Aug 26 2010

Final Cut Express Newbie – Take Two – Very Basic B-Roll

Category: Creative Process, Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 7:58 am

Not only can you see one of the rooms in my home in Argentina in this video editing test but, gasp!, you can also see that I’ve actually figured out how to edit b-roll on top of one video/audio take. (”A-roll”?) The inability to perform this incredibly basic editing function in iMovie is what made me finally decide to buy Final Cut Express.

The reason I’m sharing this video with you (as I did my FCE compression test) is the same reason I’m posting these down-and-dirty experiments to YouTube: to help me get over my fear of new technologies, specifically in the realm of multimedia editing.

I over think way too much and often get stuck deep in the creative-technology mud. This time around I was about to get stuck with FCE, which looks like Final Cut Pro to me, and which made me want to crawl back to iMovie. I realized I could think and think and even practice and practice, but never make any substantial headway. What was called for was learning by engaging in quick, learn-one-skill projects and publishing them.

Sure, my tendency is to only share polished work, and sharing crappy experiments makes me go “gulp” in a very real way. What if someone actually sees this???

Yeah, what would happen? Nothing, I suppose, but thee real point is that I’ve noticed that photographers who share their experiments in a public manner advance much more quickly than those us who get stuck — over thinking and not creating, publishing, learning and moving forward.

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Aug 19 2010

Finally Going with Final Cut Express. Right Move?

Category: Multimedia & Video, Technology Insights — Ethan G. Salwen @ 7:21 pm

AC_Blog_100819_Final Cut Express_1I finally decided to go with Final Cut Express 4 as my primary multimedia and video editing software after way too much thinking about it. I spent the $200 and a friend smuggled the program into the country for me a couple weeks back. (It would have cost twice as much locally, and might have been in Spanish.) In retrospect, I can’t believe I have spent so many months thinking about which video editing software to to use, grinding my teeth over the $200 cost of Final Cut Express (FCE), not at all sure if it would do all that I want.

I’ve been using iMovie (post version 6) exclusively for more than a year-and-a-half, and the program began to frustrate me almost immediately. iMovie is certainly simple but using it has felt like trying to edit with handcuffs on. I quickly found there were certain things — seemingly very basic things — that I simply could not do. (I was disheartened to read many reviews that said that the “improvements” to iMovie made the program much worse than version 6.)

However, I reminded myself that I was learning basic editing and producing pieces that were making friends and family laugh, and I couldn’t justify the expense of Final Cut Pro ($800) or Adobe Premiere ($800).

Final Cut Pro Wary

Even if I had the cash for Final Cut Pro, I’m not sure I would have shelled it out. Everyone says the FCP learning curve makes learning Photoshop seem like a breeze. About a year ago I had the opportunity to play around with Final Cut Pro on a friend’s machine and the experience left me shell shocked — completely intimidated. I didn’t feel like my hands were handcuffed; I felt like I had no hands. I just couldn’t do anything.

I was starting to appreciate the benefits of iMovie, but I really needed to advance, but I held off buying, obsessing about FCE’s functionality.

What’s Wrong with FCE?

Upgrading to FCE would seem to be a no-brainer, but I found lots of Continue reading “Finally Going with Final Cut Express. Right Move?”

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