5 Reasons Why White In Revery’s FCPX Masterclass Rocks

April 16, 2019

David Aguilar

1. A FOUNdational and Thorough Overview of Final Cut Pro X

White In Revery’s Masterclass starts out with a great overview of the way that Final Cut Pro X operates and how to take advantage of the software’s unique abilities. This is an especially important way to begin this course considering not only how far Final Cut Pro X differs from its predecessor, Final Cut Pro 7, but also in how drastically the software has improved from its initial launch in 2011.

A few of the most important elements covered in this initial overview of Final Cut Pro X include:

The Magnetic Timeline
- Final Cut Pro X’s key difference in how it operates compared to traditional NLE programs is the inclusion of the Magnetic Timeline–a timeline that facilitates a new way of working with clips when editing. As an editor, learning a whole new way of thinking about timeline workflow can be a scary idea to face. To quell this fear, Calen goes into great detail on how to properly use the tools Final Cut Pro X provides in order to edit efficiently using the magnetic timeline.
Metadata Sorting Structure
- Once again, Final Cut Pro X does things different than most traditional NLE’s when it comes to organizing media. In many ways, Final Cut Pro X operates like a database that provides a multitude of ways to label, sort, and search through media. White In Revery offers a great method to utilizing tools like Keyword Collections, Smart Collections, and Favorites in order to speed up the editing process.
Editing Tools
- In the lesson overviewing the functions of Final Cut Pro X, Calen reviews just about everything students need to know about how to operate within Final Cut Pro X. From trimming and positioning tools, to speed-ramping and creating compound clips, just about every question you may come across while editing with Final Cut Pro X for the first time is answered succinctly, yet thoroughly. White In Revery even offers a handy “Cheat Sheet” with helpful keyboard shortcuts.

Throughout every topic covered, White In Revery offers handy tips and tricks on how to work most efficiently within the software. Efficiency and speed is especially important for wedding filmmakers since we’ve found that few have clearly defined budgets when it comes to the post production tasks. If wedding filmmakers aren’t working with a post house for their editing, typically the actual cost of editing is a big unknown. This can really hinder not only a wedding filmmaker’s bottom line, but also their ability to advance their business and free up time for a more healthy work-life balance.

2. Everything you Need to Know about Wedding Film Editing (And Beyond)

In working with filmmakers from around the country, we’ve found that most enter the wedding industry with a high degree of knowledge and interest in the art of production. Areas of interest tend to be camera and lens specifications, techniques for capturing well-composed and properly-lit footage, and interacting with couples in order to elicit natural and genuine emotions.

That being said, few filmmakers in the wedding videography industry started their business with a specific focus on editing. That’s not to say that none have or that they don’t grow to be strong and influential editing personalities, it just isn’t the norm. White In Revery’s Masterclass truly teaches students everything they need to know about the wedding world once they’ve set down their camera and picked up a pair of headphones.

In order to best organize and teach the post production process, White In Revery divides their workflow into five distinct stages:

Transfer
The first step to any editing process involves transferring the digital files from your cameras and audio recorders to your hard drive. This section covers the best hardware specs you should be using for your hard drives, different methods to back-up media, and how to transfer, label, and organize media from multiple cameras and audio sources. White In Revery also provides a well-organized file structure that you can duplicate for each of your new projects in order to help you stay organized from the very first step of the editing process.
Prep
A good rough cut can save time and help an editor stay focused on creating a compelling and emotional wedding film. This section covers how to prepare your Final Cut Pro X Library, import media, add metadata to that media, and then sort it using “Keyword Collections.” This section of the Masterclass also covers how to generate and work with multicams, as well as create selects using Final Cut Pro X’s “Favorites” filter. All of these steps can seem cumbersome and tedious, but if done correctly they can really enhance the editing experience.
Edit
This section goes in-depth on how White In Revery shapes the narrative by choosing stand out dialogue and the very best visual shots. They detail how best to use the software’s unique functions like the magnetic timeline and connected storyline to edit efficiently within Final Cut Pro X. An important aspect of this section is how they emphasize creating strong emotional stories from the opening frames to the closing note.
Master
Once you’ve gone through your footage to craft the most compelling story for your couple’s special day, your work is not over. The finishing elements of audio mixing and color grading are still left to tackle before final delivery. While the earlier editing phase also includes mixing audio elements to feel seamless, balanced, and complementary to the visuals, there’s more finessing to be done. As quickly as a strong audio mix can enhance an edit, a weak mix can destroy it. The audio portion of this section covers how to master dialogue, effects, and music. Sound isn’t the only aspect of mastering a film that this section teaches. White In Revery is well known in the wedding filmmaking community for their unique color grading look. This course has multiple lessons on their approach to color grading, creating specific looks, and working with Look Up Tables (LUTs).
Delivery
There are so many ways to deliver a final product to the eager couple waiting to reminisce about their wedding day. The final lessons of this Masterclass go over everything students need to know about exporting proper codecs, using Compressor, archiving media, and sharing on websites such as Instagram and Mediazilla. White In Revery even includes a lesson on creating beautiful physical packaging to deliver to the client so they can display their memories in a nice keepsake for all time.

