Stretch Your Abilities

by Leonard Aaron Caplan

How many of us non-techies are proficient in the use of certain equipment, especially applications we use daily in creating our projects? Well, we all are if we want to keep our jobs, right? Now, another question. How many of us are experts in these skills? If we're honest, most of us aren't because don't we tend to do just what we need to get the job done? I mean, do YOU know three ways to make a certain effect with Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere when you can just as easily do it one way? And if something out of the ordinary comes up, don't we usually leave it to the techies to explain it to us, ask the question on a video forum or even Google it?

The point is if we're used to doing certain things a certain way then there is very little incentive to change or stretch our abilities. But if we're conscientious and passionate about our work and don't want to repeat ourselves, every once in awhile we'll take a workshop or a class, update our skills and be that much more well-rounded in whatever discipline we're talking about.

Why? Look at it this way. Isn't it better to know all we can about something rather than wait 'til the day when we desperately NEED a skill or technique?

I'm following my own advice and getting out of my comfort zone. Next month, even though I have been teaching Final Cut Pro for eleven years, I'm taking a 3-day workshop in preparation for the Level One Final Cut certification test. This will be beneficial in many ways. First and foremost, I will hopefully be able to avoid one of those "I really need to know how to do that for this project but who do I ask" days. Second, third and fourth, I make myself a more valuable commodity to my company and in the job marketplace should I suddenly find myself looking. What do you think? Have any of you plateaued in your knowledge of a certain application or piece of equipment you work with daily? What did you do or not do about it?

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