It’s been a weird week. I have spent something like fifty hours on an unstructured, intensive, self-taught video editing course. Educated and in possession of new set of skills I have:
- taken a poor quality source AVI
- improved the quality to broadcast grade
- edited out a prohibited segment
- removed the commercial audio track
- created this as the new Master AVI
- removed 50+ sequences from the new master AVI in to a new production
- rearranged and re-edited the scenes
- edited in a new audio backing
- saved the new ‘short’ as a first-draft ‘rush’ for approval
Then I…
- removed 60+ sequences from the new master AVI in to another new production
- rearranged and re-edited the scenes
- edited in a new audio backing
- saved the new ‘medium’ as a first-draft ‘rush’ for approval
The work on this particular project is not yet complete; I need to edit in ancillary sound effects and remaster – in to the two productions I have created – a new set of audio levels.
But these are relatively minor tasks. I also need to create another short (same processes as above).
When that’s done I need to edit a new backing track in to the Master.
My point is that I have, in short, been having *huge* amounts of fun learning how to work with a new set of technological tools, learning how to operate within a new form of media.
This goes beyond being geeky/nerdy; it feels very creative. It’s like taking a big piece of recorded conversation and turning it into a series of themed conversational/interview segments with a faded soundbed.
And that’s something I do – over on the podcast, but in audio form – a couple of times a month.
I love it.
The next piece of video skill I want to master is shooting and editing dialogue. I’ve got nine finished scenes of a shooting script ready for filming, but I need to get my filming/video skills up some kind of a level where the filming/editing doesn’t let the dialogue down!
So I’m out and about with my video camera, capturing random scenes, editing things to within an inch of their life, adding effects, trying to capture *something* and then – where appropriate – putting an audio track beneath the video.
Having huge fun!
Like this afternoon, in Witney.
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