Studio Lesson: Editing Films and Sequences

During this week's studio lesson we went up to the editing suite where we were taught how to edit our film from the previous week's session into fluid, interesting and creative sequences.

The programme we used was Adobe Premiere, an editing software which will later become very familiar to us as we begin to make our Preliminary Task and Thriller sequences.

The first thing we learnt about the software is that each 'folder' is named a 'bin'; this is due to the fact that when the film industry first started, rolls of footage would originally have been kept in bins, and since then, the name has stuck. Similarly, the rolls of footage themselves were nicknamed 'rashers', and alike with the term 'bin', the name is still in use - meaning that all of our footage is referred to as rashers.

We were taught an important tip during the session, that our original footage should always remain sacred. This meant that should we want to edit or fiddle around with one of our rashers, we should first copy it, and then play with the copy, as to ensure that no original footage is perhaps unintentionally lost.

We were also advised that when we move camera angles and shots, we should do so during an action to make the transition as seamless as possible. For example, mid-wave or as someone is sitting down.

On the software, the left screen shows us what rasher we have chosen to edit, and the right screen shows us what our sequence looks like. The coloured strips below show how each rasher falls into place within our sequence, as well as the accompanying audio.

To the left of the screenshot, we can see all of our bins and the rashers within.

I found the lesson highly effective as it gave me a basic understanding of editing, which is obviously incredibly useful due to the fact this it is a tool I will be learning more and more about as the year goes on. I feel a lot more comfortable with how to navigate myself around Adobe Premiere's layout, and the odd tips here and there to teach us good practise early on will no doubt come in useful as we start to venture into the realm of making our Thriller sequences and Preliminary Tasks.