Commission: Final Cut Pro one-on-one tutorial

Today I had a one-on-one tutorial with Fergus Moloney in order learn about how to use Final Cut Pro. It is to my understanding that the editing industry uses various editing softwares including Premier Pro, Avid, Sony VEGAS, and Final Cut Pro. Because different companies use different softwares, I would like to try and gain a greater understanding of the different softwares. I am already well familiar with Premier Pro, and the jump between 'Final Cut Pro' and 'Premier Pro' is pretty big and confusing, so its good to learn early.

Because I was familiar with Premier Pro the first step was to set up the keyboard preferences the same. One thing that is confusing about Final Cut Pro is the way you import footage into the timeline; you can just place in different organised sections like in Premier Pro, you have to create your own, and the keys to import are not relevant to what they're importing, and adding footage to the timeline is a basic essential. It's not that it's difficult, it's that it's so different to what I'm use to. So the step was to adjust keyboard buttons and customise to what felt more comfortable and Fergus suggested I have it similar to what I have in Premier Pro. 

The rest of my tutorial was looking into organising footage,  and the different terminology that is used in FCP. I found this to be really useful and hope to have another lesson with Ferg next week. In many way Final Cut Pro has a different audience to Premier Pro; it's designed for professionals but also made for non-professionals who have little experience in editing.It's interface is basic looking so it doesn't scare people away. So where you have your edited timeline and videos not added to timeline in premier Pro, you only have the option to have one or the other in FCP. 

In Final Cut Pro the most basic cut edit is the straight cut. This cut is similar to the movie cuts of old when a technician used a razor blade on a piece of film in order to cut out frames or scenes that the producer didn't want to use.

In addition to my lesson, I researched into using Final Cut Pro further using a website called 'Lynda.com' where there were tutorials and useful tips. This meant that I wouldn't just be dependent on Fergus for tutorials. He's putting the time in with me so it's only right that I take this as homework, for my own benefit.

This lead me onto finding other videos that will be useful in my commission project. It had tutorials on using AfterEffects etc. and all sorts of technical find advice which will hopefully be a good source to go to if I am struggling with anything or when researching.


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