Video Editing

At our school the 8th graders chose a project to work on throughout the year, and I had no idea about what I wanted to do. I had a few ideas, but I wasn’t excited about any of them. I was looking for ideas and came across a music video made in reverse that inspired me to choose video editing. I chose to do a video with circus in it, since I’m an aerialist.

First I started researching different video editing software to decide which software to use. There were a lot of different softwares to choose from and I eventually decided use Final Cut Pro. I choose to use Final Cut Pro because it has features that other software didn’t have, and it worked with the type of computer I would be using. Then I learned how to use the software by watching an instructable video.

After choosing an editing software, I started filming. I filmed on the beach, and with a green screen. While filming on the beach, I was tumbling, and injured my knee. A few weeks later, the computer with the editing software got wet. I was then unable to film or edit, and couldn’t work on my video. I went almost two months without working on my project at all.

I spent twelve hours in total editing a one and a half minute video. At the start, I would spend hours editing and only have a few second of video, but as I got father in the video I got faster at editing. At the start it was a very slow and tedious process, especially when I got stuck. Youtube and Apple Support were very helpful resources when I needed help. The shortcuts were especially helpful and made the process more bearable. I was planning on making a longer video, but I ran out of video clips and couldn’t film more since I was still injured.

One skill I learned was how to use a green screen, or the Keyer effect. First I ordered a green screen, which can be easily found on Amazon or Ebay. Then I filmed with the green screen and imported the film to Final Cut Pro. Then I added the Keyer effect, and added a background photo. I had a hard time making the video look more unified and less like a collage.

Video editing is a hard skill to learn, and takes some time to acquire. I am still very new to video editing and still have a lot to learn. Although tedious, video editing can be fun, and a good skill to have.