Editing Lesson Blog

Today in class, we were introduced to our editing software called Pinnical studios.  The first thing we learned was how to Dump our footage from our SD card to the computer. Our teacher was very clear when she told us that we needed to create a folder for each individual project. She also gave us tips on how to find out footage on the SD card, and how to tell when footage was ours or someone else’s. Next, we learned how to import our footage onto Pinnical Studios so our teacher visually walked us through the steps. She then continued to teach us the editing process. She told us we can’t click over and over, and she showed us how we have to wait for Pinnical to save each piece of footage before we can change any more of it. Our teacher showed us where to place our video footage, which is in track two, and explained how layers work. Then, we learned how to cut, arrange and delete footage. All of this, I was already familiar with as I had used IMovie which had similar features.  

She then got into the challenging stuff. She showed us how to give footage effects. The example she used was changing the brightness of the raw footage to make it appear like it was shot at night. She showed us how to crop the video and add transitions. Next, we were shown how to add titles. We learned how to create them, how to edit their font size, placement on the screen and color! Once that was done, our teacher showed us how to add transitions to the titles. She then moved on to explain sound, like how to add voiceovers and remove sound from specific footage. She did this by detaching the audio from the video file and either deleting the video to create a voiceover, or by deleting the sound. This was very helpful, as I wasn’t familiar with how to do any of this from my past experience with IMovie. 

On a slightly unrelated note, our teacher went over the class procedures for checking out supplies. Earlier, she had us student fill out a user agreement form that would allow us to use the school provided equipment. In our three person group, two of us have turned in our forms, and unfortunately the only person who hasn’t turned in their form might have to film. This makes me a little worried, but she say’s she’ll turn it in next class, and I’m inclined to believe her. Our teacher explained the small nuances of checking out equipment. Such as signing out a camera, and where to put your check paper. She also mentioned how there are only so many SD card readers and how that might affect the speed of the editing process. She then warned us how if we don’t dump our footage off the SD card, she can’t guarantee it won’t be deleted accidentally. Additionally, there might not be enough computers for each group to work on their project. Luckily I have a loptop, but it doesn’t have the editing software.