The following short films are examples of the various types of film and audio editing we will be exploring throughout this workshop:
This video is comprised of four separate video clips, an audio clip, and a title.
Can you spot the individual video clips?
This video is comprised of one video clip, multiple audio clips, and an ending credit.
How many audio files can you hear in use?
This video is comprised of a custom logo, title, multiple text breaks for storytelling, custom illustrated imagery, several audio clips overlapped with audio commentary. This style of film editing is called the Ken Burns Effect.
For complex film editing storyboards are an effective and quick way of getting an idea of how you might better visualize the final process. While a fair amount of artistic skill is required for large studio production houses like Disney, Marvel Studios, Pixar, Lucas Films, etc. it is not always a requirement.
Often pre-shot footage can be first seen than planned out through storytelling before the actual editing begins. This provides a blue print for the finish product. Storyboards are comprised of a combination of visual imagery and descriptive text.
Applications: The primary applications used in television and film production are a combination of the Adobe products Audition, Premier, and After Effects.
Audition: For complicated audio used to develop 5 channel and Dolby systems. Premier: For film editing and minor audio construction. After Effects: For visual effects using text and vector and rasterized imagery.
This workshop will be focused on Adobe Premier using film and audio editing techniques.
Frame Rate: Frames per second or FPS is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images called frames are displayed in an animated display. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems.
This video displays a helicopter with the blades spinning at the same rate as the camera making appear to float without the blades moving at all!
The most widely used frame rates globally are as follows:
24 fps:
This is the universally accepted film frame rate. Movie theaters worldwide almost always use this frame rate. Many high definition formats can record and play back video at this rate, though 23.98 is usually chosen instead.
23.98 (23.976) fps:
This is 24 fps slowed down by 99.9% (1000/1001) to easily transfer film to NTSC video. Many high definition video formats (and some SD formats) can record at this speed, and it is usually preferred over true 24 fps because of NTSC compatibility.
25 fps:
The European video standard. Film is sometimes shot at 25 fps when destined for editing or distribution on PAL video.
29.97 fps:
This has been the color NTSC video standard since 1953. This number is sometimes inaccurately referred to as 30 fps.
The overall application environment or GUI (Graphic User Interface) is referred to in Adobe Premier as the "workspace." There are several workspaces to choose from but for our purposes we will stick to the basic Editing Workspace default.
This may seem overwhelming at first but think of it as a series of monitors in which you will focus your attention to individually (in professional work environments you would typically see these panels displayed on dual monitors for more work space as longer videos can take up a lot of real estate on a single monitor).
Effects and Effects Controls Panels
The Effects Controls panel is where you can apply and control various effects for movement and opacity. This is where we will be addressing the Ken Burns effect for making still images move. Our use in this panel will be limited for this workshop but it is instrumental in video editing.
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The Effects panel is in the same area as the Project panel in the Editing workspace and is where we will be applying various effects such as Video Transitions like Fade, Slide, and Wipe as well as Audio Transitions like Cross-Fade.
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Project Panel
The Project panel is where we will import the audio, video, still imagery like jpgs and Photoshop files. From this panel we will drag and drop the various files needed to begin our video editing into the timeline.
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Timeline Panel
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The Timeline panel is used to manage the various video and audio files. By clicking on these files while within this panel we can apply the various effects to create transitions and other effects to audio and video files. It is also where we will be placing title pages. The pink boxes represent the video files and the green boxes represent the audio files.
Program Monitor
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The Program Monitor is the panel in which we will be looking at our work and viewing how our video will look overall when exported. When can also control movement of images and video here as well.
The most important setting in any film project is the Sequence Setting. It must be maintained in the initial setup (see Step One below) and in exporting the final file (see Step Two below).
In both these areas the settings must match or else the frame rate will be added to make up the dimensions of the file as well as the frame rate itself. This results in blurry imagery.
Overview: For your first assignment you will be rebuilding a short 30 second clip using the Ken Burns Effect from supplied files.
Please download the files below by right clicking each item and save to your desktop in a folder with your name:
Instructions: The following series of ten, one-minute videos will help you along with recreating the film. If you fall behind or need a reference these simple instructions can help you get back on track:
Step One covers:
Creating a Sequence and adjusting the Settings.
Importing files and accessing them in the Project panel.
Step Two covers:
Placing files into the Timeline (or Movie Sequence).
Editing the Speed/Duration of an item in the Timeline.
Step Three covers:
Making a still image move (Ken Burns Effect).
Step Four covers:
Making a still image move (Ken Burns Effect) continued.
Step Five covers:
Adjusting Audio files.
Step Six covers:
Moving files in the Timeline.
Creating Title Pages.
Step Seven covers:
Editing Title Pages.
Adding Title Pages to the Timeline.
Step Eight covers:
Duplicating Title Pages.
Adjusting Files in the Timeline.
Step Nine covers:
Adding and adjusting Effects like Video Transitions.
Step Ten covers:
Exporting Media to create a transportable movie file.
Spend a few minutes exploring these resources to come up with your own film. Once you have downloaded what you would like to use to build your film use the supplied storyboard paperwork to draw your own storyboard based on the files you will be using. Imagine cuts, zooms, titles, and how your audio might change your the flow of your film design.
Once this is done use the knowledge you have gained in the last exercise and what you learned in class to build your own film.
