General Effects

Looking for some unique transitions or effects to add to my videos. Any suggestions. Getting sick of the flare you find in most videos. Links to videos and where to get the affects is appreciated.

First, don't use effects just to use effects. They should add to the story itself, enhance it's emotional content.

Start by trying out many of the top quality freebies here at this very forum!

www.fcp.co/forum/9-free-fcpx-plugins-and-templates

I am going to making videos this summer at a summer camp and we are trying some unique things. We will be using final cut pro, any suggestions on that end of the things as far as editing. We all know how cheesy camp videos can be. I am really trying to step up the bar.

Make a reality TV show out of it. Plenty of fast cuts, b-rolls, stylized image, shaky cam, out of focus, ...

Cgbier

Thank you for your post, any suggestions on some examples that I could see.

And plenty of fast cuts, how do I go about that in final cut in a professional manner?

This is one of my favorite videos that captures that, but how did he do it

vimeo.com/33162335

Dang, I thought my speakers died for a second...

Those are fast cuts. Trim a clip as short as possible, then butt the next clip to it without transition. He also did some compositing (layering to clips atop of each other and play around with blend modes or opacity). Look also in his color grading. He used different styles.

When you do something like that, you start with laying down the music, then cut your clips to the beat. It takes a bit of practice, but ain't rocket science.

haha.

Yea it is pretty fascinating how he did those cuts. I appreciate your advice and tips. Any particulars on doing that in Final Cut Pro (how to trim a clip as short as possible).

Also any suggestions on getting some b-rolls? I have seen my share of poor b-roll.

There's a randomly chosen YouTube tutorial on editing to music: