In the media industry, in order to create a finalised piece of work we must take on the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots, known as editing. This is one of the main parts of the post-production process. When editing, this means you have total control over how the finished piece will look. You want the finished piece to look the best that it can be; this is where colour correction comes into play. We use this to enhance the quality of the picture and to create effects relatable to the theme of your video. Adding transitions between clips can make the sequence run a lot smoother, and adding a sound track over the top of your clips will automatically allow them to become a lot more interesting. The purpose of editing is to show a story through picture. Placing clips in a certain order can create different emotions with the audience and it is important to achieve the right one, depending on the purpose of your video. All editors hope to achieve a professional looking video that they are proud of, and it is the magic of post-production that allows them to do so.
However, the very earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit film shots together as they assumed that connecting different shots of different things from different positions would confuse the audience. Although they quickly discovered that editing shots into a sequence not only contributed to the audience’s sense of tale, but also enabled them to tell more complex stories as a result. Early on the cuts were made in camera, meaning that the cameraman would simply stop filming at the exact end of a shot, and begin filming again when the next shot began.
When starting out on your edit it’s best to sort through all your footage and create some form of organisation. I do this by labelling any bad/unwanted shots a certain colour so that I know not to use them. I do not delete them just in case I change my mind or they may come in handy later on. It is common to shoot far more footage than you actually need which usually leaves you with more than one take of the same shot. When I come across this I use a different colour to label the best shot out of all the takes of that certain shot, making it a lot quicker for me to find what I’m looking for when placing it onto the timeline. Depending on how much footage I have for the project I am working on, I may or may not decide to rename all my clips. For example, if I were creating a documentary and had a lot of cut away shots and different interviews, I would rename all the interviews and place all the related cutaway shots in separate folders. However, if I were editing together a simple interview, I would most likely not need to rename all the clips as the list of shots would already be in the correct order of what it was filmed in. When working with footage on the timeline, I like to start from the very beginning and cut each clip to how I want it before moving onto the next one. I also prefer to cut to a beat as I feel this helps the video to flow a lot smoother and automatically becomes a lot more visually interesting. Effects and graphics come last for me in the editing process. I like to create a sequence that I am proud of before spending time adding colour correction and transitions to make it look pretty.
Before the process of cutting your footage together can even begin, three main procedures must take place; file management, transcoding and assigning qualitative information to your clips. When placing your clips straight from your camera onto the computer, it is important to have created a RAW folder to place them in. It is also just as important to then create a transcode folder in which you will place the files when they have been transcoded. This makes file management a lot easier when differentiating the footage that is now at the correct settings to edit with. The process of transcoding then takes place, meaning the files must be changed into the correct codec so that the footage can be edited smoothly without any mishaps. To ensure there are no problems when editing, files need to be transcoded into Apple Pro Res 422 when using Final Cut Pro. During this process, file information must also be changed in order to match that of the sequence you are going to edit on. Files must be de-interlaced, at a frame sixe of 1920x1080, with 25 fps, at 100% quality.
Once editing has begun it is down to you as the editor to create your story. The way you choose to present your story, for example the theme, genre or general vibe that you want your audience to get from your video, is all down to the creative decisions you make when piecing each clip together. It can be as easy as changing the saturation on a clip from high to low; instantly turning a bright, vibrant, cheerful scene into a gloomy one. Music choice is a great mood setter for the direction you want your video to take. A more up tempo song will suggest that it’s an upbeat light hearted video. The aid of a simple sharp cut or fade to black can cause the difference between insinuating a dramatic climax to a cliff-hanger, or just a gentle close to the scene. Having all these creative tools at your fingertips automatically makes it ten times easier to interpret your story the way you intend it to be seen.
The ‘rough cut phase’ is where editing is in full swing. Your story is coming together and the sequence of footage is all starting to make sense. It’s a good idea to get a fresh pair of eyes to look over your rough cut and give feedback on what they think may need changing. This can help the editor make vital decisions during the final cut as they will be able to feed off of the viewer’s first impressions. Throughout this phase, scenes may be added or removed in order to better the understanding of the story for the viewer. As the final cut begins, cuts may be made tighter, sound levels are corrected to the right volume and picture quality is enhanced. Completing the final cut means that you are 100% happy with the sequence of your footage and the message it portrays; before finally starting on the finishing process. This is where the editor gets to spend time playing around with all the enhance tools on offer in order to make their masterpiece as visually exciting as possible. With programmes such as Magic Bullet Looks and Adobe After Effects, there are hundreds of filters and colour correction effects to help portray the image in any way the editor wants. Not only does this play a vital part in making shots look pretty, but it also allows the editor to fix shots that would once have been deemed unusable. Perhaps the exposure was too high or the white balance wasn’t right; the use of these programmes allow the editor to fix this without wasting what could be a perfectly good shot. Once all is complete and the editor is certain that their creation is perfect, the final cut will be exported to H.264 (MP4) for internet sharing.
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