Intro To Using Final Cut Pro Editing Package

In the lesson on editing, we were taught the 5 main aspects of the editing process using the Final Cut Pro packages that are run on the G5 Macs. Firstly all the footage from a shoot are taken (and rushed to the studio, giving the footage from the day the name of ‘rushes’) and then get digitised from tape and put onto a firewire hard drive. This making it portable so that you can edit from any computer in the edit suite. Secondly, you have to go through a painful process of logging. This entails someone watching each and every take of a shot and choosing the best one. You then select that section of the tape and log it, discarding the bad takes. Thirdly, we were shown how the editing takes place on the software. We learnt how the footage is placed on a timeline; this makes it very flexible and easily modified and adjusted. The forth aspect is actually dropping the best shots down and onto the timeline. Once the shot is on the timeline you can trim the shot, adjust the colour and the speed, (up or down). Then the fifth and final step is adding suitable sound on top of the clip. You can also add any buzz tracks and manipulated digetic or non-digetic sounds including music soundtracks and effects to add impact to a sequence. This process allows a narrative to be constructed from a selection of apparently unconnected shots and organise and arrange them into a logical sequence.