Via Shane Ross comes this time-saving Final Cut Pro setting tip from Patrick Sheffield. If you want to play back a clip or scene to check timing, and don’t particularly care about the filters you’ve applied, you can save render time (and frustration) by turning on the Play Base Layer Only setting in the timeline RT menu.

If the clip has a filter on it and it is rendered, it’ll play the rendered clip. But if the clip has a filter on it and ISN’T rendered, then it will play the base clip without filters.

Shane has an example image of the RT menu at his site.