FCPX timelines to ProTools is a disaster. As mentioned by Avtar, FCPX should be able to generate an AAF without sending to X2Pro.

Multicam timelines need to be flattened before sending to Resolve.

Reply
- Alex ‘4D’ Gollner says:
  
  May 24, 2022 at 9:42 am
  
  Pity that all some ask for is the ability to export to an interchange format. Ideally Final Cut Pro should export ProTools projects and be able to import them so the audio elements autoreconform to changes in the video timeline.
  
  Also applies to DaVinci Resolve, Media Composer and Premiere projects.
  
  And Motion 5 projects!
  
  Motion 5 should also be able to open Keynote files, so as to improve and add to animations.
  
  Reply
  - Larry says:
    
    May 24, 2022 at 9:47 am
    
    Alex:
    
    Smile… Sometimes, even asking for the simple things is asking for something too much.
    
    Larry
    
    Reply
Cindy Burgess says:

May 23, 2022 at 3:54 am

Would love to see an automatic captions feature like Premiere has (it’s sooo good), but I suspect that would require moving FCP to a subscription based service online to take advantage of the latest AI..

Reply
- Jonathan Alexander says:
  
  May 23, 2022 at 6:09 am
  
  OHHH my god yes please!
  
  Reply
Tangier Clarke says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:46 am

Ask and you shall receive Larry. Here’s my personal ongoing list of wants:

1. Built-in AAF export
2. Quickly re-sync clips in the storyline by selecting them
3. Marker for a slate clap without scratch audio (requires AI) and for the non-sync sound to go with it. A useful AI feature when your production team didint’ have a scratch track or synced timecode.
4. Batch export frames at markers with a certain tag (for exporting multiple frames at once)
5. Markers are maintanined when making a compound clip
6. Ability to reconnect plugins (so we don’t need X-FX Handler)
7. Add multiple clips to the timeline in the same place (like audio) so they stack rather than insert
8. Ability to disable offline items with one button like disabling roles. Particlarly important when titles or generators are offline , but they’re in the way of the clip below.
9. A hold feature at the beginning and end of the Ken Burns effect so you don’t have to keep adding/modifying a freeze frame after the edit.
10. Duplicate X amount of times sub menu so you can create several duplicates of projects with one click – great for prepping for reels to go to ProTools
11. Display export as time remaining instead of just percentage.
12. The ability to choose fonts from a font collection like in Apple Motion
13. Text used in custom generators should be able to be transfered via XML.
14. Visual marker (like lines or something) on a compound clip to show where the edits are inside the clip (useful for doing sound cues on the main storyline rather than inside the compound clip)
15. Built in LTC converter (for using things like Tentacle Sync devices)
16. Batch syncing as good as Sync-N-Link X
17. Display storage/space for projects and events, not just libraries. Helpful when informing someone how much space they’d need just for a copy of the project or how much space an event uses.
18. Incorporate Apple Motion behaviors or at least keyframing interpolation options.
19. Speed ramping the FCP 7 way
20. Make the basic (custom) title generator more like the Alex 4D version where you can adjust carriage returns by dragging border handles.
21. Allow copy/pasting of custom generator attributes
22. Allow applying paramater values to multiple generators of the same type at once.
23. Ability to sort events (by creation date, alphabetical, or numerically)
24. Ability to keyframe the tracking of the custom text generator
25. Select all clips of a role type and elevate them above other clips with a command key combination (like lifting all titles above adjustment layer)
26. A “Used in synced” column – status column to know if a clip is used in a synced or multicam clip
27. Turn a synchronized clip into a multicam by adding another angle.
28. Custom clip naming to affect finder items too – not just limited to FCP X database.
29. Rotate clips in event browser – sometimes needed for GoPro content
30. Make more parameters available to create workflow macros or custome workflows. For instance with GoPro footage. I’d like to hit F15 to open a clip and rotate the clip 180 degrees.
31. Print icon sheet – a method to print all of the icon view icons in the browser (per the selection) rather than take several screenshots because you’re limited to the space/size of your screen.
32. When you keyword a synced or multicam clip it also keywords the clips within them. Example – keywording a multicam ep 305 will apply that keyword to the clips within them also ep 305
33. “Hide imported clips” feature should be available in list view of the import window, not just icon view
34. “Hide imported clips” feature should be available for audio files as well
35. Native ACES support
36. Create DCP option with all of the settings needed (I used DCP-O-Matic)
37. Moveable Markers
38. More robust searching/filtering and/or Grep search
39. Collaborative workflow
40. Audio mixer
41. Better media management
42. Better reporting / alerts of things that go wrong
43. Faster export of still frames.
44. More robust export settings for stills
45. Spatial conform choices is reflected numerically in transform parameters also (for copy/pasting purposes).
46. Ken Burns effect is reflected numerically in the inspector’s transform paramters also (for copy/pasting purposes)
47. Don’t load a project just because I single-clicked it accidentally.
48. Better masking and trackign features in general.
49. Auto subtitle / captioning. 

