Syllabus- Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - Studio Saffire

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Syllabus, 2014‐15
Digital Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X
Unit 1 – Effective Editing
1 Introduction / Description of Course & System requirements
Introduction to Video Editing, In this chapter student will learn a bird’s-eye view of the
modern editing process and modern editing terminology. Student will also learn the
system requirements for Video Editing.
2 Principles of Video Editing
Editing is an Instrument of Impression (Rational Editing). Various principles of Editing like
Contrast, Parallelism, Symbolism, Simultaneity & Leit-motif (Reiteration of theme). Several
more principles like Continuity, Making an edit invisible, Motivation for every edit,
Delivering a message, Bearing audio in mind, editing is creating, Control of Overuse
technique or Visual effects.
3 Setting Up for Editing
In this course module we’ll stress on efficient editing habit, which not only help you to
work faster but also, save your time for the edit suite thinking creatively. An efficient
workflow begins before you make your first cut, and even before you open your editing
software: in this lecture, we’ll configure factory-standard systems to support the editing
process, discuss useful hardware peripheral options, and lay the groundwork to support
optimal media management from ingest through to final output.
4 Non‐Linear Editing (NLE) Concept
All nonlinear editing suites connect editors to their work through a common set of core
metaphors. The most obvious of these metaphors are visual: we’ll immediately tour the
interface of our NLE. Less obvious, though, are the functional metaphors: what exactly are
you assembling as you edit? What is the nature of the different kinds of “pieces” that you’re
assembling? Where do they come from? How can you manipulate them? How do all of
these metaphors relate to one another? Put another way, we’ll take a formal look at what
we’re learning to do, before we dive into how we plan to accomplish it.
5 The Three‐Point Edit
Every project is composed of edits, and every edit linear or non-linear requires a minimum
of three points to make sense. In the minimal case, two points indicate the duration of the
edit, and one additional point synchronizes the media to be edited between source and
destination. In this chapter we’ll discuss: Understanding Three-Point Editing, Overview of
the Three-Point Editing Process, Different Ways to Do Three-Point Editing. We’ll outline a
number of techniques to place your three points and get your sequence roughed together
quickly.
Unit 2 ‐ Non‐Linear Editing (NLE) Techniques
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6 Working in the Timeline
NLE software is typically based on a timeline interface paradigm where sections of moving
image video recordings, known as clips, are laid out in sequence and played back. We’ll
study the details of the timeline interface, discuss the many settings that affect your view of
the timeline, and explore techniques to efficiently navigate and manipulate clips there.
7 Transitions
In this chapter we’ll discuss how the transition effect build a communication between shots
by the help of NLE editing programs. We’ll not only clarify the technical aspects of the
transition effect but also the creative aspects of the same to make a Video clip more
communicative and meaningful. You will learn how to use appropriate transitions to
different styles. We’ll set you free to get your inevitable transition fever out of your system:
this is one of those techniques where less is more.
8 Keyframing
In this chapter we’ll discuss how Keyframes are one of the tools, which allow video editors
and videographers to adjust or enhance anything from the tiniest miscue, to the largest
effect. All of the popular NLEs use a keyframing metaphor to accomplish animation. In
modern packages, this animation capability tends to be stunningly broad: you can animate
nearly anything that you can change from within the NLE itself, from clips’ positions to
color corrections. We’ll introduce the concept of keyframing, use it in a few applied
situations, and then refine our animations using interpolation controls.
9 Applying Filters
Filters systematically modify the image that they affect. Some are more effective, like
camera shake removers, color space transformations and keys; others are more artistic,
like distortions, automatic vignettes and even more like color correction and exposure
controls, have both practical and creative uses.
We’ll study how Video Filters give you a wide choice of popular filters and effects to
improve the quality of your videos and make them more dramatic. We’ll also discuss about
the Automatic Filters, Professional Filters and Visual Effects, which helps the video clip,
look more dramatic and magical with lots of creative essence in it.
We’ll introduce the nuts and bolts of applying filters to your work, and then work through a
number of individual filters as we mimic popular styles. We’ll learn to store commonly
used filters (and stacks of filters) as presets, both on the project level and globally. Finally,
we’ll extend Lecture 7’s discussion of keyframing to animate features of our filters.
10 Ingesting
Up to this point, we’ve taken for granted that our footage is already “in the computer.” The
process of actually getting the footage there is a bit of a minefield: with an ever-increasing
number of HD codecs and recording formats on the production side, the most efficient
pathway to an editing-friendly format is sometimes hard to find. We’ll talk about HD ingest
through tape and tapeless means, we’ll motivate the value of intermediate codecs like
Apple’s ProRes and MPEG, H-264, and we’ll weigh the merits of editing in your camera’s
native codec. We’ll also spend some time on workflows to ingest DSLR footage from Canon
7D, 5D and Panasonic GH2. We’ll walk through a number of techniques to quickly tag, time,
4C/B-5, DHAWALGIRI, OPP. ST MARY CHURCH, SECTOR – 34, NOIDA, U.P.
INDIA
Phone 0120‐4349476 / 9899852328

