Editing Rule No. #123

[ConnersCraft]

A re-shoot is always better than fixing it with editing. I learned that the hard way on videos in the past. Now, as soon as I finish filming the first thing I do is watch through the clips in full resolution on my computer, before I even copy them onto my hard drive.

Also, colour correction is better pre-production than post-production, you preserve shadows, highlights and lowlights better. Most cameras have colour correction built in, make sure to tweak those settings.

If you don't have a tripod, zoom out a little bit before shooting, so when you stabilize the footage you can zoom in and hide the ugly edges. A table or even a surface to lean on is very helpful when you don't have a tripod.

Don't expect to enlarge the footage in the editor. You obviously loose sharpness and makes the footage look amateur in some ways (only for excessive zooming). Try your best to do as much zooming (optical zoom, not digital) while shooting. A little bit of zooming in the editor is fine, just make sure it does not look pixelated. On a side note, the new galaxy note 3 can do full 4k video @30FPS, meaning 3840 x2160. I guess you could zoom into footage shot with this, since you will have to zoom a bit before your resolution dips below 1080p

Make sure your lighting is consistent. Especially if you are using effects, good, consistent lighting will ensure they look good. Re-shoot for better lighting, don't try to add lighting in the editor, it is not as good.

That's all I got. This is from experience, and its always better to learn from others' mistakes than your own

I have a few problems with this but great post overall. First, yes you should set your colors correctly while shooting, but you need to edit this in post as well. This is not color correction but color grading. You can change the entire feel of a film this way, and it cannot be done efficently on set. Next, zooming out will not help you stabalize later, because optical zoom does not effect the picture quality. As for enlarging footage, i always say 15% most in the editor give or take 5% based on your camera. I totally agree on the lighting thing though. Adding light in the editor looks horrible. Taking it away is OK sometimes but never try to add light. I am also skeptical about a phone with 4k resolution. I have a feeling they are just adding extranious pixels to make it sound better to buyers. I have never used one so I cannot be sure on that one though.

 

[Brodie]

You're totally right. If it don't look right, it has to be done again.
My earlier videos didn't use this rule and damn they're ugly.
I also didn't have a tripod so that is my excuse though haha.

same, before I did this my videos were waay out of time and that![DOUBLEPOST=1379758887,1379758793][/DOUBLEPOST]

Agreed. If it looks bad to you in the editor, most likely you broke the 180, had a change in lighting, made the cut at the wrong place, etc

well, it's not a rule really, it's a guideline, you can break it, if you do a close up first then you can cut round the 180 and you can do it by taking the camera and showing the audience moving around it [DOUBLEPOST=1379759122][/DOUBLEPOST]

I have a few problems with this but great post overall. First, yes you should set your colors correctly while shooting, but you need to edit this in post as well. This is not color correction but color grading. You can change the entire feel of a film this way, and it cannot be done efficently on set. Next, zooming out will not help you stabalize later, because optical zoom does not effect the picture quality. As for enlarging footage, i always say 15% most in the editor give or take 5% based on your camera. I totally agree on the lighting thing though. Adding light in the editor looks horrible. Taking it away is OK sometimes but never try to add light. I am also skeptical about a phone with 4k resolution. I have a feeling they are just adding extranious pixels to make it sound better to buyers. I have never used one so I cannot be sure on that one though.

mmm yeah, a phone with 4k resolution isn't exactly a breakthrough, I mean, imagine editing that, it would be hell! People don't have 4k monitors (or not many) and unless it's a good lens the extra pixels aren't much if you get what I mean

 

[CramBoom]

I have a few problems with this but great post overall. First, yes you should set your colors correctly while shooting, but you need to edit this in post as well. This is not color correction but color grading. You can change the entire feel of a film this way, and it cannot be done efficently on set. Next, zooming out will not help you stabalize later, because optical zoom does not effect the picture quality. As for enlarging footage, i always say 15% most in the editor give or take 5% based on your camera. I totally agree on the lighting thing though. Adding light in the editor looks horrible. Taking it away is OK sometimes but never try to add light. I am also skeptical about a phone with 4k resolution. I have a feeling they are just adding extranious pixels to make it sound better to buyers. I have never used one so I cannot be sure on that one though.

Your first point is true, you can only colour grading in your editor, that slipped my mind

For the zooming, in AE when you use warp stabilize, it takes away a little bit on the edges of your video. If you know this you can compensate for it by zooming out. That way you don't have to synthesize the edges, which makes it look worse, and you still have all your subjects in your footage, nobody/ nothing gets cut out

The Note 3 (4K Phone): The quality isn't actually that bad. there are samples on YouTube. Not DSLR quality of course, but miles ahead of its competition. Usually a DSLR would be a better choice, but if you have that phone, you could try it. But the one buzz-kill is that it doesn't have optical image stabilization, like the Lumia 1020 does.

Thanks for pointing out some things for me to elaborate, things like that always slip my mind

 

[ConnersCraft]

mmm yeah, a phone with 4k resolution isn't exactly a breakthrough, I mean, imagine editing that, it would be hell! People don't have 4k monitors (or not many) and unless it's a good lens the extra pixels aren't much if you get what I mean

Well i can tell you this. I have used the Black Magic 4k camera a good ammount recently, and no phone will have the power for years. It would kill your hard drive space also. There is more to a nice camera than pixel counts. And I said that the 180 was a rule, because this thread was intended for beginning editors. You should act like it is a rule when you are beginning.