Episode one
script:
Hello, I’m Cynthia and right now I'm currently focusing on my Unit 16 BTEC course. I am going to make a mini series which will contain a 5 episode tutorial on editing specifically made for all you young filmmakers out there. I will cover multiple topics which all will increase your knowledge on Adobe’s editing platform, Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2019. After you have watched my mini series, I hope that you will understand more on all the available techniques you can access when you are on this application as well as make you work more professional. In this episode, I will cover the basic principles of editing, the purpose of understanding editing and how editing has developed over time.
The earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit films together. This is due to them having this believe that different shots from different areas and positions would confuse audience members, this however does not stop the fact that during the middle ages, it was filled with its own versions of editing. An example of this would be Hugo Van Der goes church altarpiece which was created in 1476 called The Portinari Altarpiece. This image gets you from one scene to the next through simple cuts.During primitive editing, filmmakers discovered how editing shots helps to tell more complex stories and contribute to how the audience feels. This type of editing is seen in films such as ‘’Rescued by Rover (created in Great Britain in 1904)’’ and ‘’The Great Train Robbery (created in 1902)’’. Editing techniques were made during filming as the cameraman would stop cranking at the end of the shot and begin in another area. Other types of editing would be the magic puff of smoke which would be placed in front of actors as the scene cut and begins again after the actor has left the scene to make it seem as if the actor disappeared. D. W. Griffith’s didn’t invent any editing techniques but he made them emotionally and thematically significant which ended up influencing editing techniques worldwide. An example of this would be in the 1920’s when The Moscow Film School played ‘Intolerance’ repeatedly in order to use Friffith’s techniques for the films of its students. Another Soviet director named Sergei Eisenstein transformed the principles into what is better known as montages which was a huge change compared to the classical forms of editing. Filmmakers gradually chose to minimize the amount of editing used. Documentarists thought that editing was a way of making their visions appear more interesting while others thought that minimal intrusion was more authentic. On the other hand, new documentary styles emerged with minimal editorial intervention. During the silent era, American comics such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton relied on long takes in order to showcase how no special effects nor camera tricks were used making it look more like a dangerous stunted real life event.In today's society, we are an era filled with incredibly advanced special effects however, filmmakers are still enamored of the photographic realism in sustained shots. Jim Jarmusch is an example of this as he would hold his camera on his subject for long time periods. There has also been a rise of non-linear or digital editing within the past 20 years which makes any types of editing easier. This is also less time consuming and not as expensive as older methods.
Now that we have covered the basic principles of editing, you have to realise that the role of an editor is quite rewarding once you master this simple process which is usually quite hard to master. The rewarding part starts to form up once you see the results of your film placed together, telling a story nobody could tell like you due to all the effort you have put into it. There are some basic requirements an editor would need to understand and consider when accepting a job role on a professional film project. The first thing you should understand would be that the process for editing and the planning stages should both begin at the same time in order to keep up with the continuity of the film. This could also impact the overall vision on how your film would turn out to look like during the final cut. The only thing you would be required to understand would be the wide variety of movements and camera angles which would be used. Another thing you should also consider would be your shot sizes, making sure you follow the rule of thirds. Incase you don't know what the rule of thirds is a "rule of thumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs. One thing you should keep in mind is you shouldnt be afraid to cut out any unnecessary footage that is placed in your film even if you are very proud of it, quality is better than quantity. You need to have the best quality footage available if you want to impress your mass audience. Just make sure not to delete it fully unless you are 100% certain you won't use it during the final stages of your editing process. You have to take into consideration the type of editing you want to use, would you like to have a more fast paced editing such as Roger Avary’s 2002 directed film The rules of Attraction film or more slow paced editing such as Pieter Jan Brugge’s directed film The Clearing created in 2004. Both of these genres completely differ from each other however rare both equally as effective through their use of editing which sets them apart in the film industry. You will also need to take into consideration the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound and musical back tones which should only be applied if you are looking to create a specific reaction or encode a specific tone to the audience. In conclusion,the basic principles of editing integrates your raw footage together in order to bring together an overall story whether that's in a narrative or non-narrative sequence. You just need to make sure to bring across your bigger picture in a way that the audience would clearly identify. Now that we have covered the basic principles, in the next episode, I will be introducing you to Adobe Premiere Pro and address the basic principles of editing on this platform.
The earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit films together. This is due to them having this believe that different shots from different areas and positions would confuse audience members, this however does not stop the fact that during the middle ages, it was filled with its own versions of editing. An example of this would be Hugo Van Der goes church altarpiece which was created in 1476 called The Portinari Altarpiece. This image gets you from one scene to the next through simple cuts.During primitive editing, filmmakers discovered how editing shots helps to tell more complex stories and contribute to how the audience feels. This type of editing is seen in films such as ‘’Rescued by Rover (created in Great Britain in 1904)’’ and ‘’The Great Train Robbery (created in 1902)’’. Editing techniques were made during filming as the cameraman would stop cranking at the end of the shot and begin in another area. Other types of editing would be the magic puff of smoke which would be placed in front of actors as the scene cut and begins again after the actor has left the scene to make it seem as if the actor disappeared. D. W. Griffith’s didn’t invent any editing techniques but he made them emotionally and thematically significant which ended up influencing editing techniques worldwide. An example of this would be in the 1920’s when The Moscow Film School played ‘Intolerance’ repeatedly in order to use Friffith’s techniques for the films of its students. Another Soviet director named Sergei Eisenstein transformed the principles into what is better known as montages which was a huge change compared to the classical forms of editing. Filmmakers gradually chose to minimize the amount of editing used. Documentarists thought that editing was a way of making their visions appear more interesting while others thought that minimal intrusion was more authentic. On the other hand, new documentary styles emerged with minimal editorial intervention. During the silent era, American comics such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton relied on long takes in order to showcase how no special effects nor camera tricks were used making it look more like a dangerous stunted real life event.In today's society, we are an era filled with incredibly advanced special effects however, filmmakers are still enamored of the photographic realism in sustained shots. Jim Jarmusch is an example of this as he would hold his camera on his subject for long time periods. There has also been a rise of non-linear or digital editing within the past 20 years which makes any types of editing easier. This is also less time consuming and not as expensive as older methods.
Now that we have covered the basic principles of editing, you have to realise that the role of an editor is quite rewarding once you master this simple process which is usually quite hard to master. The rewarding part starts to form up once you see the results of your film placed together, telling a story nobody could tell like you due to all the effort you have put into it. There are some basic requirements an editor would need to understand and consider when accepting a job role on a professional film project. The first thing you should understand would be that the process for editing and the planning stages should both begin at the same time in order to keep up with the continuity of the film. This could also impact the overall vision on how your film would turn out to look like during the final cut. The only thing you would be required to understand would be the wide variety of movements and camera angles which would be used. Another thing you should also consider would be your shot sizes, making sure you follow the rule of thirds. Incase you don't know what the rule of thirds is a "rule of thumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs. One thing you should keep in mind is you shouldnt be afraid to cut out any unnecessary footage that is placed in your film even if you are very proud of it, quality is better than quantity. You need to have the best quality footage available if you want to impress your mass audience. Just make sure not to delete it fully unless you are 100% certain you won't use it during the final stages of your editing process. You have to take into consideration the type of editing you want to use, would you like to have a more fast paced editing such as Roger Avary’s 2002 directed film The rules of Attraction film or more slow paced editing such as Pieter Jan Brugge’s directed film The Clearing created in 2004. Both of these genres completely differ from each other however rare both equally as effective through their use of editing which sets them apart in the film industry. You will also need to take into consideration the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound and musical back tones which should only be applied if you are looking to create a specific reaction or encode a specific tone to the audience. In conclusion,the basic principles of editing integrates your raw footage together in order to bring together an overall story whether that's in a narrative or non-narrative sequence. You just need to make sure to bring across your bigger picture in a way that the audience would clearly identify. Now that we have covered the basic principles, in the next episode, I will be introducing you to Adobe Premiere Pro and address the basic principles of editing on this platform.
Episode 2
sCRIPT:
Welcome back to episode two of the principles of editing. In this episode, I'm going to be covering how you can do basic steps in Adobe Premiere Pro as well as the saving protocols, importing clips, timelines and even folder management. Lets go ahead and get started.
The first thing you will want to do would be to accumulate all of your raw footage together from your memory card and transfer it directly to your USB stick, desktop or what I would most recommend, save it in two areas, one of them being your hard drive as it generally contains the most available storage and it's pretty easy to carry around with you to different locations. I would also like to suggest that you make a special file and label your clips accordingly just for the film so it's easier for you to find all of your things quicker without having to search for your files wasting unnecessary precious time and is much clearer once you place your files onto your timeline. Right, when you first open Adobe Premiere Pro, the application will ask you if you want to create a new project so just click on that and name your project to your own desire. For this tutorial, I will save mine as Editing Tutorial so it's easiest for me to find it. Once that is done, you need to double check the location you want to save this video in. Now when Premiere officially opens, your screen will most likely look just like mine. Just like any application, I know how tricky this may seem at first but once you get the jist of where everything is placed, it is actually easier than it looks. The first thing you may want to do would be import your clips. I usually like to right click on the area which says ‘’Import media to start’’ then click on import which would open a bunch of files. Now, this is exactly why I told you saving files to the proper destination is key. If you have a lot of files you may need to organise individually such as multiple photography shots and multiple clips, you may want to make a file within Premiere itself, but in this app, it's not called a folder but rather a bin. You can create a new bin by right clicking right here and clicking on ’’New Bin’’ and name it whatever you desire. Lets actually start editing. Drag the clips of footage you want to start editing into the timeline on the right. If you hold shift and O at the same time, this will directly send you to the end of your video where you can see the overall duration of your film on the top left of your timeline. The footage you may see on your screen is just random footage of me which I will specially used to teach you the basics of editing and effects such as the jump cut technique. My number one go to tool in Adobe would be the razor tool which is found in between your media and the timeline which looks just like a blade. The razor tool is used to split up your clip in areas of your choice. It helps you clean your cut which is how jump cuts are formed from one scene to another. Once you have used the razor tool to separate the bits you don't want from the clip, you can erase it by clicking on that specific footage then hitting the backspace button on your keyboard. Once this is done, merge both of your footage together by clicking and dragging them next to each other. Sometimes you may have issues finding the exact place you want to delete so in order to make it easier, on the bottom of your timeline, you can use this part of this application as your timeline cursor making it easier to navigate in as much or as little depth as you would like. Alright, fastforwarding on to the final stage, once you are pleased with your sequence and have the desire to save your project, you will have to save your project. Then to export it, either you manually go to file and export, or use the shortcut which is highlighting all of your footage and hitting the Ctrl and M button on your keyboard which would both send you to the available export settings. The main things you will have to make sure of would be that your format is on H.264 for the best quality visuals which would be at 1080p. You may notice it associating itself automatically with the present settings on Match Source High bitrate which is exactly what we are aiming for. Now under the comment section, you will see the output name which is highlighted in a blue colour. Here, you can choose where you would like your converted video to be placed as well as change the title to your desire. Then you will have to make sure you have both ‘export video’ and export audio’ is ticked and accepted and you are ready to render your video by clicking the export button. This would usually only a few minutes but the bigger the file, the longer the rendering time. Alright, that is basically all the basic steps you will need to follow in order to understand and become familiar with in order to edit. In my next episode, I will start to explain some terminology which is used in order to address the conventions and general system of different types of editing.
The first thing you will want to do would be to accumulate all of your raw footage together from your memory card and transfer it directly to your USB stick, desktop or what I would most recommend, save it in two areas, one of them being your hard drive as it generally contains the most available storage and it's pretty easy to carry around with you to different locations. I would also like to suggest that you make a special file and label your clips accordingly just for the film so it's easier for you to find all of your things quicker without having to search for your files wasting unnecessary precious time and is much clearer once you place your files onto your timeline. Right, when you first open Adobe Premiere Pro, the application will ask you if you want to create a new project so just click on that and name your project to your own desire. For this tutorial, I will save mine as Editing Tutorial so it's easiest for me to find it. Once that is done, you need to double check the location you want to save this video in. Now when Premiere officially opens, your screen will most likely look just like mine. Just like any application, I know how tricky this may seem at first but once you get the jist of where everything is placed, it is actually easier than it looks. The first thing you may want to do would be import your clips. I usually like to right click on the area which says ‘’Import media to start’’ then click on import which would open a bunch of files. Now, this is exactly why I told you saving files to the proper destination is key. If you have a lot of files you may need to organise individually such as multiple photography shots and multiple clips, you may want to make a file within Premiere itself, but in this app, it's not called a folder but rather a bin. You can create a new bin by right clicking right here and clicking on ’’New Bin’’ and name it whatever you desire. Lets actually start editing. Drag the clips of footage you want to start editing into the timeline on the right. If you hold shift and O at the same time, this will directly send you to the end of your video where you can see the overall duration of your film on the top left of your timeline. The footage you may see on your screen is just random footage of me which I will specially used to teach you the basics of editing and effects such as the jump cut technique. My number one go to tool in Adobe would be the razor tool which is found in between your media and the timeline which looks just like a blade. The razor tool is used to split up your clip in areas of your choice. It helps you clean your cut which is how jump cuts are formed from one scene to another. Once you have used the razor tool to separate the bits you don't want from the clip, you can erase it by clicking on that specific footage then hitting the backspace button on your keyboard. Once this is done, merge both of your footage together by clicking and dragging them next to each other. Sometimes you may have issues finding the exact place you want to delete so in order to make it easier, on the bottom of your timeline, you can use this part of this application as your timeline cursor making it easier to navigate in as much or as little depth as you would like. Alright, fastforwarding on to the final stage, once you are pleased with your sequence and have the desire to save your project, you will have to save your project. Then to export it, either you manually go to file and export, or use the shortcut which is highlighting all of your footage and hitting the Ctrl and M button on your keyboard which would both send you to the available export settings. The main things you will have to make sure of would be that your format is on H.264 for the best quality visuals which would be at 1080p. You may notice it associating itself automatically with the present settings on Match Source High bitrate which is exactly what we are aiming for. Now under the comment section, you will see the output name which is highlighted in a blue colour. Here, you can choose where you would like your converted video to be placed as well as change the title to your desire. Then you will have to make sure you have both ‘export video’ and export audio’ is ticked and accepted and you are ready to render your video by clicking the export button. This would usually only a few minutes but the bigger the file, the longer the rendering time. Alright, that is basically all the basic steps you will need to follow in order to understand and become familiar with in order to edit. In my next episode, I will start to explain some terminology which is used in order to address the conventions and general system of different types of editing.
