Editing Techniques

A History on Video Editing:

For many years, movies were shot on film and shown through a projector. Film had to be cut and fix back together again so that unnecessary shots can be taken out or edits can be made. Film was developed in a darkroom after each filming day. 

In 1895, two brothers named Lumière publicly screened a film called "Workers leaving the Lumière factory". The film was of many people leaving a building after a days work. In 1895, many audiences thought that this film was revolutionary in some ways. Even the next film to be publicly shown "Arrival of the train at LA Ciotat", many audiences were scared because they thought the train was real and was going to hit them. One man, Georges Méliès, wanted to buy the film projector from the company, but was rejected. Georges went on to buy another film projector (this one originating from England), he reversed the mechanics of the projector to create a film camera. He decided the following year in 1896 to film a bus, but in the process his camera had jammed. The bus then left the viewpoint of the camera and when the camera started rolling again there was a carriage in the place of the bus. Looking back on this film, Méliès thought that the jump looked magical, but what had happened was something called a Jump Cut. Méliès went on to make films where people disappeared and appeared out of nowhere. Also using visual effects like smoke, he made his next film 'Haunted House' and then he went on to create other visual effects like fade in and fade out and cross-fading. 

Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (https://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/workers-leaving-the-lumiere-factory/w1280/workers-leaving-the-lumiere-factory.jpg)

The Haunted House (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Zo2EKNRIQlE/hqdefault.jpg)

In America, Edwin S. Porter was a go-to director for Edison, and in 1896, Porter helped create the first 'cinema'. In 1903, Edison went on to make films like Méliès, but had added his own voice to the film. He added Temporal Overlaps (which helped the audience understand the passage of time) and at the end of 1903, he uses cuts between different scenes to show progression of time. Later on, D.W. Griffith decided to take up filming and used conventions from Charles Dickens books like the cut-away in which it shows something happening in one place and then cuts to another place where something else is happening in the same space of time. D.W. Griffith went on to making the largest production to that date, spending over $2.5 million. He invented the cut in (using establishing shot) and also created continuity editing and the 180 degree rule was also created. Griffith had created most of modern editing.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re

What is the 180 degree rule?

Imagine two people looking straight at each other. Draw an invisible line that crosses through both of the people. Choose which side you want to shoot from. Pretend there is a semi circle towards the camera side and don't move the camera out of the semi circle. Below is a diagram I quickly made:

Remember, if you break this rule then it can confuse the audience and make the narrative harder to understand or can distract the audience from the geography of the scene, destroying the illusion of film and taking audiences away from the immersion. Breaking the rule can confuse audiences because person A is on the left and person B is on the right, but if the camera was on the other side, person A is now on the right. Here is an example of this from the clip below.

Visual Analysis:

The clip I will be analyzing is from a Japanese Animated Program called 'Clannad: Afterstory'. This scene is a huge scene has it shows one of the main characters named Nagisa (Nah-Gee-Sar) dying after giving birth to her child named Ushio (OO-shee-o). The scene is infamous to be one of the saddest moments of the series.

The clip starts at 0:00 and ends at 7:28.

A montage is a series of images or films that show a progression or a story in a short amount of time. They can be used for dreams, narrative progression and showing many different things that all link together. At 5:31, we can see that a montage of the past and clips of what happened in the past. At the start of the montage we can hear narration from the Tomoya and all the clips all cross-dissolve into each other suggesting that the main character Tomoya is remembering all the memories all at once. The montage keeps on playing but narration fades out and the soundtrack becomes louder and all diegetic sounds are now gone. We can also see the juxtaposition of the happy memories of Nagisa and then her dead body with Tomoya over her. A lot of Tomoya's memories have very high-key lighting suggesting that those memories were very valuable to him. The soundtrack also changes in intensity depending what's on screen. 

 Tomoya's flashback. Slightly white border which connotes a happy memory.

Juxtapose memories with the present where Nagisa is now dead.

An example of two memories of Nagisa cross-dissolving.

Tomoya looking over Nagisa. Wide shot to show the action of Tomoya shuffling closer to her and the actions he performs beforehand. White background and unmoving Nagisa can connote death, heaven and passing away.

There is another small montage starting at 1:38 that begins with Nagisa's dad about to smoke but then he puts away his cigarette. We can also hear Tomoya's narration and all shots cut between each other, and one shot shows the clock which tells the audience it is very late which implies that this struggle had been going on for a long time. There are some shots where the background is black and Tomoya is drawn in white. This suggests that Tomoya is also feeling vulnerable and he is also struggling with the situation he's in. He is also alone in this shot so that also implies that he feels secluded and alone. There is also juxtaposition in this small montage with what is happening. The montage starts with snowing and then cuts to Nagisa struggling to give birth and then it cuts to Tomoya being alone with a black background and then back to Nagisa. The montage ends with Tomoya standing from afar looking away from the screen and then the shot fades to black suggesting an ending to both the montage and Tomoya's personal struggle.

