Editing Notes

During this semester in Film 3, I feel like I’ve gathered a bunch of helpful tips for editing. It became evident while I was going through these motions with my Home video that these lead to much more efficient and better editing, so I’m going to summarise them below for reference.

1) Organise

Create separate bins for everything. Have folders named Sequences, Footage, Sound, Music etc. Name all the files as well if possible – it makes finding things much quicker. Be specific with the names, e.g. include dates, titles, locations, shots etc.

2) Use keyboard shortcuts

I’ve never been a frequent user of keyboard shortcuts before, but since been introduced to them, it’s safe to say that it makes life a hell of a lot easier. Editing is already a time consuming and tedious job, so you don’t need the extra effort of needing to use the mouse to navigate to all the functions. Small tips like using ‘i’ and ‘o’ for clipping source clips and ‘+’ and ‘-‘ for expanding and minimising the timeline make a big difference.

3) Duplicate various versions of sequences

Constantly be creating duplicates of your sequence and keep working on the new one. Have an ‘assemble’ sequence of all the clips  that are going to be used, and then create different versions of the edit in separate sequences. This way there are options to choose from so you can pick the one that works the best, and there’s always a backup of the original if you make a mistake.

4) Have multiple colour grade options

The main thing in editing I’ve learnt is to give yourself options, and this applies to colour grading as well. It’s good to have different versions of the same shot, and to experiment with several tones, contrasts, exposures etc. Also don’t think about colour grading excessively while editing, do it in spurts of two minutes and come back to it later with a clear view.

5) Random notes

  • Top and tail a source clip before you put it into a timeline – this is easier than trimming it when it’s in a sequence
  • Start a sequence around 1 minute in on the timeline to leave room to move things around, otherwise you have to drag everything down every time you move something

yutingxiao

Hello! I'm Jess and I like pizza and marathoning TV shows.

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