1-10-06
Book: no required, In the Blink of an Eye
AVID Media Composer: Holy Grail of digital editing
NO DIFFERENCE between Mac and PC
3 levels of editing software
-1: Consumer: Movie Maker (Little to no f/x), iMovie—very easy
cuts are the basics
-2: Prosumer: $500-$3,000
6 things we care about:
AVID Xpress Pro
Final Cut Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Pinnacle Liquid Pro (bought buy AVID)
Sony Vegas
Canopus Edius
-3: Professional:
AVID Symphony (95% feature films done on Symphony and Nitris, 90%
of commercials and tv show, 85% of music videos)
AVID Nitris
AVID Media Composer
Discreet: Smoke, Flame, Inferno
First 2 Chapters read and questions answered
1-17-06
David:
M: 11am-2pm, 3:30pm-4:30pm
T: 12-2
W: 10-2
F: 12:30-2:15
Magic Lantern: 1645
-inventor unknown
-light projected through glass and lens
-levers, spinning discs, multiple lanterns
sometime in the next week, need to do questions for 4 and 5, and labs for 1 and 2
Fat 32 and NTFS, must do NTFS for this class
Edison-Kinetoscope/Kinetographs
Kineto meaning movement and scopos meaning to watch
1891: 18mm film
1893L 35mm film, 50’ spool, 1 minute show
Auguste and Louie Lumiere
12-28-1895, “Le Cinematographe”
Moviola (1924)
Iwan and Mark Serruier (father/son)
Structural engineers, thought to design “home projector system” to rival Victrola
Visited Fairbank Studio, struck a deal with editors, first editing machine born
Steenbeck: multiple real player, preview, program, editor from the 40s-80s
George Melies (1861-1938)
Cinderella (1899), 7 minutes, 20 scenes
A Trip to the Moon (1902) 14 minutes, 30 scenes
Edison: Invention of Movies
Edwin S Porter, 1870-1941
Life of an American Fireman (1902)- first real edited film, has a narrative, live shots of a
real fire, combined with fireman on a stage.
6 minutes, 20 shots
Great Train Robbery (1903)- it isn’t real-time, first lapse in time in terms of editing
12 minutes, 14 shots
DW Griffith (1875-1948)
Birth of a Nation-1915
12 reels, 2 hours, 1544 shots
Intolerance (1916)
4 stories intercut
Broken Blossoms (1919)
East meets west
VI Pudovkin (1893-1953)
Chess Fever (1925)
Mother (1926)
The End of St. Petersburg (1927)
Experiments: actor/soup on table, actor/coffin with woman, actor/child playing—actor’s
expression never changed, but people thought the char was different. It’s all about
emotions
Sergei Eisenstien (1898-1948): invented the theories of montage
Strike (1924)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
October (1927)
Theories of Montage:
Metric Montage: length of shots relative to one another. Regardless of content, shortening
of a shot decreases the amount of time, the viewer has to process the information in the
shot. The result is heightened tension and intensity of a scene.
Rhythmic Montage- continuity arising from the visual pattern within a shot.
Matching action-useable for creating conflict by offsetting
opposing forces in framing
Tonal montage-establishes emotional character of a scene by varying the sequence of
shots as to establish a specific tone or mood
Overtonal Montage- interplay of rhythmic, metric, and tonal montage to fully develop a
scene. Speaks to the message of the scene.
