WS - HD Cameras and Final Cut

Although we are only a couple of weeks into the new course, and have only had short experiences of using the HD cameras and Final Cut, the benefits of both have been really clear already.

So far, we have shot footage for th Mini Vid and we have filmed the BritVid. Both have given us oppurtunities to use the HD cameras and to begin learning how to edit on Final Cut, which is far better and more advanced for editing in a more proffesional manner than iMovie.

The HD cameras, as you would obviously expect, give you a much sharper and better image. This was clear when we were filming our mini vid. While shooting shots looking through trees, or where the amount of light changes, the benefit of a HD camera was very clear. While a sudden change in light would have really affected the normal DV cameras, the HD camera adapts much better and allows shots where a sudden change of light occurs. In terms of looking through wooded areas, a common occurence in our short Min Vid, the image is much sharper and much more detailed.This means that the more subtle aspects of mise-en-scene will be clearer to the audience and will show the level of thought put into the setting for each scene in our music videos.

Although we have only had a brief introduction and a short attempt at using Final Cut, the massive benefits it holds over iMovie are shining through already. Final Cut allows you to add layers to videos and has a much larger selecton of effects and transitions that you can add to your footage. The added options should be very helpful when it comes to making our final product, as they will allow us to choose the most suitabe effect from a very large selection of effects. The effects also appear much more proffesional than on iMovie where they often seemed quite childish and amateurish, limiting what we could really choose when we were wanting to make a proffesional looking product.

In terms of cutting the product down, Final Cut is also very good. At the touch of two keys (I and O) you can edit the footage down by cutting what is in between the two buttons and using that small amount of footage. This is much easier than trying to cut down with the mouse and allows you to get a precise timing on when to cut the footage. 

So far from using this product, it does not suprise me that it has been used to edit big box office films, as the priduct is so obviously of a high quality.

If any other updates are required for this post when filming throughout the rest of the project, they shall be posted here.