Main Page: Video Tips Pages for the New Videographer's and Editors - The Basics -Video Tips #1 - Video Tips #2 - Digital Video Editing Tips
Lighting - Sound - Music - Screen Writing - Entertainment Law - Independent Filmmaking
Do It Yourself Gear - Training Videos - Links And Resources - DVX100

The Art and Science of Editing by Jim Sawyer

The Art Of Editing - How to Choose Video Editing Software -

Low To Mid Level Video Editing Software - Free Video Editing Software - Free Video Recording and Capture Tools

Adobe Premiere Elements:

Sony Vegas Movie Studio & SOny Vegas Pro:

Ulead VideoStudio:

Final Cut Express:/Final Cut Pro 7 and X

Avid Liquid 7, Avid Liquid Pro 7 (Will not work on Vista, Will work on Windows 7)

Avid Liquid 7 comes in two versions: a software only version, and the Pro version with the same software plus a breakout box. The breakout box on the Pro version adds analog and digital video and audio I/O, including the ability to monitor Liquid’s 5.1 surround audio mixing. It also adds HDV/SD preview to an external monitor. While it’s new for Avid, it’s the latest version of a product that’s been very popular for a long time – most recently with Pinnacle, and before that FAST. But with new features like native HDV, thousands of realtime effects and its powerful background rendering, this is a powerful editing application that is sure to turn heads in this market. But what really makes Liquid different is that everything you need -- editing, surround audio, effects, music creation, DVD -- is in one application. Not a suite of five or six programs -- one application.

My Personal Experience: Liquid will not work on Vista but I do have it on my laptop and the station has it on every reporters laptop. At my edit station I have Avid Liquid Pro and since I use it 8 hours (or more) a day five (or more) days a week and have for two years I feel I am very qualified to talk about it. With Liquid 7 selling for $499 and Liquid 7 Pro for $999.99 (Why don't they just say $1000.) It's not the lease expensive way to get into editing, but if you are a pro it's a good one. As a Certified Avid Composer User and going all the way back to the mid 80's with Avid, I love them. I've used the Media Composer, Newscutter and Avid Xpress and they have al done the job. Commercials, news, documentary work, it's a great way to go if you have the cash. AVID has stopped making Liquid. However if you can get an old copy of 7 it's a great software. Professional Video Editing Software All of the professional systems below are comparable. They are all excellent. The difference in them comes from your ability to use them. AVID Media Composer Edit projects faster and in ways you never thought possible. Media Composer 5.5 is now more open and interactive than ever, so you can work with practically any media format and expand your capabilities with options from Avid and third-party manufacturers. Media Composer goes where other video editing systems leave off. Edit the way you want—in real time—using full-featured, ACE-certified editorial and creative tools. Experience the fastest file-based workflow's on Earth. Collaborate easily with video and audio editors. Get dependable, industry-proven media management. Save time—and money—with unique workflow's and options. And more! The Vegas Pro 10 This comprehensive suite offers the most robust and progressive platform available for content creation and production. With broad format support, superior effects processing, unparalleled audio support, and a full complement of editorial tools, the Vegas Pro 10 collection streamlines your workflow. From acquisition to delivery, from camera to Blu-ray Disc™, the Vegas Pro 10 collection delivers exactly what you need to produce outstanding results. 64-bit workflow. The Vegas Pro 10 interface provides a fully customizable workspace for accomplishing a wide range of production requirements. Final Cut Pro 7 Since the early 2000s, Final Cut Pro has developed a large and expanding user base, mainly independent filmmakers. It has, in later years especially, made inroads with film and television editors who have traditionally used Avid Technology's Media Composer. According to a 2007 SCRI study, Final Cut Pro made up 49% of the US professional editing market, with Avid at 22%. (Note: I do not have this system at my facility. I have used the system on an ongoing basis in a professional capacity.)

	Developer	Latest version	List price (USD)	License
Adobe Premiere/Premiere Pro	Adobe Systems	CS4	$799	Proprietary
Adobe Premiere Elements	Adobe Systems	4.0	$100	Proprietary
Avid Free DV	Avid	1.8	Free (No Longer Available)	Proprietary
Avid Xpress DV	Avid	4.8	No longer Available	Proprietary
Avid Xpress Pro Studio HD	Avid	5.8	$1695	Proprietary
Avid Liquid	Avid	7.2	$999	Proprietary
Avid Media Composer	Avid	3.0	$2495	Proprietary
Avidemux		2.43	Free	GPL
Cinelerra	Heroine Virtual	4.0	Free	GPL
Edius	Canopus / Grass Valley	5.0	$799	Proprietary
Final Cut Express	Apple	4	$199	Proprietary
Final Cut Pro/Studio	Apple	6	$1299	Proprietary
Avid Free DV	CyberLink PowerDirector	7	$69.95, $119.95	Proprietary
FORscene	Forbidden Technologies	15 April 2007	from $2/hour	Proprietary
iMovie	Apple	7.1.4	$79 (as part of the iLife suite); free on new Macs	Proprietary
Kdenlive	Open Source Community	0.5	Free	GPL
Kino	Open Source Community	1.3.0	Free	GPL
LiVES	Salsaman	0.9.9.2	Free	GPL
MainActor	MainConcept	5.5	$199 (No longer available)	Proprietary
Media 100	Media 100 (now part of Boris FX)	11.6.3	$1495.00	Proprietary
Pinnacle Studio MediaSuite	Pinnacle Systems (now part of Avid)	11	$129.99	Proprietary
Pinnacle Studio	Pinnacle Systems	12.1	$129.99	Proprietary
Serif MoviePlus	Serif (Europe) Ltd.	X3 (6.0.1)	$79.99	Proprietary
Sony Vegas Pro	Sony Media Software	8.0c	$449.96	Proprietary
Ulead MediaStudio Pro	Ulead Systems (now part of Corel Corporation)	8.1	$399.99	Proprietary
Ulead VideoStudio Plus	Ulead Systems (now part of Corel Corporation)	11	$99.99	Proprietary
VideoThang TM	VideoThang LLC	2.0.1	Free	Proprietary
VirtualDub	Avery Lee	1.8.6	Free	GPL
VirtualDubMod		1.5.10.2 b2542	Free	GPL
Windows Movie Maker	Microsoft	6.0.6000.16386	Bundled with Windows	Proprietary
			List price (USD)	License