Intellectual montage: introduction of ideas into emotionally charged sequences
Project: tell a story using clips, no narrative
1912- first trailer, supposedly just played the first reel from next week’s film
1916-studios start slapping trailers in
ask ourselves constantly “when, why”
Luis Bunuel (1900-1983)
Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
-visual discontinuity/surrealism
Un Chien d’Andalou (1929)
-An Andalusian Dog
L’Age d’Or (1930)
-The Golden Age
Dziga Vertoz (1896-1954)
The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
-cinema verte: take exactly what’s in life, edit very litte
Enthusiasm (1931)
-realism (realistic, what would happen)
-naturalism (natural, what did happen)
Alexander Dovzhenko
Arsenal (1928)
-death, film
Earth (1930)
-editing by visual association
-visual poetry
Computer: tlt04, Dongle 15
1-24-06
I-mark in
O-mark out
G-clears both points
Absolute time code: length from left
Remaining: amount remaining to right
Master: time code on the timeline
J: play back
K: Pause
L: play forward
Q: go in
W: go out
Shortcut keys are exam fodder
(Yellow) Extract/splice: change overall length of time line
(Red) Life/overwrite: don’t
up/down on the keypad zooms in/out on the timeine
2 blue lines: duration of 1 frame
ctrl-y: new video track
ctrl-u: new audio track
clip windows shows several keyboard shortcuts
shift-ctrl-n: new sequence
drag sequence to monitor to get it in the timeline
if you drag a sequence down to the timeline when a sequence is open, it will add it to the
sequence, not open it
segment mode grab clips and moves them around
splicing in filler/slug:
clip-load filler
color bars, SMPTE bars in Test_Patterns
sub-clipping:
organizational tool, sub-clipping out a big clip, like if you batch-capture a tape
next week:
Hitchcock
Exercises chapter 3 and labs chapter 3
Alt-click-drag makes a subclip
Single-roller trim: one roll does something, adding to one clip subtracts from another
Double: each roll does something, doesn’t effect length
Always:
Make sure the file is on your HD and then e-mail yourself a copy of the file
Avid Attic has a copy of open bins
Can take the bin files out, rename then .avb, you get an older copy of the bin
www.avid.com
www.videoguys.com
1-31-06
Oscars.com gives everything we need to know for paper
First project:
Montage edit:
Have to tell a story
3-5 minutes
we pick music/footage
2 weeks to do edit
The Jazz Singer- 1927, first movie with sound
1929-Hitchcock in London, he was an apprentice. Did Blackmail, first real link between
sex and violence, re-shot/edited some pieces with sound
Hitchcock: 1899-1980
1919-illustrator in London, wrote title cards for silent film
did an apprentice program to get into the studios, work way up to a producer
1927-The Lodger, first feature, he was a tool, then became cool afterwards
1929-Blackmail-first overdubbing
40s-started doing off angle shots and stuff, got more daring
1948-Rope, tried to fake one shot, pushes in on dark spot, pulls out on dark spot, pans, etc
macguffin: forces the characters to do something, has no other point
TV:
1955-1962: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 268 episodes
1962-1925: Alfred Hitchcock Hour, 93 episodes
psycho scene: quick static shots, no motion
suspenseful edit:
no dialogue (something else to focus on)
don’t linger on a shot, not enough to focus on
close-ups followed by an action shot, false sense of security
music- visual linked to hearing
no music in crop duster scene from North by Northwest, only uses sound of plane to
rise/fall
Avid:
Topmost track enables everything below it
Capslock-scrub audio
Dots:
Blue: will never play
Green: sometimes play, real-time effect
Orange: real time, never render
Montages:
Cuts, occasionally a dissolve
Next week:
Lab 6, read over lab
2-7-06
1981-Video Killed the Radio Star, MTV
1939-Wizard of Oz
MTV Style:
Quick edits
Jump Cuts
Anti-Narrative (without a story, series of visuals)
Emotion-Music------------------- cool
Mix/fade/dissolve (all mean same thing)
Wipe
Push
Slide
Capturing:
Ctrl+7: capture tool
Trash-can=abort
Tape name must be unique since you’re gonna take it on and offline all the time
Leave custom preroll in case your videographer sucks
Comments show up in script view
Bold=drive with the most space
EDL-editing decision list
Log Footage-timecode start/end
MOS-German for without sound
Paperwork for Loging
Batch capture records your set points
You can set in point or just out point and it’ll
Turning timecode and as long as there’a control track, it’ll capture. Makes up timecode
from CPU clock
Control track The magnetized portion along the length of a videotape on which
synchronous control information is placed; the control track contains a pulse for each
video field and is used to synchronize the tape and the video signal. [After Silicon]
Supposed to switch Lab 5 and 6
Capturing Ch 9
Next Week: Ch 9, Ch 7
Week After: Ch 8
8th week: graphics, HW 7: Ch 11
9th week: Effects Part 1 (not in book, HW from Bobby)
10th week: HW 9: Ch 10 & 12
11 week: Other software, HW 10 from Bobby
12 Week: color correction, HW 11 from Bobby
13 week: It’s done: Bobby gone, Mastering/DVD: HW 12: half handout from Bobby
other half from last chapter in the book, creating a digital cut
14: Real world, no HW
15: work
16: Viewing
today is week 5
First project:
Montage, 3-7 minutes, EDL to turn in,
Due 8th week, 2-28, that day we’ll get our second project assigned, 30 second
commercial
Audio portion 2-21
10th week: Project 2 is due. Project 3 is assigned. 3 weeks to do that
16th week: everything is due on a DVD and everything
Audio bit rates: 32k, 41k, 48k (cd quality)
Do exercises for rest of class
Only difference between DV and DVCam is how wide they write the track
DV LP is more compressed than DV SP and the others
Regsvr32 DVBuffers.ax
2-14-06
digital video
Digital Intermediary (DI): process negatives and then scan the film.
