Video and Editing Techniques

Video and Editing Techniques

I’ll be explaining in this blog the purpose of editing but before I do I just want to explain the process and the pre-production stuff first once you know that you’ll understand the rest, it’s not just about getting a camera and recording there is a process that you have go through.

It’s important that you know this especially if you’re serious about this and you want to get a career in the film industry.

Anyways the planning you must plan OK don’t be but off it will help you develop your ideas and by just planning it you will know where your idea is going.

What you can and cannot do.

Here is an example:

 

A story board whether your good at drawing or not believe me that this will help you understand your idea and it will just trying to draw you don’t have to be the best artist in the world ok just draw stick men if you have to.

You need to know where your idea is going visually and when you look at it you will be able to spot any fault because when you imagine something in your head sometimes turning that into  a reality is a process aswell.

Second thing is a cast list keep a record of your casts and their details because if you are ever asked it’ll be really awkward to say that you were making a film with some stranger and make sure have the persons permission and that’s why I want to bring up permission forms its important.

Make sure they sign a contract so that they know what they’re signing up for and it’s also for you to know who agrees a contract should look like this. 

 

 

Also make sure if you’re filming somewhere you get permission and get a location release form. You can’t just go into someone back yard and start filming or something so location form is just as important otherwise you can’t shoot in that location and then your film fails be smart about it don’t get into trouble.

Also risk assessment its important you don’t want to get sued or injure any of your casts or even yourself so just fill in it so it’s just to make sure no one get hurt that’s all.

Purpose of editing

Editing is the most important thing and it does have more than one purpose whether you’re trying to tell a story, create a mood or even create an atmosphere. This is makes films successful.

Editing concepts – this is to introduce new information so a new shot for example should always show new information to the viewer whether it’s a character or a location.

Editing is really important for making movies and it is used as a tool to create moods, theme and atmosphere.

Montages - It's a editing technique of selecting and collecting different clips and then putting it into one video.

Like this video here this 2pac music video has collections of his interviews and live performances:

Transition - in video editing it's where the creator shows an effect between one video to the other. This includes transitions such as fade, fade to black, dissolve, pan or even cutting back and forth from one clip to the next.

Motivation – The new shot that you cut to should always provide new information for the viewer you don’t want to show the same thing all the time and you should also show the shot that you are cutting away from.

Why you should edit? – the reason why you should is to make scenes and keep scenes the viewers don’t need to see everything ok they’ll just get bored and leave.

Cut away the unnecessary scenes and make sure you not too much you want to be able to maintain the eyes of your viewers for as long as you can and then build their interest by going up and up.

This can even be arranging some clips in order or even using the 180o rule to help make the scene. Editing also helps you make sure that the sequence of your film makes sense throughout.

All of these things combined keep engaging the viewer creating motivation and pace; also combining shots to create sequences gives you the basics of editing. Doing all of these things can be rewarding for you and it will lead you to a promising career in film.

 But it’s not just in a film could be an advert or a music video just make sure you know what the viewers would want to see and expect.

The whole point in me saying all this is that the main purpose of editing is to show different aspects of a film/video that can emphasize the characters.

The audience then receive the information making them want to watch what’s next or what’s going on making them stay long enough till your video or film finishes.

Genres- you need to engage your viewers in terms of delivering what is expected of the genre everything has to be right music, editing, story etc. Horror movies for example there are long shots and sometimes it’s slow paced but that builds suspense and gets the audience motivated to watch.

Conventions and techniques – there are a couple techniques you need to remember and you need to pick the right one for the one you think goes with the purpose of your video or film. Such techniques include 180o rule, cutting to tack and transition etc.

Flash back - You've also got other techniques that you can use like such as this and by showing the viewer what happened before that can get them engaged when you reveal something new. 

Some films even do it right at the end but when filming this you can just film it all in one but separate or show things that the viewer never seen before watch this clip below you will see clearly what I mean.

Following the action films like Saving Private Ryan shows the viewer and focuses on a certain character by showing you almost letting you experience what they are going through this includes shots of the character as well as whats surrounding them.

Establishing shots- this is used a lot in film making nowadays and it is a scene shot in a long shot away to show the location or what's going on around the character.

Shot reverse shot - is a techniques used common in films and its show a character looking and talking to another who are normally sat opposite each other.

POV shots (Point Of view) - it's a technique used which started in the 1940's and it's to show what a character is looking at in first person or even what they are doing so it's not just in games yes in can be in films too this can be good and sometimes you can make the viewer feel involved. Its a feeling that a viewer gets that makes something more than just a film, it also shows the hard work film makers put it to make something realistic and shot all in one.

Editing rhythm is a techniques used to cut and cross cut to the music its old techniques existed since 1900s.

 Development of editing - the editing and the techniques used today has changed only a little bit back in the day everything was made and took a long time doing and today we rely  on the editing software that we use and the quality of the video probably more than the script or the plot of film because if its not visually engaging then even a great film can fail.

Some even care about actors so much that they will not watch the film if the actor isn't great so its key to get editing, camera and the actors as good as each other wise your film will be a struggle.

as you can see D.W Griffiths film House of Darkness used some aspects of editing and fades compare to 21st century films. From then till now we've changed a lot due to the type of software's we use and we have depending everything on technology. 

You might think making a film should be easy not infact it has been complicated and will continue to get more complicated its all about the visual you need to learn not just about editing but about adding special FX to your videos because there is too much of that in hollywood now too many big budget films who make it.

I also think that there are way too many movies using green screen rather than real location just saying...

I mean compare remakes of movies nowadays like the old batman movie to the new one yer enough said!!!

Finally editing your video using different software's there’s Premier pro or Sony Vegas there are software's for different purposes but remember it’s not about what software you use it’s but the techniques that I’ve talked about.

 

After I finished editing my Vlog in Premiere Pro and Audition I then exported my video to a H.264 format.

I then logged into to YouTube to upload my video.

This is my video link: http://youtu.be/-gvWuHBTbvk