[zemoo]

In one of my classes I have to teach inner city youth how to film and edit movies. I took a class in High School on filming and editing, so I have some idea of what I'm supposed to do, but I could use some tips and tricks from more experienced persons than myself (also the class was years ago with different equipment than I'm using). I'm on a 3 person team, but I likely have the most experience, which isn't much, of all my teammates.

I don't have too many details on what we're doing, cause the person we were told to talk to about it didn't know much about what we were supposed to do, and we only found out who our primary contact was too close to Thanksgiving break to meet with them. We will be using a video camera, which we will have to buy with grant money, and probably some freeware editing software (the two people in my group with editing experience are against WMM). It won't be the same as AMV making, but some of the general principles may still apply. I'd like to get concrete examples of good editing, which I may be able to find in the hells, and bad editing which I know I can find in those terrible 4 minutes of lipsynching* AMVs on youtube (*by lipsynching I mean Naruto moving his mouth roughly correlated to anytime lyrics are being sung, while walking/standing in front of the same line of trees the whole verse/song, also all the footage is from the first 3 episodes). I'd also like to make lesson plans, which I have some rough ideas for, and will probably include making a certain type of video (music video, commercial, movie trailer, etc.). Ideas for these examples/lessons would be appreciated. I'll update with more information as I get it. And I'll probably start making practice videos over winter break, so any critique on those would be appreciated too.
This thread, if successful, can eventually morph into a general editing help thread (if the site even wants one of those)

And try to keep it safe for school, as I may need to show this thread to my classmates/teacher.

[mattroks101]

http://www.abridgedforums.com/showthread.php?tid=12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXqk91Pguc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8A8bX18CG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUbumQaAuM

When I find some more good ones I'll post them.

[Zarxrax]

I think for the most part good editing and bad editing are pretty apparent.
If you want to be a good editor, just look at the good stuff and try to do what they do. I don't mean that you want to copy ideas or specifics, but just the general technique that is used.

Movie trailers and Music Videos and commercials are all good things to watch to get an idea of editing.

In most commerical stuff the editing typically trys to stay out of the way and is just used as a way to present the content. In AMVs, editing is often what is actually on display, so the editing tends to stand out and be more in your face.

[ThatsNotMyName_studio]

Well, zemoo From what you posted here, it sounds like you are going to be filming your own footage then editing it together
as a project. If that is the case, my advice would be to shoot as much footage as you can. Get at least 3 takes of every
shot, if possible.
If you're shooting a dialog scene, you should try to get some reaction shots: that is some headshots of the person listening to the dialog...
some nods, head shakes, boredom, or whatever the scene may call for... You don't always have to show the person speaking
and a variety of angles will help to keep your production visually interesting.
The point is, I suggest you make sure you have more footage than you need so that you have some choices when it comes time to cut it together.

[Haar]

If you're not sure what freeware stuff to get, I recommend getting Wax for video editing and AnyVideoConverter for conversions. I'd also suggest getting Prism Video File Converter, but that costs once the trial is up. Oh, and you'll probably need to download the UT Video codec for the sake of those conversions.


I think for the most part good editing and bad editing are pretty apparent.
I agree, but that seems to be far beyond the comprehension of a lot of people, sadly. Even a startling number of folks here.

[mattroks101]

INORITE!! I honestly don't see how some people can release their videos and go, "THIS LOOKS GREAT LOLOLOLOL" when they look like ****. It's not that hard to tell if something is well made or not.

[Haar]

^I view it as a depressing mixture of grandiose delusions, the Dunning–Kruger effect, and naivety, What's worse is when they deny the lack of quality, using a fallacious argument that proves that their self-centered mentality involves being more focused on getting praise for mediocrity and thus becoming complacent with minimal effort as opposed to actually working hard on stuff and accepting that people may not like their content even with all of their hard work spent.

Rambling aside, and probably a bit more immediately relative to the topic on hand, I think one of my biggest editing tips is a rather general one, rather than on the technicality of editing itself: Be sure to actually read stuff. Don't just glance over instructions for 5 seconds, wing it, and then question why you're screwing up your footage, transitions, et cetera. Read the instructions to whatever program you're using and whatever is said about how certain effects and tools work will probably be explained to you.


And try to keep it safe for school, as I may need to show this thread to my classmates/teacher.

I honestly don't see how some people can release their videos and go, "THIS LOOKS GREAT LOLOLOLOL" when they look like ****.
http://i.imgur.com/pHbKM.jpg
Of course, I guess I'm not helping, given how I quoted you on that.

[Haar]

Seems I accidentally killed this thread with my cynical rambling. Do you still need our assistance, Zemoo, or is that class already over?

[zemoo]

The class is over for this semester, but we still haven't met with our primary contact, so I didn't have any new information worthy of an update. My teammates will probably meet with him over winter break, but until they do we can't really make any lesson plans. We actually start teaching next semester.

I'll probably (hopefully) have something substantive in a week or so. Thanks to all those who helped out so far, sorry I haven't posted, but I'm not the type to update if I have nothing pressing to say. We have weekly status reports in the class and my group's presentations have always been: "we still know nothing, but we hope to soon." ... didn't really want to bump for that.

[zemoo]

My teammates never got back to me, so I still don't know anything new.
Anyway here is an amv(hell) type thing I made, It's my first amv so I apologize in advance for it sucking.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEjJhzdHJng&feature=youtu.be

My Thoughts

Song is "Up There" by Trey Parker

I used WMM cause that's what we are expecting to use in the class, but If I were to do any more AMVs/re-make this I would not use it again.

It looked good in WMM, but when I exported it, the quality took a nose dive, also I know I de-interlaced it in preproduction, but apparently WMM went ahead and re-interlaced it for me, and de-interlacing it in post production made it look gross like A&E's technical guide said it would.

I feel It's a little long for hell clip, but couldn't find an earlier place where I felt it made sense to stop, maybe after "but then I sink" cause that's the "punchline" and not much that happens after that, but my OCD tells me to finish the verse.

I feel like some of the sync is off, but I tried to put everything to musical cues. (e.g. that ascending scale at the end had one more note than there were lights turned off, but there's not much I can do about that)


any feedback would be appreciated

[Haar]

Yeah, you already covered all that needed to be said about Windows Movie Maker. In theory, it can be used correctly, but you have to go through so much trouble to get it looking right, it's not worth it and you're better off with that stuff I mentioned earlier. And since Wax is free, maybe you could try to request that being the standard program in the class instead.

Clip felt a little boring to me. I'm familiar with both the anime and the movie you got the audio from, but it just fell flat.

[jinzo64]

personaly I liked the video it worked realy excepted the audio seemed a bit jerky maybe that just youtube being youtube.