Editing as an Art Form- Style and Story

Class Requirements

This class requires that students purchase the book Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Classroom In a Book by Adobe Creative Team (Official training workbook from Adobe Systems) prior to the next class. BE SURE YOU HAVE THE BOOK AND HAVE INSTALLED THE VIDEO FILES BEFORE YOU START UNIT 3.

Once you have your book, transfer (download) the video files. If you buy the regular version of the book it will include a DVD containing the video files you will need for the course. If you purchase the Kindle (or other online) version, it will include a link to download the video files.

NOTE:  If you are downloading the video asset files rather than transferring them from the DvD included with the paperback version of the book, you will need to register your book online, go to the  Registered Products  tab, click on  Access Bonus Content , and then download all the files.  The current version has a download link for  Lesson Files  as well as sixteen (16)  Assets  file links – or possibly more, since they seem to keep adding assets files! You need to download  all of these  and then  organize them on your hard drive as indicated on the Peachpit Downloads Page!  (Yes, it’s probably a lot simpler if you buy the book and just copy everything from the DvD disc — the files on the DvD are already organized, so if transferring from the DvD there is no additional file organization step needed.)

You should also take this week to buy and install the Adobe Premiere Pro Software if you have not already done so. You may want to go ahead and install and open the program in order to familiarize yourself with the interface. More information can be found on the syllabus.

Next week’s class will introduce the editing basics of the software. Take this week to download and install the software and copy (/download) the media files so that your computer is already prepared when you begin Unit 3 next week!

Editing Tools

The process of editing has changed drastically since the beginning of filmmaking. The example films discussed in Unit 1 were edited using quite a different system than we use today. Before digital filmmaking was possible, all movies were shot on film. The film was literally cut into pieces and taped back together. So at one time it was very important to be sure of an edit before it was made. Each individual edit was a process and therefore a specific choice.

With the advent of digital editing platforms, or Non Linear Editing Systems (NLE), it is now much easier for editors to make an endless amount of changes to a film and always be able to revert back to the original clips. It is very easy to take for granted the incredible ability that non linear editing offers filmmakers today. But it is important to understand the changes that have occurred within the editing industry in order to more accurately analyze films from a variety of time periods.

As mentioned above, in this class we will be editing with Adobe Premiere Pro. With this program, as with many other non linear editing systems, you have the ability to not only edit a film, but to also achieve a certain level of audio editing and mixing, titling, color correction and even some minor visual effects.