I have to say I love Macs, but I own 4 PCs. There just seems to be more programs available, more inter connectivity, and cheaper components with the PC than Macs. Although I think it is truly rude of Mr. Gates that you have to pay twice for the XP operating system if you use 2 computers. It is the most stable Windows yet and so we pay up.

The way you will edit on your computer is by passing the information via a cable (Firewire) from the tape of your camera to the harddrive of your computer. Since you are needing to have a sustained data-rate of at least 4 Megabytes, you should get a very fast harddrive. I think SCSI-harddrives is the way to go. Get as much memory as you can afford, because you'll need it. It takes about 240 Mb for one minute of video. That means 2 Gigs for about 8 minutes, and roughly 15 Gigs for an hour. You need a Firewire Card, video-card, a DVD-burner, and a good computer-repair shop to make sure it's all working right.

Editing Programs

The editing program is the program where you put all your elements together and end up with a finished video, including music and sound. There a many, from darn simple to the very professional. In the middle there are programs like FinalCut Pro and Premiere. A lot of folks use FinalCut Pro, and seem to like it a lot. I have used Premiere for years and it is a deep program. You can do transitions, graphics, motion, layers, blue screen, filters, compress and mix audio - most of what you would want to do. A step beyond that is After Effects, which gives you even more graphics and visual control. By the way, the editing program does not have any influence on the picture or sound quality itself - if you use an inexpensive or lavish program, your basic picture quality is the same.

In all editing programs you work with a timeline. You have video-tracks, like film-strips - and you have audio-tracks like, well, tape if you know what tape is. In Premiere you can have up to 99 video and 99 audio tracks. I've never used more than 7. Once you have installed your program then comes the challenging part: You have to learn how to operate the program. Some call it a learning curve. I call it a learning cliff. Nothing seems to work until you get to a certain level, but do yourself a favor: Find someone in your town you can pay to teach you the basics.

At some point you may also consider that the process of editing takes certain abilities and not everyone is disposed for it. You have to be able to picture what you want, and be stubborn enough to find a way to get it. The index-files are my most-used section of any instructional books. If you have the talent and the patience you will succeed, if not you may find someone who loves to edit and can partner with you.

No Rules, but...

Editing is a huge subject along with music and sound, and today there are no rules of what you can and cannot do in film and video. If you can get someone to watch what you produce, you have succeeded. It does not need to make sense, have a plot, idea, or substance in any way if you just want to express yourself. If, however, you want to sell something, convince someone, or reach a target audience you have to know how to communicate.

Video editing 101

Before you start loading scenes onto your computer it would be wise to organize what you have. You usually want to preserve harddrive space - thus only transfer the scenes you need. You may have hours of interviews, statements, clips and graphics... You need organization. You need Logs.

Here is what I do: I sit down with a regular word-program and my raw tape, pop it in and start writing notes as I watch. Most cameras and DV-decks will display time code on the screen which is a blessing. Because of timecode we can find scenes later when we need them. Timecode is a unique number for every frame and it's part of the data that makes up the picture along with other information. So as I watch the footage and this is what I note: (see example of a log-page)

Top of the page: The name and number of the tape.
The timecode minutes (It takes too long to write the whole code down, and it's good
enough to know within a minute where scenes are located
Information about the scene, what take, what is generally said and most
importantly:
How it comes across.

The last needs a little clarification:

As people speak they fluctuate in their focus, excitement, effectiveness and eloquence. They sometimes ramble, talk automatically - as if they have said something a hundred times before - they glance away absentmindedly or do odd little distracting things. And then sometimes they are spot-on. They just nail it with pathos and zest, and those are the moments you want to include in your video. What helps me is to notice how my own body is doing as I watch. If I'm slumping and my mind is drifting I make a note of that in my log. I write "zzzz" or "hmm". I'm mercilessly truthful in my logs (and I don't show logs to clients). Conversely if I notice that I'm sitting straight up and are actively engaged in what is going on, I make a note of that: "good", "GOOD" or the big one: "GOOOD".

When the logging is done - go back over everything with a yellow-out pen to highlight everything with "good", "GOOD" or "GOOOD". Then see how much those scenes cover, if there is a pattern, and what I can put where.

Now you can edit

The first 20 seconds of a video are the most important. It is the time it takes most people to decide if they want to watch any further. What you do after that is also important, but nothing is more critical that the first 20 or 30 seconds. What will catch the attention of your target audience? I like to surprise people, sometimes with one of those "GOOOD" moments taken out of context, then do the traditional musical montage with logo, graphics and splashy pictures.

Music.

Ohmygod, music. Well, that's the next 7 articles right there. Music is your secret weapon. The strings to the emotions of your audience. Imagine the scene of a woman parking her car, opening her front door, going inside, taking off her coat and going into the kitchen. You could play happy butterfly-music, and it would be just a pleasant every-day moment, but put in lurking-dagger or Friday the 13th music and now you are at the edge of your seat. Nothing has changed but your interpretation, and that was done by manipulating the mood with music.

How do you get music?

You can steal it. Many videos include stolen music. You just take any CD you want, transfer the music into a wavefile and put it into your video. The problem is that not only do you tamper with karma & put yourself in danger of fines or jail-time, you also put your video-client in harms way. The rule is don't use things that aren't yours without permission. In reality they will probably not clobber you for using popular songs in wedding-videos and videos for limited or private-use, called a non-paying audience, although it is still technically illegal. I am a composer with hundreds of titles published and released and as long as you give me credit I am flattered if someone takes a song om mine and uses it in videos for personal use - like a wedding video (check out my artist website www.bentmyggen.com. The real issue is how much money are you making using my music as part of what you are selling. If I did a historical video for Solvang, California which would sell in shops, and I put on the cover "Music by Madonna", CBS records would not be happy about that, because (A) I was using copyrighted music and (B) using Madonnas fame to sell DVDs. Bad deal. Big potential trouble.

There are libraries of music that will license all kinds of music to you for reasonable pay. One such library is www.OGMUSIC.com (on which I have a few CDs). There are many others, there are sites that will give you free music. A lot of smaller labels and artists are willing to give you permission for certain projects like non-profits, or for videos that will promote their music, so contact them and ask. Some will be so glad to hear from you they will become your new best friends. The big labels don't want to bother for the time being, but there will be ways in the future to use commercial music, I'm sure.

There are an infinate number of ways to make video-presentations, but think of it like a performance. A performing artist mixes up the songs. Start with a bang, then some soft stuff, a little humour, a story, perhaps - then lots of energy, and a big finish that leaves a smile on your face. A video should give stimulate many areas of perception. Sometimes you can start by describing a problem, the give the solution to that problem. Other times, when you present something new, it is good to show agreement around it - make it seem like there is already a lot of stir around what you present. Most people go with what is popular and video can make it seem like everybody already agrees with whatever you promote.

A Few Non-Linear Pointers (not rules):

A cut is like the blink of your eyes when you turn your head.

A dissolve is like your drifting mind from one subject to the other.

Avoid cheesy transitional effects, and most of them are.

Assume the audience knows nothing, but don't over-explain everything. Once the point has been made, move on. If they didn't get it, they can go back and see it again.

Say one thing at a time. Don't show graphic text that says one thing, while the voice-over says something else.

Match the sound to the picture. Happy people = happy music, sports = rhythms, doctors = spooky music (forget I said that). Eyes and ears are our most dominant senses, i.e. what we see is what is real & what we hear gives us emotions. When the two sides of the brain receive similar input we sense harmony and we can relax into the experience of what we are watching.

Of course if you know what you are doing, you may use happy people with sad music and so on to create disassociated effects.

If you use rhythmic music, experiment with cutting from scene to scene on the beat in rhythmic patterns.

When you work with clients, be clear on who they want to reach, what they want to say, how long you have to say it and how will you be paid. I usually ask 1/3 up front, 1/3 before editing and the last when the master is done.

Archiving

What if - a year from now - your client calls and asks if you can change the interview of the director of foreign relations because she ran off with the pension fund. The edit is long gone from your harddrives... Well, luckily you archived everything on DVD. Not just the master but all the clips, sounds and timelines. On Premiere you can do this by a "Trim Project" command, where the program takes every single element of your video in it's original form and transfers it to a separate folder. You copy this folder to DVD(s) and then you can always get everything back on your harddrives again for modifications.

And Remember

You are communicating to human beings. If they don't feel something real, they don't respond, and what would be the point of all that work if nobody cared at the end. Show what is meaningful to you and use your talent to promote what you believe in. The electronic media has to potential to transform the world or destroy it.

It is the greatest amplifier ever built.