---

Speaking of Transitions Every video editing package comes with at least a hundred transitions. That doesn't mean each one needs to be used. In fact, 95% of them shouldn't be used. Fly-away cubes, bouncing balls, shatters, etc should all be relegated to the deep dark corners where only the dust kitties play. There are instances where they may be considered tasteful, however rare they may be. Wipes and dissolves are very common for a reason; they're not incredibly noticeable, and more importantly, they're expected. Long dissolves are great for showing passage of time, flash transitions can be used to grab attention or create a transition to a flashback, wipes Video Digitizing Tips and Tricks Bob Currier, Synthetic Aperture Give three different people access to the same video capture hardware and software and ask them to digitize the same original video, and you will probably end up with wildly different results. Despite what some salespeople would like us to believe, there is more to digitizing video then simply plugging in a board and pressing a button on the screen. The manufacturers and software developers have given us marvelous tools to work with, but just as important as the tools themselves is understanding how to use them, and how the final use of the digital video influences the techniques that should be used. This article covers some of the tricks and techniques that I have learned when doing video capture. Some of these I've learned from others, some I've read, but most were learned the hard way--doing it until it looks right. There is a lot of value in that last technique, so please do experiment, but I hope some of these ideas may help save you some time. I work in a Macintosh environment so most of my references are to Mac-based tools. However, the techniques are platform- and software-independent and apply equally well to QuickTime or Video for Windows use. EVEN THE LONGEST JOURNEY... The best place to start any process is at the beginning. So it is with digitizing video: you need to start by getting the very best source material to work with. While you might think that the quality of the original video material would not matter by the time you reduce the image to a small window on the screen, reduce its frame rate, and limit the color resolution, exactly the opposite is true: the quality of the original video can make or break the final product. You should start with the best video source available. You may not always have a choice if someone is handing you the video to be digitized, but you should always at least request the best format. In order of increasing quality, the common video formats you are likely to deal with are: VHS, 8mm, 3/4" U-Matic, S-VHS, Hi-8, Laser Disc, MII, and Betacam SP. Always try to use the best quality that is available. Just be sure you can handle the tape format, and that your digitizing hardware can handle the video signal format: composite, S-Video (Y/C), or component. Because the original video will be greatly reduced in size, and because of the wide differences in computer monitors that will be used for playback, the original video should be well lit, with good contrast ratios. A muddy original will only get more so after digitizing. AVOIDING GENERATION LOSS One of the great promises of digital video--as with digital audio--is the prospect of limitless generations without degradation. Strictly speaking this is true, but only when making an exact copy. As soon as you throw some processing of the image into the equation, then we quickly get back to generation loss problems just as with analog video--only things can degrade much more quickly if you aren't careful. The culprit is the compression that is used to reduce the size of the video data, starting with the video capture hardware. Most of the common hardware makes use of compression during capture, typically motion JPEG or proprietary schemes. This is most likely not the compression scheme that the final product will use, which guarantees at least one generation will be lost when you convert from the original compression method to the final. And each time the data is de-compressed and re-compressed during the editing and effects process, you will suffer generation loss and degradation of the image. Because of the type of artifact that digital video compression creates, the degradation caused by repeated de-compression/re-compression very quickly becomes objectionable. To reduce this problem--we can't entirely eliminate it until our tools are up to dealing with uncompressed video at every step--switch to uncompressed video at the earliest opportunity. When capturing original video using motion JPEG-based hardware, immediately create a "sub-master" without any compression at all. This can be accomplished using any of the standard tools: Adobe Premiere, ConvertToMovie, etc. by specifying the codec to be "None." Use this uncompressed sub-master file for all subsequent editing steps, and don't use any further compression until you are ready to generate the final output file. Uncompressed video takes a lot of disk space and processing time, but the elimination of repetitive compression significantly improves the quality of the final product. You can further improve the quality of this uncompressed sub-master by capturing the original video at twice the size you want for the final product, and scaling the size when you convert it to uncompressed format. This helps hide some of the original compression artifacts by averaging them out during the scaling process. For example, if you plan on delivering the final product at 160 x 120 pixels, then capture the video at 320 x 240. Then create an uncompressed sub-master at the 160 x 120 size. The quality is improved over simply capturing at 160 x 120 and then converting to uncompressed. KEEPING YOUR FRAMES CLEAN Video capture hardware will digitize the entire video frame, including areas that are hidden by overscan during normal playback. This is particularly pronounced when the source material is from consumer level formats and equipment, such as VHS and Hi-8, which rely on overscan to hide their sins. If you simply digitize and display the full frame, you will see head switch noise and other artifacts. Using a TBC to clean up the signal will certainly reduce the problem by eliminating flagging and other timing related problems, but some cropping of the video image will most likely be necessary. Besides simply giving you better looking video, you don't want the compressor to spend its bandwidth compressing noise instead of the real image. If you can, it is a good idea to also reset the video levels at the same time so that the capture board is seeing a clean video signal. In order to allow for cropping, it is best to digitize the original image at a slightly larger size than the final product. Depending on the size of the final image, the amount you will want to crop will be anything from a few pixels to ten or more. Whatever software you use to render the final video should have cropping capability. Keep in mind that some video compression methods work significantly better if the frame size of the video is kept to certain multiples or ratios. For example, the Cinepak compression codec is based on examining 4x4 pixel regions of the video image. This means that when using Cinepak it is vital that your final image size be a multiple of four in both height and width, or the playback performance of the final product will be reduced. DEALING WITH GAMMA If your final product is to be used across multiple platforms--such as on both the Macintosh and the PC--then you have some more decisions to make. One difference between the two systems that is often overlooked is the different way that the gamma of the display monitor is handled. If you don't take this into account, the appearance of your digitized video will suffer greatly when you move it from one platform to the other. On the Macintosh, all monitors are assumed to have a gamma of 1.0. Built-in to the display hardware is a gamma lookup table that automatically adjusts the data that is sent to it. With Apple-brand monitors, this is fairly accurate, and even with other third-party monitors the results are fairly close to a straight-line 1.0 gamma. System extensions, such as the Gamma extension that comes with Adobe Photoshop, can fine tune the gamma to be even more accurate. On the PC, things are quite different. The hardware makes no adjustments for gamma, so things are left up to the monitor manufacturers. This means that the gamma of a PC display will be somewhere in the 1.8 to 2.5 range, depending on the monitor, adjustment of controls, etc. So if you create your video masterpiece on a Macintosh, and then move it over to a PC for display, you will find that the image is very dark and constrasty. Fortunately, you can adjust for this when you render the final video. Premiere, for example, provides a Gamma Adjustment filter which allows you to correct gamma during rendering. Ideally, you should create two separate movies, the first with a gamma of 1.0 for use on the Mac, and the other adjusted for use on the PC. More often, you will need to choose a compromise setting and render a single movie for use on both systems. People seem to be more tolerant of a slightly washed-out look on the Mac than they are of a dark, contrasty look on the PC. So when creating the scaled, cropped, uncompressed sub-master, use the Gamma Adjustment filter set to a value of 0.6 to give an image suitable for playback on both platforms. (A setting of 0.6 will adjust the video for a monitor with a gamma of 1.67, the reciprocal of 0.6.) Any lower than this and too much noise appears in the dark area of the images on the Mac; much higher and the image is still too dark on the PC. Unfortunately, the Gamma Adjustment filter that comes with Premiere is rather limited in its range of selections, moving only in steps of 0.1. To find the best value for your material, be sure to try the resulting movie on a number of different monitors. This is a compromise solution at best, and you need the widest range of samples possible. SUMMARY If you are used to viewing D1 video on studio monitors, you are going to be just a bit disappointed by even the best computer-based video. But if you use care in your choice of techniques, you can create results that are the best that the current state-of-the-art allows. Copyright © 1995, 1996, Robert Currier. All rights reserved. All trademarks are owned by the respective company or Synthetic Aperture. Bob Currier is President of Synthetic Aperture, a multimedia production company specializing in digital video and QuickTime VR. He also serves as Sysop of the Macintosh Multimedia Forum on CompuServe. He can be reached at rcurrier@synthetic-ap.com. Be sure to visit the Synthetic Aperture web site at <http://www.synthetic-ap.com/> for more tutorial information, sample content, and information on new media services. This article orignally appeared in a slightly different form in Computer Video magazine. Spend the time to fix your videos. After I've trimmed away the nonessentials, my next step is to make the video look as good as possible. Most consumer programs, Pinnacle Studio included, provide filters that can automatically color-correct your video. Even when the color of my video looks good, I usually try the filter anyway; sometimes applying the filter makes the color even better. If your video is too dark—a very frequent problem—look for a brightness control to lighten it up. If necessary, then use the contrast adjustment to eliminate fading. Working with audio in Sony Vegas® http://www.shockwave-sound.com/Articles/104_Working_With_Audio_in_Sony_Vegas_Part_1.html By Simon Power Part One - Importing & Timestretching audio files In this series of articles we will be offering fundamental help and advice to amateur and semi-pro audio/visual producers who use Sony Vegas and want to incorporate music, voice overs and SFX in their productions. Introduction Sony’s Vegas Pro® is an excellent creative tool for audio/visual work. It’s intuitive and powerful, and especially good when it comes to adding those extra touches that will make your presentation stand out from the rest. Vegas 8.1 ramps up the 64 bit & Surround capabilities, but for these tutorials we’ll stick to something a little less involved. Vegas Pro 8 gives perfectly good results. You can access an unlimited number of 24bit/192kHz audio tracks as well as 30 real time effects including support for VST and DirectX. So that’s more than enough for any low budget audio promo job like the one I have in mind for this tutorial. Getting Started Because we’re concentrating on music and audio capabilities of Vegas, let’s say we’ve been commissioned to produce a short audio promo ad. It will be broadcasted at regular intervals between the music over the P.A. system at a ‘garden centre’ to advertise their “credit crunch” deals. Sure, we’d all love to be doing the next Jay-Z album promo for Radio Urban 248, but this is the real world and Jay-Z just ain’t returning your calls. So in the meantime, it’s down to the garden centre to earn a few bucks! We’ve already been given a 30 second voice over WAV file recorded at a local studio, which we’ve saved to a folder called ‘Garden Centre Promo’. And now it’s time to open Vegas Pro 8 and get to work on the project. Click on ‘File’/‘new’ and check that the audio properties are set to 44.1kHz with a bit depth of 16. Set the resample and stretch quality to ‘best’ as we may have to play around with the duration of the audio files. Click OK and let’s move on.   