Editing Lesson Blog

Today our class learned the ways we checkout, check in, use, and edit with the cameras for our commercial. I found this to be a very lengthy process and realized how tedious it is to keep the order and ensure nothing is lost or broken. It was very specific in the steps taken for each action and what to do when working with partners in this process. For checking out the cameras we were told we needed to pick up one of the white slips in the cubby at the front of the classroom and fill it out with all of the needed information to them be able to check out equipment. Then on the same white slip to put the number of each piece of equipment we have that is subject to change each time we check out. Once you check it out you then have one day to use it and it’s due the day after. For example if it’s wednesday the camera and equipment is due back thursday rather than friday when the next class would be. Checking back in the equipment requires you to dump the footage from the sd card on the camera into your computer to then be able to edit it. All of our filming  must be done in one day and our editing has to be done in one day.

For the actual filming and use of the camera there are different ways to set it up and ways to ensure we use it properly. For example to charge the camera the screen on the side has to be closed so that the camera is turned off when charging. As well as, when starting to record the silver button is what starts and stops the camera rolling. We were given the tip to start filming a little bit before the actual take with the background movement so that when you start the actors it’s not caught on camera. As well as when finishing go a little long on the cottage so when editing you have space to edit out or keep some of the before and after. The set up on the camera is also very important as it catches the angles and what portrays the feeling of the takes. With the tripod we can increase the height and angle  of the camera or keep it stable depending on what shots we want and what’s happening in the scene. For my group we decided to use my iphone 11 pro and it’s camera quality is similar to that of the camera and doesn’t require us to pay a large amount of money if it’s damaged. In there we encountered the issue of the tripod as we felt it would be a good use for filing but we’re told there are adaptors for phones onto tripods which then solved our problem and led us to figure out the editing process.

For editing we were taught how to use pinnacle studios. Before actually editing out footage we need to dump and import it. The dumping was what I talked about earlier which we have to do before returning the camera. Dumping just takes footage from the camera and puts it on the computer to then transfer into pinnacle studios. After dumping we need to import the footage into pinnacle studios itself. After opening pinnacle studios software we need to select the editing option at the top of the screen to then click import on the top right of the screen. After that a page will pop up where we then have to click the plus sign next to desktop click on a folder that we previously created when dumping the footage and then select only the footage you want to edit. Once there the footage it ready to be edited and used however there are certain tracks for each aspect being added to the footage. For example, AV track 1 is for titles AV track 2 is for the raw footage itself and AV track 3 is for sound like music voiceovers etc. Adding and removing sound is most important for our group as we will be using voiceovers and following that with some effects which can all be added and enhanced in pinnacle studios.