[Erik Pontius]

Glad to hear it. That’s another thing you’ll learn as you edit more. Things that are music driven, such as fast paced, high energy show openers or music videos, the edit needs to match. Most editing packages have a key that can be pressed to either add cuts, markers, or keyframes while the sequence is playing (and will continue to play as the key is pressed) so that the editor can mark beats in the music as it plays.
Another common technique is to speed up or slow down the shot (time warping). I’ve created pieces where I speed up the shot 800% or more in order to speed the action up to match the music.

Have fun with it…

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

I’d attribute it to a good DP, a good gaffer and a good director. I’ve seen some stuff shot on really nice equipment by a crappy DP and all the best post production in Hollywood wouldn’t be able to fix it.
A common joke around film sets is “ah…well…we’ll fix it in post!”
I’ve also seen the reverse, good crew and DP and cheap consumer equipment, but a fantastic looking film. If you do it right during production, you can save a lot of time, money and frustration in post (or expensive re-shoots months after production wraps).
Get the best equipment you can afford, but make sure you are able to get someone who knows how to run it well. Buying the best paintbrush around won’t make you Michaelanglo.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

For your plane example, I think your co-worker is probably right. The two shots put in close proximity indicate that these actions are occuring in a very short time. We as viewers know that a plane landing going fast suddenly seen a split second later going slow is would be impossible. We need a visual cue between both shots to indicate a passage of time for the edit not to be as jarring. Editors often throw in the all to common cross dissolve inbetween these shots…the dissolve gives us a visual cue that time has passed. There can be other solutions as well. What would happen if you stuck a third shot in between, say a shot of the passengers seated in their seats or the pilots in the cockpit. There is enough visual difference between the plane landing shot and the cockpit/passenger shot and then from that to the taxi shot to avoid a jump cut and imply a passage of time. Another solution perhaps if you didn’t have a 3rd shot, would be (if you have the head material) would be to start the taxi shot far earlier in the clip, perhaps showing the runway where the plane is off camera for a dozen frames or so and then rolls into the frame. That extra couple of frames gives the viewer time to notice that this is a different scene and that time has passed…avoiding a jump cut.
Try it and see what works. After editing for a while you start to get a “gut feeling” as you watch your edits. Usually if something feels wrong but you can’t quite put your finger on it, make a duplicate of your sequence (so you can get back to where you were if things go wrong) and then start rearranging the order of clips, trimming or extending a few frames from shots, until it feels right. Alot of watching programs/films/etc… is on a subconscious level (or unconscious for some) we as humans are very trained by our ancestral caveman hunter/gather hunter/hunted instincts as to what we think should be correct as we watch.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

Cool. Let me know how it goes.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

Can you think of any changes or software/driver/patch installs that you might have done prior to it starting to act up.
I thought I remembered something with XP SP2 that caused firewire devices to run at slower speeds and the solution was modifying a registry value and might have been resolve later with a hotfix or patch. It might have been dealing with firewire800 devices though.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

If you watch some of Murch stuff on “The Cutting Edge” DVD (and perhaps the Cold Mountain disc) you can see Murch’s FCP setup while he was editing “Cold Mountain”. His little cut out people are in a couple of shots.
He explains why in his “Blink of an Eye” book.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

This actually brings up a good point. Ever try watching a movie with the sound off? You’ll notice a lot more cuts than you would with the sound on. Why? Just as was mentioned, the loud hit (or stab) in the soundtrack or sharp noise of a door slam or other such noise distracts the viewers eyes from percieving the changes in the scene…effectively masking the edit.
That’s only one example. There are many, many techniques of hiding edits. Some of the books mentioned in the other thread talk alot on how to mask edits.
In interviews or scenes of dialog, they have the talent position and the framing of the camera done is such a way that the eyes of the subject on the the same level. The eyes are the windows to the soul and the focal point of most viewers. Just about everyone watches the subject’s eyes as they move across the screen whether they are conscious of it or not. When shooting interviews it’s important to get both eyes in the frame and to have the lighting positioned to give a little glint to the eye (an eyelight). This gives the viewer a reference point as to where the subject’s eyes are in the frame.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

All those subjects are referenced and explained in the “Eye is Quicker” and “On Film Editing”
Another good one on my bookshelf I was just leafing through is “The Visual Story: Seeing the Structure of Film, TV and New Media” by Bruce Block approaches the subject from, well…a visual sense.
“Grammar of the Edit” by Roy Thompson also has a cliff notes approach to it and discusses the topic you mentioned.
You mentioned earlier that you weren’t interested in cutting film, just interviews for now…but the majority of techniques used now to cut interviews of the type you mentioned and referenced were derived from a study of film techniques.
Many editors believe that if you notice the editing in a piece, they haven’t done their job. The edit should be transparent and seamless (or invisible in your terms).

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

Glad to help. I once used FlickerFix to fix (at least minimize) the flicker in an interview that was shot in NTSC in Ireland in a room full of colored flourescent and halogen lighting, with several large LCD projectors, several plasma TV’s and a large number of flat panel LCD computer displays…a lethal combination.
Good luck!

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

I’d vote for animating a mask in AE. Outline your talent once on the first frame with the pen tool, then flip the keyframe switch on for the mask you create…move to the next frame (page down) and use the arrow and pen tools to nudge around the points or add new points to your mask. No need to create a whole new mask for every frame.

The PNG format is a favorite for exporting single frames and graphics back and forth from AE to PS (or other apps) since they it support an alpha channel.

Erik