Choosing some music You preview the V.O. file and they’ve done a pretty good job. It’s a female artist, good diction, clear, accurate and appealing. What it needs is a great sounding music bed that’s not too obtrusive and sits nicely with this pleasant sounding voice. One good place to look for music that you can legally use would be the Stock Music collection at Shockwave-Sound. They’ve never let you down when you’ve needed quick and easy royalty free music solutions and whaddaya know? This time is no exception. Within minutes of searching you’ve got a whole ream of quality tracks that may just be suitable for the garden centre promo ad. The track that really stands out is called ‘Rain Or Shine’ by Pierre Langer. It’s a kind of light and airy acoustic piece that has quite a wholesome feel. The track description uses the terms ‘outdoors’, ‘nature’ and ‘uplifting’, which certainly fits the bill for our garden centre clientele. What’s more, at only 38 seconds it’s a great length for a short promo. It resolves too, so we won’t have use a fade out, so that’s a bonus. Importing the music into Vegas Initially, there’s no need to commit to buying the track before we’ve tested it alongside the voice over. We can listen to the track using Shockwave’s preview facilities. And play the V.O. file alongside at the same time. At least it will give a rough idea of whether the two elements work well together. Once we’re happy that we’ve made the right choice, it’s time to purchase the track, download it to our ‘Garden Centre Promo’ folder and import it into Vegas. Vegas can read any number of different audio formats, WAV, MP3, WMA, PCA, AIF, MPEG audio and AC-3. I’ve chosen to download the track from Shockwave as a WAV file. To import into your project, first create an audio track in your ‘track header’ by either going ‘insert’ and ‘audio track’, or by right clicking in the track window and choosing ‘insert audio track’. Highlight the track and go to ‘file’/’open’. The ‘open’ box offers the option ‘Files of type’. Make sure this is set to ‘All Project & Media Files’ so that Vegas will recognise all associated files. Alternatively, you could use the drop down menu to go to ‘Wave (Microsoft) *wav’ so that it will specifically recognise that format. But best left to the default ‘All Project & Media Files’. Browse to find the ‘Garden Centre Promo’ folder, highlight the WAV file and open it. The WAV will appear on the designated audio track in the timeline next to the cursor. Now double click on ‘track name’ in the ‘track header’ and rename the track ‘Music Bed’. Put the file at 00:00:00 in the project window. If you wish to move it, simply grab it by holding down your left mouse button. As soon as you’ve imported an audio file it’s a good practise to make sure there is a good sturdy limiter plug-in on the output level. Most professional music files will peak at 0.00db, but to be sure that your project never exceeds this, Vegas provides a number of plug-ins with limiting in mind. Go to your master mixer and click the master effects icon. Choose a limiter or peak master plug-in and set it to 0.00db (they normally default at this setting). Doing this will avoid any nasty clipping or peaks later on. Preview the music using Shockwave-Sound’s media player. Importing the voice over into Vegas At this point, let me mention Vegas’s Project Media function. It’s a way of grouping together all your media making it available at your fingertips for immediate use. You can drag and drop files from the ‘media bins’ into your project window easily and efficiently. And this can often cut down on time spent on project management. It may be something we will refer to in greater depth in later tutorials. For this simple exercise, its use is limited. Check it out by clicking on the ‘Project Media’ tab above the project window. Now that we’ve got our music bed lined up, we can import our voice over into the project window. We do this in the same way that we imported the music bed, but onto a separate audio track that we can name ‘Voice Over’. Our project now consists of two audio tracks. The ‘Music Bed’ and the ‘Voice Over’. These are the only files we require for this project. Once we have saved the project as a .veg file to our ‘Garden Centre Promo’ folder we can begin work on the project. Preparing the ‘Voice Over’ file By clicking on the exclamation mark in the ‘track header’ of the ‘Voice Over’ track, I can solo the voice and play it without hearing the music bed as well. I notice from doing this and also looking at the waveform, that there’s a few seconds of dead air at the start of the voice over file that need removing. There’s a number of ways to do this. You can right mouse click on the file to reveal the drop down menu. Here you will see the options, ‘open in trimmer’ or ‘open in Sound Forge’ (this is dependant on you having Sony’s Sound Forge designated as your assigned audio editor). These options are perhaps better for more detailed editing. For a simple thing like this, it’s easiest to remove the dead air from the audio file whilst it’s still in the timeline. Do this by grabbing the start of the file in the ‘square icon’ zone (see illustration) and pulling it towards the right until the edge matches up with the very start of the waveform. If need be, you are also able to ‘scrub’ in Vegas by grabbing the curser and pulling it back and forth. For those who may be used to analog editing (fairly unlikely these days!), this is a useful and familiar method. But the accuracy of the timeline really out weighs the necessity for such things. (But it sure makes a nice sound, don’t it?). OK, we’ve done a quick snip, so now we’ve got a voice over that begins immediately at the start of the file. Now the voice over file no longer starts at 00:00:00, so we need to drag it back to the start in the project window. Here’s a tip while dragging files around in the Vegas project window. Make sure the ‘auto-ripple’ function is disabled first. (That’s ‘ctrl+L’ on a PC. Or you can click on the ‘auto-ripple’ icon on the toolbar.) It’s a great function, because it means you can shift all your media around in one go, just by grabbing one file. But if you leave it on, you can displace everything in your project unintentionally, which is a real pain! So with ‘auto-ripple’ disabled, we can drag the shortened ‘Voice Over’ file back to 00:00:00. Grab the start of the file in the ‘square icon’ zone. Deciding on duration OK, things are looking good for our garden centre promo ad. We have a project set up that includes a voice over and a music bed and we’re ready to mix and match the elements so they sound good together. We’ve established that our voice over is 30 seconds in length, while the duration of the music bed is 38 seconds. Unlike radio or TV, where duration is of paramount importance, the broadcasts produced for this garden centre are fairly loose and the brief was to make the promo somewhere between 30 and 40 seconds in length. So, for this exercise, let’s say that we’ve decided that the promo will be 35 seconds in length. This means, of course, that we will need to reduce the length of the music by 3 seconds from 38 to 35 seconds. For this we will need to rely on Vegas’s timestretching abilities. Timestretching in Sony Vegas Timestretching is a way of compressing or stretching out the audio without altering the pitch. A key use for this might be strict radio or TV commercials where the duration has to be exact. Or a remix where you want to alter the tempo of the vocal but keep the same key. There are lots of different applications for timestretching and in Vegas it couldn’t be simpler. For minor adjustments to duration, tempo or for BPM matching it’s perfect. And you can stretch audio on-the-fly in real time, so you can hear the results instantly and adjust accordingly. So let’s alter the duration of the music from 38 seconds to 35 seconds without altering the pitch. First highlight the music file.You can set the timestretch attributes on each separate audio file by right mouse clicking on the file and highlighting ‘properties’. Here you will notice a tab for ‘audio events’. Set the timestretch/pitch shift to ‘classic’, then take a look at the stretch attributes. There are 19 attributes that you may be familiar with if you have used Sony or Sonic Foundry timestretch plug-ins before. Each algorithm has a different overall effect on the way the timestretching behaves and consequently how it sounds. But generally for music, the ‘A03 Music 3 (less echo)’ attribute will be the best one to use. Certainly in this case, where we are stretching (or rather, compressing) an entire mixed track. Experiment with each attribute when you have time. It may help you make decisions about timestretching in the future. Once you’ve set the attributes, you can move on with the timestretching process. Press control and a wavy line appears under the icon Here’s how you do it. First, highlight the audio file and magnify to a reasonable size using the zoom tools in the bottom right hand corner of the project window. Then position your mouse curser at the end of the file and run it up and down the far edge. You’ll notice the attached icon displays 2 different modes. When you are close to the top right angle (where there’s a blue triangle), the curser displays a curved icon. This is the ‘fade’ function. To alter the fade offset you would need to grab that blue triangle and push it backwards. But for timestretching, you need to move your mouse curser out of that zone and down the vertical edge of the file. You’ll notice that the icon alters to a square shape. This is the area we’re interested in. Hover the curser about midway down the vertical edge and press the ‘control (Ctrl)’ key on your PC keyboard. You’ll notice a wavy line has appeared under the square icon (see illustration). Now you’re in timestretch mode. Keep that control button down and grab the edge of the file (a blue line will appear signifying your start point). Drag the vertical edge backwards (to make the duration shorter), or forwards (to make it longer). Yep, it’s that simple. If you preview the track while altering the duration you will hear the effect instantly with no processing time. You’ll also notice that a yellow box has appeared in your timeline. The numbers in the box signify the amount that you are stretching in seconds, frames, samples, measures or beats. Whatever mode your timeline is set to, in fact. If you wish to alter this mode, right mouse click on the timeline to reveal a drop down menu displaying your options and alter accordingly. Of course, there are limits to just how much timestretching is acceptable. For a start, the composer will have chosen the tempo of the music for specific reasons. Stretch it too much either way and it may alter the mood. Also, there’s the technical aspect to consider. Listen carefully to the track once you have stretched it. Although the algorithm is exceptionally good in Vegas, there will be degradation of the sound. Most algorithms will work well up to 130%. Vegas goes way beyond that and still sounds good. But it’s a personal choice depending on your project and the acceptable levels of sound manipulation. For this exercise, I simply grab the end of the music bed file, press ‘control’ and drag the file duration back from 38 to 35 seconds. In the next part of the tutorial we will be looking at how to mix audio files using manual and automated mixing. We’ll also be checking out FX processing and plug-in applications. As well as the rendering process and CD burning facilities. That’s in part two of this ‘Working with audio in Sony Vegas tutorial’. Resources: Vegas Pro product page at Sony Media Software Royalty-Free Music by Pierre Langer at Shockwave-Sound.com   Working with audio in Sony Vegas® By Simon Power Part Two - Adding FX, Mixing & Rendering Audio Files In this series of articles we will be offering fundamental help and advice to amateur and semi-pro audio/visual producers who use Sony Vegas and want to incorporate music, voice overs and SFX in their productions. Introduction In part one of this tutorial, we looked at importing and timestretching audio files in Sony Vegas Pro 8 ®. In this exercise we continue with our project to produce a 35 second promo ad for a garden centre, by examining ways to mix, add FX and then render our finished project. Our voice over is 30 seconds long, while thanks to timestretching, the music is now 35 seconds in duration. This gives us 2.5 seconds of music to use at the start and end of the promo to wrap around the voice. So with the music at 00:00:00, we now place the voice over at 00:00:02.500. Now we should get a nice couple of seconds of music before the voice over kicks in. OK, great. So let’s give it a listen. We click shift + spacebar to play from the start of the project and the music plays in nicely. But what’s this? When it hits the voice over, our limiter is working overtime, peaks are in the red and the voice over is completely lost in amongst a muddy dirge of frequencies. Yes, of course, we need to dip the music under the ‘Voice Over’ file so that both elements mix together in perfect harmony. Again, there are a few optional ways we can do this. First of all let’s try the manual way. Highlight the music track (‘Music Bed’) by clicking in the ‘track header’. Then hit ‘V’ on your keyboard (That’s ‘V’ for volume.). A blue line will appear along the entire length of the track dissecting the stereo channels of our music file. Approach this blue line with your mouse curser. The curser changes from an arrow into a pointing finger. Take that pointed finger along the line until it is directly under the start of the ‘Voice Over’ file on the track above. Double click, and a square block will appear on the line (see illustration). A box attached to this square should read 0.0db. If you now grab the box with your curser and pull it downwards you will notice that the volume alters. (reset it to 0.0db). Using a number of these square blocks on the volume line, we can accurately alter the gain on an individual track and mix it with the other elements accordingly. Let’s begin a fade at 2 seconds into the music file. Create a volume block at 00:00:02 and one at 00:00:02.500. Pull the second block down and note the reduction in gain at that point. You may be surprised just how much you need to dip the volume so that the voice over takes precedent over the music. It may be as much as 10db. You’ll need to use your ears to judge when