Video editing was revolutionized by the invention of digital video and FireWire. FireWire is a cable (also known as IEEE 1394) that connects DV cameras to your computer for the purpose of transferring data from the DV tape to your hard disk. The beauty of FireWire is that the data transfer is lossless. This means that when you record your edited video project back to the tape via FireWire there is no loss of quality.
Perhaps more importantly, the real significance of the DV revolution is that it introduced non-linear editing, which is massively more efficient and quick than traditional linear video editing. Non-linear video editing systems allow you to edit your video project with drag-and-drop mouse movements. Although non-linear digital video editing systems can appear daunting at first, they are in fact quite intuitive.
Click here to view Fast & Slow Cutting by Peter John Ross.
The first thing to do before you start editing your video project is to optimize your computer for digital video editing. Video editing places very high demands on your computer's resources and it is therefore vital to configure it properly before you start editing your video. Having optimized your computer, you are ready to capture the video footage.
This is the process by which the footage on your DV tape is copied onto your computer's hard disk via the FireWire cable. The captured video is saved as an AVI file. These are your source files, which you will edit with your non-linear video editing program (such as Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 or Apple Final Cut).
- Preparing for video capture Editing begins with reviewing all of your raw footage and choosing the shots you want. In theory this means choosing the best take of every shot you filmed; in practice, for top results you have to identify the best part of each shot in different takes.
- Capturing digital video. It goes without saying that you should not simply transfer the entire tape onto your hard disk as a single file. This huge AVI file would be a nightmare to edit. Instead, you should capture shots individually and you should name them according to a well thought-out rationale.
- Editing your project. What you should now have is a selection of carefully-named shots in a folder somewhere on a dedicated hard disc. At the end of the process the hard disk should still have plenty of free space on it.
- Backing up your project. You do not want to lose your work. You do not want to have to re-edit your project from scratch and you do not want to have to recapture the footage. For this reason you should save all of your source files onto a DVD right after capture.
- Rendering your project. Rendering is the process by which the computer implements all the video effects and audio effects you applied to the clips – effects such as color correction, slow motion, or a black-and-white filter, for example.
- Exporting your completed video. The first thing you should do after you have rendered your project is defragment your hard disk again and export the project as a full-quality AVI file. You can then use this file to produce copies of your video in a variety of other formats, such as QuickTime or MPEG-2.
The very best directors have a comprehensive understanding of film editing. They plan and direct shots in such a way that they can be cut together smoothly and coherently. You should generally cut on action, especially if you are cutting from a wide shot of a subject to a tighter shot of the same subject on the same visual axis.
Cutting on action means that you cut from one shot to another just as an action is performed, such as an actor taking his hat off. When you join the shots, you use the first part of the motion in the wide shot and the second part of the motion in the tighter shot (you have to experiment to find out exactly where to cut for the smoothest results - it depends on the shots).
If you do not cut on action and the two shots are along the same visual axis, the result is a jump cut. Jump cuts are jarring and disconcerting, and pretty much unacceptable, unless that is the effect you want for narrative reasons. Steven Spielberg sometimes uses jump cuts to punctuate the drama of a scene, and he always uses the technique masterfully.
An example is the scene in which Carl Hanratty sees Frank Abagnale's photo in the school yearbook in "Catch me if you can." Another example is the gas station scene in "Duel." Jump cuts can also be used to compress time (Spielberg used this technique in "Schindler's List," in the scene in which Schindler is choosing his future secretary while his new office is being painted), but again, it is a very specific look and the director must plan the scene very deliberately to make it work.
There will not be a jump cut if you:
- Cut on action.
- Cut from one angle to another angle that is rotationally at least 20 degrees away from the first one.
- Cut to another shot and then back to the first shot, or a shot of something else.
The middle shot in (c) is known as a cutaway. You should shoot plenty of cutaways, especially for interviews and documentaries, where you are not able to direct things precisely and need more insurance shots for post-production. Cutaways can be a shot of the interviewer nodding, or a shot of a glass of water; anything that you can cut to. Cutaways are also known as B-roll shots.
More on jump cuts: bear in mind that they don't only happen when cutting along a visual axis without action; if you cut from one shot to another shot that is perpendicular to it and in which the subject is framed in excatly the same way, that's a jump cut - perhaps an even more irritating one than when you cut from a wide shot to a close-up with no action.
For example, if you cut from a frontal medium shot to a medium shot that is framed from the actor's side, that's a jump cut, even though there is an angular difference of more than 20 degrees between the two shots (see [b] above). Avoid it like tha plague unless you are seeking a specific effect and are sure of how the audience will perceive it, which is not always easy to predict.
Click here for video tutorials on Final Cut Pro http://vimeo.com/channels/finalcutpro
There is plenty of online resources for young
film-makers starting out. Here is selection
of websites which have useful information
on all aspects of filmmaking.
www.filmbase.ie
www.darklight.ie
www.ifi.ie
www.irishfilmboard.ie
www.vimeo.com
www.filmireland.net
www.ukfilmnet.org
www.movieoutline.com
www.vtkproductions.com
www.filmmaker.com
www.stormforcepictures.com
www.lavideofilmmaker.com