Reply
- Larry says:
  
  May 23, 2022 at 5:02 am
  
  Tangier:
  
  Smile… Are you sure this wish list covers everything?
  
  Larry
  
  Reply
  - Jo says:
    
    May 23, 2022 at 6:11 am
    
    Wow excellent list, some of those I didn’t even know I needed till I read this. Now I’m mad I don’t have them.
    
    Reply
    - Larry says:
      
      May 23, 2022 at 6:19 am
      
      Jo:
      
      Smile… agreed.
      
      Larry
      
      Reply
  - Tangier Clarke says:
    
    May 23, 2022 at 4:00 pm
    
    Wait. I forgot to include my page 2 of ongoing wants. Just kidding. I couldn’t resist putting it here since the industry knows who you are Larry and maybe, just maybe there will be some eyeballs on this that can make actionable decisions. This is from years of using FCP X / FCP as my primary editor in various types of productions and workflows.
    
    Reply
Adam Mann says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:53 am

Personally I am by no means a professional editor but I do my fare share of weddings, vlogs, blogs, etc.

1. I would like to see an iPad version of FCP even if it was a “limited” version. I want to be able to start editing my clips and building my film while on the go with the same interface etc of FCP, I don’t always carry around my MBP while going out on an adventure or likewise for my blog but being able to sit in the evenings to start culling and building basic timelines with some layers etc. I know I could use LumaFusion or iMovie but its learning more interfaces and then having to export etc and import to potentially fail.

2. Audio, better exporting to LPX to build some more complex audio timelines and then roundtrip back to FCP without loosing anything.

3. Tools like CommandPost.io have provided some great external integration which should be look at.

4. Scrolling timeline

Reply
- Larry says:
  
  May 23, 2022 at 5:04 am
  
  Adam:
  
  Thanks for your comments. I am not a fan of putting FCP on an iPad or iPhone. I think the interfaces are too different. Apple might also argue that’s what Clips is for. Still, I’ve heard this request from others, so it is good to get out there.
  
  Larry
  
  Reply
  - Tangier Clarke says:
    
    May 23, 2022 at 4:02 pm
    
    For some projects I could see the benefit of organizing content perhaps, but just the small size of an iPad really hampers productivity for me. I try using Luma Fusion here and there, but it’s a tough sell. I do know editors who would love to be on a beach or somewhere outside on an iPad while editing.
    
    Reply
Dirk van den Berg says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:55 am

Hey Larry and thank you for doing this.

The most important feature Final Cut Pro lacks – and Adobe Premiere has recently introduced- is to add SPEECH TO TEXT features that allow for transcription and creating subtitles, of course in multiple languages. Adobe has implemented this with downloadable language for packs, and it works perfectly well.