a mix is right. Take into account we may be compressing the audio at a later time, which will bring the hidden frequencies forward. So a little compensation may be needed there. When you’re happy with the introduction, do the same at the end of the voice over to bring the volume of the music back up to 0.00db. A gradual fade in of the music over the last 2.5 seconds of the voice over may be effective, but be aware that every syllable of the spoken word has to be clear and audible before bringing the music back in to reclaim those frequencies. Mix Automation in Sony Vegas OK, so creating all those square blocks and laboriously altering each one is no fun? Well, there is another way. In Vegas you can automate both the volume and pan functions on each individual audio track. First, go to the ‘track header’ and highlight the ‘Music Bed’ track. Hit ‘V’ as before to insert our volume line. Next, go to the ‘track name’ box in the ‘track header’ there are 6 icons. ‘arm for record’/’invert track phase’/’track FX’/’automation settings’/’mute’ and ‘solo’. Click on the ‘automation settings’ sun shaped icon (actually it’s a machine cog for ‘Automation’). This will reveal a drop down menu. Currently it may be set to ‘automation off’. Move it to ‘automation write (touch)’ and tick the ‘show automation controls’ box. Now we hit shift + spacebar to play the music from the top. Below the 6 icons, you will note that all the audio tracks have a separate volume and pan control. Grab the volume control and move it around. You’ll notice that those square boxes are back on the volume line, but this time they are appearing automatically in conjunction with your movements on the volume control. Likewise, if we play with the pan control, an orange line appears alongside the blue one on the audio track, and the music pans from left to right as we alter the control. All this happens in realtime, so you get the effect of live mixing. But there’s an art to this ‘automation’ process. It may take you a few goes before you get the mix exactly right. Of course you can do a rough automated mix and then alter the volume line manually afterwards. This will be quicker than doing the entire mix manually and may help save some time in the long run. So, we have timestretched our music and mixed our voice track over the top. We are now well on the way to finishing our project. But we still have a number of processes available to us before we can wrap things up and present our finished promo to the folks at the garden centre. Volume edit points appear as squares. FX processing and Plug-ins We have already put a limiter set to 0.00db across the entire project, which we accessed through the effects icon on the master volume control. But for individual FX processing, we are instead going to access the FX bank via the FX icon situated on the track header. Remember the 6 icons next to the ‘rename’ box? This is where we look for our individual track FX icon. It’s the third one. Between ‘invert track phase’ and ‘automation settings’ (see illustration). Let’s say, for this exercise that the ‘Voice Over’ track needs compression, as even after mixing, the original recording was getting a little lost when the music bed was added. Compression may help add some ‘thrust’. Click on the FX icon on the ‘Voice Over’ track and you will see a display called ‘audio plug in’. On Vegas version 8, the audio tracks already have 3 default FX: Noise Gate, EQ and compression. These are pretty standard Sony FX. You may have a favourite Waves compressor that you want to use instead. So first, highlight the Sony compressor plug-in. In the top right hand corner of the box there are 3 FX icons. Hover over the one that displays a cross over it (‘X’). This removes that particular plug-in. Click this and the plug-in disappears leaving you with just the Noise Gate & EQ. To add your favourite Waves plug-in, click the icon next to the one you have just used. This will display a box ‘plug-in chooser’ and the name of the track ‘Voice Over’ (see illustration). There you will see all your familiar FX as Vegas supports both VST and DirectX plug-ins and will have accessed them all during the installation process. Highlight your Waves compressor, click ‘add’ and then ‘OK’. If you just click ‘OK’ the effect doesn’t load into your project. You have to ‘add’ it to the effects chain. Your compressor will now appear alongside the Noise Gate & EQ.   Let’s say you adjust the expander by a few db to smooth out the dynamics, you can then save those setting by renaming the compressor (‘Garden Centre Voice Over’) and clicking on the floppy disk icon next to the name box. Already the voice over is sounding better and maybe it will benefit from some added EQ as well. Click the EQ plug-in and you will notice there are a number of presets in the drop down menu. One of these is called ‘(Ultimate S) Female Voice Over’. Perfect! Add that. Similarly, you may have other more defined EQ that you wish to use from your own FX bank. You can of course access these as you did the Waves compressor. As for the voice over, it’s now showing a marked improvement, holding its own nicely against the music. You can now exit the audio plug-ins box. Just like volume and pan, you can automate all the FX plug-ins and have them running in realtime with automated FX. But for this project, we just need a single effect over the entire track, so we’ll leave the automation to a later tutorial. The FX icon is the third icon along in the track header. Overall FX processing As for our project, the music was sounding just fine, so no need to add any external FX or processing. The voice over is now punching through nicely courtesy of some added compression and EQ. Now, I may be temped to add a touch of compression over the entire project, But compression can be an unruly beast if it’s over used. You have to consider every possible scenario in which your piece will be heard. It’s OK for broadcast through a public address system at a garden centre. They probably don’t use any compression on their broadcasts. It’s simply a CD player attached to a mixing desk. A touch of light compression over the entire mix will be fine here. But what if they decide to broadcast our finished promo on local FM radio? They compress like crazy! If I add too much compression now, it may sound awful. The best thing to do is to make all your decisions ‘moderate’. Adding a pinch of compression over the entire mix will add life and buoyancy to the over all sound. With moderate use of compression, we’ve created a robust mix that will suit a number of different circumstances. Select an effect using the plug-ins choser Rendering in Sony Vegas Listening through to the mix a number of times, I am now happy that I don’t wish to make any further changes. It has a nice introduction, the voice is sparkling with its added compression and EQ. And a moderate amount of compression over the entire project has made it bounce along nicely. It’s a job well done and I’m ready to render the file to our ‘Garden Centre Promo’ folder. To do this I go, ‘file’/’render as’. Previously, you may have been rendering a video project, so the ‘Save as type’ setting could be set to .avi, .wmv or .mov etc. We are making an audio file and we wish to render as a .wav. Look in the ‘Save as file’ drop down menu for the ‘Wave (Microsoft) *.wav’ setting. This will ensure that our project is rendered as the correct type. The description should be 44.1kHz at 16 Bit as per our project settings. Rename the file garden_centre_promo_1, browse for the folder, click ‘save’ and away we go. Within seconds the file will be rendered and ready to be transferred to CD or memory stick, or an FTP site that can be accessed by your customer. Burn to CD Once you have rendered the track as a WAV file, you may wish to burn a CD directly from the project. This couldn’t be simpler. Put a blank media you’re your CD burner drive, Click on ‘tools’ and ‘burn disc’. Choose an option from the drop down menu (‘track at once’ audio CD or ‘disc at once’ audio CD) and click ‘start’. The entire project will be rendered as one track onto the CD. Conclusion With our ‘Garden Centre Promo’ project rendered as a WAV file and burned to CD, it’s now ready to present to the folks down at the garden centre. At 35 seconds and with pleasant music and a sparkling voice over I reckon it’s well within their brief. It won’t be long before we hear our production being broadcast between instrumental cover versions of well known hits, while newly wed couples scour the shelves on their quest for the perfect potted plants for their new home! It’s not what you quite imagined doing for a living when you set up your multi media audio/visual production business, but, hey. Work is work. Whatever pays the bills! All you can do is make it sound as good as it can possibly be and build up a reputation for quality work at a competitive price. And hope that eventually Jay-Z returns your call! Resources: Vegas Pro product page at Sony Media Software Royalty-Free Music by Pierre Langer at Shockwave-Sound.com About the author: Simon Power has made over 50 short films and documentaries for the music technology website Sonic State. He has also removed & replaced copyrighted music on a number of commercial BBC releases. In these articles he offers advice and tips about using music in your low budget film and audio/visual projects. You can learn more about Simon and his projects at his website, http://www.meonsound.com/ Video Essentials Before you shout "Action!" make sure that you have a few of these hardware and software necessities stacked beside your director's chair. FireWire: If you want to edit digital video, your PC and video camera must have FireWire ports. The good news is that nearly all PCs sold in the last couple of years come with FireWire ports built in. If your system lacks one, you can buy a FireWire add-in card for about $50. Hard-disk space: One hour of digital video uses about 13GB of hard-disk space. To have enough room to edit the video, you'll need at least 40GB of free storage space. And keep in mind that your finished movie, stored on your hard drive, will eat up space there, too. Operating systems: Windows XP, 2000, NT and Vista are better operating system options for editing digital video because they put no limitation on file size. Depending on the particular version you have, Windows 98 and Me limit file size to 2GB or 4GB, which translates into either 10 or 20 minutes of continuous video. Processor speed and RAM: Because video is so data rich, you'll need a machine that's speedier than a 750-MHz Pentium 4 PC. Though it's possible to edit video on a slower system, your work will suffer from jerky motion and long waits as the monster video file bogs down the CPU. Because the amount of RAM your PC has affects its performance, I recommend having at least 256MB of RAM installed. Advanced Tips and Tricks Once you are proficient at making and encoding videos, you may become dissatisfied with how much you can do. Most of the things I learned in this section pertain to the use of Final Cut Pro and Cleaner 5. Using these two software packages can make a very noticable difference to how your videos look and how much bandwidth they consume. De-interlace your video NTSC format has a problem which is difficult to comprehend when described in words, but easy to understand when you see it. (I am going to describe this as I understand it, if I am wrong, someone please correct me!). Earlier I mentioned that NTSC cameras film at 30fps, well actually they film at 60fps. The camera takes two frames separated in time by one sixtieth of a second and "interlaces" them together in a series of alternating thin horizontal stripes to make a single frame. I cannot explain better than this. If you do not understand, capture a single video frame in which there is some reasonably fast movement and open it up in Photoshop or something equivalent. You will see the two images separating out from each other. It looks absolutely terrible and the problem will become obvious. The solution is to apply a de-interlace filter in FCP (or the video editing software of your choice.) FCP simply separates out the two images and lets you choose one or the other and also fills in the gaps so well that my untrained eye cannot tell that there were ever any gaps at all. How much problem the interlace will be depends on the codec you are using (I think). I remember when using H.263, things just appeared a little blurry at the edges except when things were moving really fast. Then you could notice that every object had a shadow of itself lagging behind it. Sorenson 3 on the other hand is quite unforgiving. Any movement at all and you can see the comb-like edges on every moving object where the interlace is separating out. I de-interlace everything now, it has become a habit. Make liberal use of filters Good video editing software has lots of excellent filters which will make your picture look much better when viewed on a computer screen. Without colour correction, brightening up and sharpening of the image, the final product can look extremely dull and dirty. This is probably a reflection on my poor filming and lighting techniques. There is one important filter problem which I will discuss in detail below. The cross-platform gamma problem and how to solve it One of the most important filters which you must use is the gamma correction filter. It offers a single slider which will brighten or darken your image depending on which way you slide it. The beauty is that gamma correction is non-linear. It brightens/darkens the mid-range tones while it does not affect the white tones or the black tones in the picture. In this way it is much more effective than just turning up the brightness. Export a video without gamma correction and you will see that it looks just way too dark and dull on the computer screen. Of course there is a catch. Windows machines and Macs display the brightness of their colours in very different ways which I do not fully understand. The end