Ernie's Interview with Professor Stephen Hawking

No! Of course it's not a real interview. I wanted to challenge (with the hopes of improving) my editing skills.

This project required about six hours of sitting in front of my computer just to research, locate, and download stills and flash video. Then, I had to convert the flash into mpeg and avi files in order to edit them in Premiere.

At times, I had to separate the audio from the video. Such was the case when I created the Hawking dialog. Speach synthesis was generated using the speak function in the software Movie Magic Screenwriter.



In all there are about seven layers of complexity in this project and another six hours of meshing all the elements together. After watching the final cut, I know there's lots of room for improvement. Primarily, I need to step up from Premiere to Final Cut Pro which means I need a new and more powerful computer to run FCP. Great... Certainly, I haven't truly maximized the potential of the platform I currently have. A few more projects with what I've got will convince me one way or the other. Still, it's tough being a one man show!

But for now, I'm pleased with my progress. For my next project, I'd like to try audio punch-ins, over-dubbing, and green screen video. Just to keep things interesting.