A lot of post houses have film put in DigiBeta
Jason X was first film that was entirely digitized. Loaned drives from Lucas
3 movies are made on every film: movie you write, movie you shoot, and the movie you
edit
in editing room: editor’s cut, director’s cut, final cut
good director vs great director: director can edit
Distribution:
Different film stocks from different companies look different, can’t match them
Digital eliminates this
No degradation in this, but film masters suffer from this
HDV or HDCam, there’s still compressions
Film loses quality over playing it in the theatre
In our lifetime, we’ll see digital distribution
Texas Instruments wants this.
West side of Chicago has a truly digital theatre
Every phase of filmmaking has money to be saved by going digital
DVD: fastest growing medium ever
HD-DVD or Blueray:
HD-DVD is Toshiba-NEC, Blueray is Sony, both use a blue laser
Microsoft: HD-DVD (won’t support Blueray, due to tradelaws they can’t not support
Blueray, there’s currently no windows dvd codec, have to get a 3rd party.)
PS3-Blueray
Codec-coder/decoder
Windows will inherently support HD-DVD, but you can just get a 3rd party app to play
Blueray
Nintendo freaked about Dreamcast, went to Sony, then decided they didn’t need the disc
player, Sony made it and it was the playstation
6 big studios:
Sony (Columbia Tri-Star, MGM)-B
Paramount-both
Universal-HD
Time Warner (WB and New Line)-both
Disney-B
Fox-B
Big things for merger of Pixar/Disney:
No toy story 3
No cheapquels
More handdrawn
Future: HD-DVD is the first one to come out, Harry Potter is first HD-DVD to come out
Toshiba already has 2 players coming out, they’re like $400-$2000
2-28-06
TV, net: 72dpi
Printing, 300…maybe 150
720x480 is DV standard
720x540 is output for TV
edit-ntsc square
name, name of class, name of project, trt
720x480, tiff, alpa channel where countdown will be
3-7-06
30 second commercial
1 graphic element
due week after spring break
chapters 10 and 12 due in the book
and countdown slate (30 second countdown, first 20 seconds-bars and 1k tone at 0 level,
and then 10 second count down, 10-3 and not 2 and not 1, 2 seconds of black)
slate:
name
class-year
project
TRT: 00;00;30;00
Due-Date
Make same slate for piece we’re doing right now
Have first 2 projects on a tape next time, and finally have all 3
EDL-due for second project
3-28-06
any time in the next 3 weeks, bring out completed templates to Bobby on 3rd floor
we get 2 inserts and 4 discs to burn to
horizontal: does transitions, vertical: effects video, stacks
only 4 off-the shelf you should use:
difference between dissolve and film dissolve is math, dissolve does percent, film
dissolve calculates via luminence
dots:
if there’s a dot, needs to be rendered
blue: non-realtimeable
orange: never have to render
green: based on math, sometimes plays, sometimes doesn’t
alt+click lets you move a keyframe
.avx are avid plugins
use resize and kick it up a few notches so all footage from different decks matches
just put superimpose on top track and render that, Avid will render that and just do
everything below that
18th for 3rd projects, 11th will be 10 of us
Im the 18th
4-4-06
Q and Danny’s weekend
BL has never tried cocaine
Class record:
It made sense to Danny
We all looked at Chris’ thing on the text and it was good.
If we have book things, forget the schedule, just do it and turn it all in now!
Q’s thing:
BL says he should know better.
Paradise Now:
Kevin did an excellent job.
Only thing that remains is to quote the meanings of the film.
BL thinks the meaning is in the title.
What does Paradise mean?
