Anyone can Make TV

The Camera Never Lies…

2013-09-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

…but it always tells a story!

One of the most powerful storytelling tools you have in movie making is where you put the camera.

This is because, psychologically, you are positioning the audience. You can control how they look at the subject. As humans if we are physically looking up at someone we tend to associate the person we are looking up AT with someone we look up TO. Maybe at some level it reminds us of being children and looking up to our parents for guidance.

When you are making a movie you use your camera position to encourage the audience think (and feel) what you want them to about the subject.

Do you want them to look up at a hero..

Or do you want them to look down on someone..

How the audience looks at the subject – up to someone strong or down on a weak person – depends on where you place the camera.

How you frame the picture, what you include or exclude, what you choose to show in the background give you even more control over what you say with the picture.

There are lots of things you can do to control how your audience thinks about what they are seeing. If you are filming two people do you put the camera far away and zoom in, making them seem very close to each other? Or do you go close with the camera and zoom out to wide angle, creating a space between them?

Why not try out a few different camera angles to see how you can use camera positioning to tell a story about your subjects. Look for what you can emphasize, maybe even what lies you can tell.

And the next time you see a picture on the TV ask yourself; 'Am I being lied to here?'

Disolve or wipe fails

2013-07-17T06:52:00.002-07:00

Issue: Cannot add dissolve or wipe

Transition effect gets error message
There is not enough spare video / audio at the ends of the clip to create a transition such as a disolve

Warning that there is not enough video or audio for transition

Solution:

Set the IN and OUT points for clips on the timeline so that there is at least a few seconds of video / audio beyond the edit point.

Explanation:

Dissolves wipes and other soft cutting effects are created by overlapping two video or audio clips. The overlapping takes place beyond the edit point. When preparing the edit you need to leave enough video / audio for the transition.

NOTE: Watch out for camera cuts near edit points. These can cause unwanted image flashes during transitions.

Other digital video editing issues

Can not capture video for editing

2013-07-17T06:35:00.003-07:00

Issue: Unable to control camcorder or VCR using editing software

Camcorder will not playback in final cut pro / there are no controls on the log and capture window.

This happens if the camera is not connected by firewire, powered on and set to VCR before the log and capture window opens.

Log and capture window missing play controls

Solution:

Close the log and capature window. Connect the camcorder by firewire, power it on and set to VCR reopen the log and capture window.

Explanation:

Final Cut Pro can be used to log clips without a VCR or tape deck attached. You can type timecode IN and OUT points into the boxes, press log clip and give the clip a name. You can then connect the VCR or tape deck and use batch capture to ingest the footage.

Other digital video editing issues

Video editing project lost

2013-07-17T06:28:00.001-07:00

Issue: Editing missing, not saved

Issue: Lost deleted all work / computer has crashed and everything has gone.
This can happen for a number of reasons, such as forgetting to save or unexpected power outages

Restore list from autosave vault

Solution:

Restore the project to the most recent good version.

Explanation:

Final Cut Pro has a feature called the ‘Autosave Vault’ . A backup of each open project is made every thirty minutes. If the project has been re-named or ‘saved as’ these backup copies will not be available from the file menu command. They can be located by opening the folder: > final cut pro documents > autosave vault > project name.fcp (the name before the project was renamed or saved as)
Other digital video editing issues

Missing video or audio in editing

2013-07-17T06:10:00.002-07:00

Issue: Video clips have disappeared

Media Offline
Source audio or video has been moved or deleted. Can also happen where footage has been logged but not yet batch captured.

Media Offline shown by warning screen and red diagonal line through clip in browser.

Solution 1:


Timeline – all source tracks turned off	Timeline – all source tracks turned on

Solution:

Close the gaps between track markers to turn on the source tracks you need for the edit.

Explanation:

The first set of markers [v1 a1 a2] represent the source clip tracks to be brought to the timeline. The second set of markers [v1 v2 v3 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6] represent the target, or timeline, tracks where the video and audio will go when the edit command is pressed.

The source clip markers can be moved to lock to different target tracks. If the source clip track is not locked to a target track then that source track is not used. If no source tracks are locked to target tracks then nothing will happen during an edit operation.

Other digital video editing issues

Common Issues Editing in Final Cut Pro.

2013-07-17T05:24:00.002-07:00

People who are new to digital editing software can come up against a number of problems where things go wrong in a way that seems to make no sense at all.

Below I've listed some of the common ones I've come across, with solutions.

Click on the issue link for examples illustrated using Final Cut Pro 7, and explanations of why the software can behave like that.

Similar issues, and solutions, can be found with other digital editing packages.

Issue: Picture / Sound will not go to the timeline, or clips will not go to the timeline.

Solution: Close the gaps between track markers.

Issue: No picture in the source / timeline viewer

Solution: Set the viewer to display image.

Issue: The picture is not centered on the screen.

Solution: Turn on Image + Wireframe and reposition the image in the correct position. Check that the scale in the motion tab is correct.

Issue: Timeline and Viewer have disappeared / some widows gone

Solution: First press CTRL + U to reset the final cut pro interface to normal. If the timeline, and canvas are still not visible click on the sequence in the browser window.

Issue: Picture / Sound can not be seen / heard on playback

Solution: Re-activate the track by clicking on the film / speaker icon next to the track marker

Issue: Media Offline

Solution 1: Use the Reconnect Media command under the file menu, use search to find the clip.
Solution 2: Reconnect the camera with source tape loaded, set camera to VCR and batch capture.

Issue: Lost deleted all work / computer has crashed and everything has gone.

Solution: Restore the project to the most recent good version.

Issue: Camera will not playback in final cut pro / there are no controls on the log and capture window.

Solution: Connect the camera by firewire, power it on and set to VCR reopen the log and capture window.

Issue: Transition effect gets error message

Solution: Set the IN and OUT points for clips on the timeline so that there is at least a few seconds of video beyond the edit point.

Introduction to Digital Editing

2013-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Digital Editing systems such as Final Cut Pro (FCP) work by copying your video footage from the camcorder, or memory card to the computer hard drive.

You can also import video and audio from other sources such as the web or a DVD (if you are allowed by copyright). If you are using video from the web you may need to first convert it into a format that the editing software can recognize i.e. convert to .mov from use in FCP.

FCP Screen and windows (Other programs such as AVID Media Composer or Adobe Premier have very similar interfaces)

The four main windows are Bins, Viewer, Timeline and Canvas.

Bins and Viewer are ways of looking at your source video and audio.
The bins are where you will find your source video. Depending on how brought the video in it may be in may be one video clip or a series of them. If it is a single video clip you can break it up into subclips to make editing easier.

Click on a clip in the bins and it will appear in the viewer. You can now watch and listen to the clip.

Timeline and Canvas are ways of looking at your edited video and audio.
The timeline shows the clips that male up your edited video in the order in which they appear. While there are many ways to add clips to the timeline the two main methods are:
Insert Editing - where all the later clips are moved down to make room for the new clip.
Overwrite Editing - where video and audio on the timeline is overwritten, or replaced, by the new clip.

Log and Capture

The first step in editing is to Log and Capture your video and audio.

For example to edit footage from a camcorder you would usually connect the camcorder to the computer using a Firewire lead and switch the camcorder to VCR. In Final Cut Pro you would then open the log and capture window. You can now use teh computer to control the camcorder and choose which parts of the video to capture.

Non-destructive editing

Editing software like FCP use non-destructive editing. Your source video and audio is never changed. The computer uses time-code references to the video and audio to make the edits. This makes it easy for you to go back and make changes if something goes wrong.