Final cut and compressor

I next needed to compress all my clips by using a programme called compressor, this took rather a long time, I tried to do all 60 of my clip together but I found that this was to much for the programme to handle so I did them in batches. I used a setting to compress my files with called Apple Pro Res 422 for Progressive material, I dragged this option onto my clips and it began to convert them.

My next job was to put all my Pro Res files into a separate folder and drag that folder into Final cut to start the editing process.

Once I filmed my movie, using various different shots types etc. I had to decide as I was putting them together in Final Cut, what kind of edit/cut effects I wanted to use between each clip. I knew of a film, that I studied at Alevel called "A Bout De Souffle", it is a 1960's film, that a famous French director called Jean - Luc Godard created. This film is best known for its visual style and unusual editing, in particular for it constant use of jump cuts and hand held camera work. The way in which it uses the jump cuts in particular is what interests me, I thought that with the kind of material that I have shot, the jump cut technique would work really well, as it is a short, snappy sequence. Below is a sequence from the film that uses thejump cutediting technique.

I have also picked out this film called 'City of God" it is a Brazilian crime drama directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. It is about the growth of organised crime in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 60's and the beginning of the 80's. I have selected the opening sequence of the movie to look at. The movie begins with chickens being prepared for a meal. Al chicken escapes and an armed ganga chases after it. The chicken comes to a stop between the gang and a young man, who believes the gang want to kill him. The timeline then flashes back to ten years earlier, the young man tells the story of how he got himself into that position.

I studied this movie also at A level so I know it well, it uses a brilliant use of jump cuts and cutting between two different sets of action. I find this use of jump cuts particularly spectacular because it is at the very start of the film, as it has to introduce the main characters.

Putting all my clips in order in Final Cut was a challenge, I had over 60 clips, ranging in all sorts of lengths. I put the good clips, with clear quality and that I thought I could use into my timeline, so I had a clear understanding of what clips I was going to use. Below is how my timeline looked with the clips in order, I made sure I had spacing in between each clip so I could rearrange the order with ease.

Next I began to go though each clip in my timeline, and shorten it down. My first cut with all the roar clips that I had not touched came to nearly 5mins! I picked the best bits from each clip and kept shortening it down until I hit my target time. Below is my timeline much shortened at 16 secs with 20 edits.

Below is my nearly finished movie, it has some issues though. First being it is a second over the allocated time at 16secs instead of 15secs. I feel that the first two clips go by to fast and the last two I dont really need both clips of the horses grooming each other. I will play around with it some more and see what I can change to make it better.