Retiming basics

In this section, you’ll learn how to play clips faster or slower than normal, for special effects, for slow motion, or even to deal with footage at the wrong frame rate. After a quick look at the different kinds of footage you might need to deal with, you’ll discover how to apply an overall speed change to a clip.

All of the important retiming commands are in the same menu — the third icon (a speedometer) at the lower left of the Viewer. To get started, you’ll need a few clips in a timeline and ideally some high-speed clips for slow-motion. If you have an iPhone, switch it to Slo-Mo mode now and record something moving. For great results, blow a raspberry to the camera, create a water splash somehow, or dance.

If you have used your iPhone, don’t AirDrop it to your Mac because that will lock in a pre-defined slow-motion effect. Plug the iPhone into your Mac and import it into FCP directly to get the full original clip.

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