Slaughter House Films
ACE Members Tech Web Discussion Editor Harry B Miller III posted a new entry on the American Cinema Editors blog today. It’s not a total Final Cut Pro bashing that has appeared on the blog before. It’s a bit more of an even-handed look at his experience cutting this project on FCP.
Hitchcock on the three types of editing
Check out this nice lecture from a master of cinema. Hitchcock talks about the three types of editing and what each does your film.
7 Steps To Write A Successful Script
With the Writes Guild Strike still marching on I thought about how I can get back into writing a screenplay for a film. Not to take anyones job, but more to get myself out of the technical cramming of information. Back in school I loved my screen-writing class. We all gathered around and read our scripts out loud. I miss that. It was more the technique than the creativity. I also miss the intimate criticism that was handed out. I’ve been having a difficult time writing a script. So I put these steps together to help me get back into writing a script. Here is how you can do it too…
1.Think of a concept or story you want to tell.
2,Watch a film that you think is flawless. I chose Blade Runner.
3,Search the internet for a script on that film.
4.Copy the script word for word… typing it out! No copy and paste, you’ll miss the point.
5,After you finish copying the script find someone you can read the script with and listen to the dialog and settings.
6,Watch the film again and enjoy it.
7,Now write your script as soon as you can and knock it out with a refreshed sense of style.
Pretty soon you’ll see the rewards of my hard work and hopefully it will pay off.
Lost Star Wars scene
Mental Floss has posted a You Tube clip of the lost opening scene of Star Wars. As a child of the Star Wars generation I remember hearing about this scene over the years so it’s nice to finally see it. It’s got cheesy Lucas dialog but the extended scene with the character Biggs does help explain the story a bit. Thank you You Tube and thank you Internet! It’ll probably be pulled down soon.
Anytime Anywhere & Place Called Love
Music Video
by Julie Ingram
directed by George Trill
edited by Nelson Acosta
48hour faux project
This weekend I will be editing in The 48hr Faux Project. It is a way to force filmmakers to create a film over 1 weekend. Friday Night - We’ll get the elements then write a script.
Saturday - We shoot all day then start logging footage.
Sunday - We edit. A movie will be made.
This should be fun!!48hourfauxproject
Editing 24P in Final Cut Pro
The advent of 24p cameras like the Panasonic DVX100A and the Canon XL-2 has provided filmmakers with exciting new creative possibilities. 24p is a method of photographing 24 frames per second and then recording to DV tape, giving the high-end look of film with the ease and economy of standard DV.
This has also led to some confusion when handling 24p material in Final Cut Pro. The main concept to understand is that the footage on the tape is actually 29.97 DV, just like any standard NTSC camera. This happens because the camera photographs at 24 frames per second and then performs a 3:2 pulldown to conform the footage to 29.97 on the tape. Cameras like the DVX100A and the XL2 have a special shooting mode referred to as 24p Advanced or 24pA, which results in footage with a 2:3:3:2 pulldown that can be automatically detected and removed by FCP. The simplest way to deal with 24pA footage is to use the Easy Setup provided in FCP
1. Select Easy Setup from the File menu and then check the Show All checkbox. Choose the DV NTSC 24p (23.98) Advanced Pulldown Removal preset and click the Setup Button.
You’ll now be set with the correct capture and sequence settings. Let’s take a closer look at what these settings do.
2. In the Capture Tab of our Audio/Video settings, the frame rate chosen by this preset is 29.97. At the bottom of the Summary it should read: Removal of Advanced Pulldown and/or Duplicate Frames from Firewire Sources is enabled.
This is the key to the whole process: the footage must first be captured intact at 29.97 from Firewire, and then the proper frames can be removed by FCP after capture to result in true 24p footage.
3. Create a New Sequence and look at the Sequence Settings. The editing timebase is 23.98 and the Field Dominance drop down is greyed out. We can now edit 24p material in its native format.
4. Let’s take a look at the new sequence.
