Can I import movies from Itunes into FCP?

> He said my problem is not the 'storytelling' or the editing, it's the technical side of the editing
> process.

Interesting. If he's right, then you're in pretty good shape.
Most editing decisions come down to one thing: Motivation. And motivation is predominantly psychological, not visual. A cut point that fits the viewer's internal thought process is almost always far more important than a cut point that "looks pretty" (eg. perfect match action and continuity, fits the beat in the music).

So I'll put down one of my biggest maxims: "Cut with your head, not with your eyes".

Fast blitzes of action are not all that important. They're easy to cut because radical changes in angle tend to be forgiving in terms of axis, 2D and 3D continuity, etc. A dance sequence that doesn't use too many shots would be good practice for that kind of technique building -- eg. Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation".

This is another reason you shouldn't be editing pre-edited studio films, trailers, etc. The shots are already picked and diced, leaving you very few options and tying your hands. You need raw footage. So, find a local high school that's staging a musical, offer to shoot it and give students copies. Most people would jump at the chance to do something like that especially if they're already working on the routine anyway. Or, find a dance artist and do a free video for him/her.

> So I had a talk with my boyfriend and we'll see to buying a better camera as soon as possible.

Forget that. Image quality has nothing to do with editing technique. Save your money and wait to see what kind of equipment you need. Corbett's suggestion doesn't apply in the remotest way to someone who only wants to pursue editing. In fact, fancy equipment distracts from learning editing, because if the images look crisp, they serve to make you think you're doing better than you might really be. Some of the worst upstart editors become so because they started playing with toys (effects, titles, plugins, filters...) rather than working on how to use only cuts to put together a compelling piece. So at some point, they think "cuts are boring" and lose their sense of fundamentals. I've worked on plenty of projects that don't use a single effect; you will never find any piece that doesn't use well-positioned cuts.

Some professional editors don't even own a camera. They need to know how to shoot well generally, not own the very expensive equipment to actually do it.

Herzlichen GrüBen


www.derekmok.com

> Don't underestimate the value of shooting local sporting events.

Yes...with one caveat: Make sure it's an event where you can get closer. Basketball instead of soccer or football, for example. Or a karate demonstration instead of a swim meet. Because in sporting events, you are often restricted to doing things outside the medium-close range, which severely limits your shot selection, which restricts how much you can learn.


www.derekmok.com

Hi Derek,
that was my first thought concerning the sports event: I'm standing there 20 meters away from the action...
hm, there might be one thing I could do close at hand...my mom's a nurse and the oncology station would like a presention (for the patients) of the staff and the rooms and things like that. They can't afford anything right now but I could offer to make a 90 seconds thing or so.

It's funny that you mention the effects Derek cos in my first half year learning FCP I was all about effects and transitions...the result was a 'flashy something"...now I'm hardly using anything, let the cuts carry the action and my videos became much better.

My friend is working with a lot of editors naturally and he's never too optimistic or "oh you're so awesome' so I think he's telling me the truth. He wouldn't want me to waste time and money on something I'm not good at.
Though I have to admit that at some points I was close to quitting with it all because I know there're so many geniuses out there and on this board I could never compete with. But I just love it so much...

> hm, there might be one thing I could do close at hand...my mom's a nurse and the oncology
> station would like a presention (for the patients) of the staff and the rooms and things like that.
> They can't afford anything right now but I could offer to make a 90 seconds thing or so.

I don't think a project like that would contribute to the things you were talking about -- a presentation like that is likely to be very still cameras with minimal onscreen movement. So it's still "storytelling" editing with very few technical cuts to drill.

The video Jeff Harrell posted looks good, but it's an anomaly because they obviously designed the shots to go into one another like that. Which means they already pre-cut the piece at least when it comes to transitions from one to another. Plus, it's likely even the running time's been constricted, this being a commercial. In narrative editing, you're usually not looking at something that's so closely designed, and if a narrative scene were that closely designed (eg. The Sixth Sense), it doesn't really let the editor explore anything.

I think you should try shooting some scene studies. Find an acting class -- not a class for on-camera acting, but stage acting -- and shoot their scenes in a pure-coverage style. That way you get long takes with no predetermined cut points. Acting for the stage usually involves a lot more blocking, so that will allow you to work on cut points, 2D and 3D continuity, etc.

