Insider Tips: Final Cut Pro’s To Do Markers and Frame.io

Insider Tips: Final Cut Pro’s To Do Markers and Frame.io

Every week, Frame.io Insider asks one of our expert contributors to share a tip, tool, or technique that they use all the time and couldn’t live without. This week, Reuben Evans shows you how to use Final Cut Pro’s To Do markers with Frame.io.


Final Cut Pro’s To-Do markers and Frame.io

Sometimes you need to let everyone know that you know something in your edit still needs to be addressed. Frame.io and Final Cut Pro can work together to help you, as the editor, communicate to everyone reviewing edits. Final Cut Pro has a great feature called To Do markers.

Adding a To Do marker to a Final Cut Pro timeline.
Adding a To Do marker to a Final Cut Pro timeline.

Use the shortcut Opt+M on the timeline to set a marker and open the comment box. Now select the middle icon to turn it into a To Do marker. It will now appear as red in your timeline.

Use the Export menu to send it to Frame.io for review. (Make sure you have the Frame.io app.) You’ll see an option that will allow you to keep your To Do markers and have them appear as comments in your upload.

Check the “Export to do markers as comments” box when exporting to Frame.io
Check the “Export to-do markers as comments” box when exporting to Frame.io

The nice thing about this is that it communicates to your collaborators that something isn’t finished, and that they don’t have to comment on it. Those To Do markers will also persist with each version you upload, as long as they are in your timeline.

Setting a Final Cut Pro To Do marker as complete.
Setting a Final Cut Pro To Do marker as complete.

And once you complete that task, just check the Complete box. The next time you upload, it won’t appear as a comment. This is great to be able to send out edits, and streamline the communication with your entire team.


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Screenshots from Amazing Grace (due for release in 2024). Courtesy of Visuals 1st Films, LLC.

Thank you to Reuben Evans for contributing this article.

Reuben Evans is an award-winning screenwriter, executive producer at Faithlife, and a member of the Producers Guild of America. He has produced and directed numerous documentaries and commercials. Reuben’s tools of choice are RED Cameras, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. He writes for Frame.io Insider and is part of the Blade Ronner Media writers network. Reuben resides in Washington state with his wife, four kids, and one crazy goldendoodle puppy named Baker.

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