What I've Learned: 03/10/12

Before beginning media studies, I already had some knowledge of editing software from using iMovie at home but had never used final cut pro X before so most of the layout and shortcuts were a novelty. But simply from very roughly editing a 40 second preliminary task, the basis of these was picked up.
The gargantuan library of effects, titles, transitions.. (on and on) were all new to me as well - in trying to find a suitable combination of effects that would achieve the look I was aiming for, I discovered that aged film adds an antique colour tint and so would not work with black and white, or I thought I'd discovered this until I realised that if you add black and white to a clip after aged film, the effects have a sort of layering system, by which the last effect added is "in charge", if you like. To summarise that completely unnecessary waffle that no one's going to read, I ended up with a clip that was both aged, and black... and white, when added in that order ('black and white' being one collective thing). This all became irrelevant as I decided I did not like the hybrid effect I had created.
I then thought film grain would be the thing for me and it was, other than the infuriating vertical black lines that inexplicably appear every now and then and fluctuate erratically about the screen.

Eventually, after much strife, I chose the effect strife. It wasn't quite what I wanted, which is when I learnt that you can adjust the effects of an effect (see left).