Finished News Edit - Final Cut Pro

For this timed news edit assignment, we were given raw footage and an unedited voice over to put together a news package using Final Cut Pro. Here is the finished result:



You can download it here.


While there was added pressure in finishing this project due to it being timed, I found it easier to use Final Cut Pro and didn't seem to need to spend as much time trying to figure out the small but essential tricks of editing. It did take a long time trawling through all the material marking the segments, trying to find a good opening and ending (which the reporter didn't seem to think of when providing the voice over) and going through which parts were essential and which didn't need to be put in the finished edit, but using keyboard shortcuts such as j, k and l for rewinding, pausing and fast forwarding definitely helped cut that time shorter. I found that I was able to work my way through it steadily and finish it in time, although there were some problems with exporting it on my machine that caused it to take longer than it should have to put it up.

Overall I learned from it, as it seems Final Cut is a program that is learned from practice - the more you delve in and go for it, the easier it gets. Doing the 'cheat sheet' powerpoint presentation about all the aforementioned tricks of FCP definitely helped too, which I'm finishing at the moment and should be putting up in the next few days. It was an interesting assignment and I learned a lot from it, especially since journalism is a field I'd like to explore in the future.