User profile for user: stufromhalifax
stufromhalifax Author
User level: Level 1
51 points

Green screen issue in Final Cut Trial video editing

I am going to try to maintain a civil level of discussion but I've about had it with this trial copy of Final Cut. I regularly produce videos about one hour in length for a charity group. I use two cameras and mix the outputs to add interest. These are very simple videos and I'm an amateur in this field. Last week I began work on a similar project but must have spend at least 80 per cent of my time nursing Final Cut Trial along as it kept crashing and hanging. I even bought Clean My Mac and ran every program they had. This improved things somewhat. Then I switched to using Proxies instead of original files. That also speeded things up. Finally I produced my one-hour video. It worked fine for about half an hour and then suddenly turned GREEN!! I've added a QuickTime video to show you what I mean. Any ideas other than switching to another video editing program? I hear Davinci is reliable, free and has more features than Final Cut.


Please don't ask me questions about my system. It's the same exact identical system as I've used to produce very similar movies in the very recent past. And please don't tell me how to edit videos. I'm sure you know more than I do but I've been producing videos without incident for five years this wayy and never ran into this problem before. Since Final Cut crashed so often I figured some clips were damaged to replaced them with original clips from the clip browser. This seemed to work until it didn't.


Thanks for any help. Here's a Youtube video. The video suddenly turns green at about 34:48


Any help appreciated.




[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.1

Posted on Jan 1, 2025 8:30 PM

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User profile for user: terryb
terryb
User level: Level 4
3,529 points

Posted on Jan 2, 2025 10:05 AM

As Ian says, CleanMyMac is considered malware for the Pro Apps. It's possible it's the cause of the green. The standard CMM recommendation here is to completely uninstall it, though it may have damaged your system requiring a reinstall of the OS.


There may be other issues with your system. If you'd like help diagnosing, paste a report from https://etrecheck.com using the "Additional text" button below in your reply.


In addition to answering LocaAlicia's questions, what Mac, MacOS and storage? How full is the storage? If external drives are used, how are they formatted? How are they connected?


There are many users here who also use Resolve though the learning curve is quite a bit steeper than FCP. Perhaps iMovie is all you need for your workflow?

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User profile for user: terryb
terryb
User level: Level 4
3,529 points

Jan 2, 2025 10:05 AM in response to stufromhalifax

As Ian says, CleanMyMac is considered malware for the Pro Apps. It's possible it's the cause of the green. The standard CMM recommendation here is to completely uninstall it, though it may have damaged your system requiring a reinstall of the OS.


There may be other issues with your system. If you'd like help diagnosing, paste a report from https://etrecheck.com using the "Additional text" button below in your reply.


In addition to answering LocaAlicia's questions, what Mac, MacOS and storage? How full is the storage? If external drives are used, how are they formatted? How are they connected?


There are many users here who also use Resolve though the learning curve is quite a bit steeper than FCP. Perhaps iMovie is all you need for your workflow?

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User profile for user: Ian R. Brown
Ian R. Brown
User level: Level 7
24,479 points

Jan 2, 2025 1:30 AM in response to stufromhalifax

2 immediate points jump to mind.


CleanMyMac is considered by many on these forums as Malware together with Chrome, both of which have been implicated in problems with pro-apps.


Secondly whenever FCP crashes you need to delete the preferences (aka settings).


To do this hold down the Option and Command keys as you launch FCP until a window pops up.


Click the Delete button.


One final thought. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with FCP so almost certainly any problems you are experiencing are due to your computer setup.


The fact that it worked fine with your previous (unnamed) editing app is immateria . . . there is obviously something on your computer or the way you are working that FCP does not like.

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User profile for user: stufromhalifax
stufromhalifax Author
User level: Level 1
51 points

Jan 2, 2025 10:42 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Thanks for your reply. Clean My Mac was recommended by a self-appointed expert videographer on Youtube. I had my doubts at first, but the app seems to do a good job and what reviews I've found on Reddit say it's just a compilation of widgets available elsewhere or easily done with Terminal. Are you sure you're not thinking of Mac Keeper?


Thanks for the suggestion about preferences. I hadn't heard that. I did what you said but haven't seen any change.


As I said earlier, nothing has changed between doing my old videos and this one. It's extremely frustrating to have a production method that was reliable for years suddenly produce bizarre green videos.


I'd use Imovie but you're essentially limited to using one camera because you can't put one clip above another in the timeline, to add visual interest. A one-hour video from a stationary camera is pretty boring.



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Green screen issue in Final Cut Trial video editing

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