We learn the basics of the equipment we will be using in class and in the field starting with the video cameras, microphones, and some basic accessories.
Learning objectives of this class: Students learn the basic controls of our camera and microphones as they will be producing each other's "living portraits." These are video clips students will make of each other speaking about their career objectives. The videos will be produced by the students, the data transferred to a computer workstation where they will be edited and optimized for web deployment. In this lesson, students will learn the concept of ENG (for Electronic News Gathering) location shooting and the values of this approach.
The Following Setup Is For a Basic Interview Video Shoot
1.
Load the Media: Tape Loading and Unloading… The format of the tape media we use in class
a.
DVCAM
b.
MiniDV
2.
Know Your Basic Video Camera Controls
a.
Manual Operation including shutter, iris and exposure value (EV) Best used in situations where the camera is being operated in a consistently lighted scene.
b.
Automatic Operation Best in situations where the camera is moving from one lighting condition to another.
3.
Lens operation
a.
Focus
b.
Zoom
4.
Camera, Lens and Tripod Movement
a.
Zoom (through manipulation of camera’s optics the focal length can be lengthened and shortened bringing the subject closer or farther to the camera)
b.
Tilt (the camera is at a fixed height but moves up and down)
c.
Pan (camera is at a fixed point and moves from side to side)
d.
Dolly (entire camera moves side to side)
5.
Basic Audio Controls
a.
Manual Operation (advantages: compensates for extreme light or contrast situations). On most cameras you have thumbwheels that control iris and shutter speed.
b.
Automatic Operation (advantages: good in situations where the camera is moving from one lighting condition to another).
c.
Automatic Focus (not available on high-end professional cameras, so you must learn how to focus the camera and keep your subject in proper focus).
d.
Microphone Connections
e.
Stereo or Multi-track vs. Monaural or Single Track
f.
Wear Headphones: Monitoring Sound and the critical importance of a headset or headphones.
6.
Using Accessory Microphones, hand microphones, boom microphones, and body packs... The importance of capturing quality sound
a.
Microphone placement should be as close to the subject as possible.
b.
Controlling ambient sound might be impossible, but you should assess the ambient noise level by using quality headphones, and selecting a microphone that will mitigate the problem.
c.
Omni vs. Directional Microphones Sensitivity is the key factor here. Every ENG kit ideally should contain
i.
an omni-directional microphone with 180 degree cone,
ii.
a directional microphone with a 90 degree cone and engineered to be less sensitive to handling noise
iii.
and a shotgun or short shotgun that has a 45 degree cone but is sensitive at great distances. It does the best job of screening out ambient noise.
7.
The camera microphone: All cameras have a microphone that records “matte” sound. This is ambient sound captured at the scene. In multiple camera shots or where sound my be captured with an off-camera recording device, the matte sound track enables you to synchronize the video with the sound track later in post production.
8.
Basic Location Setup using two lights and a reflector (see diagram)
a.
Main Light (primary illumination source)
b.
Fill Light (half power light or reflected light to slightly illuminate shadow areas but not eliminate them)
c.
High Light (used to cut the subject away from the background)
9.
Camera and subject position: The Camera should be located at least 10 to 12 feet away and then frame up your subject using the zoom controls.
10.
Composition in the frame: Position your subject slightly to the right of the frame never in the center.
11.
Head Placement in the frame
a.
The subject’s head must be slightly below the top of the frame, and never in the middle of the frame. A common mistake among first-time shooters is to place the head in the middle of the frame. DO NOT PUT THE HEAD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRAME… EVER! Such poor composition reveals too much wasted space above the subject’s head making the person appear too short.
b.
Remember: Draw a horizontal line dividing the frame equally from top to bottom. Make sure the eyes, nose and chin are above that line in the upper half of the frame.
12.
Background: Your background should be at least as far in back of the subject as the camera is from the subject. The Camera should be located at least 10 to 15 feet away and then frame up your subject using the zoom controls. The background therefore should be at least 10 to 15 feet behind the subject. Never put your subject up against a wall or curtained background (unless there are logos all over it as in a post-game or post award ceremonial press conference). There should always be space, and the more space the better.