result is that a video which looks fine on my Mac appears so dark on a PC screen that you cannot see anything. This is the cross-platform gamma problem. The easiest solution is to compromise with the gamma correction. If you are editing on a Mac, slide the gamma correction slider a little lighter than optimal. If you are working on a Windows machine, make the video a little darker than you think it should look. A little experience is useful here. Just keep on practicing until you are satisfied with the result. There are more sophisticated solutions to this problem such as having multiple versions of the same video available, but I have not tried any of them. Brutal compression with Cleaner When all was said and done, the average file size of the videos I was making was about double or triple what I wanted. There is only so much you can do with choice of codec and reduction of the frame rate. The reduction of the display quality in FCP can have a good effect, but the algorithms employed are quite limited. You need to have software which is dedicated to the task of compression. That is when I heard about Cleaner 5 (thanks to Dr Vawter.) Cleaner is expensive, but good at what it does. Now whenever I feel that my final video which I exported from FCP is too big, I go back and export the final sequence in FCP as a self contained (high quality) FCP movie. I then import that movie into Cleaner. Cleaner has a vast number of settings you can tweak and a full brace of filters. I find however that these filters are not quite as optimal as those in FCP, so I try not to use them in Cleaner. I am not going to cover all the little tricks you can use otherwise this would become a Cleaner tutorial. Again, best to play around and read the manual. The Cleaner manual is reasonably short and to the point (unlike the FCP manual which is way too big and tells you nothing.) The nicest feature of Cleaner is that you can limit the final file size. If I want a 1Mb file at the end, I just tell Cleaner this and it does the rest. Use a good camera This may seem somewhat surprising (it still surprises me), but if you can serve cleaner with a higher quality picture, it can do a much better job with the compression. The most amazing thing is that I have been able to reduce file sizes by (I am guessing now) a factor of 2 on average and still maintain a picture of about equal quality to what I had using a bad camera. A good camera not only gives you a better picture, it lets you compress stuff more. Don't Waste Space It's best to capture all of your scenes as individual clips. It may seem like a good idea to just capture one long clip and break it up later, but it's usually much easier--and certainly less space-consuming--to capture clips one by one. One of the great advantages that nonlinear editing has over linear editing is the random-access capability of the hard drive (see Edit Suite Linear or Nonlinear , in the May '98 Videomaker). This means that the order in which you shoot or capture your scenes doesn't matter. Once digitized and on the hard drive, you can change the sequence any way you want. When it's time to capture video, you'll notice that there are usually a large number of settings available to choose from. Some settings refer to the pixel resolution of the video (such as 320x240, 640x480, 720x492, etc.), while others refer to the amount of compression applied to the video (5:1, 7:1, etc.). The choices you will make for these settings depend on three crucial factors: the quality of your hard drive, the quality of your source video and the medium of distribution you plan to use. Generally, as the video resolution goes up and the compression ratio goes down, the required data transfer rate of your hard drive increase. For example, capturing 320x240 video at 12:1 compression requires considerably less than one megabyte per second sustained data transfer rate from a hard drive. Up the ante to 640x480 at 6:1 compression, however, and you're looking at the four to five megabyte per second range. Before you begin making such demands on your hard drive, however, you'll need to consider the quality of your source footage. If you're working with poorly-lit VHS, chances are that 640x480 (or perhaps even 320x240) at 10:1 will be sufficient. If you demand DV quality from your DV capture card, however, your choice has already been made (720x480 at 5:1 compression). The quality you'll need also depends on how you're going to distribute your video. If you're going to output your video onto a CD-ROM or on the Internet, you can digitize at a fraction of the size and frame speed (240x180 and 15 frames per second). Get Organized If you're running out of room on your hard drive, you can split your project into small segments, edit each segment one at a time and output them back to video. Then dump the footage from your drive, capture your next batch of footage and repeat. It takes a little more time, and once you've finished editing that sequence, you can't go back, but it does help make the most of hard drive space. If you are using a system like Adobe Premiere, you can experiment by capturing a very small image (160x120, for example) at 15 fps. This will save you space and valuable rendering time while you are trying out the 75 different transitions or the 50 or so different filters you can apply to your clips. Then, when you're doing more serious work, this initial trial-and-error period will provide you with the experience you need to choose just the transitions and edits that are best for your production. If you are working with a Casablanca or Video Toaster/Flyer you can only capture images at full screen. But not to worry, the Casablanca renders effects very quickly, and the Flyer performs effects without the need for rendering. Depending on the system you are working with, your computer will create a picture icon or a graphical icon to represent each video clip that you digitize. These clips are then stored in a work bin, directory or project folder. Regardless of which method your computer uses, it's important to name each shot with a short, recognizable name so that when you have fifty video clip icons you'll know immediately which shot is which. Identifying each shot with a little description saves time. Suppose, for example, you're editing your daughter's birthday party. Shot 1 might be a closeup of the birthday cake, Shot 7 could be a wide shot of the family singing happy birthday and Shot 30 might be a tracking shot of the birthday girl riding her brand new bicycle. Wouldn't it be much easier to rename those shots Cake, Family and Bicycle? Editing on a Timeline Now for the part that we've all been waiting for: actual digital editing. First, whip out your handy edit decision list and script and drag the clips in the order that you want them to appear onto the timeline. What's a timeline? Well, you can think of it as a yardstick measured in frames and seconds (or minutes or hours). You lay a series of clips out on the timeline in the order you want them to appear. If you want to change the order of the clips, at anytime, you simply click and drag or cut and paste the shot to the place you want it. Most nonlinear systems use a timeline as the main editing interface, but a few do not. The Casablanca and Video Toaster/Flyer systems, for example, use storyboard interfaces instead. In nonlinear systems that use timelines, you'll have at least two tracks for video, each of which has its own audio track. In between the video tracks, you'll have a transition track that allows for special effect dissolves, wipes or fades. Below these, there is usually a track where you can superimpose images or create backdrops, the same way the weather person appears to be in front of the satellite screen. The number of tracks may at first seem limiting, but you can layer tracks (in some systems up to 100 or more) together so that you virtually have an unlimited number of images and sounds to work with. While we're looking at the timeline, note that there is usually a way to change the scale of the timeline. You can change the value of each unit of measurement on the line from a single frame to one or several minutes. This is very helpful, because you can zoom in to a particular spot for fine detail work or zoom out to view the project in its entirety. Transition Tips When it comes to creating effective transitions, the best methods of discovering the exact kind of effect you want is to experiment, play, be creative and have fun. In most digital nonlinear editing systems, you'll have more transitions and special effect options than you'll know what to do with. So go through all of them, try them out and then when your head stops spinning, pick your transitions and special effects with care. Have a reason for each effect that you use. If you're working on a video version of a children's story, then the page peel as transition may work fine. Resist the urge to use an effect over and over, no matter how impressive it may look. Remember, these effects are there to help you tell your story; they are not the story. Rendering Right Rendering is the process of allowing the computer to implement all of the audio, video and effects changes you've made on a frame-by-frame basis. With an ordinary computer, a large project, and/or a high-resolution clip in real time, this can certainly be the most time-consuming part of nonlinear editing. If you've captured your video in high resolution and at a fast frame rate, you can save rendering and hard drive accessing time by using smaller-sized copies of your full-size captured clips while you edit. Using this method, the clips are really only thumbnail representations of the digitized footage. Then when you're ready to output your project, you can re-access the full-sized clips and implement the decisions you made at a lower resolution. Making Titles Most nonlinear systems have titling capabilities. In most cases, the process involves creating a title first, then importing it into the nonlinear timeline on one of the superimpose tracks, just as you would do with any other digital still image. However, some of the titling features found in nonlinear editing packages lack the sophistication and power that high-end graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop offer. The good news is that you can use a program like Photoshop to create fantastic titles and then import those files into your nonlinear editing program. One good method for creating an overlay with a video background is to create a title with a white background, then use the Alpha Channel settings in your graphics program to create a invisible background to overlay onto your video. Failing that, you can use a colored background (like chroma-key blue) and adjust your nonlinear software's overlay settings to match. There are many ways to achieve the same goal--which one you use will depend on which kind of graphics program you're working with. 3D animation programs are excellent for creating titles as well. If you want to incorporate computer animation in your video, you can do so with most nonlinear editing software packages. Simply create an animation (in either Video for Windows or QuickTime format) then import the animation into your timeline like any other video clip. Editing Audio On most nonlinear timelines, audio tracks are represented as integrated elements of the video clips. In other words, when you digitize a clip and import it to the timeline, you also import the audio portion of that clip onto the timeline. Like video, new audio clips can be overlaid onto existing audio clips in multiple layers to incorporate sound effects, background music, narration, etc. When working with audio on a nonlinear system, remember to take advantage of the software's ability to adjust the volume of an audio clip up or down anywhere along the timeline. This is a truly great feature, because it allows you to control the audio level with great precision (much more so than with a linear system). Be creative and explore your audio options. Get music and sound effects from CDs, or use some of the sounds that came with your computer. If you feel inspired, you can become your own foley artist and make up your own sound effects. Record them directly into your computer or use your camcorder's mike and then digitize the tape. It's also a good idea to keep your ears open for sounds you might be able to use. If you're looking to recreate the sounds of the wilderness, for example, go on a hike and record some of the wildlife sounds you hear. There are also many stand-alone audio editing programs like Cool Edit or Sound Forge that you can use to edit your audio tracks and then import them onto your timeline. You can perform some simple audio edits in your nonlinear video editing system, but these audio editing programs have a lot more power and flexibility. The End Actually, this is only the beginning. Digital nonlinear editing can open up a world of possibilities for you. Space and cost limitations will continue to be less of a factor. Soon, you'll be able to create a feature-length video with film-like quality, distribute it over the Web and become your own Cecil B. Demille. Just keep in mind that it all comes back to the same techniques that film editors have used throughout this century: good footage, revealing transitions, pacing and intuitive creativity. Non-Linear Video editing is a complex system of saved data files and a rearrangement of them within the software. This requires proper labeling and storage so that the editing software knows where to look to reference those data files when it is opening your project. There are a number of safeguards you can take to help ensure that you will avoid a massive mistake that will destroy your projects. Storage Organization Media management is very important because that’s essentially all non-linear editing is. The software essentially allows you to arrange your computer files into a creative way. To do this it has to know where all of the footage, photos, music, and other media is at