Final Cut Pro techniques

1. FINAL CUT PRO

3. After importing my video clips, they appeared in this
box. As I moved the mouse over the clip it would give
a preview of the clip. This was useful for viewing clips
when there are multiple shots as you can then see
which one you want to add out of the takes. For
example DSC_0081 is a blooper whereas clip
DSC_0082 is the clip I wanted to use, by running
over it I could see which one was the blooper
therefore didn’t waste any time in adding the wrong
clip to my timeline. The process of adding videos to
my timeline was very simple, I could select the whole
clip and add it or if it was just a specific part I could
select that part and just add that.

5. In final cut there is a options bar which has different choices for the editor
to choose to use. These are the transitions which I could choose from
however I decided to not use any transitions because I like how my
narrative developed with the straight cut editing. On a whole I decided to
lightly edit my video because I didn’t want the editing to distract from the
main narrative. There was also an option to add text, however I didn’t
choose to add text to my video. Sometimes music videos add text to
highlight certain words the lyrics are singing sometimes in Rap or Pop
videos. Other music videos may add a title to their video to introduce the
video and song, however I chose not to do this because I didn’t want to
pull attention from the clip. This bar also offers a filter tab where there is a
selection of filters which can be quickly and easily applied to individual
clips, I didn’t use many of these as I felt many of them was too garish and I
preferred the original look of the video however I did use one of them in my
video.

7. This is the timeline of the editing software, where the video clips can be ordered and cut. In
the green bar is the song I had added. Each clip can be arranged here and I found the
timeline very simple to use

9. This is the effects area, this is where the editing can become detailed
and very precise. For the type of editing I wanted to do I clicked under
Color, and on Correction 1. This then took me to the editing panel, which
I could change the saturation, color and exposure. Here I edited the
exposure, the sliders included a global option, which changes everything
overall. The shadow’s slider changes the darker parts of the shot, (where
there is most shadows). The midtones changes effect the areas which
are between shadows and highlights. Finally the highlights are the
lightest points of the image. By dragging the exposure circles down it
creates a darker shot whereas pulling them up makes the exposure
brighter.

10. Here I changed the shadows to
10% which lightened the corners
of the image. I also made the
midtones to 11% which
brightened everything in-between
however dropped the highlights
to 1% as the ‘glare’ by the high
percentage of midtones meant
the image was too washed out
therefore I made the highlights
slightly darker.
This is a before and after
shot. I prefer the after
shot as I think it’s a much
softer look, whereas the
first clip looks more harsh.

11. Here is another example of where I lightened
the image, giving it a more luminous look rather
than the darker original image. I found it easy to
use Final Cut Pro to do this therefore in the
future would use the same programme if I was
to edit darker clips. Sometimes in other editing
programmes such as Movie Maker when editing
aspects like the brightness, by making clips
lighter, quality of the video is lost or it looks
unnaturally bright. However the exposure wheel
and percentage system Final Cut has means
you can make changes to the exposure subtly
instead of having it too much.

12. This is an example of the same clip edited in
Movie Maker. The brightness has only been
altered a little bit however the shot is over-
exposed and looks unprofessional. When in full
screen quality of the video was also lost. The
brightness also is really harsh whereas I wanted
a softer look, it also looks like it is obviously
edited whereas I went for a more subtle look.

13. Movie Maker
Final Cut Pro
Original
Exposure
Changed
Original
Brightness
Slightly
Changed

14. This is the blade tool I used in Final Cut Pro. This tool allowed me to cut clips at a
precise point. The timer at the top of the image below shows the exact time of
where the video Is currently at. When using the blade tool as the mouse runs over a
clip it gives the precise time, therefore this was really useful at editing clips in detail
because I could pin point the part which I wanted the clip to split.
Here is a clip which I used the blade tool to split.
After splitting the clip it allowed me to individually
edit each one. Therefore if I wanted to add an effect
halfway through a clip by using the blade tool to
separate the clip I could add an effect to the part I
wanted and the flow of the video play back would
not be effected and seamlessly transition. I used
this to edit a lot of my clips with because I found it
very user friendly and precise. It particularly helped
when editing to the beat as I could listen to the song
and when hearing the ‘beat’ I wanted to cut a clip at
I could use the blade tool to cut a clip and then
delete the unwanted part. Therefore I really liked
this tool as it had multi-uses.

15. After using the blade tool to separate this
clip I selected it and clicked on ‘Adjust
Speed’ There are pre-set speed changes I
could pick like ‘50%’ ‘25%’ and ‘75%’
However there was also an option to
adjust the speed to a custom setting. This
was extremely useful when the pre-set
options were too slow or too fast. It
allowed me to adjust the speed precisely
so it was exactly what I wanted.

16. Another tool I used was the trim tool which allowed
me to edit the duration of a clip. This could extend
or shorten a clip. To do this I had to select the
segment I wanted to edit then drag the yellow bar at
the desired side until I was happy with where it
ended. I used this tool along with the blade tool to
edit the duration of clips in order to get my lip-
syncing precise and in time with the music.
This is the movie maker
version of the trimming
tool. I found it very
unfriendly and awkward
to use. Having to set
certain start and end
points, unlike the
simplistic drag, adjust,
trimmed style the Final
Cut Pro was.

17. To edit the
colourings of
the video I went
to the same
menu to get to
the exposure.
Color,
Correction 1.
The colour wheel was simple to use. Again
it had a global option which made the
overall clip a certain colour, the shadows
made the darker parts of the clip change
colour, midtones the parts inbetween and
the highlights made the lightest parts. I
added a blue tone to the clip to give it a
more ‘depressed’ look rather than the
yellow undertones the original clip had.

18. Adjusted
Colour
Original
Here is another example
of where I changed the
colour to give the clip a
more dismal look rather
than the brighter more
warmer toned video clip
below.
To the right is a
comparison to the colour
options I had on Movie
Maker. This is the closest
option to make the video
‘blue’. I think this looks
more unprofessional and
isn’t a very subtle editing
filter which is what I was
aiming for. Therefore
Final Cut provided the
tools to be able to do
this.

19. More examples where I changed the colouring to be more ‘pink’ which gave a more
romantic, rosy look to the video.
Changed colour
Original

20. I looked at the filters however mostly found they wasn’t appropriate for my
video. A lot of them were too severe and gave the appearance of a heavily
edited video which I didn’t want. This is because I wanted to draw
attention to the narrative instead.
However for this part of the video it is
separate to the chorus, bridge and verse
scenes and therefore I wanted to use the
editing to separate it from the rest of the
video therefore felt a filter may be
appropriate. I picked the black and white
filter as I still felt it upheld the ‘soft’ look I was
going for throughout my video and the lack
of colouring means the audiences attention
is directly drawn to what is going on in the
close-up. In this shot her eyes are the main
attention. In the coloured image there are
five main colours in the image meaning our
eyes may be drawn to the orange in the
background or elsewhere.
By changing this to black and white the
darkest part of the image is her eyelashes. As they are in condensed bold
black lines in the centre of the shot
the eyes are more likely to fall here
than the coloured image where
there is more distraction.