Tools Of The Trade Question(s)

All right. So we're all moving into the internet age, even though some of us — me included — think it's a waste of time. But I digress.

Given that at some point I might be asked to shoot a video or comprise a slide show, how hard is Final Cut Pro to learn on my own?

Also, I have never used power point. I say that because I may one day be out of a job and looking at PR or marketing gigs. I figure Power Point, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop all may be useful.

If I bought them (or pirated them) on my own, could I tool around on them at home become proficient enough to include them on a future resume?

Also, any other programs I should learn or become familiar with for the PR, marketing fields?

 

Useful? Yeah, I'd say so. Some of those programs have been pretty standard for the last two decades. I used PowerPoint regularly for high school assignments and that was more than 10 years ago. Kind of hard to believe anybody in this business has never had any experience with that stuff, but I digress.

Final Cut's not too hard if you grasp the concept of editing video, but I think a lot of newer Macs come with iMovie and that'll serve your purposes just as well.

All the Adobe programs are compatible with each other, which means if you can pick up one it's not too hard to pick up the others. You should at least get acquainted with the basics of photo editing (cropping, cutouts, etc.) That can come in handy everywhere.

I wouldn't go out and buy all these programs if a) you don't know what you're doing; and b) you won't use them a lot. I believe openoffice.org has a Powerpoint-like program called "Impress", and you can download that for free. There are a few other free slide-show sites out there that you can use to get the hang of it, too. Definitely go that route first, I'd say.

 

Yeah, I too am shocked that I have never used PowerPoint. Not once. I'll check out Impress, though. Thanks, Buck.

I should have said I've used Photoshop, obviously. Almost every day. But I've only used Illustrator sparingly, and that was four years ago — maybe six years ago.

My iMac has iMovie. I figured it was similar — but not as good as — Final Cut, which I've used once. But I only did the voice-over for a project on it. Not a lot of splicing, editing, etc.

 

Leisure Suit Larry

 

iMovie is the kid version of Final Cut. Final Cut Express will work fine for anything you do for a newspaper Web site. iMovie's editing is pretty simplistic, while Final Cut lets you drop in clips pretty easily.

Flash would be nice to know as well. Soundslide are what I use for audio slideshows. It's real easy to use and you can use Final Cut, Audacity or Garageband to edit the voiceovers.

 

Shit, I forgot I have Garage Band, and did a couple podcasts off it last football season.

And, yes, I need to learn Flash. Is that something I can teach myself?

 

I think so. I don't know it very well, but a friend of mine picked it up on his own and he's not a computer genius.