And you can cut multiple versions, then find a way to determine why one version's better than another overall, why one bad version has a good element that you should incorporate into a better version.


www.derekmok.com

oh, you mean I should once sit in the audience for the master, then change angles, e.g. going onto the stage filming from behind or making CUs of the actors, right?
yeah, I wouldn't be able to that for that oncology presentation.

> oh, you mean I should once sit in the audience for the master, then change angles, e.g. going
> onto the stage filming from behind or making CUs of the actors, right?

You could, but even though they block for a stage -- often proscenium -- it doesn't mean you have to shoot their scene onstage. Nobody says you can't use their blocking approach (lots of movement for theatre) but shoot them in a real location.

The main thing I'm suggesting is that, to drill editing technique, it's best if you're not shooting a documentary where events only happen once. Multi-angularity is what you need, so that your decisions are about why you want to play a certain acting beat in a wide rather than a close-up, and how you get to that wide from the dirty two-shot before it.


www.derekmok.com

>He said my problem is not the 'storytelling' or the editing, it's the technical side of the editing
>process.

That's a surprise, I always think that for most editors, one can never learn enough of storytelling. There are so many ways of approaching a story. Who to reveal and when, who's story is it, do you tell the story linearly, what are the thoughts going through the character's mind at that point of the scene? Do you repeat the action? Why? Is there an undertone to the dialogue? What's the decisive moment?

A handycam is good enough to work with to get some of the basic shots. Hell, even a still camera as I mentioned- the decisive moment, framing, DOF, separation of subject, etc.

Yea, you won't gain much editing already edited footage. You don't have handles, you don't have access to the rushes with all the available shots... But speaking of which, i wonder if anyone has the rushes to the highlander uncut...

[www.scottsimmons.tv]



www.strypesinpost.com

Don't let this topic be the beginner of a fight guys! please!

>He said my problem is not the 'storytelling' or the editing, it's the technical side of the editing
>process.

<That's a surprise, I always think that for most editors, one can never learn enough of storytelling.>

Well, that doesn't mean I can stop learning about it but storytelling just isn't my problem, I've always been good at that. And also it's different when you're editing trailers...my friend only watched my music videos and trailers...so don't confuse that.
I pick on a specific mood or problem or character and studio will tell you how much screen time an actor will have to have anyway...until then I enjoy the freedom to decide who to put in and who not or on what I'll concentrate.

And hey, I still agree that I should start my my own little projects. So calm down folks, have a smoke

> it's different when you're editing trailers...my friend only watched my music videos and trailers...

If you feel like, you could post some links to the works you showed in the Show and Tell forum. Different people often have different ideas about "technical editing" -- for example, some people think an edit's bad as long as the cuts don't fall on the beat. You may get different takes on your work here. Who knows, maybe we'll find nothing wrong with any of it.


www.derekmok.com

Derek, I'd love to and believe it I considered it a couple of times but since it's ripped material of stuff I bought though but I don't know if this forum allows me to post the link. I'd love to hear more oppions...
One guy lately told me that my stuff is more like a "mood-board"...well, I almost consider this a compliment since so many trailers try to pull off a message and can't.

> One guy lately told me that my stuff is more like a "mood-board"

Trailers are tricky. I'm comfortable with a myriad of genres -- drama, action, suspense, music video, promos, commercials -- but I've always been a bit off on trailers because they're supposed to be so formulaic.

> since it's ripped material of stuff I bought though but I don't know if this forum allows me to post
> the link.

Unfortunately, then, no -- not a good idea to post on here if you don't have permission to show this stuff. So you don't have any other original material?


www.derekmok.com

No just the stuff about my bunnies...but I didn't spent too much time on that.

> No just the stuff about my bunnies...but I didn't spent too much time on that.

Then shoot your own material and think creatively. It doesn't matter one whiff that you're using a small DV camera. Unless you're spending thousands and thousands of dollars, at this level creativity and freshness matter a lot more than money and camera quality.

If you can come up with one piece that's like the OK Go "treadmill" dance, you're home free.

Shoot with your own camera, and get free talent. The less you have to worry about shooting fast and spending money, the more likely you'll take risks and come up with something interestng.

And start putting feelers out for people who are willing to put their project -- concert video, music video, scene study, student film -- in your hands. That's how I built up my narrative chops, by editing other people's films and fixing them up.


www.derekmok.com

Call me crazy, but ? I happen to like bunnies. I'd watch a short film about bunnies.

Heck, I just watched a seven-minute segment on the Science Channel about how pushbrooms are made.

> I happen to like bunnies. I'd watch a short film about bunnies.

Who doesn't like bunnies?





