So far so good working on the videos. The graduate video has turned into two, one illustrating the marine resource management program at CEOAS and one illustrating a zoology program that lets students travel to the Bahamas to study lionfish. Both clips are just about finished, given some touch-ups and photo release forms from extra subjects who are in the photos. (Fingers crossed the releases come through.) The third video about the OSG Summers Scholars program is also almost complete, but only after some wrangling with the Final Cut Pro X program.

One difference between Final Cut 7 and Pro (which is the most recent version) is a feature called the “snap tool.” In Final Cut 7, this was a feature that could be turned on or off depending on the producers preference. In Final Cut X, the snap tool automatically pulls all of the clips you have cut forward on the timeline, making a somewhat seamless clip to work with. The problem lies in the fact that in Final Cut X, you can’t turn it off. This sounds like a helpful feature, but in reality, I’ve come to understand that this is one of the new features the masses have been unhappy with. Automatic snap makes it nearly impossible to efficiently sort your project according to subject, time, etc., because everything moves on its own, taking all the sound clips and text overlays with it, and things can get out of control pretty quickly. After poking through some Final Cut forums I found that the best way to work around the automatic snap is to lay a blank clip in the timeline that snaps and begin to build your project around it. While this still isn’t ideal for organization, it works much better for keeping your media clips where you would like them and lets you save sections for later placement. Despite the frustration that came while trying to navigate the automatic snap tool, it’s been a good learning experience that I can take with me. I’ve wanted to purchase video editing software for my home computer so I can work on projects as needed, but have been hesitant because I’ve heard negative things about Final Cut X. Now I know a bit about it and would feel comfortable working with it on my own.