 The first shot where Tomoya is alone in the darkness.

The shot after Tomoya is alone, showing the real life struggles.

Tomoya looking away from the screen. This fades to black suggesting his struggle is coming to an end.

When Ushio (the baby) is born at 2:24, we can hear her crying. Progressively through the dialogue between Nagisa and Tomoya, Ushio's crying becomes quieter. Progressively through their dialogue, the background seems to fade into white and the attention is drawn to both Nagisa, Ushio and Tomoya. Since Tomoya is talking the most, it's implied that where he is right now is a very dreamy scenario since the background had been changing while trying to get Nagisa's attention. 

 From earlier in the video before Ushio's birth.

 After Ushio's birth, we can see the lighting is now at a higher-key suggesting dreaminess.

The background has completely gone, only white remains. Gives the scene a pure and dreamy atmosphere.

A Point of View or POV shot is where the camera is situated in a fashion where it acts as one of the characters point of view. In the POV shot of Nagisa, we can see the edge of the screen pulse with darkness. This shows that she is slipping away and it is difficult for her to keep her eyes open and that she is dying slowly. A lot of the shots are also high angles for Nagisa and low angle shots for the rest of the family and the midwife. This implies that Nagisa is vulnerable or less powerful than the other. Since Nagisa is in a lot of pain and also has her fever, it shows that Nagisa is weak compared to Tomoya, her parents and the midwife. Most shots are close ups or medium shots since the whole scene is emotionally intense. Having close ups shows that Tomoya is sad when Nagisa is dying or when he's trying to talk to Ushio. Also using close ups emphasise the hand holding between Tomoya and Nagisa which enhances the feelings for each other. 

High angle on Nagisa to show that she is weak.

Low angle to show that everyone else isn't vulnerable and in pain.

Close up of Nagisa losing grip of Tomoya's hand. Suggests she is going to leave him in death.

Close up to emphasise the love for Nagisa 

Nagisa's POV shot. Showing the black around the edge to show that Nagisa is drawing closer to death. The black around the edges look darker each time suggesting she is passing.

The 180 degree rule does apply to this scene. When Tomoya is talking about Ushio, we see that Nagisa does not respond but we are shown Nagisa listening to Tomoya.

Tomoya talking to Nagisa while she lays there listening to him. This does not break the 180 degree rule since there isn't any breach of this rule. If the rule was broken, Nagisa would be laying to the left of the screen and not how she is in the above screenshot or Tomoya would be on the right side of the bed looking away from the camera. Therefore, the scene is not confusing to the audience. This is also called a shot-reverse-shot. A shot-reverse-shot shows us interaction between two things or characters. As mentioned earlier, Tomoya is talking to Nagisa and she is listening. This is also a eyeline match-cut because Tomoya is looking at Nagisa, then the shot cuts into the camera looking straight at Nagisa from the same angle.

During the shorter montage, we can see that there are many cuts that progress through a lot of time. All the shots with Nagisa vary since some are at a high angle and some are on an eye-line level with Nagisa. The scenes with the snow in this montage cross dissolve into a clip into Nagisa and then cross dissolves back. 

Previous shot > cut > Shot of snow falling > cross-dissolve > Nagisa > cross-dissolve > Shot of snow falling > cut >next shot

This shows variance in the editing in the montage. The cross-dissolves are a cutaway and then the cross-dissolves suggest that time has also progressed. The shot of the clock also connotes that a lot of time had passed within the short montage.

A match on action is a type of editing technique that shows a character doing an action and having multiple consistent shots to show this. This is also known as motivational editing. In the clip above, Tomoya reaches for Nagisa's hand and in the next shot we see his hand grab hers.

 Tomoya reaching for Nagisa's hand.

Tomoya's hand coming off screen and grabbing her hand.

Screen time is the amount of time the characters are on screen for and this reflects how significant they are. In this clip, Nagisa and Tomoya are the ones with most screen time since the mise-en-scene also makes them the centre of attention. Nagisa and Tomoya are the most important in this scene and Nagisa's parents and midwife are less important, but still get a short amount of time on screen. This shows that they are support characters rather than main characters. Ushio is also considered a main character when she is introduced, but she doesn't get the same amount of time since in this scene she is less important and she was only just introduced to us in this scene.

