Edit to the Maxx - The Art of the Digital Cut - Part 6 by Steve Mullen Published on Aug 3, 2006 9:00 AM

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.

Logging Your Footage
The first editing step is logging all your source materials. Having said that, we often skip this process because we are sure we already know what we’ve shot. And, many times, we do “know.” Nevertheless, we really need to see and hear our material to understand:

1. What we really have
2. What we are missing
3. What our best shots are
4. What shots have problems and can’t be used

Thus, we really do need to log our video and audio. Moreover, as we log our material, we automatically begin to see ways we can put our shots together to form scenes. We also see how the scenes can be sequenced to create a production. In short, we are already editing.

Tape Logging
In the professional world, logging is the process of looking and listening to all source material and making detailed notes. This can be done while watching the original tape (not a good idea), a clone of the original that has identical timecode (possible with some pro DV equipment), or a DV, VHS, or DVD copy. In the latter three cases, the copy is made with the camcorder’s Timecode Display turned-on. Therefore, visible timecode will be “burned” into the copy.

In the professional world, an assistant makes notes and writes down the displayed timecode. For example, “at 0:15:30 Bill pick’s his nose. Shot’s no good.” Based on these notes the director asks for certain shots to be captured to tape. Chances are, you’ll be doing all this yourself, unless you can swing your own assistant.

IN-POINT	OUT-POINT	DURATION	COMMENT	GOOD?
0:00:00:00	0:00:14:08	0:00:14:09	Bill gets out of car	Yes
0:00:14:09	0:00:20:00	0:00:06:21	Bill pick’s his nose	No
0:00:20:01	0:00:37:20	0:00:17:20	Bill knocks on door	Yes

Example of a footage log

In Lesson 4, you learned how to capture specific shots from a tape. As you were watching the tape to decide what to capture, you were logging the tape. You can even enter a comment in the Record tool’s Cmnt. box as you capture each clip. (Enter the comment before clicking the Record button.)

You could be forgiven for asking, “Why, given the near-automatic capture technique we learned in Lesson 5, are you telling us more about using the most labor intensive techniques?” Good question. Here’s why.

Capture Methods
Let’s quickly review the four capture methods:

Method 1—Immediate Capture (read column)
This is the simplest technique and is typically used as the first step of Method 4. However, it can be used any time you want to capture some material from a tape.

Method 2—Capture Segment (read column)
This technique can also be used as the first step of Method 4. For example, the first third of the tape contains video you shot in Boston, the middle third has your New York video, and the last third has footage from D.C. You want only the New York video. Obviously, marking the beginning and end of the New York material is the optimal capture technique.

Method 3—Capture Multiple Segments (read column)
This most labor intensive method has many uses:
•    You have shot 20 hours of video, but only have storage for 10 hours in a 160GB drive. You know that at least half the video you shot is not good enough to make the final cut. Solution? Capture just the good stuff.
•    You are editing a tape shot by someone who simply let the camera run between shots.
•    You were in a situation that was so chaotic you had to let the camera run.
•    You have a DV tape that is a copy of a VHS tape or film you had transferred to DV. This tape will have no time breaks, so Method 4 cannot be used.

Method 4—Scene Detect (read column)
Using this method, we captured a long Master clip and then automatically had this clip divided into subclips. We will talk more about working with subclips in the next Lesson when we learn about clip Trimming.

Master Clip Logging
In Lesson 2 (Method 1) and Lesson 3 (Method 2) we captured long segments of video with each segment containing multiple shots. A clip with multiple shots is called a Master clip. Let’s log the shots contained in the Master clip we captured in Lesson 3.

Issue the Toolset > Source/Record Editing command. The screen will rearrange itself with two new windows appearing. The upper window is the dual monitor window. The Source Monitor is on the left and the Record Monitor is on the right. The Record Timeline is at the bottom of the screen. If your arrangement does not look like the image below, drag the windows until it does.

Single-click the Lesson 3 Bin in the Project window.

Double-click the Lesson 3 Bin.01 clip in the Bin. The clip will open in the Source monitor.

There are multiple ways to look at the source material in a clip. The fastest is to drag the Source Monitor’s blue Time Cursor right or left to see what the clip contains. (The cursor is in the Record Timeline just below the image.)

Avid’s keyboard-driven j k l Shuttle control is another fast way to look at a clip’s contents:

j      Reverse (each press increases speed)
k     Stop
l      Forward (each press increases speed)

To Jog (step frame-by-frame) to a specific frame, use the left- and right-arrow keys. Alternately, click the Step Backward button and the Step Forward button.

Engage the caps lock and you will be able to hear (scrub) audio when using the left- and right-arrow keys or the Step Backward and Step Forward buttons.

As you will remember, there are four shots in this Master clip. We want to locate each shot and make it a subclip:
•    Using the controls described above, locate the beginning of the first shot.
•    Click the Source Mark Clip button
•    Locate the end of the first shot
•    Click Source Mark Out button

Here are some additional commands you can use for logging and trimming:
• spacebar toggles Play/Pause
•    If the entire Clip is useful, click the Source Mark Clip button
•    Press 6 to Play-in-to-Out after you have set in- and out-points
•    Press q to GOTO the in-point
•    Press w to GOTO the out-point
•    To clear in- and out-points, click the Source Clear Both Marks button, or press g.
•    To place a Mark in the video segment, click the red Source Add Locator button.

Marks can be used to call attention to something (for example, a horn honk that must be removed during editing).

You can either define the entire shot, or define that portion of the shot that you think you plan to use. In the latter case you are “trimming” the shot. More about trimming in the next lesson.

If you see that the shot has no value, simply move on to the next shot.

To create a subclip of the material between an in-point and an out-point; drag the image from the Source monitor window to a Bin while pressing down the [Alt] or key. It will automatically be named Lesson 3 Bin.01.Sub.01.

Subclips are not directly linked source media. Each is linked to their Master clip. Each master clip, in turn, is linked to the captured media files. Therefore, you can delete a subclip without losing any original footage.

For the remaining three shots in the Master clip, repeat this process.

In the next lesson, we will enter the next phase of the editing process as we trim the subclips you have waiting in a Bin. You did do your assignment, didn’t you? If you did not, here it is again.

Shoot 15 minutes of video. After each shot is recorded, be sure to wait 5 seconds and press Pause. Begin recording 5 seconds before the action starts. These 5-second segments are called “handles” and they give you some extra footage before and after each shot.

If you start recording and realize the shot is not what you want, do not keep shooting until the action starts again. Press Pause, and then when ready, press Pause again to start recording. You will easily be able to find and discard the “no good” shot.

Capture this tape into a Bin with a short name. Then use Scene Detect to fill the Bin with subclips.

This Week's Shooting Tip
Good audio recording is an art, and could certainly fill its own column, as well as books, of advice. For the moment, here’s a few tips for getting better sound.

The microphones built into consumer camcorders are generally of a mediocre to downright poor quality. Stop by your local electronics store and pick up an external mic. You could spend a little or a lot, but your audio will almost certainly improve. If you’re not ready to invest, try to place your camcorder’s mic as close to your subject as possible. Avoid rooms with a lot of ambient noise. Background noise you didn’t think was too loud during a shoot can come back to haunt you in the editing room and ruin a whole day’s footage.