Apple Final Cut Pro 7 User Manual
Page 1144
Constant Speed Changes on Entire Clips
Applying a constant speed change to an entire clip alters the entire clip’s playback speed
by the same percentage. For example, applying a speed setting of 25 percent to a clip
makes the entire clip play in slow motion. Constant speed changes are useful when you’re
altering a clip’s timing to fit a larger or smaller gap in your sequence, or when you’re
trying to achieve a consistent speed change across an entire clip (making a car seem
faster or slower, for example) or a group of clips.
Tip: If you are using a Change Speed dialog to adjust a clip to a specific duration, use the
Duration field rather than the Rate field to maximize precision. For more information, see
“About the Change Speed Dialogs.”
Constant speed changes also alter the duration of a clip. If a constant speed change
causes the duration of a clip in a sequence to become longer or shorter, all clips coming
after it ripple forward or backward according to the ripple editing rules in Final Cut Pro.
For more information about rippling clips in a sequence, see
“Performing Slip, Slide, Ripple,
A constant speed change over an entire clip changes the duration of the clip. If you choose
50 percent speed, your clip is twice the duration; if you change speed to 200 percent,
the clip becomes half as long. For example, if you set a 10-second clip to play back at 50
percent speed, Final Cut Pro duplicates frames in the clip so that the clip becomes
20 seconds long and plays back more slowly. If you increase the clip’s speed to 200
percent, Final Cut Pro skips frames and makes the clip 5 seconds long, and it plays back
considerably faster.
10-second clip
Same clip with speed
changed to 50 percent
(now 20 seconds long)
Note: Speed settings are applied to the specific instance of the selected clip only. They
are not applied to that clip’s source media on disk and can be changed at any time. To
create an (external) media file with the applied speed effects, export the clip as a QuickTime
movie.
1144
Chapter 69
Changing Clip Speed