Final Cut | The Athletic Nerd

EDITING Category Gets A Boost

February 23rd, 2011 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Editing - (0 Comments)

This blog covers a lot of great topics from Screenwriting to Final Cut and everything in between. It’s about the movies that inspire and entertain. It’s about independent filmmaking. Each of these categories include regular features like 10 Flicks, All Time Best, The Rundown and more. You’ll also find special series like Movies That Changed Everything or Movies That Scarred Me For Life.

However, one category has gone a little quiet lately:

EDITING

I’m a professional editor by day and if there is any category that should get a boost it’s editing. In addition to my career I’m also in the middle of editing a new short film so there is definitely a lot to talk about.

But you aren’t here just to read about my personal editing experience. So expect to see some brand new features over the next little while to truly make the editing section unique. Interviews, resources, tips and more… If you’re a passionate editor like me you’ll definitely enjoy what’s coming. I’m no expert but I love what I do!

New editing posts and features are on the way!

Until then, catch up by navigating the category menu on the right or by clicking here and as always, send any comments or suggestions to jason@17west.ca!

Looking to contribute to The Athletic Nerd? Inquire within.

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LYNDA.COM For Independent Filmmakers

November 23rd, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Editing | Filmmaking | Technology | Web - (0 Comments)

3 years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about web design.

I searched for hours at a time to try and compile the best online resources I could. Eventually, I stumbled across Lynda.com and the rest is history.

Lynda.com is a tutorial site that is packed with videos and courses for virtually every software package you can think of.

Thanks to Lynda’s courses, I learned Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 in a month and it ignited an obsession with graphic and web design. It was exactly what I needed to break into the world of designing websites.

Over the last few months, I’ve been using The Climb’s post process to teach myself Color, Soundtrack Pro, Motion and enhance my Final Cut skills.

I’ve also increased my knowledge of Photoshop and learned the basics of Blender for 3D projects I may tackle in the future. I may even dive into some After Effects tutorials as well.

Each program has several courses available and with unlimited access, Lynda is easily the best resource I’ve found so far. Automatically you might be thinking that this service will cost hundreds if not thousands to gain access to…

It costs 25$ a month!

If you’re an aspiring filmmaker, I’d highly recommend looking into this website. Even for 1 month. You can cancel at any time.

Better still, why not try it free for 24 hours by clicking the image below?

Post production costs can get pretty high. If you’re producing a low budget short film then why not take the time and teach yourself some of the software needed to do it cheaply.

There’s also an iPhone App!

Whoa.

All of the sudden, my bus rides to work aren’t long enough! I’ve been gradually making my way through Color 1.5 Essential Training and I’m learning a ton.

It’s addicting to cycle through thousands of tutorials dealing with every single question I have. Now it’s even more convenient because I can take my courses with me on my iPhone.

I can’t say enough about this service.

Anyone looking to further their knowledge of a specific program should give Lynda.com a shot. They have some free videos up so you can try out the service before signing up.

Bottom line? I like learning things…

I’ve included a sample video below from a basic training course.

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Productive Days

Today was a productive day…

I woke up and spent 30 minutes watching the special features on my Star Wars Episode 1 DVD.

Then I got up and started working:

I spent an hour catching up with my daily sites.
Once I was finished, I decided to edit for a little while and went over some footage for The Climb.
After an hour or so, I felt like screenwriting so I opened up my newest short script and wrote a new scene.
Unfortunately I ended up getting stuck so I switched over to Photoshop to work on the poster for The Climb. (It’s coming along nicely.)
This gave me an idea for a post so I designed a new logo and got to work.
I ended up writing 2 blog posts: I Got Stuck Editing My Short Film and Photoshop: A Cure For Writer’s Block
I then spent a little time promoting and networking. (Social media etc…)
When I was finished it was time for lunch. I didn’t mess around here. Chicken, veggies and rice. From scratch. No big deal.
During lunch I watched some special features from my Star Trek Blu Ray. (Sweet)
When I returned to my office I decided it was time to start messing around with my newest project: An eBook. It’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while and I took some time to plan out what I wanted it to be. Then I went ahead and started gathering source materials. It’s going to be a side project of mine over the summer so stay tuned for more details on that.

Once 3:30pm rolled around, it was time to get showered and head to work to edit live television for the evening.

Tonight, it’s all about sports and editing.

Tomorrow, I probably won’t do as much… I really feel like… Not doing much…

Today was productive though.

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Rushing To Capture Footage

May 20th, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in 17 West | Editing | Filmmaking | The Climb - (0 Comments)

Logging and capturing footage can be extremely long and tedious but it’s important work.

Trying to edit a ton of unorganized footage is a huge pain so you may as well do it right.

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of capturing footage. It’s fairly time consuming especially when all I want to do is edit!

I knew going in that I would have to capture all the footage we shot for The Climb myself.

Normally, I would put it off as much as possible before starting but this time, I had a deadline.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Our camera was borrowed and had to be returned first thing Monday morning. This meant that all of the footage we shot had to be captured before we lost the camera.

We shot about roughly 6 hours of footage in total.

At the end of each day of shooting, I sat down, captured and watched each tape one by one. It’s a lot easier to do when you have a deadline. It was actually quite fun because most of the time, the crew was still around so I wasn’t by myself.

It also helps that Final Cut Pro makes ingesting footage relatively pain free.

I had a late night on Sunday but it was an amazing feeling knowing all the footage was digitized and ready to be organized and ultimately edited.

I woke up Monday morning with a smile on my face.

Click here for more editing posts.

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A Computer, Some Footage, Final Cut Pro and Me

May 14th, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Editing | The Climb - (0 Comments)

A little while before we shot The Climb, I wrote about my NEED to edit a short film.

It’s a craving that’s been getting stronger since the day I finished editing Playing Through nearly 2 years ago.

Happily, I still get to edit full time in a live television environment but there is something calming and inspiring about slowing things down and building a story.

And now I have new footage to work with!

There’s something incredibly exciting about having 6 hours of brand new footage to mold into a short film. Editing has always been a passion of mine and I’ve been pumped about editing something new for far too long.

The next step for me is to continue catching up on my writing, blogging and graphic design responsibilities. I think it’s important to wrap up as many projects as you can before tackling another one. I’m also delaying the beginning of post production to give myself time to distance myself from the footage.

I wrote, produced and directed this short film. It’s based on a script I wrote almost 5 years ago so it’s safe to assume I’m the right guy to edit the movie. Having said that, we just finished shooting and I want to give myself a week or so to recharge before delving into the footage.

Until then, I’ll be bouncing up and down thinking about dropping our company’s opening animation on a timeline and editing a new short film.

Click here for more editing posts

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EDITING Category Gets A Boost

EDITING

LYNDA.COM For Independent Filmmakers

Bottom line? I like learning things…

Productive Days

Rushing To Capture Footage

A Computer, Some Footage, Final Cut Pro and Me

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