Guiding kids to learn editing

[Mark Suszko]

To teach editing, I would lead the kids in accellerated fashion through the history of it in a hands-on manner. Have them all work on the same story, and make it childishly familiar, say, a five-minute version of “The Three Little Pigs”, because you need a universal reference point. First, show them a version that is all just one locked-down wide shot of the entire “stage”. That’s how film begain, as a simple recording of the entire stage play. Sadly, lots of youtube videos are STILL shot like this, and we’re going to do our part to stop that:-)

Next, show the use of adding close-ups, intercut with the wide master. Now, add over-the-shoulder shots,reaction shots, both serious and comical, reverse-angles, cut-aways, and finally, some camera motion thru a dolly and a zoom, to show that each of those gives a different look.

Add voice-overs, add music and sound effects. Play it for laughs, for horror, etc. Now, work to shorten the story to tell the most details in the shortest time: what gets cut first, what has to stay?

Bring in videos and play them without sound: show short samples of live-switched 3-camera comedies like The Honeymooners, with the sound off, to show the rythmn of camera selection to follow the actors on a very simple single set. Play it again, with the sound on, to show how important audio is.

As a desk exercise, I would give all the kids stacks of index cards, with story elements on each, and have them play with shuffling them around and adding new cards. You could also do this with a powerpoint slide show stack, but index cards might be better. We’re still on the three little pigs here. The exercise is now about stimulating non-linear thinking for story-telling; in res media, flash-backs, alternating viewpoints, first-person versus omnicient viewpoints. Because you keep the scope small and simple with the familiar 3 pigs story, they can learn these things faster and in context compared to a linear narrative.

Have each kid who owns an MP3 player, present a playlist of cuts they already own and have assembled, that tells an emotional journey in five songs, or conveys one common theme in five songs. You don’t have to play them, just compare the lists. This is getting them ready for NLE systems, because dragging song clips into playlist order and moving slide order around in powerpoint is functionally the same as the non-destructive nonlinear editing we do with media clips in an NLE. If they understand this, they are ready to start working with any NLE you want to give them.

Introduce them to bins and a timeline. Explain the timline is like the ipod playlist, and the clips are like the songs. Explain a razor tool (it might be fun to bring an old film or tape splicing block and accessories in, to show how a cut *used* to be made) and show the difference between an insert edit and an overwrite edit. I find that demonstrating this with a strip of actual film and some tape splices makes it much easier to understand the difference, as you can move the pieces in your hands physically… If you have enough spare material to let some of the kids try it, it’s fun and builds a mental connection to what they will later see on screens.

Play them the youtube clip from the AFI that’s a tribute to and history of film editing and editors; it’s not very long, but covers a lot of ground quickly.

For an advanced exercise, I would have each kid record themselves telling a short family anecdote twice, in medium and close-up. Have them clean up their story to remove stutters and mistakes, match on action, find some cut-away material that will work, even if only text screens, and then choose the points where they are tight and wide to make maximum impact on the story. Show them how to cut on an eyeblink, or between breaths. Show an L-cut and a J-cut. Show the difference between a dissolve and a cut and where each is best used. Have them add music and/or sound effects if they help. Have them build a solid, readable title and a lower-third super, and add those in. Finally, try a little color grading, just a touch.

The particular hardware isn’t important: you could cut these assignmenrs in Avid, Premiere, FCP, imovie or windows moviemaker and still learn effectively. Indeed, resist letting them play with too much horsepower and gratuitous transitions and other effects. That’s not the important thing to learn at their stage. Story-telling skills and organization are, first.

The year-end exercise might let them play with chromakeying and compositing a *little* bit.

That would be my syllabus, I think.

If I was doing it formally, I’d “hire” some college acting students to play out the same and all the alternate takes all in one day, and pre-shoot all these elements to have them ready to distribute for the exercises, in advance. Then the kids don’t waste time shooting when they need to be learning cutting. I think directing and editing are and need to be closely linked, but if the point here is specifically to teach editing, don’t divert time to shooting anything but the family anecdote exercise, get all the 3 pigs elements or whatever you’re going to use, pre-made in advance.

[Scott Sheriff]

A couple comments on the cinematographers syllabus:

[Brent Bloem] “• Wrap cables properly”

I like this. If I’m hiring an ‘unknown’ grip, utility, assistant type I throw out a 50′ XLR cable and ask them to wrap it. IMO this is a quick way to judge their experience.

