Thursday: Pretending Like I'm A Videographer!

Today I really got to get my feet wet working with the wonderfully temperamental piece of software known as Final Cut. When I First opened the program, I felt like I was looking upon a foreign world that was about three million mile away from what I had known or seen before. But, in about thirty minutes I was cutting up the video and color correcting without a hiccup. Pretty weird how quickly I learned the basics. This sort of thing happens to me a lot. I have this I dead in my head that professional video software of any kind is just extremely complicated and requires a college degree in cinematography to be usable. However when I just dove right into the program itself, I felt far more at home than I would have thought. In fact, there were many parallels to most DAW's that I've used before. The layout was not too different from Apple's Logic, there Is a large timeline known as the "sequence" where all the video clips get arranged. This is basically the same as Logic's "arrange" window, only with video capabilities.


Here is the "sequence" window as it appears in Final Cut...

And here is Logic's "arrange" window. They're very similar indeed.

I do have a few gripes with the software, but this is probably because I haven't spent enough time searching and exploring all the menus to realize all the functionality built into Final Cut. But on a superficial level, I have to say that Apple could have really done a much better job with the look and feel of Final Cut. The user interface is boring in color and shape, and I don't think it is conducive to creativity. Second, every function in Final Cut is given a separate window, so by the time you're finished adding filters and transitions, you have like ten separate windows open. Clutter = no fun. Aside from that however, it is a very powerful tool to have when making videos of any kind. I'm sure that the "professional" look comes only with time and experience in the field. Much the same as the "professional" sound sought by an audio engineer like myself is also merely a result of time and patience.

Yep, I'd say that the lesson of the day for this Thursday the thirteenth of June was definitely "be patient". I spend a lot of time just waiting around. I waited at the inspection station for a while just to get a sticker placed on my car. I waited around while the video was been rendered in Final cut. And, I waited around for a friend of mine to show up to record some tracks for his band's new EP.  Much waiting was done today, and I've realized something. Waiting to do something is a heck of a lot more tiring then actually doing it. Whether you're waiting to receive a package in the mail, or you're holding yourself back from doing something which really isn't that big a deal, the waiting is more draining than the actual activity. Knowing myself, it will take a while for that message to sink in. But with time maybe my stubbornness will break, hopefully!

That's all for today, but Friday is tomorrow and that means recording more footage then going to the gym! I'll be back.