Help make slightly out of focus video footage more useable FCPX?

You can try the sharpen filter with the mask just to enhance the parts that really have to be sharp. Like a face for example. This is no magic but it can give an illusion of a slightly sharper footage if you don't overdo it.

Depending on the kind of footage we're talking about and its length, you might also consider replacing it with B roll.

Also…I've had and seen decent results with James Cude's suggestion to make it smaller in the frame – duplicating the clip to another layer (or track), blurring the lower one and reducing the size of copy above it. Again, a lot depends on the kind of material you're woorking with.

Russ

No promises, but you can try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVD0kZIpq9s

and there's a kind of tutorial for it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8CEb0K_IZo

Scaling down will help out considerably.

You can use this generator (it's free but not officially released yet):

http://sight-creations.com/fxexchange/Dividers_2.zip

to create screen divisions (a la Burn Notice, et al). The generator provides solid color backgrounds for each section. It can be used for "reveals" and other useful things (use in conjunction with the Mask effect to fit other video into a division.) Anyway, it will help put a creative spin on the video being scaled down and remember - negative space is your friend.

Out of focus problems is almost impossible to correct in the post. No magic plugin. Maybe you could try some plug ins that increase sharpness, but the result is most often poor.

Or degrade it more to look like it was intentional. Or make it smaller in the frame. Otherwise- reshoot.