labeling tapes is important when editing so you can identify what tape or film you need. Labeling tapes comes from the old process of editing. You would have physical hard copies of the footage that would be stored on tapes. Nowadays everything is done via a computer or digitally because it is more efficient and quicker/ less time consuming.
The main reason for labeling is that you can easily identify which tape is which. The same process apply with naming clips.
The director is with the editor for up to 80% of the editing process. Working so closely with each other develops a relationship between the two.
With film the director is listening to the editors ideas, the editor understands the rhythm, pace and style. The director does not sit there and tell the editor what to do.
It is important for the editor to have full understanding of what the director wants from each scene. All aspects are discussed such as shape, rhythm, pace, mood, tone, atmosphere and what the director wants the audience to feel.
The video above explains how the director and editor work together to produce a successful edit, also the importance of it.
Synchronizing rushes is very important when editing a film because all in all it is the key to whether the film is professional of amateurish. For example, if you have 2 characters talking, it is crucial for the audio to be perfectly in time with the movement of their lips. If the audio does not match the physical then the film will seem very discombobulated and will become hard to watch.
When the rushes are synchronized it means that the audio and video will match, as a result the scene will run smoothly.
The video above explains how to video and audio together in AVID media composer.
It used to be that you would store tapes. You might wonder what are tapes? Tapes are long, narrow material with magnetic properties that are used to record sound, picture or computer data. Tapes were what every film maker would use before digital film was produced.
It was important to store your tapes for the simple reason that if they were damaged, all your footage would be damaged with it. Imagine spending all week filming and then your tape gets damaged so that week has gone to waste. To prevent this from happening, you would need to store your tapes in a safe house or a safe place. There are places that you can store your tapes in to prevent them from getting damaged or lost, however they require a sum of money for the services they provide.
Storing film has the same principal. If your film is damaged or lost in anyway your footage will be lost. A good place to store film would be to make another copy of the film and store it on a hard drive just in case then if the film is damaged you have another copy. With film, you can store it digitally. The difference between tapes and film is that tapes are physically stored, films are digitally stored.
Resolution is the quality of the picture. Numbers like 1080p and 720p refer to a TV's screen resolution. The more pixels a screen has the more detail it can show. A 720p TV screen has 1280 pixels across by 720 pixels down, when you multiply those numbers you get the total number of pixels which is 921,600.
Resolution is important in film because it is the detail of the picture. The detail of a picture is important because nowadays it is a key thing that attracts the audience. The audience expects a high quality resolution and if there is not then they will find it very difficult to be engaged in the film.
As you can see by the clip above, the resolution is low. The quality of the picture is very grainy and takes away the cinematic experience from the audience.
Below is now a clip with high resolution.
As you can see, the detail of the image has improved dramatically. The picture is crisp and clear for the audience to watch and makes it more realistic due to the quality being close to how we view things in real life. This gives a better experience for the audience.
A rushes log is a form of video logging. Video logging is a process in which video footage is watched and labeled according to its content.
Why should you use a rushes log?
You should use a rushes log because overall it saves time in the editing process. Finding a particular shot by searching through hours of video during editing is very time consuming, as well as using expensive editing equipment and using up the editors time. Producing a rushes log means that you can you go through the source video material, label it according to its content and then store it until it needs to be used. This makes the video material easy to access and is available during editing, therefore making the editing process more efficient.
Software based logging systems allow clips to be imported directly into a computer based editing system (AVID). This makes a huge difference in the timescale of editing, this is because instead of logging the clip, importing it and then importing the clip onto an editing system you can simply log the clip and import it onto the editing system from the log.
Furthermore, after you have produced a rushes log it gives the ability for the director to look over all the rushes with the crew to analyze what happened. This means that the rushes can be checked an due to them being organized and easy available the analysis is not time consuming. It would be if you did not have a rushes log, then you would be searching through hours of footage to find a clip only to analyse and move on to the next.
What would a log look like?
A video shot log is a written record of the shots on a tape or disk. The shot log can be made either before or after the shooting process however would be easier if it was made during the shoot, this is because it will be easier to log as you go down so you do not miss anything out and will save you time later.
A shot log consists of how many takes the clip took, the duration of the clip, the description of the clip, the audio and further comments. As you can see, the shot log is created in detail so each clip can easily be identified when needed in the editing process.
In the video above it gives a simple tutorial on how to create a shot list. As you can from watching the clip, each shot that he takes down is written in detail so the editor knows exactly what the clip consists of.
Importing clips is when you transfer files from one item of software to another. The main thing to consider when importing clips is importing them into the right place.
The video above demonstrates how to import media. When importing media such as footage or music, you need to create a "bin". A bin will successfully store your files and keep them safe.
One thing to consider when importing files into a bin would be importing them into the right bin.
In my previous post on bins i state that you should have multiple bins to store different types of media in, this will make it easier to access and identify files that are needed. The main thing to consider would be making sure that you import the file into the right bin, once you have created your bins importing files that are not supposed to be in there really confuses the whole process.
Storage and folder management is crucial when importing clips because it makes the footage and other materials safe and secured. Without it, files would be everywhere and editing would be a nightmare.
The first thing you should do when importing files is make sure they are safe. It is important to make sure your files are safe because if they are not you obviously have the risk of them being lost or damaged. Importing the files into a folder on avid means they are no longer a physical piece of material, they are now a digital piece of material that is secured on a computer file.
As you can see in the video above, having folders that are well organized makes it easy to transfer files and access them. As a whole, it makes the editing process quicker therefore giving time for other areas of the production process that need to be improved. From the folder that you will create you can import from the folder straight to the AVID software so it is ready to edit.
An important thing to remember with folder management is that once you transfer footage into a folder, you cannot... i repeat cannot move the folders around. Once the footage is imported into the folder you need to keep it there. You might wonder why? The reason is to keep the folder safe and and in once place, when you start moving files and folders around that is when you start losing track of where everything is and where you put it. This means that the editing process becomes longer and that is something we do not when it can be resolved.
The more detail the name of the clip has the easier you will be able to i find it within your folders.
An example of naming your clip if the clip is a scene that consists of a character looking at his phone would be phone face, Jason, vibrate text message. This is a clear example of naming a clip that you can easily identify because the name has detail about the content of the clip.
Explain the importance and historical context of the edit decision list.
lets start with the basic cuts.
In editing, there are two types, there is offline and online.
Offline editing is part of the post-production process of film making and television production in which raw footage is copied and edited, without affecting the camera original film stock or video tape.
Online editing is a post-production linear video editing process that is performed in the final stage of a video production. It occurs after offline editing. For the most part,online editing has been replaced by video editing software that operate on non-linear editing systems.
What is an EDL? An edit decision list or EDL is used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing. The list contains an ordered list of reel and time-code data representing where each video clip can be obtained in order to conform the final cut. - (google)
Why would we use an EDL?
An edit decision list is used to allow the editor to know what footage to keep and what footage to clear out. At the same time, they keep the edit together as is passes through various parts within the post-production pipeline. EDL allows you to cut in an offline way, then export it to a better and higher quality software.
How would an EDL work?
In the tape-based past, editors would create their edit by playing one tape and recording the shot they wanted onto another tape. So now the editor has made a copy of the master tape (source).
When the clip was recorded onto the other tape, they would have the next tape ready to record the clip they wanted. This process would repeat and repeat. Whilst this process is forming, the editor would keep a detailed log of every clip used. The log would contain information about where the tape came from and the time-code of the footage.
This process is a very long process to complete. In terms of film making, it is very important to meet deadlines and dates so this process of editing would be a tense task to get done in time. However, in the past they did not have the technology we use today so the editor would spend long amounts of time combined with vast amounts of attention in order to get it perfect.
Bins are where we can store footage or other materials such as music and titles. We use bins when importing files from the camera to the computer software to be edited.
How do you create a bin?
Creating a bin is an easy process. The process is you click on file, then click new bin.
Why would you create a new bin if you already have one?
You might think if i have already got a bin to store my footage and other materials... why would i need another one? Creating more than one bin means that all material you store can be spread out into organized sections.
If you had one bin and stored all files within the bin, you might have a hard time selecting which file to use and it is not very time efficient due to the editor having to search through all the files every time he selects one.
Creating more than one bin means that your files are separated and can easily be identified. It conveys that you are organized and will be more efficient when finding files because you have them in an organized fashion. For example, if you had more than one camera operator, there will be more than one memory card with the footage on it. Having multiple bins means you can have a bin for each camera operator, this will be much quicker than searching through one bin trying to find clips to use.
Furthermore, naming the files makes it even more easier to identify what one you need when editing. It represents good housekeeping and it enables you too quickly find desired clips. Overall the more organized your files are, the quicker you will be able to get the work done. This can link to meeting deadlines because the quicker this process is, the quicker deadlines can be met and we all know that deadlines are extremely important in film making.
