Editing: “A Dummies Guide To…”

It’s all about my film education at the moment – and I’m not talking about college courses or uni! Educating yourself on the art and process of film making can at times be very gratifying and at others frustrating.

The more I pick up the camera and film stuff, the more I learn. Usually picking up handy tips from the various mistakes I’ll make each time. The same can be said for scriptwriting – the more I write, the better I’ll get. I’ll now spend time on a treatment for the film idea before jumping in the deep 1st draft end of the pool.

I have to say, the film education is going extremely well. I’m reading lots (internet, books etc) and trying to find answers to the many technical questions I have before moving onto the next hurdle. The idea is for me to discover as much as I possibly can about the movie making process during my first year. This’ll put me in a much better position for filming my fist short movie project later in the year.

I’ve been spending lots of time recently editing corporate videos. A friend of mine gave me Pinnacle Liquid 6 (the professional kit) some time ago and so I’m getting to grips with all its functions. It’s a really good piece of software and will be a great platform from which to pick up some much needed editing experience. Already, it’s given me a much better appreciation for getting the best shots during production. The cut away shots are extremely handy to get you out of difficult spots.

The only problem I’ve got is the compression issues when digitising and exporting to DVD and other files. The world of ‘uncompressed YUV’, ‘MPEG’, ‘DV’ and various other codecs is still new to me and taking me some time to get my head around as there doesn’t seem to be any rules or standards for what type of codec to use etc. I want to take the footage from my Canon XL1 to my PC via Firewire, then edit and export to DVD without ANY drop in quality.
Frustrating at times when all you want to do is press REC on the camera and make a movie! Patience is a virtue as they say, and I trust what they say.

P.S If you do have any advice on using the Pinnacle Liquid software – please do get in touch.