ILP Participation - Lynda.com Tutorial

Lynda.com Tutorial on Video Editing

(1) Activity Log

Exploring Story

• Story Telling
• Oral 
• Visual 
• Written 
• Performance
• Film story telling is modern and unique
• Hear Oral
• See Visuals
• Watch Performances 
• Good Writing
• Editting 
• Non-linearly
• Tools 
• Grammar
• Timing and pacing
• Rules
• The Story
• You write 
• You shoot
• You edit 
• Structure and Freedom
• Writer’s vision 
• Director’s vision 
• Editor’s vision 
• Film
• Writer 
• Producer
• Director
• Cinematographer
• Editor 
• Editors job
• Assemble raw footage together to tell the entire story 
• Choose camera angle and shot
• Must know when to use long shot—relationship and content
• Or use short shot—emotion and detail 
• Know when to tighten up edits or loosen edits to let a scene breathe 
• Must know when to follow rules and when and why to break them 
• Constructing or reconstructing a reality to tell a story 
• Scripted programs
• Make good decisions 
• Not many major issues with changing things 
• Embellish Story 
• Clarify scenes 
• Realize vision 
• Unscripted material 
• Representing real people 
• Visuals and music can add another dimension of watching edits
• Editors have the power to change reality so you must remain true the story and truth 

The Grammar of Editing

• Coverage 
• Covering a scene multiple times from multiple angles 
• Same action, different compositions 
• Scripted projects— cover the same lines in different angles 
• Unscripted projects— people and the world have natural patterns so there is still a chance to shoot different shots of the same content
• Silence of the Lambs example
• Shot compositions and meaning 
• Long shot (LS) —show subject in its environment (physical or emotional to scene) 
• Medium shot (MS)—detail but still content of scene 
• Medium over the shoulder— power relationship between characters 
• Close up (CU)—draw attention to subject, details, or heighten emotion
• Low angle and high angle—power relationship 
• Two shot—relationship between two subjects
• Camera Movement
• Tilt— up and down camera move from a fixed point 
• Dolly—forward or back through space
• Trucking—side to side through space  
• Pedestal—up and down through space
• Crane— mounted on a crane that can move from low to high (reveal more and more of environment as you go)
• Camera movement should advance the story p
• Lens Movement 
• Zoom— increasing or decreasing focal length of lens 
• Rack focus—changes focus from one plain to another 
• Basic Editing Rules 
• Continuity editing
• Reconstruct reality from all the various shots covered 
• Mise en Sense—means put on stage 
• Make sure the content within the frame matches appropriately from one shot to another 
• Costume, action, lighting, background must match 
• Continuity of performance—pacing, emotion, voice
• Spatial orientation (180 degree rule—Axis of action)
• 20 mm/30 degree rule
• Cut between shots that are different enough in size and angle 
• Cutting on action 
• When a subject begins an action in one shot, he or she finishes action in another shot
• Understanding complexity editing
• Passage of time
• Montage— change over time; spectrum of ideas or emotions; create a new whole from the sum of parts
• Methods of montage: 
• Metric: each shot is the same length 
• Rhythmic: length of clip determines emotional energy 
• Tonal: image composition and emotional of shot determines emotional energy
• Overtonal: combination of metric, rhythmic, and tonal stateless to achieve emotional energy 
• Intellectual: shot collision 
• Jump cutting 
• Break continuity rules 
• Shots not different enough 
• Action not continuous 
• Draws attention to edits not hide them 
• Combination of ideas
• Intensifying action 
• Exploring timing and pacing 
• Genre
• Subject matter
• Emotional output 
• overall energy of the scene
• Watch a lot of films and watch your own edits over and over again 
• Step away and then come back to it
• Structure and Transitions 
• Basic: Beginning, exposition, climax, end
• Control time and space (can begin with the end or middle—so many possibilities) 
• Understanding, meaning, connection 
• Parallel editing—combining scenes to get fully understanding 
• Matching on action—example: editor cuts back and forth between the song scene and the fight scene 
• Shifting from one idea, location, or point in time to another 
• Swish pan—panning away from one scene and swishing to another (classic technique)
• Match cut
• More creative ways than fading to black between scenes

Exploring Nonlinear Editing Applications

• Editting Software 
• Abode Premiere Pro 
• Mac and PC 
• More widely used
• Raw media kept in Project Pane
• Review footage in Source monitor
• Track based
• Apple Final Cut X
• Raw media kept in Libraries and the Browser
• Review footage in Viewer
• Storyline based
• Avid Media Composer
• Raw media kept in Project Window
• Review footage in Source monitor
• Track based

