VIDEO EDITING

Aspects of Editing
⚫ Creative
⚫ Planning shots
⚫ Scripting
⚫ Shooting video
⚫ Technical
⚫ Shooting video
⚫ Recording sound
⚫ Editing using software
Video Editing Before
(Linear)
BBC Editing circa 1960s
Video Editing Now
⚫ Non-Linear
⚫ Able to add special effects
⚫ Able to edit portions of a picture
⚫ Able to edit sound and video separately
Products
⚫ Many products out there
⚫ Looking at 3 major products

⚫ Final Cut Pro (Mac)

⚫ Adobe Premiere (PC)

⚫ Other product comparison

⚫ Wikipedia Article
Products
⚫ Cost from FREE
⚫ Windows Movie Maker, iMovie (on new Macs)
⚫ To Over $1,000
⚫ Final Cut Studio
⚫ Sophistication from basic for the at home
user to high end for the broadcast
professional.
Final Cut Pro
Factors to Consider Before
Purchase
⚫ What are you taping?
⚫ Class review sessions
⚫ Guest speakers
⚫ Instructional video
⚫ Who will be the audience?
⚫ Internal
⚫ External
⚫ What format do you want to
produce to?
⚫ DVD
⚫ Streaming
⚫ Download
Considerations
⚫ Version of the Software
⚫ We have Vegas 4, 5, 6 Also a Vegas +DVD
⚫ Final Cut Pro no longer sold individually, must buy
Final Cut Studio.
⚫ Cost of add-ons?
⚫ Adobe Premiere $299.00 for educational discount
⚫ Adobe After Effects, $799.00
Considerations
⚫ Ability to Import HD formats
⚫ Output Options:
⚫ Streaming Web, Quicktime, Windows Media,
DVD, .mpg, HD formats, etc
Hardware Compatibility
⚫ Check each Website
⚫ Lists of compatibility include:
⚫ Cameras
⚫ DVD Burners
⚫ Analog Converters
⚫ Both Adobe and Sony list items that are “Full
Support” and “Partial Support”
What to look for in a video
editor
⚫ Ease of use?
⚫ Try downloading a trial version of the software, or
use the software somewhere first.
⚫ Software should be self-explanatory.
⚫ Features
⚫ Be aware of included features such as sound
effects, transitions, etc.
⚫ Some software packages require additional
purchases to get the extras.
Example
⚫ Adobe Premiere uses a program called After
Effects for special effects. This software
costs EXTRA
⚫ Final Cut Pro Studio uses the program
Motion to create special effects. Motion is
now packaged with Final Cut Pro. Along with
Soundtrack Pro and other add-ons. BUT,
Final Cut Studio costs much more
What to look for?
⚫ Help & Tutorials
⚫ Adobe Premiere
⚫ Tutorial DVDs included

⚫ Extra manuals to purchase

⚫ e-seminars

⚫ Final Cut Studio

⚫ Tutorial DVDs included

⚫ Self paced learning

⚫ Apple Pro Training

⚫ Certification
-Garbage in, garbage out.
-You can't make bricks without straw.
-You can’ make a fine silk purse out of
a pigs ear.

-But-

-Bad workers always blame their tools.

 PXL 2000 (Fisher Price)

Portions of the film Slackers were filmed with a

PXL 2000
Stages of Filmmaking
The filmmaking production cycle
consists of five main stages:
1. Development
2. Preproduction
3. Production
4. Post-production
5. Distribution
1. Development

⚫ Idea

⚫ Script

⚫ Authorization (Green Light)

2. Preproduction
⚫ Classically, acquiring the people and things required for
making a film
⚫ Directors

⚫ Actors

⚫ Equipment- Cameras, Sound Equipment, Lighting,

Green screens, etc
⚫ Storyboarding- before you shoot a scene, you need to
think about exactly how it needs to come together,
including how it will be edited.
3. Production
⚫ Actual acting and filming
⚫ Video Editing affected by, and affects
⚫ Camera location and movement
⚫ Audio characteristics
⚫ Order of shooting
⚫ Effects desired
Once the video is shot, editing
begins.
⚫ Typical Editing Workflow
⚫ Review each shot, plan captures or imports.
⚫ Capture desired sections.
⚫ Assemble and refine sequence.
⚫ Add transitions and effects.
⚫ Add titles.
⚫ Mix audio.
⚫ Export.
Capture:
⚫ Moving the video footage off the tape and
onto the computer.
⚫ Not all editing software is compatible with all
cameras. You may want to capture with one
program but edit with another.
Capture:
⚫ Quality data transfer typically requires a Firewire
(iLink) connection.
⚫ The type of files created are dependent upon the
software. Different file types serve different
purposes.
⚫ Batch logging and capture can save drive space.
File types
⚫ For quality production, always use a lossless
video encoding method. A MUST for
intermediate editing stages
File Size
⚫ An hour of output may require many hours of video
for input.
⚫ A non-compressed High Definition .avi can easily
take up 20 GB or more per hour.
⚫ To save drive space, if quality is not much of an
issue, use a lossy, high compression video format.
A .wmv, seemingly perfect to the naked eye can take
up 1/30th the space of an .avi. But always remember
GIGO.

