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Adobe, advice, after effects, AVID, budget, concept, define, development, Editing, file, film, filmmaker, Final Cut, format, harddrive, ideas, iMovie, inspire, microsoft, movie, movie maker, necessity, Post, Premiere, process, SCAD, school, script, Sony, student, teach, Vegas
Welcome to day one of Postproduction! Tonight, we’re going to start with the overarching concept of editing. More than likely, despite the picture, you’ll be editing digital files. So the point of this first post will be to talk about the basics of editing. This includes software, setup, and job overview. For the sake of making sense, we’ll go in reverse order so it’s a little easier to make the connections. Shall we?
First thing’s first: What is an editor? Well, I’m not going to insult your intelligence with the kind of five-year-old answer some might give. Basically, the editor works in a dark room putting the film you shot together based on the script. Back in the old days, the editor actually took the physical film and cut it and spliced it together on a table. That’s why in some older movies (especially some of the grindhouse types), you can see tape splices or spots where the film was glued together. These days, I think those are cleaned up for DVD/Blu-Ray releases. In short, the editor is responsible for putting the film together cohesively. Although, that doesn’t always happenĀ (case and point THE NEW WORLD starring Christian Bale and Colin Farrel).
The setup for editing isn’t very complicated. It used to be a table with a couple of wheels and sometimes a monitor. These days, everything can be done with a computer and some software. For those of us with little to no budgets, your setup will consist of your laptop or desktop computer. You’ll need some good processing power to handle all the software requirements (more on that later). Most editing stations have two monitor setups. It makes editing a bit easier. Again, more on that later. Other than that, there should be room for the harddrive(s) full of footage as well as for the director (if you are two separate people) to come in and check on the progress.
Finally, let’s talk about software. There are four major names that come up first in my mind. These are Sony Vegas, AVID, Adobe Premiere, and Apple Final Cut. There’s no one program that’s better. It’s really about preference. Each one has different options available, but are otherwise capable of the same process. Now, your computer will most likely come with generic editing software. This should be your VERY LAST RESORT. Windows Movie Maker and iMovie are junk compared to the others. So try to avoid them whenever possible. Personally, I use AVID. It’s what I used in college and what I use now. I used to use Vegas, but I had an issue where the program put out a file that was enormous (a ten minute film that should be a few megabytes to a gig ended up being 60 gigbytes!). I can’t say that happens every time to everybody, but it was something I couldn’t fix and would be remiss if I didn’t warn you. A lot of people I know like to stay within a brand name (i.e., Adobe Premiere and After Effects and other Adobe programs) for some reason. They are really picky. You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. Use whatever you want.
Alright, I think that’s about it for the basics. Next week, we’ll move on to Part 2 which will talk about terms and techniques. Wednesday, we’ll put Linear and Non-linear systems in the spotlight. So I’ll see you then!