Learning Objectives Set #2
We capture (transfer) our video to the editing computer
Learning objectives of this class: Students learn how to capture video footage from the camera to the computer’s hard drive. It is in this environment, using Adobe Premiere, where we will edit our living portraits. Students learn how to connect the camera using the 1392 FireWire cable, and control the camera operation from the Adobe Premiere desktop. As the files transfer, we will be saving and naming clips and placing them automatically in Adobe’s project bin. Students learn how to set the programs preference files, configure scratch disks for temporary file storage, and save their projects or works in process.
1.
Connect the camera to the computer via the 1393 cable (provided at the workstation). In this classroom configuration, we are using our cameras as tape decks. The 1394 cable allows you to download video from the camera to the computer, and once it’s edited, it can be output through the same wire back to the tape that’s inside the camera.
2.
Make sure the computer and Adobe software can control the camera deck. There are drivers that must be present that allows the computer, software, camera or deck to communicate with one another.
3.
You must set your scratch disk files Every time you launch the program. In the ideal configuration is as follows:
a.
Your Adobe software is installed and operating on your C-Drive.
b.
Your 1394 cable (FireWire) is attached to your computer’s 1394 port and attached to your camera’s 1394 port.
c.
Your scratch disk is your secondary media storage drive (at Clarke, it’s the M-Drive and a directory with your name or the name of your project on it.
d.
You must check this every time you launch your software and your project because it may revert to another media drive directory, and this you want to avoid at all costs.
How Adobe Premiere Works
Adobe Premiere works with your computer’s operating system to allow you to capture and edit video on your computer.
Digital video is a complex process that involves powerful mathematical equations to reproduce video on a computer screen.
Algorithms
An algorithm is a mathematical equation, its purpose is to convert analog images into a stream of binary code. This code, using your computer's hardware and software capabilities to produce images on your screen, paints frames of pixels much like an animation flip book, and times the sequence using your computer's system clock.
As you can imagine, the longer the video, the larger the screen image, the more data is required to produce the stream of data, and the more memory, more processing speed and more storage capacity you need to manage the data. Add to this stereo audio, and you quickly require multi-gigabyte capacity drives to handle it all. And those drives need to be high speed because they will spin and spin to keep the stream of data moving though your processor.
Digital video on your computer is a miracle of engineering. It evolved as computers became more powerful and less costly, which made it practical to develop software and hardware add-ons to enable video and film producers to actually digitize video (converting it from analog signals to digital data) that can be stored on a hard disk. Today, digital video is captured directly with DV cameras and the signal can go directly into your computer through a FireWire (1394) cable.
What is a CODEC?
For computers to efficiently handle the enormous amount of data that is generated by this process, engineers applied compression algorithms to the data files that could compress the data for storage, and decompress the data when commanded to do so. Compression can utilize a number of strategies, the most common of which analyze the color data of the video image and reduce the number of colors required to paint the images pixels. These compression and decompression algorithms are called CODECs. The most common CODECs are Motion Jpeg, MPEG2 (CD-ROMs) and MPEG3 (DVD-ROMs). They were developed by the industry as standards that enable vendors to make compatible accessories and software products that allow the industry to grow.
Now that we have streaming images and data in our computer, we need an editing program to manipulate these files.
Digital video editing software is referred to as nonlinear video editing. This refers to the timeline interface that is used to put segments of video (called clips) together to make a larger if not longer visual statement.
To understand this process you need to go back (not too far) in history to know how film was edited.
Film was shot, processed and hung in strips or on smaller reels to be combined in a Movieola machine that is a simple viewer that allows the editor to view the clips and physically splice them together a film cutter and adhesive, a long and tedious process. The many segments of film were often stored in bins. The film editor would splice a film together, add the sound track, create a new master negative from the original footage, and then duplicate the master for theatrical release.
Your source video clips remain unaltered
Adobe Premiere allows you to combine and edit your video clips into a coherent program, but the original source video in your computer remains unaltered. Adobe’s production timeline allows you to combine edited or “trimmed” portions of clips, combine sound files, and you can filter and alter the color and contrast of any clip on the timeline. However, the original source video that is represented on the timeline still remains completely unaltered.
This is because Adobe’s production timeline codec renders changes and edits to the clips on the timeline to scratch folders you’ve designated for your project when you launched the application. These files generated by Adobe Premiere must remain on your computer for the life of your project. If they are moved or deleted, your project will have to render transitions and filtrations and other modifications that were used on the timeline all over again which can be a time consuming process. Worse, losing synapses between your project and these scratch files could permanently cripple your project.
