EDITING WORKSHOP

 

Today, we worked in the editing rooms and learnt the basis of editing for our coursework using the software: adobe premiere pro. 

The software allows editors to simultaneously view: the bottom left of the screen displays the preview of a clip selected, which allows editors to view before clipping and moving files. Positioned in the bottom left of the screen, the different bin folders are to organize and sort through the clips provided. The top right of the screen displays the full cut clips together from the bottom right of screen whereby the clips are dragged and cut together, making the final cut.

Throughout the process of editing our test clips which we filmed in the studio during our camera workshop, one of the most fundamental ‘golden rule’ whilst editing was familiarizing ourselves with constantly saving our work; holding down on [command] and [s] which instantly allows the editor to save all the progress made. This is extremely important when editing long lengths of clips as no mistakes are made and no final clips can be lost.

  When working with our ‘test’ clips, learning how to be neat and organized with files and footage was a key point during this workshop. Before software institutions took over the film making industry, all of the raw footage was placed in metal bins to keep them organized and so editors knew where each scene was. This translated over to online editing software, such as P.P, calling the folders ‘Bins’. The ‘Bins’, positioned in the bottom left of the screen, contain folders of the raw, untouched rushes, which essentially is the original footage straight from the camera. The name ‘rushes’ came because of the speed with which they must be prepared in order to move on. After looking through the rushes, the editor can now place them into bins, ready to be edited. 

After looking at the raw footage, an editor can decide where they would like to ‘cut’ a reel of footage and translate it onto the timeline panel: to do this, the editor must click on the [I] button and drag the clip into the timeline panel manually. After moving the footage across, the editor can view the ‘cut’ footage via the program monitor.

After adding multiple clips to the timeline panel, in order to remain organized and so clips do not overall each other, the editor can ‘cut’ the edited footage using the ‘cutting’ tool whilst in the timeline panel; to do this, the editor clicks on the [command] button. It is important to note that after using the cutting tool, the editor must revert back to the arrowhead by again clicking the [command] button. Another key tip when editing via the timeline panel is using the [+] and [-] buttons to zoom in and out, creating a bigger picture to enable the editor to finely cut and drag clips. 

If however, the editor wants to revert changes made, they simply must click [control] [c] to undo.   When applying footage into the timeline panel, it is extremely important the no overlaps are made and that clips are neatly placed on top of or next to each other; this can be made easier by cutting down the excess footage at the end, so new clips can be placed next to previous footage to stop overlapping. This is extremely important when it comes to sound being disrupted from the overlap.