TV Production

Basic Principles of EditingChapter 5

Nonlinear editing NLE is: computer-based video edit systems in which clips of video are positioned as desired, usually by cutting-and-pasting or

dragging-and-dropping along a representative timeline.

Where’s the beef?Ordinary people shot in the most unflattering wayshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FvdGulFeoo

Mechanics

The idea is to choose the best shots and string them together in an interesting

and informative way.- Adding music to project

• Your timeline is a blank sequence where you will lay down your project with many open tracks for video and

audio• The first step to editing is to arrange

your shots along the timeline by inserting or overlaying images and

sounds. You will choose where pieces of media begin and end, whether they overlap, and how they’ll interact.

Trimming, slipping and slidingYou will see the need to rearrange and adjust the positioning of your

media.Trimming: Adjusting the boundary between two shots. You might trim an edit a couple of frames one way or the other, forcing one shot or audio

clip to end sooner and the other to begin sooner.

Uneven trimming of audio and video will result in a “split edit.”

Moving single clips or groups of clips along the timeline is called slipping and sliding.

Special Effects

You can change the color of a shot or layer shots together, mix tracks or audio elements (dialogue,

music and sound effects). You can also add words or titles to your project, masks,

selective focus, motion tracking and a film look

The RulesMany of the rules prevent you from making “jump cuts” – edits that defy the logic and physics of the situation. You want to tell a realistic story.

The 30 degree rule – less than a 30 percent change in picture framing or camera angle will result in an undesirable cut when the shots are edited back to back.

Avoid jump cuts by allowing the subject to edit the frame: When we see someone enter a front door and disappear inside, our visual language allows us to accept the jump cut to any room in the house by the time the door swings shut.

If an actor is talking to someone screen left, then the matching shot should have the other actor looking screen right.

Editing: involves art and storytelling in addition to organization and information management

If you move, remove, trim or add special effects to clips in the timeline,

the original media is unaffected. (Nonlinear editing is nondestructive

process.)

Good editing brings order and structure to a scene and, when the rules are followed, edits become transparent and

allow the dialogue and action to shine through.

Other Rules: Obey the 180 degree rule, which protects continuity and screen direction by establishing a “horizontal line of action” between subjects. If all shots are taken from one side of the line or action, when edited together, the shots

convey the correct spatial relationship between objects.

When you’re shooting your own stuff, establish the scene first with a wide shot. Then move into medium shots and

close-ups. Work out of scenes by reversing this order.

Use close-ups to gain intimacy

Be aware of continuity. If the car is going straight in one shot, it should still be going straight in the next shot, unless

you show it changing direction. You can also show the beginning of the action. (Someone is beginning to sit in one

shot and the second shot can show them nearly seated.)

Hold screen text long enough to read it aloud TWICE.

More Rules: Try avoid cutting together very bright and very dark shots. This can leave the impression of extraneous single frame

edits left over from other versions of the cut.

Lead the viewer’s eye to important elements of the frame.

Hold shots of easily grasped objects or symbols only long enough to grasp them. (If you show the speedometer,

viewers will get it in half a second or less.)

Let shots develop: as long as the subject is interesting, let the shot run. Unless your editing to the beat of the music

of the lines of dialogue, don’t worry about fixed shot lengths.

Keep your edits tight. We don’t need to see everything to know what’s happening.

One Last Rule:Break these rules as often as necessary but not all the time

or you will lose the element of surprise.

Edits aren’t always intended to be transparent or even logical. The very edit could be a metaphor for the subject’s

lack of connection with the world or foreshadowing an action to come.

However, it is important to understand the rules of editing in order to first, keep the viewer on board in traditional

scenes and second, to obtain maximum visual effect when you do color outside the lines.

On breaking the rules: Don’t break the rules halfway or it could look like incompetence. And don’t break the rules just to break the rules!

TransitionsCuts are the simple transition where one shot on screen is

instantaneously replaced by another shot.This implies continuity and chronology, suggesting no time has passed.A cut between a shot of someone looking at the sky and a shot of the

sky implies the person is seeing the sky.

Intercutting is cutting back and forth between shots and implies two simultaneous but separate lines of action.

Crosscutting: When you see a woman running down the street, and then it cuts to a man sitting at a restaurant eating alone. He looks at his watch. Then

we cut back to the woman. We get the sense that these two events are happening simultaneously.

More transitionsDissolve: When one video image blends with, and then

becomes, a second video image. Usually indicates a passage of time, a change in location, or

both.

Wipes: Similar to dissolve in that one image progressively replaces another but the difference is the wipe involves the incremental replacement of one shot by another. Some wipes have meaning

assigned: a clock wipe means a passing of time.

You might choose a right-to-left vertical edge wipe because it would follow the motion of a person cutting the frame right-to-left.

A dissolve or wipe could solve your problem by softening or eliminating the appearance of a jump cut.

Transitions Cannot…- Replace content

- Repeat after me: “I, [state your name], promise not to produce videos, or stand by quietly and watch others produce videos, that seam to have no other purpose than to use every transition ever

invented.”

Using a string of unrelated transitions is the same as zooming in and out simply because you can; it doesn’t help the storytelling and looks

amateurish.

For your editing assignments, outline the “story,” jotting down plot points, and then look for shots

that fit each point.

PacingProbe your video for signs of failure, trimming out the sluggish, inappropriate, clumsy and confusing parts.

You need rhythm in your edit.Recall the classic story: beginning, middle and end

Take a tip from TV: a quick cut intro highlighting the best parts of the upcoming program, with just a hint of climax, is often used to tease a story or tempt the viewer to continue

watching. Apply this style to your own productions.Open with the best scenes, ending with just a glimpse of the climatic shot at

the end. Dip to black. Start at the beginning.

MusicB-roll: In the old days, in order to dissolve between two

shots on the air, each needed to be on a separate source, an A-roll and B-roll. Now it’s just the second track on the

timeline, or any secondary footage.

I like to maintain the original beginning and end of most music because it sounds more natural than simply facing the music up and down.

You can find royalty free music online on sites like Jamendo.com or search for “copyright-free music” or

“creative commons.”Editing beats – Look at the song’s energy plot. It’s easy to identify the sharp

attack of each beat and even locate the points where other instruments join in.

Watch the VU meters* more on that later