The depth of White In Revery’s intentionality and consideration within each of these five stages sets up the possibility for any of them to fill the content of its own distinct course. In a nutshell, the Masterclass covers how to effectively organize footage, craft the perfect wedding narrative, master audio, create the desired color look for a wedding film, and finally how to deliver the final product.

White in Revery’s FCPX Template Library.

3. INTRODUCtion of A Streamlined Workflow

In an industry where many filmmakers are self-taught, having a rigidly defined and repeatable workflow can feel foreign and daunting to nail down. It’s easy to become unorganized and to change processes and procedures from project-to-project, resulting in tons of wasted time and misguided effort.

With a mission of elevating the wedding filmmaking community to a place of consistent profitability and a dependable, high quality product, White In Revery thoroughly outlines a detailed and efficient workflow structure perfect for creating wedding films in Final Cut Pro X. The workflow that White In Revery has developed and now shares through their Masterclass is built from years of experience and will help filmmakers of all experience levels save time with each film they work on.

White In Revery’s workflow details in a step-by-step guide each stage of the editing process. Documenting everything that needs to be completed through the process in a handy outline will help you stay on track and make sure that you never miss a step when editing. Because by nature, weddings often follow a consistent schedule, White In Revery’s process is largely applicable to all wedding projects that hit an editor’s desk. Their guide can be used to make sure you are editing most efficiently in Final Cut Pro X, but they also encourage you to customize the workflow to best fit your needs.

White in Revery’s emoji library is ????

4. ADDITIONAL Resources and Extras

While most educational courses simply begin and end with the content that exists within the video lectures, White In Revery takes their Masterclass a step further. Not only do students receive insightful tips and reliable techniques on how to stay organized throughout their editing workflow, the Masterclass offers tons of supplementary files and assets like LUTs and Lens Distortions. These supporting offerings truly help students create amazing films that allow them the flexibility to put their own unique twist on White In Revery’s already artistically strong foundation.

However, the best file White In Revery shares in the course is their template library. This Final Cut Pro X template library is well organized with has some fun emoji flare ????to help take the grind out of editing! We can confidently say from our first hand usage that this library is a huge timesaver and provides a big leg up toward digging right into the creative process of editing a wedding film.

After taking this course, you’ll never want to work in a Final Cut Pro X library without emojis again!

As if these additional files and assets weren’t enough to add to White In Revery’s Masterclass offering, they’ve also developed an exclusive Facebook Group to which students gain access when purchasing the course. On this platform, Calen and Kristine routinely engage with students, offer feedback, and add even more resources and content.

Calen and Kristine Rhome, the masters behind the Masterclass.

5. They Show Their Thought Process

While the value of White In Revery’s technical content is unquestionable—topics such as J- and L-cutting, folder structures, and library organization—where their Masterclass really shines is in the times when Calen and Kristine give students a peek into the thought process that goes into their editing decisions.

Throughout the course, real wedding projects are used and worked through as examples for every step in the process. White In Revery exposes why they chose specific dialogue and B-Roll to tell the perfect story of a couple’s big day. This human element really helps to showcase that editing isn’t always a streamlined, scientific process as some may think when enrolling in a Masterclass. Calen and Kristine are real with their students about the instances in which they may need to experiment with ideas in order to elicit the most powerful emotions through an edit. These authentic moments prove to be one of the most powerful methods of understanding the thought process of an expert wedding film editor, and they help set students up for success when making their own creative decisions during the wedding editing process.

If you’d like more info about White In Revery’s Masterclass, or if you’re ready to hit go and join the community Calen and Kristine have developed, check out the resources below:

Want to hear something amazing? Our friends at White in Revery are offering readers of this article 20% off their Masterclass purchase!

Just use ARCHAIUS20 at checkout to save over $150!

‍