---
tags: cd
---
# montage + the principles of editing

## resources:
* Check out some of the fundamentals of editing on [the Yale film analysis website](https://filmanalysis.yale.edu/editing/#devices)

## a bit about montage:

Today, we're going to get an introduction to Final Cut Pro, an industry standard video editing tool that allows us to edit footage from workshops and other LL events quickly and professionally. Using Final Cut, we'll make montages!

One of the best ways to learn a video editing tool--and by extension some of the principles of film editing--is to create a montage of clips. A montage is essentially a sequence of video clips that are strategically and purposefully arranged, edited, titled, synced with sound, etc. Editing a montage allows you (the editor!) to reach your audience and convey to them something meaningful.

Film scholar Patrick Keating, writing about the classical Hollywood cinema, has described films as a series of "sequential disclosures" (Keating 8). A film is essentially an arrangement of images, or clips, that ultimately come together to tell a story. Because of this, a film editor is integral to the filmmaking process and the final form the film takes.

This idea of a sequence that discloses something to the viewer is just one way to think about what your montages might do. By arranging clips on a timeline in a purposeful way, you will ultimately tell the story of an event--and do so in a way that could only be told through the medium of film. Consider what you want your viewer to understand about the footage as you edit it: How can you arrange footage, make cuts, create juxtapositions, and so on that tell the story of an event? Can you integrate titles to give your montage a doc-style aesthetic (and convey key info you want the audience to know)?

## activity + the steps to complete it
* Bring footage into Final Cut Pro using a drive
* Create a library - cineLab_firstname_YYYYMMDD
* Create 2 events - "Footage" and "Projects"
* Import your footage into the footage folder
* Create 2 projects - "Selects" and "rough cut"
* Try making range selected keywords
* Press command K and label clips thematically. You can then add your range selected keyword clips to your "Footage" event folder

* Make a select sequence by adding clips to your timeline
* Set an "in"
* letter "i"
* Set an "out"
* letter "o"
* Add the clip to the timeline
* letter "e" adds clip to the end of the timeline

* Add titles to your clips
* Imagine your montage is the title sequence in a film, making "opening credits" that tell your viewer who the characters are, what the title of the film is, etc.

* Experiment with audio
* Detach the audio track from the visual track
* Import a music bed to accompany your montage
* Create a soundbite (voiceover)

* Arrange your clips into a montage!
* How would you tell a story using this footage? How can you make seamless transition from one clip to another?

### extras:
[making and intro sequence (the doc from lore)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1unInL5dIHGmse7tnUpPmR2kiY_p9VriekJ3UA3Ip-OQ/edit) and [the lluf edited edition](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10BHAlJHJd7CJlBqc7tNS-EwvPtByxxj4SutuS9W7kpw/edit)

30 Second Promo Challenge:
* Make a new project called "30_second_promo_v1"
* Add a 30 second music bed
* Add selects and cut between them to the rhythm of the music

some steps from a previous lab:
* open and start a library
* tour of the interface
* importing media into an “event”
* starting a project
* bringing clips into the timeline
* selecting segments by dragging
* selecting segments with i and o
* adding by dragging
* adding with E and Q
* manipulating things in the timeline
* shortening clips (and lengthening)
* cutting (with blade and command + B)
* zooming in and out in the timeline
* dragging around---understanding the magnetic timeline
* work arounds for edits that need to stay in sync with music track
* the inspector
* changing basic video properties
* size
* scale
* audio
* changing properties of titles and effects
* turning snapping on and off