Final Cut Express
(Image from Apple)
(Image from Apple)Last Friday we had someone, who's name I really can't remember (whoops), who was experienced in Final Cut Express to come in and teach us some of the ins and outs of the software. He currently works for a company who make promotional videos for different companies and he showed us one of his most recent projects, a promotional video of a company who worked... locating... people... in Vienna... maybe... something like that anyway. Can't quite remember the details. Anyway he set us of giving us the basics of Apple Macs, the slight ins and outs what a dock was, how to control different things and customise your own area to just the way you like it!
As a previous Media student from BTEC course in Year 10 to 11 much
of the stuff we came across was very familiar (especially when starting on Final Cut Express, which was near identical to Adobe Premiere Pro, a piece of software we used during the BTEC course.) We were told how DV tapes were very storage hungry and one hour tape can consume upto 12. 6GB. That is ofcourse when captured directly to the computer with both audio and video intact as was filmed.
Here we have a screencap of the layout of Final Cut Express and I will explain in breif about what is there, hopefully I shall be able to acsess the Media room during my 'Study Time' in the coming week and take a more comprahensive approach at describing how to use the basics of Final Cut Express.
As a previous Media student from BTEC course in Year 10 to 11 much
of the stuff we came across was very familiar (especially when starting on Final Cut Express, which was near identical to Adobe Premiere Pro, a piece of software we used during the BTEC course.) We were told how DV tapes were very storage hungry and one hour tape can consume upto 12. 6GB. That is ofcourse when captured directly to the computer with both audio and video intact as was filmed.Here we have a screencap of the layout of Final Cut Express and I will explain in breif about what is there, hopefully I shall be able to acsess the Media room during my 'Study Time' in the coming week and take a more comprahensive approach at describing how to use the basics of Final Cut Express.
The screenshot displayed above is someones personalised display of how they like the interface of Final Cut Express to be. Firstly in the bottom left hand corner you can see an area with 4 'thumbnails' in. This is where we store all our footage, how we look through it. In here we can create different files (or 'bins') to organise and store all our clips, audio, pictures... whatever the hell you want to put in your project. Above this in the top left hand 'clip viewer' this is where you can scan through your clips from your selected 'bins' etc and have a look at what you want to put into your final video. You can cut these clips down in this viewer and then copy the edited clip into your final project or below into the 'Timeline' As Final Cut Express is a non-linear editing software this means you can jump about and edit whichever part of your final video you want. For instance i can pick up the first two seconds of my final video and cut and paste this to the end of the video no problem. But the 'Timeline' shown will always show your footage in it's 'final' timeline. We have a Timecode which will look like this: (01:34:54:22) the first two digits are the hours, the next two digits are the minutes, then the seconds and then finally the frames. Frames are what make up video, it's like when you have a flip book, a frame is just one of these pictures. And usually in English film there are 25 frames, which are 25 pictures shown over 1 second to give the illusion of moving images. If we wanted to we could explain the history of how this, which is essentially 'animation', came about... but I wont bore you with those details now.
As we can see there's another widnow in the top right hand corner, THIS is the window which your final project is displayed. I'll explain more about the timeline, how it works, how to capture, what keyboard shortcuts there are that are useful in the next section of this Final Cut Express work entitled 'Final Cut Express - The Basics' so keep an eye out for it!
Happy Blogging!
Kenny
Currently Listening To: Lissy Trullie - Ready for the Floor
Currently Reading: Sophies World: A Guide to Philosophy
Currently Watching: How I Met Your Mother (Series 1)
As we can see there's another widnow in the top right hand corner, THIS is the window which your final project is displayed. I'll explain more about the timeline, how it works, how to capture, what keyboard shortcuts there are that are useful in the next section of this Final Cut Express work entitled 'Final Cut Express - The Basics' so keep an eye out for it!
Happy Blogging!
Kenny
Currently Listening To: Lissy Trullie - Ready for the Floor
Currently Reading: Sophies World: A Guide to Philosophy
Currently Watching: How I Met Your Mother (Series 1)
A very comprehensive look at FC Express. I hope you enjoy working with it, and find it as user-friendly as Premiere Pro.