Edit Suite: Linear Editing: Ten Tips for Success (page 2)

Even if you don't have a special effects generator, you can still punctuate transitions between sequences with visual effects. The easiest one is a freeze frame--if you have a source deck or camcorder with a rock-solid Pause function. At the outpoint of the last shot in a sequence, hit Pause on the source deck and leave it for a second or two. Then continue assembling your program as before. That's all there is to it.

Another transition that requires some preparation is the swish pan (also called a "flick pan" and several other names). Wherever you happen to be shooting, put the camera on a tripod, frame a shot aimed as far to the left as you can reach, roll tape, then pan the camera as fast as you can and as far as possible to the right (try for 180 degrees).

The trick is to lay just the whipping blur part between the end of one sequence and the start of the next, for a stylish transition.

The buttons labeled Video Insert (replace picture but not sound) and Audio Insert (replace sound but leave picture) are so important that it's difficult to truly edit without them.

Audio Inserting (also referred to as Audio Dubbing) lets you replace production sound with music, narration or (with a mixer and a little practice) both. You can also use it to get rid of unwanted sounds like on-camera directions ("Okay, Billy; wave at the camera; wave at the...aw, c'mon, Billy!"). The trick is to record several minutes of background noise (birds, traffic, surf, furnace fan, etc.) to dub in place of unwanted sections of sound track.

Inserting video while leaving the audio is equally powerful. You can use it to insert a cutaway into a shot while the master audio continues (like a closeup of a coach reacting in the middle of a fifty-yard run, for example).

A/X editing means faux A/B-roll editing when you don't have a second source deck to play the B roll. To practice A/X editing, you need a special effects switcher with two channels and the ability to capture stills from a stream of video.

Start by transferring the last shot in a sequence, pressing the Still (or Freeze) button on the special effects generator at the out point. Then, with the still frame held on one channel of the mixer, cable or switch the next shot to the other channel.

Now, set the assembly tape on exactly the first frame of the freeze and go into Record/Pause. Feed the mixer channel with the still frame to the record deck. Roll source and assembly decks in your usual way and immediately dissolve or wipe to the channel with the live action. If you time it right, you'll appear to dissolve from one moving shot to another.

• Digg This!
• del.icio.us
• Technorati
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit