Introduction to Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Server and account of editing the Preliminary Task

Final Cut Pro is a professional, non-linear editing software application developed by Apple Inc. The current version of the application is only available for Mac OS X, and is a module of the Final Cut Studio product. The software logs and captures video onto a hard drive, where it can be edited and processed. The current version of Final Cut Pro, version 7, runs only on Intel processors.

I have a history of using Final Cut Pro as i worked in various TV Studios over the summer, so the software wasn't new to me, but for most people it is a whole new world. Matt showed us Final Cut Server which stores all the work and when you want to edit recording then you have to check the work out of final cut server and when finished check it back in.




Once checked out the work can be edited in Final Cut Pro. At first it is really hard to get the hang of but once you have learnt where things are and some of the keyboard shortcuts and how to do things it becomes a lot simpler. You start of by creating a log bin which essentially is a folder in which you keep your best clips which can then be easily accessed to cut and stick together. Once this is done you start to bring your piece together. We looked at the final storyboard an then took the needed parts from the clips we had selected and pieced them together in a sensible way. The cut is during the action to make it look better and more realistic and believable.

We then went through the cut version and changed any visuals that didn't look right and put in any extras bits to spice up action. Once the visuals where done we went on to the sound. As the camera is closer to the actors on close ups and further away on wide shots the sound levels and quality are reduced or hightened. Also we needed to eliminate background noise and any other unwanted noises that would ruin the final peice. After that we put in a couple of background noises such as people talking, cars driving by as the set was outside. Once that was complete we had our Final Version.


EDITING THE PRELIMINARY TASK
To get us into the swing of using final cut pro we had to edit our preliminary task. We had to sort out the individual clips that we would use for the peice by selecting them from the whole recording taken on the shooting day. We then decided what order we wanted the shots to be in, i.e., do we start with a close up or a wide shot etc. Then we took the shots wanted and cut them down even further to the specific parts of that type of shot that we required. We then took thoose shots and cut them togther on the timeline to create our sequenced which went succsesfully. Finaly we cleaned up the sound and it was complete.