[Brent Bloem] “• Set white balance”
You need to add an understanding of color temp. Lots of people know how to use the WB function, but still come back with crap because they don’t understand color temp. Common mistakes are doing too many WB adjustments on a gig and doing WB under different color temp lighting than the set conditions. If color correction is applied in post, I prefer footage shot in preset as if it were film, over footage with a bunch of different WB adjustments.

[Brent Bloem] “Know exposure faux pas:
• Blowout
• Crushing
• Backlighting”
I wouldn’t call blowout or crushing faux pas. These are things that you have to do at times, either for ‘artistic’ reasons, or circumstances.There needs to be an understanding of the limits of dynamic range, and when/how to compromise.
Backlighting is not a production mistake, just a circumstance faced by photographers.

[Brent Bloem] “• Use manual focus
• Adjust aperture”

A discussion of Depth of Field would be appropriate here.

I see nothing in here about lighting. Basic lighting, passive lighting, safety and the use of light meters. This dovetails into not only color temps, but depth of field, expoure, and dynamic range. I see a few redundant things, and some advanced concepts that I would ditch in favor of lighting, how to and safety aspects. As an example white balance should be its own subject, and not repeated per camera.

I would also add a discussion stressing the use of the tripod over handheld, unless hand held is justified.

About editing. Much like being a DP, its a merging of tech, and art.
Whatever platform you use, a discussion of file management, logging, shot organization, how to judge takes, how to sync sound, codecs, and the basics of the platform. On tech, a discussion on frame rates, time code and codecs is mandatory. The story of how we end up with 29.97 and how drop frame works would be good too.
On actual editing I wouldn’t allow anything but a cut, split edit, dissolve, or fade to black. Editing is about exploring limits, and problem solving, in addition to telling a story. If you give everyone identical footage to cut I might even omit a key piece of footage and see what they come up with to deal with that.

Two things I would discus in both shooting and editing is the importance of tests to understand new gear, and difficult or new circumstances.
The other thing is attitude, or better yet ‘Professional Attitude’. There seems to be a prevailing attitude among those that take these type of classes that they know it all. I have several people on my don’t rehire list because they had a crappy ‘know it all’ attitude and were not productive on shoots. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and learn something on every gig, and don’t want to hire or work with those that think they have that kind of experience from ‘a class’. All the really have is a license to learn.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

Where were you on 6/21?

[Brent Bloem]

I really like your ideas. Thank you so much for providing your valuable input.

I realize there were some redundancy in the courseflow. I’m split on the necessity of the matter. On one hand, I included it because I’d like kids to know how to use a specific camera model so that they don’t come back with excuses (I couldn’t do X because of Z….). On the other hand, perhaps thats not what should be the focus, perhaps the focus should be on the knowledge of the craft. It’s something I’ll have to put some thought into. It’s just so vexing when the only function kids know how to do is hit the record button.

You are right about including lighting into this unit. I originally thought about making lighting a completely different skill path, but the two are interconnected. Furthermore, including lighting into this skill path will only benefit the images my kids capture, which, after all, is what I’m trying to do.

You are right right about the faux pas. What I wrote wasn’t clear for the COW audience. To clarify, I really want them to know what even lighting is, and know that it’s usually good to have, artistic circumstances aside. My kids are working on short film as their final exam, and a handful have numerous silhouetted shots, not because it adds to the narrative effect, but because they weren’t aware of their natural surroundings, and they shot a person against an enormous glass wall looking into our school’s courtyard.

That’s neither here nor there, but one question I do have is, since we don’t have light meters, would you still impress the necessity of white balancing or would you simply abandon the concept in favor of AWB?

Super cool idea with giving kids the same shots for the sequence and then omitting random parts of it from each kids station. That’d give em a real mind bender. But, as you know, totally warranted. The mischievous side of me would love to see them work through that.

Thanks a million for your help. I’m definitely going to apply some of your concepts.

[Brent Bloem]

Mark,

Really good things in this post. One aspect I thoroughly enjoy is NLE metaphor you developed. I’ve found kids do have a hard time grasping the insert and overwrite functions. But, when playlists are paralleled to timelines, kids will latch onto that.