in your storage devices. Make sure that all footage is specifically labeled in the storage area once it is captured, and then it is not moved. Any footage or other media that is moved from its original location will have to be reconnected, which is difficult process at times. You may want to keep your footage specially labeled and organized into certain folders in your storage device, but to do this you would have to move it out of the Capture Scratch folder and into a new one. From here you would have to reconnect the media, so if you want to do this you should do it before you ever start the actual editing of that footage. Also, if you are going to do that make sure that the entire piece of footage was captured in one solid piece of media instead of several cut up pieces. This can create an issue with time code when you are reconnecting it after the move. The same goes for photos and music, which should be saved in their respective folders immediately before they are imported into the program. All of these things will help reduce the chance of footage getting lost or accidentally deleted because they were mislabeled. Project Organization The same is true of organizing the project actually within your editing file. Your Browser can end up getting very cluttered with footage and other media and it may not be easily accessible if you do not know where it is. Log and label each video clip and place it into files according to type and location in the film. If they are interviews place notes as to the quality, cut it up into sub-clips according to the questions and answers, and then place them into their respective folders. Often your organizational pattern is decided by your creative style. If you want to have each interview question answer in a folder labeled according to the person answering it then that may be best, otherwise you may want to put the answers into folders that are determined according to different sections of the film. This is the best approach for narrative films, where each scene should have its own folder. These are extra important to label so you can discard the useless takes and angles. All these types of organizational choices will make sure that you are able to make educated choices in your editing project. If you do not know what you have by quickly looking through the Browser you are likely to make mistakes when choosing what goes where in your digital film or video. Undo You are going to need to have the freedom to undo a number of actions. Make sure that the undo settings allow for at least twenty undo operations, otherwise you may make a mistake and will not be able to go all the way back and fix it. Anything more than twenty or thirty allowed undos can slow down the system so keep that in mind People often get caught up in the technical aspects of editing and forget about the actual process. These are a few tips that I have learned in my 5 plus years editing video that I thought might be helpful to people just starting out and maybe the few who need to get back to the basics. 1. Detach yourself from the content. This is especially true when you are editing your own work. You slaved away writing, directing, and shooting the film and now it is your baby that you don’t want to mess with. In order to be an effective editor, you must look at the piece from an objective angle or else you will restrict your editing choices and possibly sacrifice the quality of the final piece. 2. Experiment Now that pretty much all editing is done on non-linear editing systems like Final Cut Pro and Avid, editors are free to try new things and they should. For example, when I edit in Final Cut I will often come up with an idea that might completely redo the whole sequence I have been working on. In this case, I will just copy the original sequence and then I have a saved version and I am free to hack up the new sequence and see where I end up. 3. Don’t Be Afraid To Cut This ties into the first two tips. If something does not work in your sequence, get rid of it. I can think of countless examples when there was a bad take or line that made me cringe and I did not think it was possible to get rid of it. Once I took the leap of faith and cut that out, creativity took control of the rest and made the sequence work. You will feel better as an editor and the final product will be greatly improved if you cut the things that don’t work no matter how attached you may be to them (see tip #1). 4. Share Rough Cuts It is crucial to step away from the work and allow someone else to look at it. Whether this is your producer or your buddy, either way you get a fresh perspective. Often you will work on a project for so long that you don’t know which way is up and an outsiders perspective helps you notice things you may have missed. A second opinion also gives you a better idea of where you are in the overall process. 5. Attention to Detail Every frame counts. When you watch a sequence and something doesn’t seem right or it doesn’t quite fit, moving or cutting a clip a couple frames here and there often makes a world of difference. This also applies to the content within the clip. You should try and pay attention to everything going on in the frame because it affects the viewing experience whether or not the audience notices it at first. Time Consuming You will spend more time with your computer editing station than you will with any other piece of equipment during production. Editing, and the associated post-production tasks, is the most time consuming part of any digital film or video because that is where the film really comes together. To make this process more successful there are certain things you should avoid in your editing station. Laptops There has been a lot romanticized about editing on laptops recently. If you are a video journalist working in the field who needs to be able to edit together video quickly to send it off to broadcast then a laptop editing station is a good idea. For any other reason a desktop is better. No laptop is going to have the power and space that a desktop will. For a comparable price all desktop computers are of a higher caliber than a laptop, and though notebooks are developing quickly, desktops are doing so faster. You are not going to get the size of image or quality of sound needed to make aesthetic choices in your editing. You really need large monitors and a good computer stereo attachment to get the full feel for what you are actually working with. Since you need full focus, and the ability to plug in peripherals, there is no need to move around while you are editing. It is just an unnecessary piece of technology that will only hinder you while you are working. Monitor and Speakers Money needs to be spent on getting two computer onitors, both with very good color and resolution. It is best to get newer LCD monitors, but if CRT is all you can afford get the highest rating you can. Audio is going to need to be based in absolute clarity, so make sure to compare computer speakers. Standard speakers will not do for precise audio production. Wireless It is best to avoid computer parts that may be subject to interference. The truth is that your editing space will become cluttered with notes and equipment and you need to have everything tied together well. Stay away from wireless keyboards and mice because they tend to get their reception deflected easily and you will have to change the batteries really often in the mouse. That is not another expense you should have to incur. Brand Names Do not choose computer parts simply by their brand names but instead by their specifications. If you need to update things, such as your processor and RAM, then do so according to the specifications of your editing software and without concern to names. Remember, there is no reason to pay more to Intel for the same thing that AMD offers less expensively. Get a Good Computer One of the last things to remember is that cluttered or damaged computers will not give you the performance you require. Before going ahead on a big project make sure that your machine is up to the task. Video Editing The Rule of Six When editing a video project you have to keep in mind both the spatial and contextual continuity for a given scene. You have to keep in mind that the action is a small part of the entire film and that the various angles it was captured in need to be put together in a way so the audience will be able to understand what is occurring. These elements can be designated by the Rule of Six, which are the six points that need to be considered when cutting together a scene. The order of importance of these is different depending on whom you ask, but the following is a good hierarchy to consider. Emotional Continuity The most important goal of editing a scene is the emotion that it should hold. Keep the tone of the film in mind, as well as the specific aspect of the overall sense that the scene should carry. When selecting shots, length of cuts, and transitions, think about how the rest of the scenes were edited, then how this scene fits into the whole. Try to never violate the feelings in the moment for story or spatial continuity. It is better to keep the overall tone of the film continuous because that is what the audience will pick up on most. Story/Plot The story is also very important, so make sure that this scene fits in perfectly with the whole film. Place it in correct order, and make sure that the scene clearly portrays what has happened. If a given scene is not clear then the continuity of the plot will be lost and the audience will disconnect. Rhythm Think about the rhythm of the film, and the other scenes, and make sure that the edits you do on a sequence maintain this. You do not want to suddenly have a scene that breaks the film up and loses the audience’s focus. If a scene does not seem right for its location then it should be cut entirely. Eye-Trace Eye-trace is the first of the last three items of the Rule of Six, which if they were all put together would not be as important as one of the first three. This means that you should keep in mind what the audience will be looking at in each frame, and to make sure that you have everything exactly where you want the audience to see it. For example, if you have main action happening and you would like the audience to focus on it then put it in a central spot in the frame, and do not let background objects or action take over the image. Two-Dimensional Space You have to make sure that your edits maximize the two-dimensional aspects of the frame. The screen is a two-dimensional image, but you are trying to portray a three-dimensional world. Make sure you cut together correct images so that it will continue to give the illusion that they are watching a three-dimensional event. This means respecting things like the Z-Axis and staggered depths of field. Spacial Continuity The last one is to make sure to maintain the spatiality of the three-dimensional space in the frame. This means that there should not be jump cuts and that all movement in the frame accurately represents the space that you are trying to portray to the audience. This means that you need to show all movement through a series of shots, and do not let someone jump from one side of a room to another without showing them move to that second location. All Important Though they are listed in a descending order of importance, they should all be considered important. A great editing job will make sure that all of these elements are at play, and that the scene works as a whole. Editing Your Project Film editing is used to create a myriad of images and sound so that the viewer will feel like they are part of the film on the screen. The way that the video clips are cut together is expressive of how they are to be interpreted. Though the majority of clips that are paired together are simply placed next to one another, some require a more advanced video transition. Editing transitions are an animated effect that allows two video clips to change from one to another. Cut The Cut is the most common of all transitions and is simply the jump from one clip to another. This happens when you put two clips directly next to each other in the Timeline. This is the standard for all clips being Cut together in a scene, mostly because any more advanced video transitions should only be reserved for cutting between scenes or for artistic effect. Dissolve One of the standards for cutting between two scenes is the Dissolve. This device is where one shot replaces another, where at some point during this transition the two clips are both on the display at the same time. The Dissolve is often used to show that time has passed, but that the two scenes are part of a continuous sequence of events. Fade to Black The Fade to Black, and its paired effect the Fade Up From Black, is used similar to the Dissolve. This effect is exactly as it sounds, where one clip fades completely to black at the end, and the following clips fades up from that complete black. This again notes that time has passed, but also indicates that a more significant end and beginning are occurring. Other Transitions There are a variety of more pronounced video effects that are both recently developed or archived from the silent film era. Things like wipes, where one image pushes the other off the screen, or the iris in/out, where the image is focused down to a circle on just one aspect of that image, are meant to be seen and are not used to simply maintain continuity. Each of the more obvious video effects is different and therefore has different connotations, but since they are so obvious they are often used for comic, referential, or artistic meaning. Think About It When selecting which video transition to use during your home post-production, make sure to select one that fits your needs. Though transitions like the Cut, Dissolve, or Fade In are common, they each indicate something unique and should not be mistaken. Every choice you make in digital video production is important and should be well considered.

