Performing a Fit to Fill Edit
A fit to fill edit changes the speed of a clip in the Viewer so that its duration matches
the duration between the sequence In and Out points. Because a fit to fill edit changes
the speed of the edited clip, you may have to render it before it will play back. Also, any
audio items associated with this clip will change pitch, moving either higher or lower.
Fit to fill is the only edit type in Final Cut Pro that requires four edit points, instead of
three. You need to set In and Out points for your clip in the Viewer, as well as In and
Out points in the Canvas or Timeline, for the destination in your edited sequence. For
more information, see Volume II, Chapter 10, “Three-Point Editing.”
For example, suppose you want to replace a 5-second shot of a lizard with a 3-second
shot of a desert landscape. In this case, you can use the fit to fill edit to make the
landscape shot fit.
10-second clip
Same clip with speed
changed to 50 percent
(now 20 seconds long)
A
B
C
A
D
C
D
Before edit
After edit
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You can also use the fit to fill edit with multiple clips. When you do so, each successive
clip selected in the Browser replaces each successive clip in your sequence using a fit to
fill edit, starting with the clip at the current position of the Timeline playhead. If you’ve
selected more clips in the Browser than you have in your sequence, you’ll see an
“Insufficient content for edit” error message.
Note: When you use the fit to fill edit, the speed setting applied to the edited clip
changes so that the clip fits the newly specified duration. These speed settings can be
modified or removed at any time.
To perform a fit to fill edit:
1
Do one of the following:
 In the Canvas or Timeline, set sequence In and Out points to define the part of your
sequence you want to fill.
 Position the playhead over a clip you want to replace using a fit to fill edit. If no In
and Out points are set in the sequence, Final Cut Pro uses the clip boundaries as
sequence In and Out points.
2
Make sure that the correct destination tracks are set in the Timeline.
3
Open a clip in the Viewer.
4
Set In and Out points to define the portion of your source clip that you want to edit
into your sequence to fill the duration set in step 1.
Set In and Out points
in the source clip.
Set In and Out points
in the sequence.
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Effects
5
Do one of the following:
 Drag the clip from the Viewer to the Fit to Fill section of the Edit Overlay in the Canvas.
 Click the Fit to Fill button in the Canvas.
 Press Shift-F11.
The material in the Viewer overwrites any material already between the sequence In
and Out points you specified. The speed of the source clip is changed to compensate
for the difference in duration.
Fit to Fill button
Fit to Fill section of
the Edit Overlay
in the Canvas
Before a fit to fill edit
After a fit to fill edit
The speed of the clip
changes to fit the specified
area of the sequence.
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Changing Clip Speed and Time Remapping
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II