Primed for action replay

[Tami]

Since the advent of the multimedia PC and software to make use of dedicated hardware and hardware components, new methods of digital editing have given rise to opportunities for executing challenging and technically skilled tasks, that were once only the domain of a few seasoned experts. The most amazing role of computers has been in the animation and post production arenas.

Today, it just takes a well configured PC (or a Mac) with the right hardware, intelligently developed software and a shot of creativity to weave magic, nothing short of big post production houses and Hollywood dreamweavers...well almost.

Digital video editing and post production is the process of working with movie clips, captured from an outside film source (like VHS, Umatic or Beta tapes) and editing it, either by shortening length, sequencing (with frame-by-frame accuracy) and most important generating special effects, before transferring the finished movie clip back onto another media storage, tape or hard drive. Effects like the presidential handshake in the movie, ‘Forrest Gump’, doubles in the movie ‘Jeans’ and splendid effects in ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Matrix’ have all been achieved using high end techniques in post production and layer compositing. Incidentally the movie ‘Castaway’ has more than 300 shots involving computer graphics that run into 55 minutes, and the final effects were achieved courtesy inferno and flame (effects software) from Discreet.

Skill set

Almost anybody with a basic inclination towards motion graphics, visual effects and dabbling with video footage, can choose to embark on a career in digital video editing. Some of the most popular software used for digital video editing for the PC are

Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, SpeedRazor, Ulead MediaStudio Pro and application suites like Edit from Discreet

Logic. Experience with any of these will definitely prove beneficial. Since the job will involve digitizing clips onto the hard drive, prior knowledge of working with Betacam recorders and video capture cards like Perception and Miro would be preferred.

This skill can however be acquired on the job too.

Job Profile

An entry job does not equate to that of a full fledged editor, who may well be responsible for the entire post production and overseeing quality. We shall be looking at options in digital video editing that are timeline-based editing software solutions, rather than stand-alone equipment that offer hardware dedicated editing solutions.

Working on digital video can be quite time consuming for the novice and so a clear understanding of basic concepts such as time frames, compression factors, generation loss, data transfer rates etc. is essential. At the low end, an assistant to an editor will be working on capturing data from Beta Recorders and arranging frame-by-frame sequences in to one or more of the video layers appearing in the interface of the application. He/she will be involved in re-sequencing frames, cutting off unwanted portions of the digital capture, applying simple wipes and transitions and inserting titles. Experienced editors will also work on sound captured separately from an external source and synchronising it with the video or animation. Layering and using masks gives increased flexibility in adding and creating stunning effects. Techniques like chroma keying (setting a key colour transparency, to show the underlying image/video) are widely used to merge elements (mostly human) against a single green or blue background so as to have them appear on almost any background, shot somewhere else.

Scope & Career Prospects

Almost every television serial involves some amount of post-production. Titling, computer generated special effects and merging of live video are standard across all channels. From the early days of having just two channels to choose from, today the channel count has increased to more than 80, with at least two dozen home productions. Apart from serial producers, small budget filmmakers, documentary directors and music artistes are often on the lookout for new talent that will help them package their product in a better and impressive way. Animation studios channel and post production houses are ideal places to start a career in digital video editing.

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