 

---

Continuity Editing Editing is the creative force of filmic reality...and the foundation of film art. - V.I. Pudovkin, 1915    You will note that the above statement was made in 1915. Since that time editing has become even more important. Editing establishes the structure and content of the production along with the production's overall mood, intensity, and tempo. In this series of modules on editing we'll start with the most logical and useful approach: continuity editing. Continuity editing refers to arranging the sequence of shots to suggest a progression of events. Given the same shots, an editor can suggest many different scenarios. Consider just these two shots.

a man glancing up in surprise another man pulling a gun and firing toward the camera In this order it appears that the first man was shot. However, if you reverse the order of these two scenes, the first man is watching a shooting. Let's look at what we can do with just three shots. 1. people jumping from a car 2. the car on fire 3. an explosion 1-2-3 -  In the 1-2-3 sequence shown the shots suggest that people are jumping from a car seconds before it catches fire and explodes. 3-2-1 - A 3-2-1 order suggests that there is an explosion and then the car bursts into flames; and, as a result, the people have to jump out. 2-3-1 - In a 2-3-1 sequence people jump from the car after a fire causes an explosion. 2-1-3 - If the sequence is changed to 2-1-3, it appears that as a result of a fire passengers jump out of the car just in time to escape a devastating explosion. Three shots; four very different meanings! When hundreds of scenes and takes of scenes are available to an editor, which is normally the case in dramatic productions, the editor has tremendous control over the basic continuity and message of the production.