This is why it’s so important for you to carefully set up each editing session upon launch, making sure your scratch files are saved in the appropriate designated scratch file with your project’s name on it. Otherwise, you may lose all of your work.
Learning Objectives Set #3
We begin the process of editing our projects in Premiere
Learning objectives of this class: We learn the basic production desktop of Adobe Premiere. This includes the Project Bin, the Source Monitor, the Project Monitor, the Project Timeline, the Effects Menu and the Effects Control Panel. We will begin at the launch designating our project scratch disks and directories on the M Drive. Then we will demonstrate how each of the menus and windows operate on the desktop.
Critical Review Step
Review the steps of project set up in Premiere. Emphasize to students that failure to ensure scratch disk and file synapse with the proper drive and directory will lead to project failure and lost files.
Steps to Project Setup in Adobe Premiere:
-
Launch Adobe Premiere Program
-
Open Preferences Menu
- Choose Scratch Disk Command
-
Using the Browse field, choose the M-drive (Clarke’s Communication Lab Network)
-
If a file isn’t already created, create one with your name or the name of your project.
- Remember that every time you wish to work on your project, you must repeat these first five steps. EVERY TIME. The reason for this is that the computers purge preference data from temp files on the C-drive at least once every 24 hours or when the machines are shut down or rebooted. Hence, your preferences are blown away. If you don’t designate scratch drives and reconnect your project files, to your project, you will lose track of the files or worse, lose them altogether.
The Adobe Premiere Desktop in A-B Roll Format
For this course we are going to use the A-B Roll Format for setting our desktop.
The Story behind A-B Roll Terminology
A-B roll is the traditional editing format whose legacy is based in the age of multi-playback machine editing. This interface design was carried through to modern, non-linear editing software so the terminology and the editing environment would be somewhat familiar and comfortable to traditional film and video editors.
The A- and B-roll refers to the entire process from start to finish. The camera crew would shoot its main footage on a film reel or cassette called the “A-roll” and secondary footage on a separate reel or “B-roll” to help illustrate the story or depict what someone on the A-roll sound track is talking about. So that the viewer wouldn’t have to see a talking head for too long a period of time, the B-roll served to provide imagery the editor could cut away to while preserving the sound track from the A-roll. This is called an “insert edit.”
In the editing suite, the A roll would be loaded on one machine, and the B-roll loaded on a second machine. A third recording device would be used to create an edit master of the program being created.
1.
Project Bin: The project bin contains all of the assets that you will use to create your program. This includes
a.
Video Clips in AVI format
b.
Graphics and Text Graphics in JPG or onboard text editor format
c.
Music in WAV or MP3 format
d.
Animations in AVI format
2.
Source Monitor: The monitor in which you view and edit your clips, otherwise known as trimming before you place the clip on the timeline. In Adobe Premiere, you can select just the video track or audio track to bring down to the project timeline.
3.
Project or Program Monitor: It’s right next to the Source Monitor. It shows your project as it takes shape on the timeline.
4.
Project Timeline: This is the heart of Premiere. It’s where you assemble your project. You trim your clips in the source window, and using your mouse, drag and drop them on any of the video or audio tracks of the Project Timeline. There are also additional video and audio tracks, and you can add or subtract them using a add track or remove track command. There is also a Special Effects track between the Audio A and B tracks. This enables you to drag and drop transitions (such as dissolves, fades, tumbles, wipes, etc.) between two overlapping tracks on the timeline. Also on the timeline, you have the ability to control volume on the audio track and opacity on the video tracks using rubber band tools that contain vectors that can move the rubber band up or down on the track.
5.
Effects Menu: This menu contains the effects and filters for your video and audio clips on the timeline. When you add an effect or filter, your Effects Control Panel contains specific controls that change the characteristics of the effect or filter you applied.
6.
Effects Control Panel: This menu appears when you add a special effect filter, transition and what have you. It allows you to have variable controls over effects and filters you apply.
Learning Objectives Set #4
We edit our projects in Adobe Premiere
Learning objectives of these classes: Students will have the opportunity to edit their own video portrait of themselves. They must contain the following effects available in Premiere: A fade in at the beginning, a dissolve between clips, A-Roll cutaway to B-Roll clip but using the A-Roll Sound track, a special effects transition of your choice, and a fade out. Total time of the segment should not exceed one minute.
Steps to completing this Lesson:
The Capturing Process
1.
Launch Adobe Premiere and choose NTCS Video in the Project Settings Window and 48 kHz Audio. Then, immediately open your Preferences Menu.
2.
In the Preferences Menu, choose Scratch Disk. Click the Browse button and choose your directory on the M-Drive. If there isn’t an appropriate personal directory, create one.
3.
To capture the footage from the camera through the 1394 (FireWire) port, click on Movie Capture in the File Menu. Make sure you have device control. The camera should be turned on and appropriately connected.
4.
Device controls at the bottom of the screen should reflect the device control on the deck or camera. You have Play, Stop, Pause, Fast Forward, Frame Forward, Fast Reverse and Frame Reverse. But your most critical button you need to know now is the Record Button. The color of it is red.
5.
You will click the Play button to play the tape on the camera. You will click the record button to capture the footage on the camera and transfer it to your hard drive directory.
6.
When you’ve clicked the stop button to cease recording, a menu pops up to enable you to save your clip to your Project Bin. Give your clip a name and begin the file name with the following numerical code: 001(name of clip). Your next clips will be numbered 002, 003, 004, etc. This will keep your clips in sequence so you can easily find a clip later. Failure to do this causes the program to order the clips any way it chooses by the names you’ve given the clips files. That’s typically alphabetical.
7.
Continue with this portion of the project until your clips are saved in your bin.
The Editing Process
1.
You have successfully captured your source clips, now give your project a name by choosing Save As from the File Menu. Save your project to your M-Drive Directory.
2.
The Premiere Workflow is as follows: From the production bin, drag and drop your source clip into the Source Monitor window. There you will see the entire clip with its own timeline. Use the IN and OUT marks to set a beginning and end point on the source clip’s timeline. Once you’ve made this decision, go on to the next step.
3.
Drag your trimmed clip to the Project Timeline. Drag and drop the video onto Track #1. Notice how the audio portion of the clip automatically appears on the Audio Track #1 below. These files are linked so voice and sound will synchronize with the action.
4.
Edit and drop your next video clip to the Project Timeline and it will snap to a point right behind the previously placed clip on Video Track #1.
5.
Click on the ENTER key on your keyboard which will do two things: render the video edit and begin playing your project from the timeline. Since a straight edit, which you just performed with two adjoining clips on the Project Timeline, no processor rendering is required, and the project will play immediately.
6.
Now, move your second clip from Video Track #2 to Video Track #1B. Overlap the tracks slightly be perhaps one to two seconds on the timeline.
7.
Note the Transition Track that is between Video Tracks #1A and #1B. This track is designated for a transition of your choice. A transition is a special effect… anything from a simple dissolve to a 3-D edit like a “tumble away,” “curtain,” “click wipe.” Go to the Transition Menu and choose a video transition from the menu (be creative and choose any transition you wish). Drag and drop the transition on the Transition Track between Video Tracks #1A and #1B in space where the two tracks overlap on the project timeline.
8.
Make sure the transition you choose and drag to the Transition Track between 1A and 1B covers the amount of time within the two track’s overlap space on the timeline. Click on the Enter key on your keyboard. This will start the brief rendering process that creates the transition and saves this file to your scratch directory on the hard drive that is storing your project.
9.
Once the rendering is complete, the program will begin to play automatically within the project’s work area and you can see how your edit looks in the Project Monitor.
Learning Objectives Set #5
We complete project’s edit phase and prepare our projects for saving to tape, CD-ROM or deployment on the Web…
Learning objectives of this class: Students must complete their segments and seek approval from the instructor before proceeding to the next step which includes saving and optimizing their video clips for deployment on the Web. The students will learn the following features of Adobe Premiere:
elcome to my world... Gary Olsen's Basic Video & Audio Production Course at Clarke College. This is a combination field videography class and nonlinear multimedia (that includes video and audio) editing class. In simple terms, at the completion of the course, you will know how to gather and capture video and audio in the field, download the digital images and sounds to your computer where you will be able to edit these assets into a cohesive, storytelling format. Plus, you'll learn how to optimize and compress your video project to play on the Internet
The site is festooned with buttons and labels which clearly mark multimedia content. There are instructions on every page that contains video or audio content which allows visitors to download the appropriate software so they can enjoy this content.
