TRAINING AND THE NEED FOR MULTISKILLING
“FCP X is the fi rst major change in the editing world since FCP fi rst appeared,” believes Brian Cantwell, md, Soho Editors. “All other changes have been evolutionary. There are so many changes in FCP X – the interface, workfl ows, meta data and the way it manages projects – it’s so different to FCP7, even the most experienced talent in the world will benefi t from training to more quickly get to grips with the software.” “A lot of editors will think of downloading FCP X and self-teaching themselves on it, which is laborious and almost certainly means they won’t learn the best ways of doing things,” adds Cantwell. “Doing proper training, you very quickly learn the correct things from experts.” Cantwell reveals Soho Editors had a very limited window between the release of FCP X and getting its FCP X training up and running. So, ahead of the software being released, Cantwell says, “We were making assumptions and plans on different scenarios and developing our own content and course ideas.” The training house now offers a one-day FCP X course aimed at experienced FCP7 users as well as a three-day FCP X introduction programme for those with a basic knowledge and understanding of editing but who are new to FCP.
The university focus There is, of course, an ever pressing need for colleges and universities to gear up quickly to the latest technology in order to provide their students with the necessary skills to master widely used kit.
Dave Neal, senior technical instructor at the University of West England’s School of Creative Arts, says the facility is about to move to a new campus including a media centre with fi lm, news and multimedia studios, audio dubbing suites, DI rooms and edit suites, all of which will be equipped with “primary software such as FCP X, Pro Tools, Creative Suite, etc”. They will also feature Blackmagic Design video cards and DaVinci Resolve software, with a view to purchasing a full Resolve system with control surface a little further down the line. One of the most immediate concerns for Neal is ensuring students are au fait with FCP X: “We’re planning to put FCP X on as many machines as we can,” he says. It will be accessible to media, fashion, photography and animation students and the university is putting together three-hour workshops to train this fairly disparate set of students on FCP X. The course is backed up with “internal web
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training videos, so the basics of FCP X can be disseminated before we get the onslaught of student questions,” says Neal. Meanwhile, at Amsterdam’s College of MultiMedia, director Guy Nicholson says the one-day update courses the institute has previously run whenever a new version of FCP is released may not cut the mustard this time around. “I don’t know if that will be possible with FCP X – it doesn’t look like you can cover all its features in one day,” he says. Talking more broadly about training, Nicholson adds: “The end-user of any piece of software only uses around 10% of the features, while training really teaches you how to make the most of it.”
Multiskilling Training is becoming an ever more pertinent issue with the increasing expectation from employers that creative production and post personnel should be trained to fulfi ll a variety of roles. “I’ve been banging on to academics from day one about the requirements to teach multiskilling,” says The University of West England’s Neal. “Students should now be multiskilled – all my students call themselves DoPs but they are involved in the edit and grade and we also teach them Pro Tools.” In Holland, the College of MultiMedia’s Nicholson says it also has a need for a multiskilled approach to training: “Certain production jobs are merging – the cameraman is doing the job of the sound recordist, and if it’s a small production, the editors are doing the grading. So the smaller jobs need multiskilling – but in a big production, you still need specialists.”
Soho Editors’ Cantwell agrees: “There’s
an increased pressure in certain areas – short form and promos, which are quick turnaround – where clients are looking more and more for one person to do the graphics, audio, edit and grade. But in long-form there’s still a very marked demarcation. However, even then the offl ine editor contributes during the online and audio process to help ensure the narrative is accurately translated.” Cantwell says the trend for multiskilling
stretches as far as directors and producers, who are also signing up for his FCP training courses. “Even though they never plan to use the software they still want to learn the capabilities and possibilities. The more the director or producer understands, the better they can plan, budget and realise what they plan to realise.”
Guy Nicholson College of MultiMedia
“The end-user of any piece of software only uses around 10% of the features, while training teaches you how to make the most of it.
Certain production jobs are merging – the cameraman’s doing the job of the sound recordist, and if it’s a small production, editors are doing the grading. The smaller jobs need multiskilling – but in a big production, you still need specialists.”
David Neal School of Creative Arts
“We’re planning to put FCP X on as many machines as we can.
[We’re creating] internal web training videos, so the basics of FCP X can be disseminated before we get the onslaught of student questions.
I’ve been banging on to academics from day one about the requirements to teach multiskilling.”
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