My top 2 productivity hacks for video editing that save me time

David Gewirtz/ZDNET

Every video and every person’s video editing style is different, but the consensus is clear: for every minute of a video watched by YouTube viewers, hours of editing is needed.

My numbers vary wildly. A recent six-minute video took me an entire weekend to produce. Other videos can take a lot longer. One eight-minute video took me almost four days.

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I’m currently working on a how-to video that will be between 10 and 15 minutes long. Not counting the A-roll (the part where I narrate), the video has 128 source clips I’m sifting through and cutting down into a visual narrative. I’ve probably put in 20 hours so far, and I have at least as many hours ahead of me before I see a final result.

With the above in mind, consider these two thoughts:

Editing video is tremendously time-consuming.If you can find a way to save time, do so.

These thoughts bring me to the two things that have improved my video editing productivity. I use Final Cut Pro as my editor, but these tools can probably help you with other video editors and applications.

1. Dialing it in with Stream Deck+

You’re probably familiar with the Stream Deck. It’s a wired keypad that enables you to assign icons to buttons and then lets you define actions for those buttons.

The original Stream Deck has 15 programmable buttons, the Stream Deck XL has 32 buttons, the Stream Deck Mini has six buttons, and the new Stream Deck Neo and Stream Deck+ have eight buttons each.

(Note: Don’t confuse the Stream Deck with the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is a handheld PC for playing games. The Stream Deck is a control surface for managing streaming and other PC processes. Today, I’m talking about the Stream — with an “r” — Deck.)

I have two of the original Stream Decks in my office. One is attached to my streaming studio, so that I can control all my devices and settings while doing interviews. The other is attached to my desk machine and is mostly helpful for managing shortcuts in productivity and programming apps.

Despite already having two Stream Decks, I bought a Stream Deck+ last month. The big difference between the Plus unit and all the other Stream Decks is that it adds four dials and an LCD touch panel.

The dials are what do it for me. I use them to control my timeline, nudge and jog clips, zoom in and out at a specific frame, and jump between clips.

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To be clear, all of these actions can be done with hotkeys and a mouse, but the ability to turn a dial is both a wrist and a time saver. Plus, the process is intuitive because there’s now a physical action for moving left and right and taking various timeline actions.

There’s also something about analog controls that feels better and triggers the brain differently. Combining dials with digital actions seems like the best of both worlds, at least for certain actions and processes.

The Stream Deck+ with dials was the first thing that improved my Final Cut productivity, but it would have taken a lot longer to realize without this second item…

2. SideshowFX’s profile for Final Cut Pro

One of the standout features of the Stream Deck family is the configuration tool used to program all the buttons. Not only does it let you customize all the button images, but it allows you to customize their actions too.

Customization options are fairly deep, allowing for multiple steps, sequences, calls to other programs, and transitions to other sets of buttons.

Programs like Final Cut Pro are both deep and wide. They have a lot of features and controls. While it’s possible to program the buttons yourself, it’s a fairly big job.

Add in the time it takes to make perfectly customized icons, and the customization process might start to seem like a full-time job. Yes, you could use random pre-existing icons you find, and program a few buttons, but then you wouldn’t be using the full power of the Stream Deck.

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Fortunately, it’s not necessary to do all that work yourself. Elgato (owned by memory maker Corsair) offers a marketplace (basically, an app store) for add-ons and configuration packs for the Stream Deck series.

Rather than take the time to fully configure the Final Cut Pro profile in my Stream Deck+, I turned to SideshowFX and bought its $34.95 profile for Stream Deck+. One note of caution: SideshowFX offers different profile packs for the different Stream Deck models. If you want the one that supports the twisty dials, get this SKU.

The product comes with 640 icons, 297 pre-programmed keys, 47 pre-programmed dial sequences, and 14 profiles that organize functions according to operations like editing, color correction, multicam, and more.

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One of my favorite pre-built profiles is for multicam editing, which lets you switch between different camera angles for the same content. For example, I often switch between a wide view and a close-up view of something I’m demonstrating. For unboxings, I often switch from a front view to a top view to a side view, depending on what I want to show.

Here’s the first screen of the SideshowFX profile for multicam in Final Cut:

Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET

At (1) are the numbers 1, 2, and 3. These indicate that there are three full screens of buttons for this profile. You can switch profile screens by swiping left or right on the touch panel (at 2). The dial (at 3) is purple, indicating it does different things after it’s pressed (in this case, it switches between jog, scroll, and subframe). The non-purple dials (at 4) operate hotkeys depending on dial action:

Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET

You can see that the different rotations trigger different key combinations.

As I mentioned, you get different control sets when you use the touch panel to swipe left or right. One of the reasons I find this multicam approach helpful is this profile, which lets me cut and switch to a specific angle at the press of a key:

Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET

In addition to all the pre-existing profiles, I combined some of the SideshowFX keys and profiles into what I think of as my “fast edit” profile. These are the tools I use most, especially when I’m trying to power through a rough cut:

David Gewirtz/ZDNET

As I use Final Cut with Stream Deck+, I’ll undoubtedly add more profiles and add to my fast edit profile.

What about the Loupedeck CT?

Some of you may remember that I reviewed the Loupedeck CT in June 2021. My goal was to use the Loupedeck for the same purposes that I use the Stream Deck+.

At the time, I said:

However, the button action and the full graphic customization features of the Stream Deck are far and away better than the buttons on the Loupedeck CT. If you don’t care about the dials or the wheel, get the Stream Deck. There is almost no comparison.

Back then, Elgato didn’t offer a Stream Deck with dials. Since I found using dials to be an incredible time saver and efficiency helper, I used the considerably more expensive Loupedeck CT to get the job done.

That said, I never really liked the Loupedeck. It had some odd quirks. For example, it required a dummy drive to be mounted when the program ran. Apparently, the Loupedeck had to create a full virtual file system to store its customizations.

Even worse, the buttons weren’t as smooth. Button presses sometimes didn’t register, and other times more than once.

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I never expanded beyond Final Cut for the Loupedeck because it was so annoying to use apart from the dials. The Stream Deck+ is a much more pleasant experience, so I expect I’ll add Photoshop customizations, programming customizations, and probably just some general system efficiencies.

For that, I already have a dial that controls screen brightness across all three screens and another that controls the system volume.

Is this expense necessary?

Add-on control surfaces are rarely necessary. You can do everything I do with Stream Deck+ and SideshowFX’s profile with a keyboard and mouse.

As I’ve often mentioned before in my personal productivity discussions, I’m always searching for ways to save time. I already work a tremendous number of hours, and every productivity hack I introduce that saves minutes or hours means more time with my family and for sleep. The hacks also save wear and tear on my wrist.

If spending $199 on a Stream Deck+ buys me 50 or so more hours of family time or sleep a year (and I think it’s going to be more), isn’t that worth it? Wouldn’t you spend four bucks a week for an extra hour with your family or an extra hour of sleep? For me, it’s a no-brainer.

What about you? Are you looking for productivity hacks? Do you think you’d use the Stream Deck+? Are you already using a Stream Deck? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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