Course Description
Editing for Film and Video introduces key terms, software, aesthetic choices, and workflow, modeled on professional practice within the film, television, and digital media industries. Students learn media storage and management, project organization, picture, sound, and music editing, and montage fundamentals. Editing is taught in a computer lab.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students are required to provide in-class demonstrations of key techniques and editing strategies, including teamwork presentations. Final productions will be longer and more developed than those by the undergraduates.
Athena Title
Editing
Undergraduate Prerequisite
FILM 4680/6680
Graduate Prerequisite
FILM 4680/6680 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course trains students in the practical application of editorial techniques that can be used for effective visual storytelling in film, TV, and digital media. Students will apply these skills through the operation of Non-Linear Editing Systems that mirror current professional practice in media production. Specific learning objectives include: • Manage a large media project and master workflow procedures that meet industry standards. • Utilize a common industry non-linear editing software to create audio/visual stories that communicate effectively. • Edit scenes and sequences with a variety of visual and audio materials to tell visual stories. • Comprehend and employ technical and creative skills necessary in the post-production of short and long media formats. • Identify and incorporate narrative and documentary conventions used in specific genres and formats.
Topical Outline
I. Introduction to non-linear editing: The role of the editor and practical guidance in the use of hard drives to manage media files. II. Workflow procedures: Introduction to the technology, techniques, and processes of non-linear editing, including formats and software. III. Beginning editing: Explanation and use of editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro or equivalent). IV. Editing theory and vocabulary: Explanation of editing history, aesthetic choices, and fundamental editing grammar and processes. V. Picture and sound: Study of the history and practice of synchronous sound and digital techniques within the film and television industries today. VI. Editing for narrative fiction: Storytelling and the practical processes of preparing the project, syncing dailies, creating sync assemblies, and editing dialogue. VII. Editing and storytelling: Students will create scenes and sequences, work with ambiance, sound effects, and music, and prepare rough cuts and then final cuts of their narrative projects. VIII. Editing documentary and short-form media: Students will study the history and format options for nonfiction editing, including interviews, cinéma verité, voice-over narration, and categorical and rhetorical form. IX. Editing a documentary project: Students will learn to create special effects, color grading, and audio effects for a compelling, short nonfiction production. X. Media management and techniques: Wrap-up sessions on the aesthetics and technical functions of editing, and review and analysis of all final productions and outcomes.