On Monday 15th September, we went into the editing suit to get to grips with Final Cut Pro 10. Previously to using Final Cut, I had experience of editing using iMovie, the things I edited on iMovie were my YouTube videos, which really only required some very basic editing of speeding them up, cutting some parts out and changing the audio.
Before I used Final Cut Pro, I was expecting it to be very confusing and be very difficult to use, However due to my experience using iMovie, I didn't find it that hard to use, as some aspects were the same such as reducing the audio on a clip, or inserting titles and transitions.
In the editing suit we were shown that you need to have a: library, event and a project. We used some footage from last years students of a man called Jack Turnbull who believed in aliens. We created a rough cut using the footage of Jack and some b-roll. We used the blade tool to remove parts of the footage where the people filming can be heard shouting "go" and such. We were also shown how to zoom in on a clip and how to crop, however you have to be careful when zooming on a clip as it is a digital zoom and will reduce the quality - however as we had 4k footage we didn't need to worry about this so much.
Once we had the clips of Jack cut down to how we wanted them, we added in some b-roll with some 'cross dissolve' transitions on either side of the b-roll clips. After adding the b-roll we then went on to add music as a backing to Jack's speaking. We used a piano music soundtrack, and then added some forest sound effects. We had to adjust the volume of different parts of the audio so that you could hear everything clearly without Jack's voice being over powered.
After doing our rough cut, we then went on to look at 'mulitcam' and how its used when making music videos. I found this quite challenging as I'd never done something like this before, however I think that we were quite successful in the end.
We had footage of a folk band with 3 different cameras on each member of the band. First, we had to synchronize all three of the camera angles, by selecting them in the event and then choosing 'multicam' from the drop down menu. This then allowed us to play the footage and then click on each camera angle when we wanted it to play. Multicam uses a colour coding system of: yellow to switch audio and video, blue to switch video only and green to switch audio only. As we were using a recording for the sound, we only needed to switch video angles, rather than the videos with the audio as well.
Finally to finish, we had a quick introduction on how to use green screen footage, which was surprisingly simple; we imported the background image that we wanted to have behind the girl, and then we imported the footage which went above the image on the timeline. We had to crop our green screen footage a little, as our background image was quite small. Once we got it working, we then had a play around with effects and such.
Before I used Final Cut Pro, I was expecting it to be very confusing and be very difficult to use, However due to my experience using iMovie, I didn't find it that hard to use, as some aspects were the same such as reducing the audio on a clip, or inserting titles and transitions.
In the editing suit we were shown that you need to have a: library, event and a project. We used some footage from last years students of a man called Jack Turnbull who believed in aliens. We created a rough cut using the footage of Jack and some b-roll. We used the blade tool to remove parts of the footage where the people filming can be heard shouting "go" and such. We were also shown how to zoom in on a clip and how to crop, however you have to be careful when zooming on a clip as it is a digital zoom and will reduce the quality - however as we had 4k footage we didn't need to worry about this so much.
Once we had the clips of Jack cut down to how we wanted them, we added in some b-roll with some 'cross dissolve' transitions on either side of the b-roll clips. After adding the b-roll we then went on to add music as a backing to Jack's speaking. We used a piano music soundtrack, and then added some forest sound effects. We had to adjust the volume of different parts of the audio so that you could hear everything clearly without Jack's voice being over powered.
After doing our rough cut, we then went on to look at 'mulitcam' and how its used when making music videos. I found this quite challenging as I'd never done something like this before, however I think that we were quite successful in the end.
We had footage of a folk band with 3 different cameras on each member of the band. First, we had to synchronize all three of the camera angles, by selecting them in the event and then choosing 'multicam' from the drop down menu. This then allowed us to play the footage and then click on each camera angle when we wanted it to play. Multicam uses a colour coding system of: yellow to switch audio and video, blue to switch video only and green to switch audio only. As we were using a recording for the sound, we only needed to switch video angles, rather than the videos with the audio as well.
Finally to finish, we had a quick introduction on how to use green screen footage, which was surprisingly simple; we imported the background image that we wanted to have behind the girl, and then we imported the footage which went above the image on the timeline. We had to crop our green screen footage a little, as our background image was quite small. Once we got it working, we then had a play around with effects and such.
A Brief History Of Editing
The earliest films were shot with one single static shot, as back then, motion was all that was necessary in the shot. One of the earliest films from 1898 to feature more than one shot was Robert W Paul's "Come Along, Do!" (which I have inserted a picture of above). The film was only 1 minute long, however only 38 seconds of the film are still around today.
However it was Edwin S Porter who showed everyone that film didn't need to be one long still. Porter worked as a projectionist using the Vitascope which 'cast images via film and electric light onto a wall or screen. One of his duties as a projectionist was to illegally duplicate George Méliès films (who was a french illusionist and filmmaker). Porter duplicated the films by taking apart 'one act reels and combine several of these into a 15 minute program.'
Before digital editing (the editing on computers that we use today) there was analogue editing which involved film negative being cut down and pasted into an order; the film then went through a machine which allowed the film editor to see the film while they edited it.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Along,_Do!
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/porter_bio.html
http://www.slideshare.net/katierothery/history-of-editing
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwin-S-Porter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitascope
http://www.geniusdv.com/news_and_tutorials/2013/12/final_cut_pro_x_multicamera_editing.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Along,_Do!
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/porter_bio.html
http://www.slideshare.net/katierothery/history-of-editing
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwin-S-Porter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitascope
http://www.geniusdv.com/news_and_tutorials/2013/12/final_cut_pro_x_multicamera_editing.php