Conclusion: 

The editing and camera angles are all good for the narrative. The angles used shows the characters emotions and actions effectively. The motivational editing (like the match-on-action and eyeline-match shots) enhances the feel. There are a lot of editing and shot variations too to show different emotions etc. I also think that the time and space progression is a strong point in the scene since the cuts and cross-dissolves all suggest a time-skip and even some shots featuring a clock or something that implies time progression. The editing rhythm is also slow to help enhance the narrative since the scene needs a lot of slow shots to show emotions of the characters. The montage closer to the end has different paced cuts and cross-dissolves and it also seems to cut to the soundtrack. 

How-to guide: Premier Pro

Hello! This is a guide to help you get started with Adobe's very own Premier Pro. Premier Pro is a video editing software which is part of the CS series and CC series. The screenshots are from the Mac version.

Before starting, we would need to log in. In this case, I'm using a shared account. This is because all of our group can access the footage especially if some of the group is absent. If the footage was on someones account who is absent then we can't work, but this allows for the whole group to access the footage anytime. If you film on multiple days like me and my group, it is best to navigate to the movies folder and create a subfolder with the groups names and the title of the project. This is so the others can find it with ease, as well as for organising purposes. Below is my example of this. You can see all of our main footage is in the main folder as well as audio and music. You can also see the 
organisation from video to audio and music.

NOTE: If importing media from SD Cards or USB devices, be sure to eject them before removing them from the system. To do this, you can right-click the device/card and click 'Eject'. There is usually a small ejection sign which should be recognizable since it is used across many devices we use today.

Lets begin!

Step 1: Launch Premier Pro from the space dock located at the bottom of the Mac screen, or launch the program from All programs on Windows OS. A small window will pop up. Just wait for the entire program to load up!

Step 2: Create the project. Name, locate and create the video project. You can edit some settings here, and later on. You will be presented with this window below. Click on New Project and locate your save point, change name and change settings. This is done in a separate window.

Step 3: You will be presented with this screen (see below). Go to the bottom left to something called a 'Project Library'. Right click on this blank space, go to Import.

This is the workspace.

Step 3.5: Make sure you get your footage and media into a folder with the project name and your name on the folder. Make sure all of your media is safe and in working order. Make sure the folder is easy to find. In my case, our groups folder is in the Movies folder with our names and the project name. If you've filmed on a SD Card, plug the SD card into the SD slot (or USB using an adapter) and the icon for it should appear on the desktop. Open this using double click and then locate and move your files into your own directory. Make sure you don't edit straight from the SD card because if you remove it during editing it could break what you have. Before removing the card, make sure to use the eject function so no files get corrupted.

Step 4: You will be presented with a new window. This is the import window. Look for and locate your media. In this case, you find your way to your project folder (which you create by right clicking in Finder and making a new folder, also naming it appropriately) and choosing your media and then clicking 'Import'. 

Step 5: You should notice the window closes and that there are items in your project library. From here, you can quick preview clips by double clicking, and then pressing play on the left window (but this will be used for another function not too long in the future).

Step 6: Click the videos or items in the library and then drag and drop the media into the timeline which is located to the right of the project library. You will see the window on the right will also appear with the footage in the timeline. This window is sometimes referred to as the viewport. This is called the playhead. If you pressed play (SPACE), you will see the playhead move.

Step 6.5: The viewports: There are two viewports, the timeline viewport and the raw footage viewport. The viewport for the timeline is showing whats in your timeline at the playhead. To use the left viewport, double click on a clip to see what the clip is in full detail. You can use the left viewport to use your in and out points (I and O) to quickly cut a clip down.

The two viewports.

Step 7: Adding effects. Move your arrow to the Effects tab. This is located at the project library. There are several tabs, but the one we want is Effects. Find this tab and click it. There is a small search box here. If we want to add a fade to black, we type 'dip' and we can see the effect 'dip to black'. If we want to colour correct, we type RGB and we can see RGB Curves and some other effects.

Step 7 a: Dip to Black. Drag the dip to black effect from the effects onto the start or end of your desired clip. This will fade in or out from/to black. This is known as a transition. Transitions tell the passage of time without needing to say and different transitions imply different amounts of time.

Finding the Dip to Black effect and dragging it to the start or end of the clip.

Step 7b: RGB Curves: Drag this onto the clip you want to edit. You need to then double click that clip and it will appear in the left viewport. Navigate to Effect Controls through the tabs above the viewport. Then, you scroll down and see four boxes with a diagonal line. Drag points of the line to create a curve. Changing this will affect the colour contrast and balance, effectively bringing more colours out, dimming colours and editing contrast. Find what works for your film.

