User Guide

Chapter 6 Fine-Tuning Your Edit 101
Changing a Clip’s Speed
You can use the Final Cut Express HD speed options to speed up or slow down a clip in
your sequence to create fast or slow motion effects. Changes to a clip’s speed that are
under 100 percent produce slow motion. Changes to a clip’s speed that are over
100 percent produce fast motion.
For example, if you set a 10-second clip to play back at 50 percent, Final Cut Express HD
duplicates its frames so that the clip becomes 20 seconds long, playing back more
slowly. If you increase the clip’s speed to 200 percent, Final Cut Express HD skips frames
and makes the clip 5 seconds long, and it plays back considerably faster.
Speed settings you apply are not applied to that clip’s source media on the computer’s
hard disk, and can be changed at any time.
Selected 10-second clip
Same clip with speed changed to
50 percent (now 20 seconds long)