Task 2 - Be able to prepare moving image material for editing

Preparation Techniques:

Checking material for faults: before the start of any edit, you'll need to check to ensure that any of the actual material for any issues and damage. This is required to spot any faults early to avoid problems when the time comes to edit for a project.

Faults can include: erosion, damage to tape (Wearing around the edges and scratches)

Synchronizing Rushes: Being able to line up audio and video can be rather difficult because you need to get it to line up perfectly otherwise your edit will come out looking like a shoddy job, unnatural or maybe even both. So it's vital that something to make this job easier would be advisable. The most used way of doing this that every film and tv industry would be to acquire a Clapper Board. These are primarily used to fix the issue that I mention earlier. The clapper board creates a 'clap' like sound that'll be evident in the audio version of a scene while in the video equivalent; you'll see someone position the clapper board in front of the camera and slam to top half onto the bottom of the clapper board. It's this that you use to line up the 'clap' sound with the connection of the two halves of the clapper board. So issue avoided.

Producing a Rushes Log: A rushes log is used to informs film crews what is in need of being recorded and also what needs re-recording. These are a way of telling others of what they'll need to complete a project in terms of filming in case of the event of lack of footage or even damaged footage.

Marking up a script: Being able to mark up a script is not only good practice for voice actors/actresses but it's also great for delivering on a quality performance for either a project or a client. When given a script it's important to not only read through it but also to leave notes on certain words that need more emotion and directions on how to deliver particular lines.

Labelling tapes: Labelling tapes is ideal for an editor when sifting through material as it can save them time when looking for certain tapes. rather than sitting through an entire length of tape, by putting at the start; what scene, what take and who is in the scene can be one unnecessary task out of the way and the editor can carry on with their part of the job description. 

Storing tapes or film: This is vital to ensuring that the material that an editor is using or is planning to use later on is protected from the harsh elements of the outside so as to maintain the integrity of the material's condition. An ideal fashion to do this is to contain the material within a container (Hence the name) which can hold a roll of tape or film to hold them in a safe environment to be stored into an area i.e. a storage room where you can keep a collection of containers holding all your material.

Producing an edit decision list: or an EDL for short is a physical copy listing edits of clips complete with the order of reel and their timecodes to plan ahead of the final edits. These are used to write down what edits are to be carried out at what points and at what order clips are to be edited together before the actual final edit. This is especially useful as changes can be made along the way in case new shots are taken or if entire new scenes are introduced.

Creating Bins: The basics of creating bins is a terms used as a way to filter film and audio in sub categories as to ensure that an editor knows where to locate the material without having to waste time searching through a giant list comprising of film and audio. Being able to go into a bin labelled film and searching for a specific shot can save a considerable amount of time. 

Clarifying the purpose of the work with a client or director: Being able to continue with your work with as little stress is to ensure that your employer whether they're an actual client or your director is they are up to date with the progress with the project and that you're doing a good job. The last thing you want is having someone look down your neck and making as little progress as you would do if you had kept up to date.

Preparing to Edit:

Importing Clips: To prepare for editing, you'll first require the material you need to begin. Otherwise you're going nowhere. So to get a hold of your material, you'll need to import some of the material (Footage/Audio) that you or a team has taken straight from the storage device that it was contained in.

Bins: Now you'll need to allocate where your material will be placed so as to edit efficiently as possible i.e Footage Bin - where clips are placed, Audio Bin - where all audio based material is kept.

Timelines: Setting up timelines according to how your EDL tells you is important as you'll want to know how many slots in your timeline you'll require for both video and audio.

Storage and folder management: Being able to manage how you set up your storage is highly efficient as it can save you considerable amount of time if all your material is stored in allocated folders that are labelled correctly rather than everything being either scattered throughout unlabelled folders or are all in a data sea on one folder.

Online and Offline editing: 

Offline - This is a pre-production process where footage and audio are edited together without affecting the original material. This is where companies will have put together their first edit which is where this edit then goes over to the online editor.

Online - A post-production process where an online editor will obtain an offline version of the final edit which is where he/she will include additional effects, visual tweaks, filters and additional renders.

Formats: Once editing has finished the journey isn't over yet for there is one final step to take. The final export of the finished product. However with exporting there are a variety of different formats to export your project into, some of which are:

• MPEG - The most common and used in modern media
• AVCHD - Similar to MPEG however is best suited for HD exports onto DVD
• MOV - An extension of Apple's QuickTime Player which compacts video, audio and effects and text into one format that can be also be easily edited without any permanent changes to the original material.
• AVI - A slightly outdated format that's used to store video and audio and are supported by most smart TVs and Disc players.
• WMV - Is used to export video as a smaller file but at the cost at a lower quality. It is however supported by most applications and systems including Microsoft's Xbox 360 console

Resolution: Resolution is what dictates the overall quality in pixels and dimension of the final export. Most commonly written down as width x height as the dimension i.e. 1920 x 1080.