Video Editing Tips

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Playback Speed - this is one feature of a video editing program that is most likely to be neglected and unappreciated. Yet it remains to be one of the coolest feature in a program. Playback Speed enables you to control and manipulate the speed of a video clip. It has many purposes in a movie if used creatively. It can add drama to a scene when you slow down the speed. Sort of a “slow-mo” effect. It can be humorous also if its set at a faster speed. It can also give you added flexibility to fit a specific video clip into a frame. Just like when you are doing a music video wherein you have to sync the drummer to play exactly in tune with the video. You will just have to pay close attention to the audio when you manipulate the speed.

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If video editing sounds like an appealing job, there are a few stuffs you must bear in mind and learn before you take your first steps into the field:

The first thing to consider before you get on on your video editing career is training. Across the country there are a variety of schools and universities that have curriculums which focuses on enhancing one’s video editing techniques and skills. These courses are proposed to teach students the proper usage and application of a number of different digital video editing programs.

The next thing to remember is to make professional business connections. Broadcasting, whether it is in film, television or radio is all about who you know. It’s intricate to make a name for you in any professional field, and it’s especially true in the field of broadcasting. Due to the fact that film and video editing jobs rely deeply on the principles of what you know and how well you can adjust to new programs and techniques, entry level jobs are few and far between.

The final piece of advice is that don’t be afraid of experimenting with new techniques. If all editors followed the alike guide for creating a film, the industry would never progress.It is important to take risks at times and try to include the technology and your own skill in a way which that have not been done previous to.

Ask any professional videographer and they would always tell you that for a 2-hour length of processed video, they would have taken more than twice that and from all the best angles. Also, most videographer work in teams from two to more depending on the price for they allow the coverage of events from all angles, a relevant and important shot may suddenly have the subjects move in a way that the view of one camera is obscured with another to take over giving the shot continuity. You can overcome this by combining video with still shots as fill in’s to prevent gaps or jumps from scene to scene and venue to venue. There should also be a lot of shots of the background and venues well before the event for not even the celebrants get to see the in their full splendor.

New generations of computers will make editing of audio and video very much easier with more processing power and at much faster speeds. The release of multi-core microprocessors will increase editing considerably along with a proposed release of a new type of memory module which has already been announced by Intel. These along with better video capture technology that already has built-in video capability is making it easier for all of us to edit, copy and convert our precious memories for future generations to enjoy. The advent of High Definition Video and Television sets make for one very visual rich video. Digital video camcorders are also becoming standard as the Hi8 system (digital 8mm) enters its last breaths.

There are a lot of factors that have to be satisfied from which none is actually accomplished but satisfying most will result in a decent length of film. Do plan ahead for the planning allows you to get to know the area and gets you to find the best places to take shots from. It might not have anything to do with editing but it sure helps with the amount of material you need for that perfectly edited video. If you are going to film solemn moments like baptisms, weddings and other formal activities, do plan to go to the venue so you can familiarize yourself with the person who is in charge (priest, rabbi….) so you get to introduce yourself. Try to establish a rapport so you get to ask the do’s and don’ts of the ceremony. You get to show respect and are allowed to film during the event itself without getting thrown out as a nuisance.

Now that you’ve decided to do your editing, it would be nice to know a little of the facts so you get the overall picture in terms of Video processing and the required space you need on your hard drive. Digital Video runs at a bitrates of around 3.5 megabytes per second so your input feed requires:

2 hours * 3600seconds/hour * 3.5 megabytes per second = more or less 25 Gigabytes.

You would also need to store your final MPEG-2 files on your hard disk before you burn them onto DVD’s and DVD’s typically have a 4.5 Megabit/sec bit rate for video and 0.4 Megabits/sec which sums up to :

4.5 Mbit/sec + 0.5 Mbit/sec = 5 Mbit/sec translating to 0.625 Mbytes/sec
2*3600*0.625= 4.5 Gigabytes

So 30 Gigabytes of hard disk space is needed for editing two hours of Digital Video and the subsequent DVD burning process and that is a lot.