Task 2: Be Able to Prepare Moving Image Material for Editing

Task 2: Be Able to Prepare Moving Image Material for Editing

Preparation Techniques:

Creating Bins: Creating bins before you edit is absolutely vital, as bins are used to store everything. Bins are used to store footage, music, sound effects and much more, so it is important that you create bins correctly before you can edit.

So that you don't lose track of where everything is, it is important to try and make it as easy for yourself as possible. This could keeping track of what bin is for what and even how tall and wide each of your bins are. It may also be a good idea to make your most important bins the most easiest to locate. In 'Avid Media Composer', it is possible to create folders which you can store your bins in. This is mainly done if editors that use 'Avid' have large projects with many clips etc. 

The following video down below is a tutorial that shows you how to visually create and manage bins (and more) in 'Avid Media Composer'.

Checking Material for Faults: It is very important when filming and editing that you check everything and make sure there are absolutely no faults,  no errors at all in anything that you have produced. For footage, some of the faults that it could potentiality have includes; exposure (if footage is underexposed or overexposed), playback failure (if footage can not be watched properly without technical errors etc.) and many more.

Examples of faults that could occur audibly include; sound of speech/dialogue recorded poorly (the microphones could have been too close/too far away from the character's mouth), playback failure (if recorded sound cannot be played back without technical errors etc.) and more.

It is also important to make sure that the editing software you plan to use is fully working. This can include making sure you can import clips, sound, create bins, create folders, making sure that you can save it and open it up correctly from the save and more.

Labeling Tapes: Labeling tapes is a very important process that you must remember to do. If you fail to label everything that you film, your footage will undoubtedly get all muddled up and it will delay the process of editing, and in the world of work, if you fail to do something on time, in this case, edit, you will most-likely lose your job.

A way to ensure that an editor knows what piece of footage is what, professional film crews will/should always use a clapperboard to slate. If you go to the introduction section of this blog, you will see that I have already talked about slating, and I have even done some slating of my own with a group in my college class.

Once your footage is in your editing software, it is recommended that you name it so that you remember what shot is what and what take it is (etc.), just in case.

Storing Tapes or Film: Once you have your tapes/film, it is important that you store them and that you store them well. Film/tapes are quite dedicate and sensitive, if you handle and store them without care, you could potentiality ruin them. On top of this, it is possible that the tapes/film can decay. 

A good way to think about storing your film/tapes is that with your film/tape, you have to potential to make tons of money that will forever keep you financially secure. Use this as motivation to keep your film/tapes as safe and as secure as possible. Good locations that you could use to store your film/tapes are dark places that are away from the sun and damp.

Producing A Rushes Log: A Rushes Log are pieces of paper that are designed to help you with your footage. They normally vary with what sections are included, but they all have the same meaning. The type of sections that you can expect to see on a rushes log includes; file names (the names of each piece of footage recorder, for example; MVI_9989.MOV), the duration of each piece of footage (how long each piece of footage recorded lasts for, for example; 00:3:09), a description of each shot (short information that says what is happening in each shot) and comments for each shot (comments could include if you are happy with the shot, how you want the shot to look after editing etc.)

Here is an example of a rushed log used for a music video:

Preparing to Edit:

Importing Clips: This is the one of the first stages of editing, importing your footage. In 'Avid Media Composer', it is recommended that you create bins for your footage. Importing clips can take a while, especially if the file size is big.The good thing about importing clips is that you normally only have to import each clip once and then you're done. In 'Avid Media Composer', once you have imported a clip in a bin, it stays there throughout the entirety of your editing process. 

This video show you how to visually import clips into 'Avid Media Composer':

Timelines: The timeline on 'Avid Media Composer' is rather advanced, as there is a lot that you are able to do. Unlike editing software such as 'Windows Movie Maker', 'Avid Media Composer' allows you to add multiple effects, pieces of audio, clips. For beginners, the timeline takes a bit of getting used too, but overtime with practice, it is pretty easy to pick up. When adding effects to your footage, you can actually find the effect you want and drag it onto the timeline.

Here is a visual image of what the timeline looks like on 'Avid Media Composer':

The following is a tutorial video explaining how to use the timeline and more. Tutorials are very useful and can help beginners dramatically:

 

Online and Offline Editing: There are two ways of editing in the media industry; offline and online. Offline editing is where you pretty much produce a rough cut of your edit. Clips that are imported in  come out at low resolution (poor quality) which allows a good amount of footage to be imported and available to use. All of the big, important and creative decisions are made in this version of editing, such as what shots to use, what cuts to use, what effects to use and so on. 

Online editing is near enough a completing session, where the footage that you imported in offline editing is re-digitized to the highest possible resolution (for films and television shows, the lowest could usually be around 1080p, and the highest resolution varies) and the cut is more or less rebuilt based on the timecode from your offline edit.

Formats: File formats are the construction of how digital information is kept within a computer file. Different file formats exist for different things, for example; for digital images, JPEG, PNG and TIFF are some of the file formats that are they there to store the type of information the images have. For videos; AVI, AAF, 3PG, MOV and many more are there to store the type of information the videos have.