Changing Expected Continuity Continuity editing primarily suggests guiding an audience through a sequence of events, and, in the process, showing them what they want to see when they want to see it. In the end, you've told a story or logically traced a series of events to their conclusion. In dramatic television good editors sometimes break from the expected to achieve a dramatic effect. Unfulfilled expectations can be used to create audience tension. Let's take this simple shot sequence: A man is working at his desk late at night.   There is a knock at the door.   The man behind the desk routinely calls out, "Come in."   After looking up, the calm expression on the man's face dramatically changes to alarm. Why? We don't know. Where is the shot of who or what just came in? What happens if we don't cut to that expected shot? The audience is then just left hanging with curiosity and apprehension -- or, depending on how it's handled, with frustration and resentment. Here's an example of the latter. In a story about the changes in the U.S. $100 bill a treasury spokesperson spends considerable time giving specific details on the changes that were necessary to foil counterfeiting. Let's assume that the whole time all we see is a two-shot of the men carefully examining one of the new $100 bills. Obviously, we would want to see a close-up of the bill so we can see the changes they're talking about. If there is no such shot, we feel frustrated. So, unless you want to leave your audience hanging for momentary dramatic effect, always keep in mind what you think the audience expects to see at any given moment. If you do, your edit decision list (sequence of edits) will largely write itself. In news and documentary work the more logically your can present events (without extraneous material) the less room there will be for misunderstanding or frustration. In these types of productions you want to be as clear and concrete as possible. In dramatic production we have much more creative latitude. In fact, with dramatic productions it's often desirable to leave some things open for interpretation. Sometimes for dramatic effect and to keep an audience guessing (for a while) you may want to use editing to intentionally delay answering an obvious question. For example, at the end of the film, One Night Stand, director-writer-producer Mike Figgis focuses on the two main couples in the film, but keeps us guessing  as to which man and woman end up together. The dialogue keeps you guessing, and as the four of them stand in a group there are two-shots showing each man with each woman. It is only at the very end of the sequence that the question is answered. (By the way, the director's narration included with the R-rated DVD version provides informative scene-by-scene commentary on the production and acting.) Acceleration Editing In film and video production time is routinely condensed and expanded. For example, let's say you want to tell the story of a young woman going out on an important date. The process of just watching her pick out clothes from her closet, taking shower, drying her hair, doing her nails, putting on her clothes and make-up, checking the whole effect in a mirror, making any necessary adjustments, and then driving to some prearranged place could take 90 minutes. That's the total time devoted to most feature films -- and the interesting part hasn't even started yet! Very early in the film business audiences were taught to assume things not shown. For example, the 90 minutes or so it took the woman to meet her date could be shown in 19 seconds. a shot of her concluding a conversation on the phone and moving quickly out of the frame (3 seconds)   a quick shot of her pulling clothes out of her closet (2 seconds)   a shot of her through a steamy shower door (2 seconds)   a couple shots of her blow-drying her hair (4 seconds)   a quick shot of her heading out the front door. (2 seconds)   one or two shots of her driving (4 seconds)   and finally, a shot of her pulling up in front of the prearranged meeting place (2 seconds) Or how about this. A shot of her hanging up the phone, jumping up and moving out of frame.    A shot of her arriving at the agreed upon place. Expanding Time Occasionally, an editor or director will want to drag out a happening beyond the actual time represented. The noted director, Alfred Hitchcock, (North By Northwest, Psycho, etc.) used the example of a scene where a group of people sitting around a dinner table was blown up by a time bomb. In a real-time version of the scene, the people sit down at the table and the bomb goes off. End of people; end of scene. But Hitchcock was famous for suspense, and no real suspense would be generated by this approach. In a second version the people gather, talk, and casually sit down at the dinner table. A shot of the bomb ticking away under the table is shown revealing to the audience what is about to happen. Unaware of the bomb, the people continue their banal conversations. Closer shots of the bomb are then intercut with the guests laughing and enjoying dinner. The intercutting continues (and speeds up) until the bomb finally blows the dinner party to bits. The latter version understandably creates far more of an emotional impact.    Causality Often, a part of continuity editing is to suggest or explain cause. A good script (enhanced by good editing) suggests or explains why things happen. For example, in a dramatic production it would seem strange to cut to a shot of someone answering the phone unless we had heard the phone ring. A ringing phone brings about a response; the phone is answered. We may see a female corpse on the living room floor during the first five minutes of a dramatic film, but not know who killed her or why until 90 minutes later. In this case effect precedes cause. Although strict continuity editing would dictate that we present events in a logical sequence, it would make a more interesting story -- one that would be more likely to hold an audience -- if we present the result first and reveal the cause gradually over time. Is this not the approach of almost every crime story? Sometimes we assume cause. If we are shown a shot of someone with all the signs of being drunk (effect), we can probably safely assume they have been drinking (cause). If we see a shot of someone attempting a difficult feat on skis for the first time, followed by a shot of them arriving back home with one leg in a cast, we assume that things didn't quite work out. Let's go back to the corpse on the living room floor. Knowing that the husband did it may not be enough (maybe for the police, but not for most viewers). In causality there is also the question of why. This brings up motivation.   Motivation Under motivation, we can assume any one of the age-old motives, including money, jealousy and revenge. But, even knowing that the motive was revenge may not be enough for a well thought-out, satisfying production. Revenge must have a cause. To provide that answer we may have to take the viewer back to incidents in the past. We could show a woman with a lover. We could then see suspicion, jealousy, resentment, and anger building in her husband. Finally, we could see that these negative emotions could no longer be restrained. Now we understand. We've been shown effect, cause, and motivation. Editors must perceive the dynamics of these cause-and-effect relationships to skillfully handle them. They must also have an understanding of human psychology so that they can portray feelings and events realistically. How many serious dramatic productions have you seen where actions and reactions just don't seem to be realistic?  Does this not take away from the credibility of the production? Writers and directors also know they shouldn't reveal answers (motivations) too quickly. In a good mystery we will probably try to hold our audience by leading them through critical developments in a step-by-step fashion.

Editing tips for TV news Jonathan Nex leads a team of video editors, sometimes known as picture editors, although they edit sound as well as pictures. Their job is to assemble material gathered by reporters into TV reports. Jonathan's love of film when he was at school led him to became a picture editor. A frequent visitor to the cinema, he would watch films up to five times. He said: "If a film's really good, you naturally concentrate on the story line, but if you find yourself watching a film you don't particularly enjoy, look again with a critical eye. Try and work out how it's been edited together." The aspect of his job he most enjoys is turning an ordinary piece of film into something extraordinary. He said: "You can film something really boring and still make it look exciting through good editing." Here are his tips on editing a news story for TV. Log your shots The first thing to do is view your tape and the time code. Make a list, or log, of the different shots you see, the times they start and finish (called in and out points) and what people say (script). Have a look at this example: Log your shots   Time in Time out Shots Script 00:00 00.11 Mini motos racing around a track Reporter: Introduction 00.11 00.14 Mini motos going past a bicycle on a road Reporter: But this is what is happening on Britain's streets? 00.14 00:25 Mini motos in a car park Reporter: Police say mini motos are ridden on pavements and car parks   If someone can log, while you are filming, even better! It will save you valuable editing time, particularly if you are on a deadline. Assembly edit Now you are ready to do an assembly edit. That is where you look at your storyboard and cut out the film to match the shots you planned. The paper edit will help you find these sections easily. Lay them down in order. In most computer editing packages, this means laying them on a line from left to right, called a timeline. Sound edit Now do a sound edit. Listen to the script and cut the film so that it all makes sense when you listen to it. Your edited report on the timeline should now look almost finished. Final edit This is where you put the finishing touches to your report. For example, you can add different bits of video, to make your report visually interesting, and graphics. The final edit usually involves shortening the report or making it more concise. Make sure your overall editor is happy you haven't cut out any vital bits such as the other side of the argument! Adding visual interest If you want to, you can put different video over the sound. For example, if the reporter is speaking to the camera and you want to keep his voice, but show the location, you can cut and paste pictures from the original film and overlay them onto the timeline. As a general rule, these pictures should be two seconds or longer - otherwise, it is too quick for the audience. Make sure you reduce any background noise attached to the location shots, so you can hear the reporter's words clearly. Don't remove the background noise though, at a low level, it makes the report sound natural. Editing interviews You can cut out the reporter's questions, as long as the interviewee answers in full sentences. This will make your report more concise. You only need to include one or two good answers in your report. Listen to all the answers first and select the best ones. It will save you valuable editing time, particularly if you are on a deadline. Interviews often involve filming the interviewee's head and shoulders. If you want a bit of variety, try these different shots: The reporter's shoulder and the interviewee - called an over the shoulder shot The reporter and the interviewee - called a two shot The reporter listening, NOT speaking - called a listening shot or reverse angle. Keep the sound track you laid down in the sound edit and overlay the pictures. If you can, always use NAT soung behing the reporters voice. Effects There's no need to go overboard with these. If you've filmed your report well, you won't need to add any! Here are a couple you might like to try: Blurring the edges between one shot and the next, called a dissolve. This is often used to show that time has passed. Fading from or to black at the beginning and end of your report, to mark the beginning and end. Adding graphics To make your report look really professional, add name and job titles. Have a look for the "title tool" or something that does the same job. Using titles means that the reporter and interviewees don't need to spend time introducing themselves, for example: "I'm Professor Massam and I'm a Sports expert from the University of Nowhere." This helps to keep your report short and snappy. When adding titles, keep the font plain and make the words big enough to read on screen. Make sure you spell names correctly! Remember that if the person is under 18, only use their FIRST name.

---

Jim's Professional Pages I Resume I Commercial Demo
Professional Videographer/Photojournalist I Professional Non-Linear Video & Film Editor

Main Page: Video Tips Pages for the New Videographer's and Editors - The Basics -Video Tips #1 - Video Tips #2 - Digital Video Editing Tips
Lighting - Sound - Music - Screen Writing - Entertainment Law - Independent Filmmaking
Do It Yourself Gear - Training Videos - Links And Resources - DVX100

OTHER PAGES
Web Design/Graphics I Acting/Stunt Work I Medical Video and Production
Management I Podcasting

---

E-mail to request a DVD demo with past work.
E-mail us at - jimsawyereditor@gmail.com

NATIONAL & STATE LEVEL AWARDS:

1999 - THE VIDEOGRAPHER AWARDS - Award of Excellence - "Survival", Chester Boot, Videographer/Editor

1999 - TELLY AWARDS - Winner - "Cutting Edge", Today's Headlines, Editor

1999 - TELLY AWARDS - Finalist - "Survival", Chester Boot, Videographer/Editor

1999 - TELLY AWARDS - Finalist - "Image SE MI", Comcast, Writer/Producer/Videographer//Editor/VO

1997 - GOLDEN GOBO AWARDS - Winner, (Best Comcast Spot Nation Wide.), "Survival", Video/ Editor

1995 - TELLY AWARDS - Winner - "It's My Car", Saturn of Southgate, Writer/Producer/Interviewer/Editor

1987 - Michigan Safety Council - 2nd Place - "Bomb Threats & Search Techniques", Mercy, Dir./Editor/Writer

1985 - American Hospital Assoc. - 1st Place -"Silently, Lovingly ....", CO-Producer/Director/Editor/Camera

1972 - ADDY - Amer. Advertising Federation of Florida - 1st Place- Radio,"Great Expectations" Writer/Talent

 
 

Videographer Awards

Telly Awards

Comcast Golden GOBO Award

---

---

E-mail me at - jimsawyereditor@gmail.com

Site Search

Designed by a member of

Copyright © 2000 -  2011, Jim Sawyer , All concepts property of the client.
Designed using Dream Weaver.

Legal Information and Disclaimer

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.