⚫ Basic Video Editing- removing excess, adding titles, making it

exportableAssemble and Refine Shots
Adding Effects
⚫ Generated Media, Titles
⚫ Adjusting Colors
⚫ Multilayered Effects
⚫ Transitions
Film Editing
⚫ 1920s: rise of editing as film technique
⚫ Early cinema often consists of one shot films
⚫ Hollywood films contain between 1,000-3,000
shots
⚫ Editing as coordination of one shot with
another
⚫ Elimination of unwanted footage
Film Editing
⚫ Strong influence of Soviet Montage School
⚫ Attempt to build film based upon certain editing
devices
⚫ Create narrative via shots
⚫ Eisenstein—film as construction of editing
⚫ Initially opposed continuity editing
⚫ Used temporal discontinuities
⚫ Used temporal expansion
⚫ Created new relationships between time and space
via editing
Film Editing
⚫ Organization of desired shots
⚫ Joined via specific techniques
⚫ Fade-out—gradually darkens end of a shot to
black
⚫ Fade-in—gradually lightens a shot from black
⚫ Dissolve—brief superimposition of end of one
shot and beginning of next shot
⚫ Wipe—next shot replaces shot via boundary line
moving across frame
⚫ Both images briefly on screen—don’t blend
Film Editing
⚫ Cut—most common technique of connecting shots
⚫ Move directly from one shot to next
⚫ Uninterrupted segment of screen time or space
⚫ Instantaneous changes from one shot to another
⚫ Create marked and abrupt shifts
⚫ Enormous task of film editor
⚫ Use of storyboards
⚫ Planning of editing during shooting
Film Editing
⚫ Four basic artistic choices and directions of
editing
⚫ Graphic relations between one shot and another
⚫ Rhythmic relations between one shot and another
⚫ Spatial relations between one shot and another
⚫ Temporal relations between one shot and another
Film Editing
⚫ Interaction and integration of purely pictorial
qualities of two shots
⚫ Elements of mise-en-scene and cinematography
⚫ Graphic similarities create graphic match
⚫ Similarities of shape, composition, and movement
⚫ Most typical of narrative cinema
⚫ Graphically discontinuous editing more
noticeable
Film Editing
⚫ Each shot as strip of film—certain
measurement
⚫ Measured in film length
⚫ Measured in frames
⚫ Sound speed—24 frames/second
⚫ Editing allows control over duration of each shot
⚫ Editing thus controls filmic rhythm—accent,
beat, and tempo
⚫ Patterning of shot length and style
Film Editing
⚫ Editing constitutes metrical pace of film
⚫ Editing allows director to construct filmic
space
⚫ Allows omniscience—can move from one spot to
notably different
⚫ Allows relation of any two spots in space
⚫ Can create continuity and breakdown
⚫ Establishment of whole from component parts
Film Editing
⚫ Allows spatial manipulation
⚫ Strong influence of Soviet Montage style
⚫ Kuleshov effect—series of shots (without
establishing shot) that prompts spectator to infer
spatial whole from parts
⚫ Editing cues establish single locale
⚫ Crosscutting—parallel editing technique used to
establish variety of spaces
⚫ Editing can establish ambiguous spatial relations
Film Editing
⚫ Temporal relations—allows manipulation of time
⚫ Common technique of flashback
⚫ Presentation of one or more shots out of their
presumed story order
⚫ Usually interrupt present time
⚫ Flashforward—editing moves from present to future
and returns
⚫ Tease audience with glimpses of future
⚫ Establish possible narratives
⚫ Possible to control duration of story via editing
Temporal Ellipsis
⚫ Presentation of action in manner that it consumes less time on
screen than in story
⚫ Punctuation shot change—dissolve, wipe, or fade to demonstrate
progress accomplished
⚫ Empty frames shots—characters or objects entering and/or
exiting frame
⚫ Cutaway—shot of other event elsewhere that will not last as long
as the elided action
⚫ 2 locales that we connect via editing
⚫ Expansion—opposite of ellipsis
⚫ Eisentein’s use of overlapping editing to expand time
⚫ Overlapping editing allows presentation of time and space more
than once
Continuity Editing
⚫ Dominant editing style throughout Western
Film History
⚫ Rise of editing between 1900-1910
⚫ Used as method to establish coherent
narrative
⚫ Narrative continuity
⚫ “smooth flow” between shots to create story
