Video editing is best done in stages where you put the footage together in an Assembly Cut, add in extras for the Rough Cut, and end up with a finished product called the Final Cut. Here's how to do it.

Postproduction

Postproduction is where you will bring your masterpiece to life. Today's computers, running editing software like Adobe® Premiere® Elements, let you download, screen your raw footage, trim the clips for the best parts, sequence them on a timeline, and add titles, music, sound effects, and special effects. With Adobe Premiere Elements, you are working with roughly the same technology professionals use to create documentaries, sitcoms, news broadcasts, and feature films. With some extra effort, your videos can have the same professional look as those you see on TV and at the movies.

Initially, you will have to download the footage from the camera to your computer. Be forewarned that it transfers from the camera to the computer in real time, so if you shoot an hour of video, it will take an hour to download that footage to the camera. Video also consumes huge quantities of hard drive space (about one gigabyte for every five minutes of video), so the more hard drive space your computer has the better. During the process of downloading, you should watch the footage so that you can see what you have and begin to put the movie together in your mind.

After the footage is on the computer, use the assembly cut, rough cut, and final cut stages to work with the footage. In each stage, you work with the entire production with increasing precision.

The Editing Process

Video editing is best done in stages where you throw the footage together in an "Assembly Cut," add in extras for the "Rough Cut," and end up with a finished product called the "Final Cut." Editing in this fashion will help the finished product have a consistent feel and save you from spending the first two hours editing the opening title slide, only to find out that the rest of movie really requires something different.

Assembly Cut

Your first pass over the movie will render an "assembly cut" in which all of the video clips are there but each scene needs to be trimmed down.

Rough Cut

Add the title, transitions, music, sound effects, and special effects to your assembly cut and you have your rough cut. Not everything has to be perfect in your rough cut but pretty close to finished. This is where, if you are so inclined, you will begin to show it to other people and solicit their suggestions.

Final Cut

Once you have watched it with others and honed the clips, title, and transitions, and gotten the music in just right, you have the "Final Cut." Now you are ready to burn a DVD and/or send it electronically to the world.


By Dan Greenwood

From Adobe, Inc.

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