Editing essay
Editing is a fundamental part of the film making process. Without editing your project will essentially make no sense. Some would even say editing is the most important element of production. Over a period of time you compile a series of clips that are in a random order. The editors job is to then work closely with the director/producer and use his or hers creativity to piece together something that an audience can appreciate. Editing can be an extremely tedious, long winded process but despite the long hours of sitting in front of several computer screens the finished project can be very rewarding.
It is important that the editor has a particular vision for the outcome of the video. For example for a charity video (depending on the agenda) the edit can affect the audience’s perception. If the intention of the video is to be poignant and informational the editor has the huge job of ensuring the clips are cut in such an order that the audience can follow a story. If the clips are in a random order the audience will easily lose concentration and therefore lose sight of the important message trying to be conveyed.
When editing it is important to be organised, a good way to do this is to manage your clips. Before you begin cutting together a rough edit you should discard any unwanted footage for instance any clips that are blurry or unusable. This will essentially save you a lot of time that could be spent elsewhere on the edit. To distinguish your clips you should re-name and assign any important information to separate the clips. This can be fairly tedious but over time you’ll find it extremely helpful; especially if you have a significant amount of clips to sort through.
Before you begin your edit you need to ensure all your files are in the correct format. To do this you need to transcode all your files, you begin by selecting and moving all of your files into Mpeg Stream clip. You then modify the settings; you change the codec from H.264 to Apple Pro Res which the editing software can handle. When filming the format needs to be 1920x1080 with 25fps, you should check these settings before you begin editing. You should also proceed to turning on ‘deinterlace’, this will make the frames easier to split and move.
