The Digital Laboratory

Think of your computer loaded with Final Cut Pro as being like a digital laboratory. In the days when cine-film was the only means for movie-making, everyone relied on the lab. Film would be processed at the lab; there were work prints; answer prints; release prints; opticals the lab was central to virtually every facet of the post-production process.

Your Mac is a digital lab, just waiting for you to stir the potions.

Essentially the post-production process is the same as it has always been. While the means to achieving results has changed, digital filmmaking requires similar methods and procedures to that of filmmaking in the world of celluloid and chemicals.

While film needed to be developed the images recorded on videotape need to be transferred from tape to hard drive this process is known as capture.

The raw material must then be ordered and structured. In the film world this would take place in the cutting room where the editor would take reels of film and break these into smaller more manageable sections when using Final Cut Pro an electronic equivalent to the cutting room is provided in the layout of the interface. It is here that the editing takes place.

Once the picture was edited the sound needed to be mixed. Dubbing suites with many machines running in synchronization were traditionally used. Inside your computer multiple audio tracks are electronically mixed to be output in sync with picture.

Final Cut Pro is...