Episode 3
sCRIPT:
Great to see you back for episode three, in this episode I will be covering a range of terminology and language, conventions, techniques and a range of available styles. I will also focus on the different names there are for elements and tools available in Adobe Premiere Pro and what you should address them as so let's get right into it. These terminologies can be found on the Adobe glossary of terminology found online, but I’ll go through them in alphabetical order. The aspect key ratio would be addressed as the ratio of an image’s width to its height for example, a standard video display has an aspect ratio of 4:3 while most motion pictures use the more elongated aspect ratio of 16:9, which is the aspect ratio of a widescreen TV. Capture is the process of transferring source video from a camcorder or tape deck to a computer. If the source video is analog, the capture process converts the video to digital. The chroma key is a video effect that removes an area of specific color. This effect is often used during newscasts to insert a weather map behind a meteorologist. A codec is the short abbreviation for compressor or decompressor which is a device or program which uses algorithms to compress video and sound files. This is used to make them easier to work with and store as well as decompress files for playback. Colour correction is the process of altering the colour of the video, especially if it was shot under less than ideal conditions such as low light. A j-cut is an edit in which the audio starts before the video which gives the video a dramatic introduction which is also known to some as an audio lead. Letterboxing is a technique used to preserve the original aspect ratio of a motion picture when played on a TV. Using a matte/mask is the transparent area of an image which is typically defined by a graphic shape or a bluescreen background. Preview files are files that store information about tracks and effects in a project. Preview files are then created during the rendering process where they are stored on a hard drive. They save time during the final export of the movie because the video edition application can use the information in the preview files rather than render clips again. The last thing would be the act of transforming. Transforming changes the position of objects by moving, rotating, aligning or distributing them. Now moving on, I also found some basic definitions the available styles of editing which would be useful to recognise and understand on the New York Film Academies official website. To kick start this list, we have a cut. A cut is the simplest type of transition, in which the last frame of one clip is followed by the first frame of the next. When using continuity editing, it would create a smooth flow throughout shots without any inconsistent visuals. This type of cutting seeks to maintain a continuous sense of time and space. Continuity error is when the action or elements of a scene don’t match across shots. For example, when a character breaks a glass window but in a later shot, the window is apparently undamaged.Cross-cutting is a technique used to give the illusion that two story lines of action are happening at the same time by rapidly cutting back and forth between them. Editing by itself is the process of taking raw footage to select and combine shots to create a complete motion picture. An establishing shot is a shot which gives viewers an idea where the scene is taking place. This would usually involve a shot from a long distance such as one taken from a bird’s eye view as it establishes where the action is about to occur. An eyeline match is a technique based on the idea that viewers want to see what on-screen characters are seeing. For example, if a character is looking intently at an off-screen object, the following shot will be of that object. A fade is a visual effect used to indicate a change in place and time. This involves a gradual brightening as a shot opens or a gradual darkening as the shot goes black or to another color. Sound also fades in and out to convey the change. An iris is a wipe that takes the shape of a shrinking or growing circle, depending on if the scene is opening or ending. Rarely used today but very common during the silent era. A jump cut is an abrupt cut that allows the audience to first hear audio from a shot, and then see it. A matched cut is A cut joining two shots with matching compositional elements. This helps to establish strong continuity of action. One of the more notable examples of this technique is from a famous scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” A rough cut is the first editing pass done for a film. A rough cut receives further polishing and editing before making its way out to audiences. A sequence shot is a long take composed of one shot that extends for an entire scene or sequence. Usually requires complex camera movements and action. Here is a notable example from GoodFellas. A shot-reverse-shot is alternating of over-the-shoulder-shots, usually used during a conversation between two characters. Lastly, a wipe is transition from one shot to another with a visible pattern or element. No longer used in today’s films but very common in early cinema. In order for you to understand the language terminology that Adobe Premiere Pro uses, these are the basics that need to be understood. In the next episode, I will explore the auditory elements which are found in both Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition.