Also, shooting a “familiar” story in several different ways gives a lot of advantages, the most noteworthy being a gradual increase in editing complexity, possibility and flexibility. Kids will really have to think about *why* they’ve made specific edit choices and understand *effects* of those choices. It’s really higher order thinking–what we’re really going for, rather than editing without reason.

Additionally, I agree wholeheartedly with the idea that editing platform shouldn’t matter. When kids get caught in the glam of filter, transitions, effects, and etc, they oftentimes fixate on those to the detriment of good visual storytelling. They’re trying to put lipstick on a pig so to speak.

Again, thanks.

[Scott Sheriff]

[Brent Bloem] “That’s neither here nor there, but one question I do have is, since we don’t have light meters, would you still impress the necessity of white balancing or would you simply abandon the concept in favor of AWB?”

Sorry to jack the thread…
The case for the light meter-
Maybe I’m old school, but to me a light meter is a basic essential, like a tripod, or a mic. Sure it is possible to light without one. But for most folks having one makes it easier to ‘see’ whats going on with any type of lighting, is great for scouting, and also means you can light without tying up a camera, which is what most people usually do. The Sekonic L-398 is a great choice for film/video lighting, and they are only about 200 bucks. A contrast viewing filter is cheaper, but harder to learn and use since it is somewhat objective. And it doesn’t give you any direct exposure data.

Presets vs white balance.
Many cams have a 3200 and a 5600-6000 preset color temp, which makes this more like film where you have tungsten or daylight film. Some experimentation should be done. Some cameras have great presets, that look great in many types of mixed lighting, and some not so much. A lot depends on how the scene files are set up. Doing test shots so you see how the camera responds is the way to go.
There are some situations that a white balance will be the thing to do, but a properly used preset color temp will always beat a poorly done white balance. Part of the problem is they (operator white balances) are never the same, and if the operator does too many, has to reshoot a location, or makes a poor choice of which light to balance under in mixed lighting situations, the talents flesh tones will be slightly off. The pros and cons of when/why to use one, or the other is the thing to learn. Partially through teaching about different common lighting situations, plus some practical experience.

I sort of see your point about camera operation. However the thing to learn is the technique for using the tool. So for example, once you understand color temps, you will know what you want to do, and what control your looking for.
Most cameras have the same controls, and after learning on one camera, they should just learn how to self-orient themselves to new gear and identify the basic operator controls.

On editing, one of the things is how involved is the editor on other production elements. If you read these boards for any length of time you will see many cases where the editor was the last guy in the loop, and it was too late to change things that were wrong, and cost money and time to fix, or redo in post.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

Where were you on 6/21?

[Brent Bloem]

Scott,

I appreciate your years of experience. I’ll take the meters into concideration and see what sort of cash my program has available next year. Budgets in HS get tighter and tighter.

As far as the editors, and other positions go, I’m looking to have students specialize. So, in the case of editors, they will be removed from the shooting. Their sole job is to make their work as good as possible, given the circumstances.

I really hope it works in a HS setting. I’m drastically turning my old methodologies upside down (that being where everyone wrote, shot, and edited their work). It is my hope(though I pray not ill placed) that the quality of the product produced in my program will increase, now that my second year kids can work in the area that interest them the most.

[Andrew Rendell]

I’d include things like how to analyse an image, the Kuleshov effect, symbolism, montage.

The difference between GOP and I-frame files (both theoretically and practically).

Layering audio effects and music.

Basically, get into WHY things are done in particular ways above HOW things are done.

[Brent Bloem]

You’ve enticed my curiosity. Could you expand your thoughts on a on one point?

When you say anaylyzed an image, what did you intend to mean? Technical quality, aesthetic quality, or narrative quality? After stating this, could you generate what YOU feel is the best way to teach kids that, starting from the basics skills and moving to difficult skills of image analysis?

[Bill Davis]

[Mark Suszko] “If I was doing it formally, I’d “hire” some college acting students to play out the same and all the alternate takes all in one day, and pre-shoot all these elements to have them ready to distribute for the exercises, in advance. “

BLATENT COMMERCIAL PLUG WARNING.

Or, you could surf to https://www.StartEditingNow.Com – and license all the editing instruction content you need, purpose designed for exactly this purpose!

Always happy to send out evaluations copies to educators!

That is all.

[Mark Suszko]

How are you fixed for footage of the 3 Little Pigs story? 🙂