Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a program that helped our editing process greatly. From a student who had to edit our thriller film last year, I can say that FCP is far more superior in terms of features and accessibility than what I used last year, Apple iMovie. 

One of the main features that helped us during the editing process, was the ease of which overlapping, fading and manipulating was done at. As learnt from this website during the research process, a fade in is "a quiet introduction to a scene". This introduction of tranquility was something we wished to capture, and the ease of which it was available with FCP was very helpful.

As we had to overlap music and in scene audio quite a bit, it was useful that FCP was able to do it easily. As you can see in the screenshot, dragging and dropping is the extent to overlapping audio and it was a very helpful feature. I remember trying to accomplish this last year using iMovie, however it being a much longer task - this is because FCP supports many more 'tracks', so various layers of audio and video can be added with ease. 

FCP manages video footage in an efficient way that made keeping track of video easy. As you can see in the screenshot, 'bins' where created which held our footage. We could for example, (and did), create a folder called 'Cutaways' and in here store all relevant footage. All in all it made editing a much quicker process.

FCP allowed us to use a range of video transitions, far more than iMovie, and have greater control over them. We could for example control the transitions' size, time, and even movement. As shown in the screenshot, a sequence of Fade in/out shots give the effect of time passing. FCP made it easy to achieve this, with a simple drag and drop before each shot giving a fade in and out effect.

Addition of text or titles was simple. FCP allowed us to modify the size of the text, where it was placed, and font face. As you can see here, Sharon's name is placed in the bottom left hand of the screen. This is a typical convention of documentaries, and is often used when introducing an interviewee. This was inspired by various documentaries as the majority of documentaries include this technique.

An example of the convention being used.