Edit to the Maxx - The Art of the Digital Cut - Part 10

by Steve Mullen

Published on Sep 29, 2006 2:00 PM
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Edit to the Maxx is a semi-monthly introductory course in video editing, aimed at beginners. We use a free, downloadable software program. This column appears every other Wednesday.

In this Lesson, we will learn how to carryout two more editing tasks. Both are ways of inserting clips into a Timeline.

Enter Extract/Splice-in mode by clicking the yellow Segment: Extract/Splice-in button at the bottom of the Timeline. The button will turn silver. Please stay in this mode unless I tell you to switch modes

Task 3: Insert Monaural Audio into Track A1

Many productions consist of audio, often narration, to which video is later added. Begin by inserting these audio clips into the A1 Track. You will place the video clips in V1 above of the audio in A1. Optionally, you will place video clips in V2 above V1. You may later place audio clips into Track A2 below the audio in A1.
One Source (A1) should automatically be selected (silver). One Record (A1) Selector is made active by clicking on it. It will turn to silver. All other Source and Record Selectors are made inactive by clicking on them. Their color should be gray.
 
Click the yellow Splice-in button between the Composer windows to insert the clip into the Timeline.
Task 4: Insert Stereo Audio into Tracks A1 and A2
When you want to create a music video, you will want the stereo audio to be inserted into Tracks A1 and A2. Likewise, when you add music segments to a video, you likely will want them to be stereo.
When you use both audio tracks for stereo, Free DV will not support any other audio playing at the same time. (Yes, Free DV should have at least three audio tracks.)
Latter, you will place the video clips into Tracks V1, and optionally into V2, on top of the music in A1 and A2.
Two Source (A1 and A2) should automatically be selected (silver). Two Record (A1 and A2) Selectors are made active by clicking on them. Their color will turn to silver. All other Source and Record Selectors are made inactive by clicking on them. Their color should be gray.
 
Click the yellow Splice-in button between the Composer windows to insert the clip into the Timeline.
Task 5: Insert Video and Stereo Audio into Tracks V1, A1 and A2
When you are working with video that has stereo sync audio, you begin by inserting these clips into V1, A1, and A2. You may later place video clips into Track V2 above the video in V1.
When you use both audio tracks for stereo, Free DV will not support any other audio playing at the same time.
Three Source (V1, A1 and A2) should automatically be selected (silver). Three Record (V1, A1 and A2) Selectors are made active by clicking on them. Their color will turn from gray to silver. All other Source and Record Selectors are made inactive by clicking on them. Their color should be gray.
 
Now, click the yellow Splice-in button between the Composer windows to insert the clip into the Timeline.
In a future Lesson, we will learn how the two tracks available in Free DV can carry audio from more than two tracks. The result will be a monaural audio track.
Drag Video to the Timeline
There are two alternate ways to insert a clip into a Timeline:
·      Drag the Source Composer image and drop it past the end of the last clip in the Timeline. (You will see an outline of a frame appear.) Double-click an even numbered clip into the Source monitor and then drag it into the Timeline. Because you fine trimmed the even numbered clips, you will not need to trim this clip.
·      Drag the clip from a Bin and drop it past the end of the last clip in the Timeline. Drag an even numbered clip from a Bin into the Timeline. (You will see an outline of a frame appear.) This technique is ideal when you have already trimmed the clip to perfection.
Insert a Clip between Clips
·      Double-click a clip into the Source monitor. Trim if necessary.
·      Set the Source and Recorder Path Selectors as appropriate. All other Source and Record Selectors are made inactive by clicking on them. Their color will turn to gray.
·      Select the junction (“cut-point”) between two clips by beginning a lasso drag. The left-to-right lasso must start outside the Timeline tracks.
 
·      Click the yellow Splice-in button between the Composer windows to insert the clip into the Timeline.
As you can learned in the previous sections, there are many times you’ll need to create a Sequence from clips that you have not captured. To obtain these clips, you’ll need to Import them.
Importing Audio under OS X
Many times you’ll want to add music to your production from a CD. That means the clip you double-click into the Source monitor will come from a CD you own.
Follow these steps, under OS X, to import music or sound clip(s).
1.            You may want to create a new Bin to hold imported audio.
2.            Click in the Bin that you want to hold the music or sound clip(s).
3.            Load your CD into the CD-ROM drive. Close iTunes if it opens.
4.            Double-click the CD to open it.
5.            Drag your selection(s) to the Desktop.
6.            Issue the File > Import… command.
7.            Set Enable: Audio Documents or Any Documents.
8.            Navigate to the Desktop and select the file(s) you need.
 
9.            Click the Options button.
10.        Click the Audio tab.
 
11.        Confirm “Convert source sample rate to project sample rate on import” is selected.
12.        Click OK.
13.        Click Open.
14.        The CD audio will, during import, be converted from 44.1kHz to 48kHz audio. In most cases it will be stereo audio. In the Bin, it will receive an icon.
 
Now double-click the music icon and it will open in the source monitor. You can trim it if you need to.
Importing Audio under Windows
Follow these steps to import music or sound clip(s).
1.            You may want to create a new Bin to hold imported audio.
2.            Click in the Bin that you want to hold the music or sound clip(s).
3.            Load your CD into the CD-ROM drive. Close any Player program that opens.
4.            Issue the File > Import… command.
5.            Set Enable: Audio or Any.
6.            Navigate to the CD and select the track you need.
7.            Click the Options button.
8.            Click the Audio tab.
 
9.            Confirm “Convert source sample rate to project sample rate on import” is selected.
10.        Click OK.
11.        Click Open.
12.        The CD audio will, during import, be converted from 44.1kHz to 48kHz audio. In most cases it will be stereo audio. In the Bin, it will receive an icon.
 
Importing Video into OS X or Windows
There will be times when you will need to import video than was captured or created in another application. When this situation arises, follow these stepsto import video clip(s).
1.            You may want to create a new Bin to hold imported video.
2.            Click in the Bin that you want to hold the clip(s).
3.            Issue the File > Import… command.
4.            Set Enable: [Any] or .
5.            Navigate to the file and select it.
 
6.            Click the Options button.
 
7.            When importing DV, confirm “601, non-square” is selected.
8.            When importing DV, confirm “Lower (Even Field First)” is selected.
9.            When importing video, confirm “601” is selected.
10.        Click OK.
11.        Click Open.
12.        The import can take a long time if the file must be converted to OMF (Open Media Format). In the Bin, it will receive a picon.
Play the Sequence
After inserting a bunch of clips into the Timeline, drag the Blue Position Indicator fully to the left to the beginning of the Timeline. 
In the Record monitor, you will see the frame under the Blue Position Indicator. Press the spacebar to start the clip playing. To stop clip playback, press the spacebar.
Creating a Finished Production
Obviously, you do not have a production anywhere near finished. Nevertheless, here is what you will do when you have edited all the Sequences in your production.
·      Single-click the Sequences Bin (e.g., Thaipusam Sequences Bin) to open it into the SuperBin.
·      Create a Master Sequence in this Bin by Clip > New Sequence. Name it for your Project, e.g., Thaipusam Sequence.
·      Drag all your finished Sequences into its Timeline in the desired order. This is where the advantages of creating each scene as a Sequence comes into play. You already know each scene looks right and it is safely contained within a Sequence. If the scene order needs to be changed, you only need rearrange the scenes in the Master Sequence.
·      When you are satisfied with how the scenes play in your Master Sequence, you may need to add audio to this Sequence. This will be audio that continues across scenes. Examples are music and narration.
The Master Timeline is the Sequence you will export to tape or DVD.
In the next Lesson, we will continue to learn how to edit a Timeline.

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Steve Mullen owns Digital Video Consulting located in Las Vegas. DVC has been supporting videographers for over a decade with seminars, consulting, training, and tutorials. A Contributing Editor for Video Systems for many years, he has also written for A/V Video, Camcorder, DV, Etown, millimeter, The Perfect Vision, Video Pro, and Video Review. Steve taught at Rutgers University and the University of the Arts, and most recently has published two eBooks: the Sony HDV Production Guide and the JVC ProHD Production Guide.