Finding the effect I want.

RBG Curve controls. Under Effect Controls tab

Changing and editing the curves and viewing the results on the right.

Step 8: Tools. You'll see to the left of the timeline that there are some icons. The selection tool is the most useful right now, since it does a lot of the functions we need like moving clips, trimming clips and basic things like that.

Step 9: Title. Go to File>New>Title and you'll be presented with a small window (see second image below). Name your title here, but be weary not to type what you want on screen, we do that next. Click OK and you should be presented with a new window. Here, you can create text.

Step 10: Enter the text you want. Click anywhere in this new smaller window (where you can see the footage) and then a small box should appear. Type what you want here. In my case, I wrote PG Tips. Using the controls on the right of the new window (which is called Text Properties), I was able to move the text and change colour. Move by using the position values. You can change the colour by clicking the small black box, and then picking a colour. You can also change font and font size in the properties too. Edit and change to your desire.

Step 11: After completing your font editing, close this window. Your preferences are saved so don't worry. You'll see that the Title has appeared in the project library. Click and drag this onto where you want it on the timeline.

Step 12: Exporting: After making your short film and you feel like you've finished, go to File>Export>Media. 

You will then see a small window pop up.

At first this window may be confusing, but it is very simple. All you need to really do is change the Format, name/output and possibly some video/audio settings, but nothing much needs to change here. Just make sure the file output is a .mp4 since this video format is most versatile, especially when uploading to the internet. After completing all these steps, click Export. Voila! You have made and exported a video sequence. 

Extra note: remember to save regularly. You can also do a quick render by pressing the enter key. A small window will appear, so give it a couple minutes.

Evaluation of our Unilever Advert

Create your own user feedback survey 

In this unit, we were told to re-brand an existing Unilever product to a new target audience. We decided we were going to re-brand PG Tips to a younger audience instead of the existing, middle-aged-elder audience. Before, the primary audience was middle-aged housewives and the secondary audience were elderly people, usually retired and grandparents. We chose my PG Tips idea since we had most if not all the resources to complete it quickly and easily but with professionalism. The location was close by and the production required very little of the actors within the film.

I felt that the paperwork was completed to a professional standard quickly and effectively. The group was able to communicate effectively and make use of our time efficiently. We've had some trouble with some other paperwork with one of the talents taking some time to hand in their documents, but I feel we have been professional and efficient. 

We all had the task to collect feedback individually. A majority of my respondents were male, although about 20% of respondents were female. Respondents' ages ranged from 16-30 years old. 20 of all respondents listed their occupation as students, while the 80% labelled themselves in some parts of the job market including retail and media production. 

All of the respondents said that they would be slightly inclined to buy the product after seeing the advert to not wanting to buy the product at all. Just over 55% of the respondents said that they thought the audience was middle aged people, while the rest thought that the advert was aimed at the younger teenage audience. The "rate parts of the advert from 1 to 5, 5 being the poorest and 1 being the strongest", it was clear that some of the respondents had a unique take on the advert. I added up all the averages and then found that average. We got a score of 3.03, which is an average score. I think some confusion may have been had since some respondents had reported the scale was the wrong way round.

Most respondents thought that the cinematography and the slogan were strong points of the advert since they enjoyed those parts the most. Respondents said that the conflict within the advert was a little over-dramatic and respondents thought that it would have been better if there was more audio, like digetic sounds being added to help enhance the advert and also clean up some background/ambient noises.

All feedback collected via surveymonkey.com. See below for ALL responses

We chose a teenage cast because we thought this could be a great help to make tea relevant to the modern teen/early 20 adult. We chose a heartfelt theme because we thought that this time of the life is full of conflict and emotion, so having the advert show these could help sell PG Tips. We also chose the slower motif to help replicate a delicate moment. We also chose a home environment to make the advert even more relatable. 

Most of audience were between 16-30

 A small percentage identified as non-binary/genderfluid.

 Most of the audience worked in Art, while others were in a student or engineer occupation.

 Most of the audience say that they are likely to buy this product, while some said they wont.

 Half of the responders said the advert was aimed at our intended audience while the other half said that they thought the ad was aimed at the older audience.

 Mixed responses from respondents, although it averaged out at being an overall score of 4.

Respondents said similar things like the tea pun or editing being a strong point.

 Some of the respondents talked about how some of the acting or feel was a little over-dramatic or underwhelming.

Respondents mentioned changes like sound effects etc.