Columbia School of Journalism Digital Media Storytelling Bootcamp: Day 4 Video Editing & Final Cut Pro
Another exhilarating day! Today’s focus was on learning to edit video using Final Cut Pro.
As course instructor Duy Linh Tu told the class, “think of editing like sculpture.” “Think of all the raw footage as a boulder you are chiseling away.”
One of the Digital Media Assistants, Andy, also had a good visual metaphor when he told me to think of video footage like ingredients, with the editor as the chef.
We spent most of the day using a teaching video called “Kenan Walks,” so named after Kenan Davis, the Digital Media Coordinator at the Journalism School. This video is no doubt known to legions of Columbia Journalism students who have had to edit footage of him walking in and out of the school building.
What I learnt today from Duy, was that “good audio starts in the field and continues all the way through post-production.” Audiences will forgive some visual errors if the audio is good, so we spent time mixing audio in Final Cut Pro to ensure it was in the right range throughout the footage. Having good audio is key for success.
Final Cut Pro was not as daunting as I had anticipated, and in the space of a day we covered a lot of ground including setting up the software for a project, making edits, making transitions using b-roll, and using graphics to insert a title, ending or name beneath someone featured in an interview. What a great day!
Tomorrow it’s editing the footage we shot for our stories – deadline is 3pm for completion. I’ll be sorry to see the course end. We’ve all come a long way in a short time and I look forward to seeing everyone’s final video production.
