Matt's mac training

Having no experience working with Macs, I thought it wise to get some training (especially as the students have used them in almost every creative and media diploma lesson I've observed so far.) Matt Townsend is the media technician at Mounts Bay school and agreed to spend a couple of hours teaching me how to use some of the software. I was particularly interested in learning more about the 'final cut pro' programme, as the SCITT people having given me my own digital movie camera. The idea is I film myself teaching and learn how to improve my practice by watching the video back. Horror. I need to learn how to edit the footage - it's a vanity thing. Also, I want to be able to teach my students film and editing techniques in order to help with their own diploma projects.

Here's what I learned (in bullet points):

• to import film from your camera use Mpeg streamclip to convert your footage into Dot.DV (or DV or MOV)
• open final cut pro and click on file
• click on import
• click on files (command I)
• If you've saved your work to the desktop (the easiest way apparently) then click on desktop then click on choose and it'll drop your film into the browser window.
• to cut your film - in your viewer window - press 'I' where you want your clip to start, then 'O' where you want the clip to end
• drag your clip to the timeline
• command R = render (when the red line appears on the timeline). Important, especially if you've changed something, like adding a kaleidoscope effect.
• click on file
• click on export
• click on the format you want
• save to anywhere you like

Hope this is of use to you, dear reader. I'm off to do some filming to get the ball rolling. In the meantime, you can learn more about editing in final cut pro via this clip: