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Daniella Vincent Video Editing Techniques

Video and Editing Techniques Essay


Please provide a written comment that deals with all the italicized tasks below. You don’t need to write about all of listed content but it essential that you write about a minimum of two of the sub headings for the learning outcomes.

Unit content

P1. UNDERSTAND THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRINCIPLES OF EDITING

P1.1 Development: in-camera editing; following the action; multiple points of view; shot variation; manipulation of diegetic time and space; film, video; analogue; digital.

Task 1. Provide a written report to explain your understanding of the above media terms, also provide written details about camera and audio equipment you use to record production work. P1 M1 D1

In-Camera Editing

With in-camera editing, you shoot your film as normal but you have the restriction of not being able to edit that footage later in your production. You have to shoot you scenes in order so that it pieces everything together in the end the way you wanted it, thus then after it will be ready to ready when you are done your production.

With this method, I have taken some pointers from it in that when I film a production, I tend to shoot everything in order and as best I can, making there no room for extra unneeded footage that would confuse me later in post-production.

Examples of in-camera editing would be in any old movies as this was the only method of editing and capturing they had back then.

Following the actionFollowing the action is self-explanatory, as when you are filming your production you follow

the actions that is happening continuously in time and in sync with it. An example of this

would be in the film production that I worked on for Lo Shiavo, as we had a scene where it

follows our main character from behind as he walks down an alley. We used this as it was a

good way to present to our audience a close- up of what was going on in the film. I

personally filmed this by stepping in sync with our actor as he walked. It took several


attempts to get the timing right, but I feel as when we did execute it properly it worked out

as we originally intended it to. On other high budget productions, this is normally done with

equipment that consists of Steadicams and a dolly. We personally used the hand-held

method, which is a work around for less budgeted productions.

Multiple points of viewWith multiple points of view, it gives different perspectives of the characters that are

presented on screen. This is usually done when more than one character is contributing to

the dialogue, story or scene. When in post-production, the editing will need to be timed

right in accordance to how it is wanted to look, as you will need to cut between certain

characters at different times.

Shot Variation Shot variation refers to the different types of shots that are used when filming. There is

quite a large range of shots that can be used for when carrying out the production. Certain

shots can help display a close-up to a character’s face to show emotion, or show a shot of

what is happening in the scene so that the audience can get a better grasp on what is

happening.

Different types of shots include:

EWS (Extreme wide shot)

VES (Very Wide shot)

WS (Wide Shot)

MS (Mid Shot)

HA (High Angle)

LA (Low Angle)

MCU (Medium Close Up)

CU (Close Up)

ECU (Extreme Close Up)

Cut-In

CA (Cut away)

Two-shot

OSS (Over-the-shoulder Shot)

POV (Point-of-view Shot)


An example of one of these shots, would be a “Point of View” shot that is used throughout the Iron Man movies to show what the main character is seeing within his suit of armor at that moment in time:

Manipulation of diegetic time and spaceManipulation of Diegetic time and space is when a long period is produced to be shown in a

short period. In productions, a common example of this would be in things such as flashback

scenes to show what happened in the past. Most films are usually shot within a real-time

basis, but with manipulation of diegetic time and space, the film can portray what happened

in a character’s past that could contribute a key plotline to the overall story. Another

example would be placing characters in front of a green screen to portray that they are in a

different location to what they are.

FilmFilm is celluloid material that can be used to capture movement frame by frame. It’s usually

shot at 24 frames per second when making a film and although 35mm is typically the type of

film that is used for a feature film, 70mm, Super 16mm and 16mm can be used as well. The

process of editing film is long and requires you to physically cut and splice together film

reels using scissors and tape. If a mistake is made while editing film, it’s permanent. Film is

not used much in modern times.

Video Before what we have today, video captured would be stored on tapes and the way the films

would be edited is by editing the segments of film in a machine that mechanically puts these


pieces together. This meant that any mistakes were permanent. The film would also have to

be edited in a linear order. Video is also similar to Film in that it is not commonly used

anymore.

Analogue

Analogue is a method of editing before the use of computers. Analogue editing is linear as

you cannot fix mistakes that you have made once you have made them as all of the editing

that you would need to carry out, must be done consecutively. The introduction of

computers and non-linear editing has almost entirely made analogue editing obsolete.

Digital

The modern method for editing will normally involve the film being recorded onto a SD card

or digital tape and this makes it much more effective and faster. Also with digital editing, it

is non-linear which gives editors the freedom to go back and correct mistakes and edit at

any point throughout the footage. With modern age, there are tons of video editing

software such as: Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects CC, iMovie and Windows

Movie Maker. In the example below, is a video I have made with Adobe Premiere Pro using

the digital method:

Equipment Used in Production


The cameras that I have used in filming consist of the Nikon D3100 DSLR camera and a Sony

JVC camera.

Nikon D3100 DSLR

I also used a tripod to hold the camera for my productions:


I used both a boom mic and a shotgun mic for various productions.


The equipment I used for both editing and recording the film were: Mac Computers, my

Acer Aspire E-15 laptop and also SD cards that were in the cameras to hold the recoded

footage.


P1.2 Purposes: storytelling, e.g. engaging the viewer, development of drama, relationship to genre, creating motivation; combining shots into sequences; creating pace.

Task 2. Describe how the above media terms are important to moving image productions. Give an account of you are intending to employ editing techniques and processes to tell your story? P1 M1 D1

Storytelling Storytelling is the way in which the film makers will convey the story thorough event’s such

as words, images and video

Engaging the Viewer:

To engage a viewer in your wok, you would need to have a very interesting story or concept

behind it to garner their interest. Just by taking your idea and expanding it as much as

possible in the correct way, it can create a whole new world of possibilities for the viewer to

think of and explore and to ponder upon. This is what makes a good story as it is engaging

the viewer into your work and making hem interested in what you’re doing. In my opinion,

things such as the right transitions, the correct soundtrack and also the right story is what

engages the audience the most.

Development of Drama

The development of drama is how a story changes throughout a film and increases or

decreases drama by using different plot twists and progressions. This is important, as it will

make the viewer interested in your work.

Relationship to Genre:

A film’s relationship to a genre is what genre or genres a film fits into based on how it is trying to make its audience feel. Expanding on this, if, for example, a film is of the comedy genre, then it should stick mainly to that genre. If the comedy starts to stray away from its genre, then the interpretation by the audience can become messy and they can become confused by what the film is trying to portray

.


Creating motivation:

This means that a filmmaker is creating a reason for a character in their film to do

something. To have a motivated film you must consider what every shot does for the

viewer. You must make sure that your edits correlate well with the scene, storyline and

audience. The most common example of this would be in superhero movies, as towards the

start they are given motivation to do something, for example in Captain America: The First

Avenger, he is motivated to become a hero so that he can be enlisted in the army and help

out those who are helpless and can’t defend themselves. Through techniques that the

storyteller uses, this can create motivation within the film.

Combining Shots into Sequences:

This is process happens in the editing stages of post-production. It means to take all the

shots from your footage and edit and arrange them together into a sequence and order that

best fits the tone, pace and general flow that you wish to achieve for that scene.

Creating pace:

Creating pace is the process of using the pace of the film to ensure that the film is not too

rushed or too slow. Pace is created through editing by deciding what cuts to make, adding

music or sound effects. Editors can create fast or slow pace; fast pace will be used more in

action movies especially around the action scenes.


P1.3 Conventions and techniques: seamless; continuity; motivated; montage; jump-cutting; parallel editing; 180o rule; splicing; transitions, e.g. cut, dissolve, fade, wipe; cutaways; point of view shot; shot-reverse-shot; providing and withholding information; editing rhythm; crosscutting; cutting to soundtrack.

Task 3. Provide a written report to explain what the above editing conventions and techniques mean and give an account of the editing techniques you plan to use in your production. P1 M1 D1

Motivated:Motivated editing is when you consider what every shot does for the viewer, a motivation behind every clip.

Montage:A montage is a quick sequence of clips mixed in as one. Montages lack structure purposefully; the idea is to show a lot of sequences in a small amount of time.

Jump-Cutting:Jump Cutting is an edit that is quick to move to the next clip. The transition is not smooth instead it’s like a jump, hence the name.

Parallel Editing & Cross Cutting:Parallel Editing/ Cross Cutting is when a sequence is shot in two different places. They usually go together and show what’s happening in real time from two perspectives. They are two parallel narratives that are happening in different locations but are linked by connecting aspects of the film’s story.

180° Rule:The 180° rule is means that once a scene begins being shot from a certain perspective there’s an imaginary 180° line that cannot be crossed or it will be confusing to the audience.

Splicing:Splicing in editing means to join two pieces of footage together to create a new sequence.

Transitions;Cut:This is the most commonly used transition; it’s an instant change from Clip A to Clip B.

Dissolve/Fade: Dissolve is a gradual fade from Clip A to Clip B.


Wipe:Wipes are when one shot transitions to the next from one particular part of the frame.

Cutaways:A cutaway is a shot that is cut to that only lasts for a few seconds and relates to the shot that was previously being shown.

POV Shots:POV stands for “Point of View” which means the camera is situated or moves as if it’s through the eyes of the selected character.

Shot Reverse Shot:This is when a certain type of shot continues to be cut back to. Commonly used when two characters are having a conversation.

Providing and Withholding Information:This technique is used to give the audience clues to understanding a plot point or to confuse them; possibly to be understood later.

Editing Rhythm:Creating a rhythmic editing is when the relation between each shot functions to create a pace for the film.

Cutting to Soundtrack:Cutting to a Soundtrack involves editing your video with music being a priority. The pace and beats are matched.


Task 4. Provide a written report to explain what the above editing conventions and techniques mean and give an account

P2. BE ABLE TO PREPARE MOVING IMAGE MATERIAL FOR EDITING

P2.1 Preparation techniques: checking material for faults; marking up a script; labelling tapes; storing tapes or film; producing an edit decision list; creating bins; clarifying the purpose of the work with a client

Explanation of media terms

Checking materials for faults – Checking materials for faults means that you should check

the footage before using it in the editing process to make sure that there are no faults

within you material and that you can use it without any errors.

Marking up a script – Marking up a script is the process writing up extremely useful

information in the script for the editors, this makes their jobs a lot easier and also ensures

that they get the full idea of how you want it to be edited.

Labelling tapes - Labelling tapes is purely just for organisation and to make the editing

process easier later. When editing a production, you will have countless tapes and videos, if

you didn't label it you would have to go through all the tapes constantly just to find a few

clips.

Storing tapes or film – Backups of all tapes and clips are very important; in one false click

you could accidentally delete files or lose them very easily. During production and after

production losing files could be detrimental to the entire production.

Producing an edit decision list – An edit decision list is a list that will give the client the final

says on the product by showing the shots for the final film.


Creating Bins – This is the process of taking your footage from a shoot, labelling them,

putting them in bins and then giving them to the editor. Bins can also be called folders and

they are designed to store the footage. This way the director can leave notes and it makes

the overall process a lot easier and more organised.

Clarifying the purpose of the work with a client – This is a very important part of the editing

process if you are editing someone else’s work and not your own. You must make sure that

you have discussed with them how they would like you to cut together their footage and

what their desired effect is for their final product. This way the editor can work towards

making their product as close as possible to the way that their client wants it.


P2.2 Preparing to edit: importing clips; bins; timelines; storage and folder management;

online and offline editing; formats; resolution

Task 5. Provide screen shots of the editing techniques used. Command – Shift – 4 and

select the relevant material on screen.

Screen shots of clips, bins, timeline, etc.

Importing clips – the first thing that needs to be done before editing is the importing of the

clips. Any clips you plan on using should be imported into the editing software.

Bins – Used to store footage and are labelled so that they are organized.

Timelines – Timelines are the area of a video editing software in which the clips are dropped

into and cut together.

Storage and folder management –Achieved by storing the projects on document folders. It

can also be important to create extra copies of the stored projects to ensure that if one is

corrupted the other will be there.


Online and offline editing – The process of offline editing takes place before online editing in

which the raw footage recorded by the camera is copied and edited but the original film

footage is unaffected. This footage is then assembled in the online editing stages.

Formats – A file format stores digital video data on a computer for editing software.

Resolution – You are able to adjust the resolution of a video in editing. You can change it from a standard definition video like a 240p video or a HD video like a 1080p video.


P3. BE ABLE TO EDIT MOVING IMAGE MATERIAL

P3.1 Editing technology: software applications; hardware, e.g. non-linear, linear; high definition; standard definition; tapes; hard disc; data transfer rates; exporting productions; file types, e.g. mov, avi, flv; compression

Task 6. Describe what editing techniques you used to produce the work and provide a list of all editing equipment employed in production process.

Software Applications:

Before this project, I have used different video editing software to complete different

projects and tasks over the years. These include Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas Pro and

Windows Movie Maker. When starting on this course, we were mainly focused and forced

to use Final Cut Pro X to complete our tasks, but when it came to finally editing my film I

decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro to complete it as I preferred it over Final Cut Pro X and

thus think I got the best edit of my film out of this software.

Hardware:

During this project, I used Apple’s Desktop Mac Computer and my own personal laptop

which is an Acer Aspire E-15. I prefer using my computer over that of the Mac Computer and

I can work with it easier as I have been using this kind of PC for many years. Editing can be

done fast and easy, but also export times are really fast on my PC, which is just a small bit

slower than that of a Mac, but that didn’t bother me when exporting and editing my work.

High Definition (HD):

High Definition has become the normal standard in which things are viewed/filmed in recent

years. The two main sizes that are associated with HD are 720p (1280x720) and

1080p/1080i (1920x1080). In recent years, 4K shooting and viewing has been present in the

industry. Producing something in HD allows the picture to be sharp and clear and thus

creates a better viewing experience for all to enjoy.

Standard Definition (SD):

Standard Definition is the step down from High Definition (HD). It used to be quality’s


standard, but in most recent years it is slowly becoming less likely to be used. The size

associated with standard definition is 480p (640x480).

Linear:

Linear video editing is the process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in

an ordered sequence. Linear editing is the most basic way of completing and editing

projects. This has since been used less frequently since the use of non-linear editing has

come into play, which I will expand on below.

Non-Linear:

Non-linear editing is a method that allows you to access any frame in a digital video clip

regardless of sequence in the clip. This method allows you to easily include fades,

transitions, and other effects that cannot be achieved with linear editing. Currently most

editing software are non-linear video editing software due to the high demand of editing

requirements.

Hard Disk:

This is a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a portable storage system to store film or other files. This is

particularly good to have when transporting your projects from one system to another.

Tapes:

Tapes are what’s used to film, the footage is then stored on these tapes. These are

extremely rarely used, if not never used, in today’s industry.

Data Transfer Rates:

Data Transfer Rates (DTR) is the speed that data transfers from one device to another.

Speed is indicated in megabits (mbps) or megabytes (mbps) per second.

Exporting Production:

When exporting a file on Final Cut Pro X, I used the method of going to “File”, then to

“Share” and then to “Export File”, which can be seen in the screenshot below.


When exporting in Adobe Premiere Pro, I went to “File”, then to “Export” and then to

“Media”, which can be seen in the screenshot below.

File Types:

.MOV:

MOV video file is a common multimedia format often used for saving movies and other

video files. It is a multimedia container that contains one or more tracks for video, audio,

effects and text. It was created by Apple.

http://shanebarr-nwrc.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/5/0/41509027/5285559_orig.png


.AVI:

AVI video file is a common multimedia format often used for saving movies and most other

video files. It is a multimedia container that contains one or more tracks for video, audio,

effects and text.

.FLV:

Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe

Flash Player version 6 and newer. t is a multimedia container that contains one or more

tracks for video, audio, effects and text. It was created by Adobe.


P3.2 Editing process: use appropriate techniques, e.g. seamless, continuity, motivated, montage, jump-cutting, parallel editing; use appropriate transitions, e.g. cut, dissolve, fade, wipe; use appropriate conventions, e.g. cutaways, cutting on action, creating juxtapositions, intercutting; pace effectively; convey information effectively; use sound to create impact; synchronise sound and vision; mix soundtracks; overlap sound; offline edit; online edit

Task 7. Describe editing techniques used and provide screen shots of editing techniques employed.

Examples of the Editing Techniques I Used:

Jump-Cutting

Through my Biographical sketch, I used many jump cuts as there were times were I would

mess up in what I was saying or there was a slight pause, This was to take out all of those

moments so that the end product was a polished piece of work with no awkward pauses

and it sticks to the script as much as possible.

Syncing Audio and Video

Within my Biographical sketch, I synced both the audio where I was talking in time with the

footage of me actually talking and also over the clips that I put in my Biographical sketch.

Conveying Information Effectively

An example of where I used this in the editing process is when I had a cut to where it shows

what’s on the table in front of the main character. This was used twice, once to portray that

the character is struggling to make ends meet, and the other time was when the main

character seems to have it all but is struggling once more. I think that these shots conveyed

the information effectively so that the audience could interpret what was going on more

effectively.


Using sound to create impact

An example of this is the gun shot that I added into the fictional film, I edited it so that it was

quite loud and thus startling the audience so that it would convey the serious tone that I

wanted to create.

Voiceover:

Voiceover is extremely useful in giving audience information that may not be capable of

giving within the scenes in the film or perhaps the information is too detailed and lengthy to

be established in a scene so is therefore delivered in a voice over. During the creation and

editing of our film for the opera “Lo Schiavo”, we made use of a voiceover within it. Not only

is it extremely useful in giving audience information that they may not notice in the scenes

in the film or perhaps the information is too detailed and but I feel that using a voiceover

bring the audience closer to the character on screen. We used a voice over in our film for

the main character, as he was both the narrator and the actor performing in it. Here is a

screenshot from my timeline highlighting how I adjusted the voiceover with the film clips:

P3.3 Post-production tools: on screen text; image editing; audio editing Assessment and grading criteria.

Task 8. What credit and title techniques, audio techniques and music clips did you use?

Titles/On-Screen text:

Titles are very useful for delivering tone and mood, for example a very old font may suggest

a film is going to be set in a traditional period while a modern font may suggest that the film


is like the title, modern. I made use of titles in my Biographical Sketch, which can be seen in

the screenshot below:

With on screen text, you can convey information to the viewer. This can be done in

Premiere Pro by simply going to “New” and then “Title”, thus you can then create custom

titles and text to put over your production and convey messages that you want to the

viewer.

Image Editing: Visuals in a piece of footage can be edited in several ways such as colour

correction, adding filters and changing it to black and white.

Audio Editing – When it comes to audio editing you can split the audio from the clip to allow

you to edit it further.

I will now highlight some key Audio editing I have done:

Usage of sound to create impact:

Sound is extremely important in film, and thus when creating our film for “Lo Schiavo”, we

used the music in the Opera itself as a lot of it is very loud and emotional, and it suited our

film well in the final product. Sounds are extremely important to increase an audience’s

emotive response to video and will help deliver whatever feelings you want to give your

audience. Such audio from the Opera that we used were: We also used sound effects such

as gunshots so that the emphasis was put on certain scenes and engaged the viewer even

more.

Credits:

Scrolling credits are very useful for displaying big amounts of information or to give credit to

numerous roles and crewmembers. Within our film for “Lo Schiavo”, while we originally


intended to do this, we thought that we would incorporate the credits into the film itself as

we found that having them on a black screen and scrolling at the end would be boring.

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