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and organize your clips upon ingest.
Unit 3 – Advanced Techniques
11 NLE Compositing
Filters allow an editor a great deal of artistic control, but they tend to act on the whole
image. Compositing techniques allow post professionals to selectively affect and combine
parts of one or more images at the same time. While sophisticated compositing is more
appropriate to motion graphics and compositing packages like Motion, Shake, After Effects,
or Combustion, all modern NLEs offer a more-than-adequate array of compositing
capabilities for quick, common needs like rudimentary green- or blue-screen shots,
“picture-in-picture” composites, titling, and simple masks.
12 Color Correction & Color Grading
As with compositing, dedicated color correction packages like Apple’s Color are more
appropriate for heavy-duty, precise, high- volume color grading. Yet for basic tasks --
correcting a shot’s white balance, for example, or restoring a few particularly egregious
shots -- your NLE’s coloring capabilities may be quite adequate. We’ll establish the tasks of
the colorist, introduce the color grading layout of our NLE, and learn to read scopes. Then,
we’ll cover techniques to solve common color problems.
13 Working on Audio
The best way of editing audio is by the help of the software like Logic or Protools or
Soundtrack Pro, but your NLE is more than capable of handling the vast majority of
common audio tasks. We’ll review enveloping, mixing, and recording external audio in your
NLE.
14 Titling
This specific compositing task comes along at least once a project; so modern NLEs include
image-generation tools that are specifically geared towards titling. We’ll look briefly at our
NLE’s native basic text tools, and then go into some depth with built-in advanced titling
tools.
15 Final Review & Project
We’ll recap the entire editing workflow, from ingest to finished project, and look at how
each of the advanced topics in the curriculum will fit into the basic editing process that
we’ve established.
In this above syllabus, we are going to cover the following lessons of
Final Cut Pro X
Lesson 01:
Lesson 02:
Lesson 03:
Lesson 04:
Lesson 05:
Lesson 06:
Lesson 07:
Exploring the Interface
Commanding the Keyboard
Organizing Optimizing & Analyzing Media
Importing Files & Folders
Importing from a Camera Archive & iMovie
Working in the Event Library
Organizing Media with Keywords
4C/B-5, DHAWALGIRI, OPP. ST MARY CHURCH, SECTOR – 34, NOIDA, U.P.
INDIA
Phone 0120‐4349476 / 9899852328

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Lesson 08:
Lesson 09:
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Lesson 37:
Rating Deleting & Transcoding Media
Working in the Project Library
Building a Rough Cut
Performing Insert Overwrite & Connect Edits
Removing Unwanted Material
Replacing Clips & 3 Point Editing
Adjusting Clip Timing
Auditioning Clips
Using the Trimming Tools
Working with Storylines
Creating Secondary Storylines & Compound Clips
Editing the Soundtrack
Working with Music
Adding Markers & Dolby Surround Panning
Enhancing the Soundtrack
Retiming Video
Creating Hold Frames & Controlling Video Quality
Applying & Modifying Transitions
Applying & Animating Effects
Working with Generators & Backgrounds
Transforming Images
Trimming Cropping & Distorting Images
Applying & Animating Titles
Working with Themes & Placeholders
Balancing & Matching Color
Manually Color Correcting Images
Using Color & Shape Masks
Publishing to Apple Devices
Publishing to Blu-ray Vimeo & QuickTime
Exporting using Compressor
4C/B-5, DHAWALGIRI, OPP. ST MARY CHURCH, SECTOR – 34, NOIDA, U.P.
INDIA
Phone 0120‐4349476 / 9899852328