Editing Lesson Blog

      Today in class we had our first lesson on editing. We were taught all about the camera, getting the footage, and editing the footage. The camera has many accessories and we needed to know how to properly use all of them. The camera itself is turned on and off by opening and closing the screen, you don’t have to use the button. To put in the SD card, you simply insert it into the slot and to take it back out u push on it to release it from holding and u pull it out. To record on the camera, you press the button with the red line on it and to end the recording you just press it again. With the camera comes the use of the tripod. The tripod opens up and the legs extend to become taller. You then screw the camera securely to the top of the tripod. There is a handle on the tripod that controls the movement of the camera, but keeps it steady. This can be used to make clean pan and tilt shots. Lastly on the tripod, there is a crank that can move the camera up and down to make the camera taller.
      Once your footage is on the camera, you have to get it to the computer so that you can edit it. To do this, you must do what is called “dumping.” This is when you put all the footage that is on the camera onto the desktop. Every time you dump, it must be on the account or else the previous footage will not be there. A folder must be made so that the footage can be organized away from everything else on that desktop. Once the folder is made, you put your SD card into the SD card reader and plug the reader into the computer. You then go to DCIM when the reader screen pops up to get your footage. If your footage is not there, go to AVCHD>BDMV>look for word stream and then all the footage should be there. Once all the footage is in the folder, you can eject the Sd card reader and open Pinnacle Studios. You must import the footage into Pinnacle Studios from the desktop folder with your footage.
      Once all of your footage is imported, the raw footage will appear in the top section to the left on the screen. To edit a certain clip, drag it from the top section into track 2. Track 2 is for the footage, Track 1 is for titles, and track 3 is for sound, like music or voice overs. This track is where you can make all your editing decisions. To cut, place the play bar where you want to end/start the clip and then click the split button which has a razor blade icon. If you right click on the mouse you can control the speed of the clip. Also, you can open the effects editor to add special effects and transitions to smoothen your editing. In track 1 the title must be placed where it is not covering an important focus or subject of the shot. You can add a title by clicking the "T", entering the text, then place it above footage and put it where ever you want. In track 3, to detach sound from a certain section of a clip, right click and press "detach audio". If you want to just mute an entire clip, simply click mute.