Editing workshop

Today was our first editing workshop with Fergus.

We are learning how to edit using the Adobe Premiere Pro software. I have used this a few times already this year so I understand some of the basic tools in the package. I prefer Final Cut Pro as I have used it a lot at college and own it myself. Adobe is a great software and is near industry standard, being quite similar to very professional software like Avid.

Fergus showed us around the software taking his time explaining as at a first glance it can look quite daunting if you have never used it before. It was difficult trying to be patient as I wanted to get on and edit some footage but I waited and listened searching along with Fergus through the menu and options. We made sure the project file was saved somewhere we could find it. We made sure the footage was next to the project file and captured correctly as on Premiere pro it is not really importing but capturing the footage from the source it is saved at. When we edit our projects it is important that we don't just capture the footage from the camera but actually save it on the computer at an appropriate location otherwise it could end up being a catastrophe and losing all the footage.

We then checked the settings like frame rate, resolution and duration etc. Fergus then introduced us to some handy shortcuts, ideal to be more faster with the project. Having only using Premier a few times I didn't know about these short cuts. Today I learn't using keyboard shortcuts for selecting a window within the software like the source, time line, preview and playback. This made it much easier for editing as I can switch to another window while working on something else, meaning much more is being done at a quicker speed. I also learn't that instead of putting a whole clip onto the timeline I can mark the start and end of a clip to check how the material is. Start marking the clip pressing 'I' for in, then pressing 'O' for out. I can monitor the clip frame by frame to check for mistakes and any material I may not want to use. Once done I can drag onto timeline and continue with the project, simple.

Today was a very basic introduction to Premiere but I still enjoyed it and learn't a few things too. I am not sure whether I will use Adobe for my project as I prefer Final Cut. I have not seen the full range of what Adobe can do so I look forward to the future workshops.