180˚ System
⚫ Space of scene constructed along axis of
action
⚫ Center line
⚫ 180˚ line
⚫ Scene’s action assumed to take place along
discernible and predictable line
⚫ Axis of action determines half-circle (180˚
area) where camera can present action
180˚ System
⚫ Violation to shift to camera shot on opposite
of axis
⚫ 180˚ System ensures relative position of
objects and characters remains consistent
⚫ 180˚ System ensures consistent eyelines
⚫ 180˚ System ensures consistent screen
direction
⚫ Characters moving in logical and understandable
ways
180˚ System
⚫ 180˚ System claims to organize space clearly
⚫ Viewers can trust location (and relative location)
of characters
⚫ Viewers can trust their own locations and relative
locations
⚫ 180˚ System ensures and advances
continuity system
180˚ System
⚫ Shot/Reverse-shot pattern
⚫ Shows one end point of axis and then the other
⚫ Shot of opposite end of axis of action
⚫ Usually shows ¾ view of subject
⚫ Eyeline match
⚫ Initial shot of character looking
⚫ Second shot of object of character’s gaze
⚫ Neither shot shows both spectator and object
180˚ System
⚫ Directional quality of eyeline establishes spatial
continuity
⚫ Object of gaze must be within gaze of spectator
⚫ Establishes continuity from shot to shot
⚫ Shot/Reverse-shot Pattern allows us to understand
characters’ locations even when not in same frame
⚫ Reestablishing Shot—reestablishes overall space
that was inferred in previous shots
⚫ Pattern of establishment/ breakdown/
reestablishment
180˚ System
⚫ Continuity editing subordinates space to action
⚫ Emphasizes dialogue and character movement
⚫ Match on action tactic—extra method for
ensuring spatial continuity
⚫ Continuity of movement from one shot to next
⚫ Creates match on action
⚫ Carries a movement across the break of shots
⚫ Must consider mise-en-scene and cinematography
180˚ System
⚫ Filmmaker can create new axis of action by
rotating shots/reverse shot pattern
⚫ Axis of action allows for elimination of
establishing shot
⚫ Cheat cut—mismatching slightly the positions
of characters and/or objects in continuity
editing
⚫ Significant role of POV shot in continuity
editing
⚫ Allows/creates variety of eyeline-match editing
180˚ System
⚫ Head-on Shot—action presented as moving directly
toward camera
⚫ Crosscutting—parallel editing to create various
spaces (presumably in same time)
⚫ Allows unrestricted access to causal, temporal, and spatial
knowledge
⚫ Yet creates spatial discontinuity while creating cause and
effect in temporal simultaneity
⚫ Builds up suspense
⚫ Allows temporal/spatial collision
Continuity Editing
⚫ Appears invisible and/or natural
⚫ Usually presents plot consistently and
chronologically
⚫ Chronological order—1-2-3 order
⚫ Common violation of flashback
⚫ One-for-one frequency—event shown once
⚫ Duration usually not expanded
⚫ Temporal continuity—narrative progression has no
gaps
Continuity Editing
⚫ Use of diegetic sound—sound issuing from space of
story
⚫ Creates spatial and temporal continuity
⚫ Temporal ellipsis—omission of time
⚫ Viewer must recognize passing of time to ensure continuity
⚫ Use of dissolves, fades, or wipes
⚫ Montage sequence—joining of various images,
objects, characters, places, and times to compress
series of actions into brief sequence
⚫ Usually still suggests continuity and one-for-one events
Non-Continuity Editing
⚫ Common in abstract and/or associational
films
⚫ Often based on graphic and rhythmic
qualities of film
⚫ Based on light, texture, shape, movement
⚫ Often subordinates space and time to rhythm
⚫ Narrative becomes less important
Non-Continuity Editing
⚫ Technique of jump cut—creates violation of spatial,
temporal, and graphic continuity
⚫ Two shots of same subject cut together but not notably
different in camera distance and angle
⚫ Creates notable jump on screen
⚫ Avoided in continuity editing
⚫ Nondiegetic Insert—cut from diegetic scene to
metaphorical or symbolic shot outside time and
space of film
⚫ Disturbs normal expectations about art and narrative
Non-Continuity Editing
⚫ More frequent use of expansion of temporal
qualities
⚫ Jump cut
⚫ Nondiegetic insert
⚫ Expansion can be presented as formal
aesthetic quality of film