Join Sam Mestman as he presents a beginners guide to Final Cut Pro, this Thursday 21st January at 10am PT, 11am MT, Noon CT and 1pm ET.
Sam has had a busy few months with his involvement with LumaForge and OWC, but he's back where he likes to be, passing on information to filmmakers.
This Thursday the 21st of January Sam and Aubrey Mozino are going to present a free live beginners course for Final Cut Pro. Although it is billed as Smartphone Studio 2, Sam says FCP will be front and centre.
The live show and interaction is being hosted by SAG AFTRA and registering on their site will certainly help as you can submit questions beforehand. A visit to their site is also worth while as they host many resources including sample contracts and tables of rates for performers.
"Come learn the basics of editing with the professional post-production software Final Cut Pro. We’ll walk you through how to import your footage, make edits in your timeline, do some simple color correction and sound polishing, add any titles or graphics you’d like and then export the finished project! Whether you want to cut your own self-tapes or start editing your own content we’ll show you how easy it can be to use this powerful software!"
You can also take a look at last week's presentation from Aubrey where she concentrated on the skills, tips and kit fro the mobile creator. It's proved to be pretty popular so far and includes an ASL interpreter.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