As a seasoned documentary filmmaker, director and editor, with more than a dozen films created in FCP X, adding this feature would definitely cement and solidify my confidence in Apple’s EDL.

Documentary is one of the most growing film genres of our time – and I know personally of dozens of colleagues who switched to Premiere ONLY for that reason, or started paying for an Adobe subscription because of it.

Reply
Richard Hale says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:56 am

Apple had a brilliant and highly useful product in DVD Studio Pro. Their decision to discontinue DVD Studio was a tragedy forcing Apple users to search, in my case, in vain for software capable of supporting DVD’s multiple capabilities. I agree with Larry’s #5 request. Currently FCPX and Compressor can produce simple, near featureless, DVDs playable on stand alone DVD/Blu-ray players as well as computer software players. For Blu-rays similar compilation is available with an embarrassing exception: they are not recognized by stand alone Blu-ray players.

Reply
- Mark Landman says:
  
  May 23, 2022 at 5:59 am
  
  Apple may have decided that we don’t need DVDs anymore, but I have a lot of clients who didn’t get the memo and would beg to disagree.
  
  Reply
  - Larry says:
    
    May 23, 2022 at 6:03 am
    
    Mark:
    
    I completely agree. DVD Studio Pro was an amazing tool – I used it every week. Sadly, it couldn’t make the transition to 64-bit computing.
    
    Paying customers today – especially for weddings, memorial services and graduations – want something they can hold in their hands. They will pay extra for a memento they can also put on the shelf. Final Cut’s inability to burn Blu-ray and its highly limited DVD burning have frustrated editors for years. I wish they would fix it.
    
    Larry
    
    Reply
Stefan flos says:

May 23, 2022 at 5:00 am

One feature request is high on my list and involves archiving. I focus on events and record long duration clips, also for field reporting etc. Sometimes i only use 5 seconds from a 1 hour clip.

If i want to archive that I either have to import the long clips or save them with the project library.

It would be nice if there is an archiving tool to cut and import only the used part of the clip ( with flaps settable to 2-5 or more seconds) so only the compacted archive can be saved. This way the protect can be opened later for minor adjustments and storage can be saved.

Reply
- David Peterson says:
  
  May 23, 2022 at 5:42 am
  
  It is a 3rd-party purchase, but Worx4 does this. I wouldn’t complain if it was built in though.
  
  Larry adds: Thanks, David. For those that don’t know, Worx4 – https://worx4.com – consolidates and trims media in Final Cut Pro projects.
  
  Reply
  - Stefan flos says:
    
    May 23, 2022 at 9:00 pm
    
    Thanks!!! Will check this out.
    
    Reply
Ryan says:

May 23, 2022 at 5:39 am

1. An elegant solution to remote/collaborative workflow. It seems like Resolve has this figured out, and it’s wild Apple has been selling cloud storage for ages, and doesn’t offer a cloud/remote workflow for multiple editors.

Reply
David Kenik says:

May 23, 2022 at 5:41 am

And in and out point so we came share segments of the time line like we had in the old program

Reply
- David Peterson says:
  
  May 23, 2022 at 5:43 am
  
  Can’t you achieve this with a range?
  
  Reply
  - Larry says:
    
    May 23, 2022 at 5:48 am
    
    David:
    
    I think what David Kenik wants is to nest a portion of one project into another. While we can do this with compound clips, we can’t do this with projects.
    
    Larry
    
    Reply
Philip Snyder says:

May 23, 2022 at 5:47 am

FCP 7 had a feature that automatically removed the pulldown on the 24PA files created by the Panasonic HVX200a camera. That feature does not exist anymore in Final Cut. Essentially, it creates 23.98 fps from 29.97 fps by removing the pulldown. Adobe Premiere has this feature. At one time, I sent footage to a fellow editor who had Adobe in order to convert the footage. This shouldn’t be necessary. BTW, Final Cut does currently have a pulldown removal feature that only works with tape-based footage.

Reply