1. The philosophy of editing images and sound to tell a story.
2. The process of non-linear editing.

We will not spend a lot of time on theory, and several books and articles are suggested as supplements for the philosophy of editing:

1. Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Form and The Film Sense. Link to site seeking to restore one of his films: http://www.quevivamexico.com.
2. V. I. Pudovkin, Film Technique and Film Acting.
3. Reed, Kim. Walter Murch and the Art of Editing. Digital Video, February, 2004 (Accessed on 12/28/2004 at )http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2004/reed0204. You need to register to access the articles at the DV web site. It is free and has no unforseen consequences.
4. Capra, Frank. The Three E’s: Editing, Essence, and Emphasis. Digital Video, June, 2003 (Accessed on 12/28/2004 at )http://www.dv.com/columns/columns_item.jhtml?category=Postmodern+Post&LookupId=/xml/feature/2003/capria0603&_requestid=287741.

1. Creating files of digital pictures and audio.
2. Storyboarding to arrange images and sounds in a desired order (Editing).
3. Trimming and adjusting individual visual and audio segments (Editing).
4. Fine tuning the movie with transitions, titles, still images, and music (Essence and Emphasis).
5. Producing a distributable product.

1. Editing Examples - Five movies we will use to illustrate various approaches.
2. Lighthouse Clips - Thirty clips for you to use to create your own “visit to a lighthouse“ movie. This is provided so you can practice with the ideas presented during the workshop.
3. Audio Clips - Add music and sounds to your lighthouse movie.

What are your expectations for today? I want to know your expectations and we will decide which of them can be met today.


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There are five example movies on the CD. These can stimulate your thoughts about converting a bunch of shots into a movie.


1. Point Reyes Lighthouse - A travelogue that tells a story.
2. Book Signing - An event.
3. In and Out of Focus - A music video
4. Kuwait Profile - Another travelogue without an obvious story unless you know the context.
5. Interview with Lari Benetiz - A narrative film with dialog.

We are using Microsoft Movie Maker 2 for today’s workshop and step-by-step help is available. The example project file is on the CD (editing examples\HAL-PC workshop sample.MSWMM). When you open the project, you may need to re-link the source files.

Step 1: Creating Digital Files


1. Connecting a DV camera via a firewire interface to a laptop running Windows XP.
2. Looking at the live video in Windows Explorer.
3. Importing video from DV tape to the hard drive using Microsoft Movie Maker (MM).

Step 2: Storyboard


1. Introduction to the Storyboard Activity.
2. We will have a quick overview of the 30 clips on the CD.
3. Each person will use the paper set of stills and create a storyboard of their own.

------------------------------- We will take a break about here ----------------------------

Step 3: Trimming and Adjusting


1. Demonstration of how to select clips from the bins/folders/library.
2. Dragging clips to the timeline.
3. Trim each clip to the desired length.
4. Transitions - cut, dissolve (crossfade, fade in MM), fade-in & fade-out (right click for these).
5. Adjusting audio and color balance.

Step 4: Fine Tuning


1. We did initial transitions above, but we can adjust as we go along.
2. Titles (use the “fade-in, pause, fade-out” option).
3. Still images.
4. Music.
5. Sound effects (Only one additional audio track available in MM).

Step 5: Distribution


1. Recording back to tape.
2. Converting to MPEG2 and making a DVD to show on a TV. DVD+R works well.
3. Converting to AVI, WMV, MOV, MPEG1 and making a CD to show on a computer.
4. Converting to streaming formats, e.g., Real RM files for web viewing. Also, SMIL files - http://libvid.utmb.edu/smi.

New Topics?


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Questions?



Issues?

• Movie Maker - A simple editing program that is standard on Windows XP and there is a free downloadable version for Windows ME. This web site has a number of resources for editing, as well as, updates to the program: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx.
  
  
• Ulead VideoStudio and MediaStudio Pro - VideoStudio is a low end editing program ($100). It works quite well and has a number of limitations when you want to do more. Within its tool set however, it works very well - http://www.ulead.com/vs. MediaStudio Pro is a higher level application with a number of video tools included ($300). I used it several years ago for a number of projects and it was very capable. More info - http://www.ulead.com/msp.
  
  
• Adobe Premiere Pro - Middle of the road editing software ($500). Used by hobbyists and professionals - http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere. I don’t like premiere as I find it is has too many options and features. My son, who is an editor and works at a high end post facility, likes Premiere a lot.
  
  
• Avid Free DV - A free, limited feature version of Avid’s editing software. I have had very limited experience. Other versions from $700 for Xpress. http://www.avid.com/freedv.
  
  
• In-Sync Blade and Speed Razor – I’ve used this for years. The company has gone out of business.
  
  
• Scenalyzer - DV input and organizing tool. Does scene detection. http://scenalyzer.com.
  
  
• Canopus ADVC-100 - Converts analog-to-digital and vice versa in real time. Firewire input and output. Very good DV codec and very flexible ($250). I recommend converting everything to DV. Windows XP computers can handle DV just fine and it’s very good quality. Use any Firewire card for input. They also make editing software; Edius Pro 3.0: http://www.canopus.us/US/products/EDIUSPro3/pm_EDIUSPro3.asp.
  
  
• Maxtor 5000DV portable hard drives - These have both USB2 and Firewire I/O - Capacity keeps growing and cost keeps coming down. Designed for DV video files. Currently 160GB costs about $225 and holds about 12 hours of DV formatted files. You can also make your own external drives with an ATA drive and a USB interface cable, for example see: http://www.newegg.com. Search for: USB TO IDE ADAPTER CABLE
  
  
• Canopus Let's CONVERT - One-click Tape-to-DVD-Video Transfer Software. Archive DV videotapes to hard disk as MPEG files, or burn to CDs and DVDs. Untried, but seems like a good idea. See: http://www.canopus.us/US/products/Lets_CONVERT/pm_lets_CONVERT.asp.
  
  
• In general, you can edit video quite well by getting a new Dell Dimension 3000 with a Pentium 4 processor (2.8GHz), Windows XP, 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive, Firewire ports, and DVD+RW drive for under $900 (w/o monitor). Use any software only editing product. An Apple G5 with Final Cut Express or Pro costs more, looks very cool, and works just fine too.
  
  

• A camera recommendation: Sony DCR PC350 MiniDV camcorder.

• Currently I'm using a Dell Precision 670 Workstation with dual Xeon 2.8GHz processors and 1GB of RAM. Video is stored on external Medea SCSI RAID arrays. I have a Canopus NX for HDV boardset installed and use Edius Pro editing software.