Episode 4
sCRIPT:
Let's get right into it. In this episode, I will explain all about the audio manipulation on both Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018 and Adobe Audition 2018 including additional soundtracks, voiceovers and sound bites. Both of these applications work very close with each other, there is a directly link even when clicking on an audio clip. Adobe Audition allows us to remove any type of background noise which may be on the voice over and edit the music seamlessly. Let’s first introduce you to Adobe Audition though. To get started, drag your audio clip, either raw or from Premiere Pro onto the timeline. You should be able to see waves on your file which are called sound waves. Selected a small amount of white noise from the file and head over to effects. Clicking the effects button would lead you to a drop-down menu, showing you different options of editing formats. You will need to type noise reduction/restoration and select it. This will bring you to a button called ‘noise reduction’ with process in brackets. If you click on this button, this will bring you to a smaller menu which includes your sound bite which allows you to click on the button called ‘capture noise print’. From this, you need to hold control A to select the whole clip. Doing this will remove all available white noise on your entire clip. Going to Premiere Pro, there is an addition of soundtracks which comes from the drag-and-drop option of downloaded clips. This is created in the exact same way you would drag your clips into Premiere Pro. Generally I like to edit my music on Premiere Pro since it’s easier since I have experience using this application more than Adobe Audition. What I do is I choose where I want to cut my clip and zoom in as close as I can in order to ensure that all of the soundwaves are singled out individually. This helps us view the song’s beat pattern so it can link together in the cleanest way possible. To increase the quality of smoothness, we can connect both the clips using the merger tool. The merger tool cleanly blends both clips which results in a final audio clip. What you can also do is create several layers which you can apply to different audios. This would give you full creative freedom over your audio. I’ll use a previous video I created for fun as an example. I used overlays of voice overs on the top layer and then placed music on the back so that it keeps my viewers entertained instead of having to continuously listen to me which over time becomes boring. You can do this by right clicking the imported clip and changing the audio adjustments to raise or lower the volume of the audio. There is also a shortcut which you can follow which can simply be done by right clicking the audio and clicking on audio gain and either increase or decrease the audio to your liking. You can also choose to alternate between vocals only, instrument only or both together in the official audio through the user of zooming, layering and using the razor tool. You will need to import your instrumental track under the vocals or original audio and make sure to sync them correctly by lining them up till the beat is perfectly matched. You can then use the razor tool in order to split one of them down in the middle and remove any part of the song which you don't want. You can then delete that part by clicking on that specific clip and hitting backspace. You can then use the blending tool in order to merge and blend both clips smoothly together. This will then be the final track needed for your video and you are one. Up next for the next few minutes, I will end this video by showing you an example of how I created this audio in a personal project of mine all about how perspective matters. And that is the end of my video. In the final episode, I will cover some effects you can use on Adobe Premiere Pro.
Episode 5
sCRIPT:
For the last episode of my editing guide, I will be finishing this series by showcasing a short but descriptive explanation of green screens, effects, backgrounds and any texts whilst using accurate and effective terminology. To kickstart this, I assume the majority of you would already understand what a blue screen or a green screen is since there is no difference between the use of both the colours, it all depends on your own personal preference and what type of costumes are being worn as you wouldn't like your model or actor/actress to wear lets say, a green costume with a green screen since it will blend in when editing. In order to get rid of a clip with such a background, you should add your footage which contains the green screen into the sequence and search up for the ultra key from the effects section and drag that on top of your sequence. When you do this, on your effects control tab, you will see a section called key colour and right next to it is the eyedropper tool. If you click on the eyedropper tool and click on the green background, you will see the background automatically becomes black, but this is only a rough cut as there are still visible curtain lines behind our model. The rest is up to you to play around with the settings and adjust the intensity of your clip by playing with matte generation and matte cleanup which will sharpen the image and create a softer edge. Next, I will cover the addition of effects and backgrounds. There is a wide range of elements available so I will instead only cover the basic ones that you would come across as a filmmaker when you are creating a project on Adobe Premiere Pro. Since we have just covered the basics of background removal, you might be wondering, how do I put something behind the screen? You will need to get your background which can either be in the format of an image or even put a video below your video so that it is automatically placed behind you. This is definitely a more creative way of creating imagery on your project. You can also adjust the saturation and opacity of the video to your liking but you need to make sure that the background layer is always behind your green or blue screen clip. When considering the application of effects and texts, you can use a range depending on the project itself as there is a range of typographys available, to even a bunch of colour filter effects. All these effects can be easily placed through the graphics section on your screen or the colour section. The application of graphics, texts and background alterations allow for easy application when talking about Premiere Pro’s attributes. You also have to option of downloading effects or backgrounds from Youtube if you like and converting it using an MP4 converter online so you have it available which can sometimes look more professional than accumulating your own background footage. Whatever you do, make sure to play around with your creativity as consumers always love to see unique work made by unique individuals.Thank you for watching my series, I hope you learnt more about Adobe Premiere Pro, if you have any questions, be sure to contact me.