Forums | MacLife

katiePOW · 2006-05-24 6:00 am

I graduated last year and got a job editing news. The compleate lack of creativity is killing me and I'm looking to move onto something more along the lines of a production house. So I know how to use avid (we used Xpress Pro and Newscutter at school), but my current job is still all linier editing. I have been told by plenty of people that since I know how to use Avid I could pick up final cut pretty easily, but the fact is I still have no experience with it, and it seems that most places want you to have final cut experience.

Then the question becomes should I try and teach myself or suck it up and take some classes at a local college.

Mercury52 · 2006-05-24 8:37 am

Since you're already familiar with Avid, I would suggest giving a crack at it yourself. You should get the hang of it pretty easily. If you don't, then find a class in your area.

And in general, I'd say it's a good idea to learn Final Cut. I'm about to graduate from film school in about 1.5 weeks, and every place I look is wanting people who know FCP.

One of our guys, who graduated last year, landed himself a sweet deal cutting movie trailers (I know he cut the one for MI 3) by responding to an ad looking for a FCP editor.

JubileeOR · 2006-05-24 11:21 am

Knowing both Avid and FCP can only increase your "hireability". Walter Murch has done much to make FCP an acceptable editing platform, so more people are making the move, especially since many creatives already have Macs.

I taught myself FCP back at version 3 by going through the tutorial that comes with the program. Since you already know a non-linear system, that's probably all you'll need to do as wel to familiarize yourself with the program.

Good luck! smile

shaman04 · 2006-05-24 11:37 am

The more tools you know, the better your chance of getting hired. (As Jubilee stated)

FCP is gaining ground fast, so knowing both (I know both) will ONLY do you good.

katiePOW · 2006-05-24 12:06 pm

Thanks for the input (and thusly solvig my macbook vs macbook pro delema)

Greg Grant · 2006-05-24 3:33 pm

I learned video editing on Adobe Premiere 4.0/5.0 waaaay back. When FCP came out it was pretty easy to translate across granted I took roughly a 3-4 year hiatus from video editing (just doing minimal stuff now and again in FCP). So this year when it came time to learn FCP5 so I'd be marketable when I graduate it didn't take long to reach the point where I was messing with using all the colorgram read outs for color correction. The FPC Help is your friend as I assume you'll be like me, you already know what you want to do but you're sure where that tool is. So anyhow, it depends on how motivated and how good you are at teaching yourself. With you're background you should certainly be able to.

MB38 · 2006-05-24 5:57 pm

Avid editors are a dime a dozen. FCP editors are not. That's enough to get somebody hired over somebody else.

ckm · 2006-05-26 6:11 am

Although I haven't yet learned FCP or any other editing suite, I support quite a few clients who use them regularly, including several who came from Avid to FCP. From what I understand, if you have Avid experience, then adapting your workflow to FCP is a breeze.

retroz · 2006-06-01 4:02 am

Will FC Express give you the basic skills to get some work if you know it well enough? I am by trade a composer/sound developer, sound design, does having these skills combined with FC add to my hireability? Also, will a MACBOOK do the trick? I know the benchies say yes, but could this be crippled down the road?

Thanks!

Mercury52 · 2006-06-01 10:18 am

If you're doing sound exclusively, work in ProTools.

katiePOW · 2006-06-01 10:59 am

retroz wrote:
Will FC Express give you the basic skills to get some work if you know it well enough? I am by trade a composer/sound developer, sound design, does having these skills combined with FC add to my hireability? Also, will a MACBOOK do the trick? I know the benchies say yes, but could this be crippled down the road?

Thanks!

The thought of editing on that small of a screen makes me cringe. this website claims that final cut will run fine and dandy on a macbook.

Last edited by katiePOW (2006-06-01 11:00 am)

retroz · 2006-06-01 3:56 pm

katiePOW wrote:
retroz wrote:
Will FC Express give you the basic skills to get some work if you know it well enough? I am by trade a composer/sound developer, sound design, does having these skills combined with FC add to my hireability? Also, will a MACBOOK do the trick? I know the benchies say yes, but could this be crippled down the road?

Thanks!
The thought of editing on that small of a screen makes me cringe. this website claims that final cut will run fine and dandy on a macbook.

Me too, but the MacBook can span to 1900x1200, so that is good! What would be better would be spanning across a few monitors.

Was looking at the MBP, doesn't seem to be worth the price of $500 more for 15" screen and still 400FW.
And $2700 for 17"? Hmmmm, I think that would be better spent on the new towers, memron, etc. And if MB can work on existing files in FC, then all the better, save some dollars and the ability to take the project on the road, then span to another LCD when need be. cool

Forums | MacLife

#1 2006-05-24 6:00 am

Do I really need to learn final cut?

#2 2006-05-24 8:37 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#3 2006-05-24 11:21 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#4 2006-05-24 11:37 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#5 2006-05-24 12:06 pm

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#6 2006-05-24 3:33 pm

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#7 2006-05-24 5:57 pm

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#8 2006-05-26 6:11 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#9 2006-06-01 4:02 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#10 2006-06-01 10:18 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

#11 2006-06-01 10:59 am

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

retroz wrote:

#12 2006-06-01 3:56 pm

Re: Do I really need to learn final cut?

katiePOW wrote:

retroz wrote:

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