MANAGING FILES
Though most people won't imagine it to be so, I deemed it to be worth it to properly organise my files so that a) they could be easily accessible and b) I wouldn't get confused when I started to edit my video, as I knew this project could easily become frustrating what with the number of files I would have to work with. Because I had many shooting days, I organised them by way of date, as well as location and type (for the more specific days):
Then, within each folder, I would browse through all the files, and place a red 'tag' on the ones that I decided to use in my video - easy since I was working on a m
With that done, I pressed 'arrange by tags' so that all the files I had placed a tag on would be grouped together, and were easier to manage.
To go even further, I decided that I wanted to rename each file to include the specific place that it had been filmed in, as well as the number of the shot. If I were to do that manually, it would take too long - and essentially be a waste of time - so I began looking for quicker ways to do it. After searching Google, I found what I was looking for - a short script on the native Mac app "Automator". I made a copy of the script, and plugged the files I wanted to be renamed into it.
I pressed "run" after inputting that I wanted the files to be named "Aquarium_XXX"...
...and Voila! It worked like a dream.
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OPTIMISING FINAL CUT PRO X
Once I began editing my project, I noticed that FCPX was running quite slowly, which proved to become a bigger and bigger annoyance throughout the editing process. Unable to bear it any longer, and knowing that my system was a relatively old (2012) one, I searched up ways to make FCPX run faster.
After a short search, I came across this Youtube video with exactly what I needed:
Before:
Use List Mode in the Browser
Before:
After:
Change the Clip Appearance
Before:
After:
Close the 'Library' and 'Inspector' tabs.
Before:
After:
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COLOUR CORRECTION
Once I had all my footage, I knew I had to colour correct my footage. To do this, I searched up tutorials.As well, I found a whole series on the topic:
https://vimeo.com/26361468
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COLOUR GRADING (+ MORE CORRECTION)
After completing the first edit of my project, I wanted to change the colours of some of the shots, so I searched Google and found an article titled "How to correct colors in Final Cut Pro X".
From http://www.macworld.com/article/2039344/color-correction-in-final-cut-pro-x.html
"Color correction—also known as color grading or color timing—is the process of altering the brightness and color values of an image or video. While many of today’s modern video cameras (and still cameras that shoot video) can produce great-looking shots automatically, sometimes you’ll still want to manipulate the color “in post.” Common reasons for doing so include:"
After reading this article, I then proceeded to press "Show Color Board" and began playing around with the settings. Unfortunately, I could only grade one shot at a time, otherwise I would have graded all the shots I deemed too orange simultaneously.
I figured out that each Color Board - Color, Saturation, and Exposure - had a 'Global' slider that let me adjust the overall aspect of the shot, with separate sliders delegated to the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights of the shot to give me greater creative control and fine tune the shot to look the way I want it to.
As you can see, after adjusting parts of the colour board, I achieved a less saturated, less contrasty look to my shot, which was what I wanted, as it was in line with most of the other shots in my video.
Afterwards, I figured out a way to effectively apply the same look of this shot that I had corrected onto other shots with the same problem. To do this, I clicked the 'Match Color' button and chose a single frame of the shot that I had corrected.
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STABILISING
During the edit, I realised that many of the shots I had deemed usable on the day were actually very shaky. To deal with this, I discovered how to stablise shots in Final Cut Pro X.
I did this by adding a clip to the Timeline, then opening Video Inspector. There, I checked the Stabilisation checkbox, which reduced the shake in the clip.
After the image was analysed, I was able to tweak the settings to fit my needs.
From https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12564?locale=en_US
"Use any of the three independent stabilisation parameter sliders in the Video inspector to control the steadiness of your shot. When you apply stabilisation to a clip, all three parameters are set to an average value of 2.5 by default. Each parameter can be set to a value between 0.0 and 5.0. A value of 0.0 turns off the parameter, and a value of 5.0 applies the strongest possible transformation. The higher you set each parameter, the more camera motion is compensated for in that axis."
Once that was done, I realised that there were black edges in the clip, so I fixed this by cropping it inwards.
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KEYFRAMING MOTION IN FCP X
At some point during my project, I wanted to make an object - an image - move from one place to another. To do this, from past experience of programs such as Sony Vegas Pro 11, I figured out that I could add a Keyframe at every position that I wanted the object to be in.
In clearer terms, if Object A is at (0,0), I would add a keyframe in, and then a second one, with the object moved to another position - say (2,1). Depending on the length between the two keyframes, I could make the object move quickly or slowly from one position to another, and then do this multiple times if I wanted multiple movements.
In this shot, I started out with the Nexus logo on the bottom right, added a keyframe, moved the playhead across the timeline to where I wanted the movement to end, and added another keyframe. On this one, I changed the position of the image so that there would be a corresponding movement in the shot.
This test proved to be a success, and I was able to add motion to the image, which can be seen by the red line going across the clip from one point to another.
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REBINDING KEYS
While editing, I found that the process of applying the “Blade” command (to split the clip) was slightly contrived, as I had to switch to the blade tool by pressing “B” and then have to move the skimmer over the portion and click with the trackpad. Though this can be considered to be quick, it didn’t suit my workflow as switching to the tool was more suited to editing large portions of clips at at time - in my case, it was impractical to switch back to the “Select” tool by pressing “A” every time I had only bladed one clip. Realising this, I found the command that would mean I wouldn’t have to switch tools so frequently - “Command” and “B”.
Though it was much easier for me to split clips apart now, I still wanted a more efficient workflow - I wanted to switch the shortcut of “Blade” from having to press two keys to only having to press one. To do this, I decided to reassign the blade command to simply being “S” (by default, this was assigned to “skimming”, which I deemed to not be as much use to me as the Blade command. Once I tried to do this, a message popped up, notifying me that the command set was owned by Final Cut, and I had to create a copy of it and save it as my own - a custom command set.
Now that it was much easier for me to split a clip I had in my timeline apart, I found my workflow to be much quicker, as I didn’t have to constantly switch tools nor have to press two keys instead of one.
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BLOGGER
Since I have never made my own blog, I had to learn a lot of new skills on this platform called Blogger so that I could blog about my project.
With this in mind, I signed up on Blogger and pressed the "Create New Blog" button. This then showed up:
Once I filled in the details that I needed - making sure that the URL was available and that the title of my blog was something relevant - I then clicked on one of the templates to use. This would be temporary, and I could change the way my blog looked later, so it didn't bother me if it looked any good or not.
Once I had done that, I knew form the work that had been set by my teacher that there were a set number of pages that I had to create - so that I could meet all the success criteria.
Success! After doing this, the pages showed up.
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