FINAL CUT PRO

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Movie Maker

Final Cut Pro

Original

ExposureChanged

Original

BrightnessSlightlyChanged

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Changed colour

Original

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.