Kevin things title is reference to Paradise Lost
I think title is reference to idea of getting to paradise
Perhaps death is the only way to get away from the living hell in which t hey live. It’s not
just the theological concept of paradise, it’s a literal truth. Push the button, poof, you’re
gone from the plane.
Carrie: it’s an example of how desperate they are, they need paradise NOW.
BL: there’s two of them, one chooses to get it now, and the other stays to work for it
The Weather Underground:
Michelle
Beginning stuff on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343168/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0
xfHE9d2VhdGhlciB1bmRlcmdyb3VuZHxmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0b
Ww9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=22
BL: some of these events were knew to us, we’d never heard of things
Critical history: nominee for Sundance, nominated for Academy Award, critically liked
Michelle: it’s a commentary for present time as well, it’s reflexive to now
BL: Film was started before 9/11, and finished after
Film premiered around the time we attacked Iraq
BL: this film seen before Abu’Grahab is different then viewed after Abu’Grahab
The pictures from Abu’Grahab resonate with some of the imagery in this film
The director seems to have an interest with 1960s culture, love for archival footage
Production History:
Interviews were pre 9/11, film editied after 9/11
Crew was reluctant to continue production because of the subject matter in a post 9/11
world, but continued to speak to a younger generation
BL: Historical context should be divided into two categories, historical context of what’s
depicted vs historical context of film being made, and I guess what’s happening while
we’re viewing the film
Historical climate:
2nd Bush admin, spreading US imperialism
BL: Vietnam war, in one way or another, almost began directly after WW2. We helped
the French reclaim their colonies. We supplied troops. By and large, the American public
was very supportive of the Vietnam war until around 1968, which is win the draft started.
When college students started being drafted, protests started. This coincided with the
Thet offensive (Vietcong attempt to bring war to Americans). Johnson was saying we’d
won, but the PR feeling in this country was definitely negative. Massive protests ended
the day they terminated the draft. There was a lot of self-interest in the college campuses
The lack of protests now. But there are a lot of protests now both against war and
globalism, but mass media is ignoring them. We need to try to find out what happened
then and what’s happening now.
1968: worldwide student protests, they revolted in Paris and Rome and Prague, some
were more connected to workers, lots used Vietnam as an excuse to protest, but most had
local problems. A lot wanted a more flexible University system.
Which one of the revolutions we saw didn’t belong in the series in film?
Chinese cultural revolution with the Little Red Book movement. In China this was an
instrument of oppression by Mow and his gang. They destroyed the entire literate class of
China, literally. But in US and Europe, students were waving little red books around.
Economics: desparety between rich and poor classes in footage, when film as made, and
now.
Several civil rights movements going on, but the film seems to mush them all together.
BL: War protests were protests of the haves, the college kids were being send to war. It
wasn’t the working class. The college kids freedoms were being fringed upon, and their
rich parents were influencing politicians.
Now we have a backdoor draft, you can’t get out of the Military. You finish your tour of
duty and they don’t let you leave.
Took BL several years to get out after first gulf war. Now they’ve raised the military to
the age you can go in to somewhere around 40, when BL was in they’d kick you out at
40. Now they’ve also lowered the mental requirements as well. They lowered them
during Vietnam, raised them back up after to require a high school diploma. Now you
don’t need a diploma or a GED. They’re also offering the option of “6 months in jail or 2
years in the army”.
BL was at the bank burning at UC Santa Barbra.
I don’t mind selling out if I don’t get shot.
BL was in a martial arts club, and the activists would join the club to supposedly learn
something. They’d find a reason to protest, and then they’d call in a bomb threat, which
led to police violence. This made the protest grow immensely, but the activists dissapear.
Hegemony: US Government as a superpower, but the government is going beyond
hegemony. Hegemony is impoing the capitalist point of view without physically taking
them over. But in the film and now, we’re actually physically taking them over. We’re
physically there. Nowadays it’s because there’s a need for oil from China and India, and
we want to be there to control oil.
Classes: most members of Weather Underground, upper-middle-class white kids.
Michelle thinks their classes shifted when they were underground, e.g. one of the students
were trying to find a job.
BL: when there were student revolts in Italy, Pasolini wrote that the students were
oppressing the police when they killed the cop.
Austin: there are a lot of parallels between the Weather Underground and our government
now. They had very black and white thinking.
Q:
4-11-06
turn in EDL with DVD
4-18-06
24 boxes
dance cuts
more cut aways to me in LR