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Video Editing Resources

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Digital Video Editing

Digital video editing has revolutionized the video production world. Transitions and effects that used to take painful hours now take seconds. Video clips can now be shot, organized and outputted to VHS or DVD within minutes. In fact, one of the biggest downfalls to digital video editing is that it is just that -- it's too easy. Now, anyone with basic digital video editing equipment can make a movie. The problem is that there are certain key concepts to video editing that have been around way before the first digital video camera hit the market that define what makes a quality movie. Simply pointing and shooting, followed by dumping in a 101 cheesy transitions on your fancy new computer does not make the movie a success. This section will describe how to turn a series of videos into a work of art.

Cropping

RULE OF THIRDS
Just like in photography, try to visualize a tic-tac-toe board that divides the screen into thirds and try to place your subject where two of the lines cross.
HEAD ROOM
Make sure the subjects eyes are placed in the top third of the frame.

BAD

GOOD
LEAD ROOM
Make sure to leave movement room in front of your subject. Without it, the subject looks like they are running into a wall.

BAD

GOOD
LOOK ROOM
Make sure to give room for your subject to look off the page. If you crop too close to the front of someone's face the picture looks unnatural.

BAD


GOOD

Subject Distance

The distance you place your subject from the camera dramatically affects your shot. If the further away your subject is, the more emphasis is placed on the background(and the harder it is to hear them without a microphone!) The closer the subject, the more emphasis you place on the subject and their expressions.


LONG SHOT

FULL SHOT

THREE-QUARTER SHOT

MEDIUM(WAIST) SHOT

CLOSE UP


EXTREME CLOSE UP

 

Storyboards

Storyboards are visual representations that identify key video shots, the script and the special technical instructions needed for a movie. You should always complete a storyboard before you ever pick up a camera. This will keep you from loosing focus when it comes time to shoot the video footage.

Project 1: Planning a Storyboard
Complete a storyboard for a 1 minute news commercial based on the theme "Good Things Happen to Good People". For all the details, view the Adobe Acrobat filerubric and/or the Adobe Acrobat filestoryboard planning sheet.

More Projects
 

Project 2: News Intro
Create a 20 second introduction clip that will be played every day to introduce the school's morning news. Observe news programs on TV to get ideas. View the Adobe Acrobat filerubric for more details. Test out your video editing software and experiment with effects such as slow motion, fast motion and transitions.

Project 3: Dream Sequence
Create a one minute or less long commercial for taking academics seriously at your school. Include a dream sequence or "flash back" to a future or past time. Make sure to use appropriate effects to connotate the different times(ex. sepia tone for old times). Make sure to use a storyboard and turn it in along with your Adobe Acrobat fileRubric!

Project 4: Syncing with Sound Adobe Acrobat fileRubic
Sports Music Video: Create a one minute or less commercial for sports at your school. Use no less than 10 video clips. Select a music track (or video)that is energetic and drives the movie. Make your video clips change along with the refrain and chorus of the music. This gives your movie a more dramatic effect. Do not use any software transitions. The idea is to keep hitting the viewer with new, exciting clips that will get them excited about your sports program. If you are using footage from a music video, switch back and forth between the original video footage and your sports footage, but make sure that the artists lips are synced with the music--that's the tricky part! Do this by making sure that the school video clips are the exact same length as the music video clip you are replacing.

News Interview: Create a one minute or less interview segment for the school news. Interview a student or teacher, asking several(about 5) questions that will require a long answer("Yes", "No", or "I don't know" answers won't work). Tape the interview without stopping the camera. Then tape several seconds of another scene that shows what the interviewee was talking about. On your editing program, extract the sound from your interview and break the interview video track into several segments. Now, break your 2nd scene into clips that are about the same size as the interview clips you are going to replace. Then swap the clips for a professional news interview feel!

Instructional Video: Create a one minute or less instructional "How-to" video on how to do something. Include a dubbed voice that continues to explain the process while showing a demonstration. You must bounce back and forth between a reportorial camera angle of the person explaining the scene and showing the action of the scene. Examples of topics could be:

    • Cafeteria etiquette
    • Using the library
    • Being a good friend
    • Showing character
    • Appreciating diversity(all races, cultures and beliefs)
    • Taking good notes
    • Preparing for a test
    • Standing up for what's right
    • Being respectful to those of the opposite sex

Project 5: Parody in Paradise
Create a one minute long commercial for the school store, library, a school club or organization, or a good book or class in which you parody a commercial that you have seen on tv.

Project 6: Interview Shots & Sound Advice Adobe Acrobat filescoring rubric
Interview one student or teacher at school and make sure to using at least five of the interviewing shots. Make sure to complete a Adobe Acrobat filestoryboard showing the angles beforehand as well as write 10-12 good questions and be familiar with them.

Establishing shot
Over the shoulder
Reverse

Insert
And insert is a cut to a more detailed view of something that was already in the video.
Cut Away
A cut away is a type of in-camera transition(see above) that infers the next scene.
Point of View(POV)
A POV shot is made to look like the viewer is the person conducting the interview.

Project 7: Aliens have landed! - Camera Angles
Create a movie based on a cheesy alien abduction scene where you use two aluminum pie plates attached together and some string to serve as a makeshift flying saucer. Show perspective/scale by holding the ship close to the camera and placing the "abductee" far away from the camera. This will make the ship look proportionately big. Use a cross-dissolve transition on the computer to create the "beaming up" effect by getting a shot of someone standing in front of something and looking up with a scaredy-cat face. Then hold the camera perfectly sill and get that same background shot without the person standing there. By cross-dissolving between those two shots the person will appear to disappear or "beam up." You also must show at least four different camera angles.

Make sure to complete a Adobe Acrobat filestoryboard showing the angles beforehand as well as write 10-12 good questions and be familiar with them.

Themes

Theme Project: School Safety Mini-movie

Create a one minute school safety video that contains four scenes. Each scene should represent one aspect of school safety(Ex. hallway conduct, avoiding a fight, reporting suspicious activity). In between each scene, use an in-camera transition of your choice. But use each transition only once! Use a theme to further reinforce your movie. Choose a theme such as:

  • Solving the mystery of...
  • James Bond
  • Super Hero
  • The Crocodile Stalker
  • Documentary
  • Conspiracy
  • Valley-girl to the rescue

Make sure to plan out your scenes and transitions well with a storyboard before you start! Turn that in along with the rubric for this assignment.

A theme is a novel idea or concept that reappears throughout your movie. Themes create consistency and makes your movie more interesting and easy to follow for the viewer. A theme should support your topic. For example, you may want to use the theme "Though My Eyes" for a video segment on a day in the life of a student. Show lots of subjective video shots that appear to be what that student may see as he/she walks down the hall, eats lunch, plays basketball in gym, etc. Use music and effects that compliment your theme as well.

In-Camera Transitions
(click on links below for an example of each)

In-camera transitions tie two different scenes together by using a common element in the video. These transitions may be enhanced by computer software transitions, but do not need them.

  1. Common Color
    • Use a two different objects that are the same color to tie together two scenes.
  2. Match Motion
    • Use a similar movement to tie two different scenes together.
  3. Common Shapes
    • Use a common object or shape to tie different scenes together. What object is used in the example video?
  4. Cutaways
    • Imply the next scene. For example, show someone working frantically trying to meet a deadline and then have them glance up. The next scene could start with a shot of a clock.
  5. Front to Back
    • Capture the subject moving towards the camera and then pick up with the same subject moving away from the camera, but now they may be in a different place.
 
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