Final cut offers a lot of options

When we were first told that we would be shooting and editing video, I was a nervous wreck. It turns out that I didn't need to be. The process actually ended up going very smoothly, and I think I learned a lot about how to work both with the camera and with Final Cut Pro. Denice is an absolute pro with the camera, so listening to her talk about different angles and shots was really enlightening. Once we downloaded the clips to the computer, we entered a whole new world. Editing a video is very different than what I expected, but it was also very fun to do.

In the Final Cut Pro session with Dave Cornelius, we learned all about the different shortcuts to working with the browser windows (I'll keep my fingers on those j, k, l, i, and o keys whenever I work with the program). Some of the fun things that we figured out how to do were to speed up the playback of a clip so that it looked like things were moving a lot faster than they actually did. We also put different layers in the timeline so that we could have still images with the voiceover from a clip. This added a different element to our video and worked out very well.

At first glance, working with Final Cut Pro seemed like it was going to be very difficult. But once you get in there and start experimenting, it ends up being a very fun program to work with. Next, I want to figure out how to add a label with name and location beneath a person who is talking. All in all, it may seem daunting to work with a new program, but after giving it a chance, I think it's definitely worth it to learn.

Rebecca Jackson

Douglas County High School

Douglasville, Ga.