Editing Short Narrative Scene

• Previsualization Materials 
• Film treatment 
• Short story 
• Present tense
• Directorial style
• (1) Film synopsis
• (2) Film outline
• Storyboard
• Shot content
• Shot composition 
• Camera and lens movement 
• Notes
• Shot list
• Scheduled shots
• Shot composition 
• Camera and lens movement 
• Notes
• Camera report and shoot notes
• Results 
• Camera and lens info 
• Takes 
• Detailed comments
• Starting the edit: Continuity editing 
• You don't have to start in the beginning 
• Put media in right general order
• Mark the section you think you will include
• Drag it down to the timeline
• You can use the timeline as a sandbox to move and cut things around 
• You can dim by grabbing the edge on the timeline and moving it 
• Press B on the keyboard and gab and drag to close gap (ripple trim)
• Press C for cursor to become a razor 
• Press V to switch back to selection tool 
• Press Command and Option key and drag to swap shot positions (dragging over will just override the clips)
• Building the scene: Complexity editing
• Pan away from shot A and pan into shot B 
• Go into Assets and Broll to gain access to footage 
• Press O key to mark out
• Use Razor tool to chop up or slice a video into separate ones
• Shift click and delete what you don't want
• You can also Right click and press ripple delete 
• Press B key for ripple trim tool
• Press I key to mark in 
• Worry about making the scenes and process make sense don't worry about it being perfect yet
• Refining the scene: Trimming and matching to music 
• Select the music to establish the mood and pacing 
• Speed up the shots to match the music 
• Each shot must flow nicely into the other 
• Go through shot for shot and make sure your continuity is correct 
• Zoom in with +
• Press M to make a marker on the music 
• Drag the video to snap to the marker to match the cues of the music with the video 
• Rate Stretch tool (R on the keyboard) to manipulate speed
• Reviewing the cut
• Export as a file 
• Right click on sequence and choose export media
• Click Match sequence settings
• Or choose format or preset
• Choose export 

Editing a Short Documentary

• Planning the edit 
• Go through footage and interviews and sub click everything out 
• Watching and listening (to form a plan of attack)
• Adding interview segments
• Removing unnecessary pieces 
• Rearranging and patience 
• Laying the foundation 
• Include the appropriate sound bites
• Remove the sections you don't want in the piece
• Make sure the order makes sense and the process works
• Don’t stress about it being perfect
• Adding music and B-roll
• Drag the audio to the timeline
• You can make the music longer by selecting a piece and looping it 
• Press R for Rate Stretch tool 
• Refining audio 
• “Trim Block on Audio” 
• Rolling Edit tool 
• Zoom out with -
• Match on action 
• Press F to match frame
• Right Arrow to go to one frame
• Press Y for Slip Edit 
• Press Z for Undo 
• Watch, listen, tweak 
• Mute the music track to only hear dialogue track 
• Press [ to Decrease clip volume 
• Press ] to Increase clip volume 
• Right click and choose Audio Gain to get it a little bit louder 
• Adding basic effects and titles
• “cmd d” is keyboard short to dissolve 
• Spacebar to stop and play 
• Effects and Video Transitions tab
• Effect Controls panels then Motion then Scale 
• Type tool selection to add a title 
• Edit font and style with tool bar of “Title Properties” 
• Reviewing the cut
• Watch, step away, and watch again to make sure you don't miss anything 

Understanding Additional Post Product Processes

• Sound design 
• Human speech
• Ambient Sound 
• Sound effects 
• Music 
• Recorded on location
• Dialogue 
• Ambience 
• Sync sound effects 
• Recorded off location 
• Unusable dialogue, re-recorded later
• Automatic dialogue replacement (ADR)
• Never recorded on location 
• Some sound effects 
• Some ambient sound 
• Music
• Voiceover or narration
• Tone or mood 
• Legitimacy of location 
• Dramatic emphasis of characters 
• Effect design 
• Color design 
• Correct individual shots
• Set blacks and whites 
• Remove color cast
• Adjust hue and saturation 
• Shot-to-shot correction 
• Stylize
• Look at footage with your eyes 
• Series of video scopes

(2) The Learning Experience 

I really enjoyed this tutorial on lynda.com. Their learning experience is very easy to follow and entertaining to watch. The tutorial showed many real examples from movies that I have seen before so it really helped me understand the material because I was able to apply the content to something that I can better relate to and visualize. The tutorial consists of chapters with chapter section videos, each around 6 minutes long, with a main idea that they go further into in order for viewers to understand the overall material. I watched the tutorial on Video Editing because I see myself using and making videos in the future to teach a subject in a way that is entertaining and educational for my students. This tutorial introduced me to three different video editing programs that I can use in order to make this happen. I also learned about storytelling in general and how to use film conventions in order to stay true to the story being told. I think lynda.com did a great job in providing me with an introduction to video editing and I can’t wait to start playing around with some of these editing programs. 

(3) Evidence 

(The eyes next to the chapter sections shows that I viewed each of them)