Which leads me to think, Katrin's bunnies could make a very interesting short with some well-written voice-over.


www.derekmok.com

Oh, heck yeah. I agree completely. I'm a big fan of Kenn Bell's "The Dog Files," not because it's high art, but because it's usually generally pretty well put together, and I happen to like dogs.

Also hedgehogs eating carrots.

im down for a bunny show!

The one is sad...I made it when my bunny girl Eddi died last summer. The other one is funny but...I hardly dare saying it: both are with music I don't own. Can I still upload it on youtube and mail you the link? Or is it the same with music as with movies? I'd have to recut it then first and look for some Apple loops I could throw together.
But I'll upload a short one first, I think you'll have a laugh...I made it when my baby bunny Betty was only 10 weeks old and she sticks out her tongue.

Yes its the same for any copyrighted creation....

You can use any of the royalty free music that comes with Soundtrack or Garageband.

Sorry to read about your bunny - I wish I'd made some video of my cat. She lived til she was 20 and was soooooo beautiful!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

hey Ben,
thanks and sorry about your cat too. they're great partners and lots of fun but when they go it's hell...
anyway...I'll try to figure something out about the music. Meanwhile and just for fun here's the very short movie about Betty's tongue:

> Or is it the same with music as with movies? I'd have to recut it then first and look for some
> Apple loops I could throw together.

Here's something I always suggest: If you replace the music on an edit and all your cuts are now off, then it was probably cut too closely to music to begin with.

Is it possible that this was what your friend was talking about? It's a common thing, that some people think they have to cut the images dead to music. What results is that many shots become truncated, cut off too soon for the sake of hitting the beat with the cut, when what would work better is letting the onscreen movement hit the beat.

Try cutting the piece with no music at all. Internalize a certain rhythm -- the rhythm of the general kind of music you think you'll be using. Then find the right music (composer, Soundtrack...) and lay it on top. More often than not, the music finds its own sync points, and then you edit the music to fit the image, much more so than the other way around.


www.derekmok.com

that's a great tip Derek, thanks. I never tried it that way.
It'll take me over the weekend I think. Today I have to capture and edit something else...just came in.
No, what my friend meant is that I obviously don't know as much about aspect ratio, correct capturing, exporting and things like that. things you cannot really learn from books but from experience. maybe you remember when I asked here about my crappy titles...that's one example. after I figured it out with your help I was able to go back to my other projects and correct the mistakes I never realized before.

> No, what my friend meant is that I obviously don't know as much about aspect ratio, correct
> capturing, exporting and things like that.

Oh...there's a huge difference. He means post-production and assistant-editing work. "Technical editing", to my ear, would refer more to how two shots interact, matching action, matching speeds, placement of dissolves, etc.

In that case, you won't really get that from working on your own material. Best way to get a sense of that is to work for a post-production facility. Or by doing tons of reading and research.


www.derekmok.com

oh, so that means we talked cross-purposes! sorry, my English is pretty good most of the time...but sometimes I just don't get it right.
But you're right, that's what he meant! That's why he offered to help me get an internship as assistant editor first...when we move to L.A.

grafixjoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I never said that. I explicitly said COPYING
> COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL is COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.
> Simple & clear.

But copying copyrighted material is *not* an inherent infringement. The 'BetaMax Case' from the 80's and the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 make things like recording TV for later viewing or copying music from your CDs onto your computer perfectly legal for private use. And as Jeff said there is the legal doctrine of Fair Use which gives people the right to use copyrighted material in a few limited scenarios such as for education, news, analysis and criticism, etc.,.


-Andrew

Quote
both are with music I don't own. Can I still upload it on youtube and mail you the link? Or is it the same with music as with movies?

yeah, its the same. but at some point you have to think realistically. there are a million "john-q-publics" out there who post their doofy little moves on youtube every day and a vast number of them are using copyrighted music illegally. are there battalions of attorneys knocking on all their doors? nope. not to say that there arent a few (especially if the video goes mega-viral) that do get sued. but more often, the worst you'll get is a cease and desist letter

at the end of the day as long as youre not expecting a huge public audience "no cop, no stop" is often the mantra of the moment.

not to say that i support this logic. its just the way it is

I love threads like this. It's always fun to get Derek charged up enough to give lessons on editing artistry. As well as everyone else.

Scott

I'm probably not long enough here to understand what you're talking about...

There is some nice footage you can have a play with here :

[cutyourownscene.com]

oh cool, thanks Jude