Editing UW Article

I was just asked to publish an article on editing underwater footage. Here is a quote from the non diving publisher...." interesting, how when and where to cut and why. With underwater video you have fish swimming up, down, left to right and right to left, so how do you make different cuts work together, etc."

Now I could go off and write a ton as I am like most of you and love this stuff but I had a thought, to ask all of you how you approach your editing. While many comments may be redundant, that could be a good thing as it shows how much we all have in common. Never the less, I'm betting there are a lot of differences as to your approach to the subject as well. I would love to hear from you and perhaps incorporate some of your ideas.

Steve B)

Hi Steve

All the best on your article and make sure you let us know where it will turn up.

Filming fish, get the first important shots and then build from that thinking of what could be good connection shots. Keep the camera rolling as you quicky zoom in or out or reposition to get that connection shot. Sometimes it takes to many seconds to stop/start recording and you may miss the connection. HDV is worse. Get the long, med and tight shots on the subject. After a shot look for what could be a good connection shot and try to get it...thats why it's good to know how to edit stuff as you soon get to know what shots you need when out in the field...... blar blar blar.....

Good luck...

Thanks Wags, when it is written and published I will let you all know. Most of my reviews and article can be found under the Software,tutorials and white pages sections on the kenstone editing site. I have a couple of small reviews coming out in the next couple of issues in Asian Diver as well. In the meantime, lets hear from all of you. How do you approach a shoot? How do you approach the editing once the shooting is done? As Roxane said to Christian..."Be eloquent! You have your theme- Improvise! Rhapsodize! (And a free dive from Wags if you can tell me what play that's from.);-)

Steve B)

Steve,

Here are things i consider when shooting and editing...not in any particular order.

Shooting:

-Before i enter the water, what is the purpose of my shoot or what is on my shot list

-Where will i find the subjects i am targeting and what is the best position to capture them in

-What is the appropriate settings and lens for my primary subject (UWA, wide, macro)

-Position of sun light with respect to subject (try to get sun behind me)

-White balance (lots to think of)

-As per Wags, Wide, Med, and Close shots on the subject

-Consider where the subject is entering the shot, allow it to enter and pass, then perhaps follow with pan

-Steady, steady, steady...can't say enough (keep shooting till you get it)

-Provide head room and room to move (position subject in lower 2/3rds and with 1/3rd of frame empty in direction of travel)

-Try to capture subject with appropriate background (pure blue, colorful coral, supporting cast of fish...goal it to enrich the shot without distracting)

-Capture lots of core subjects shots and variety or supporting cast shots

-Capture environment (reefs, caves, bommies, etc) to put the subject in context

-Seek creative perspectives/angles on subject not commonly seen

-Seek unique and intersting interactions (mating, fighting, schooling)

-Capture transition shots (diver bubbles, light off water surface,etc)

-Capture diver shots (entering, descending, ascenting, interacting with subjects)

Editing:

-Throw out all footage that is not technically sound (unstable, poor exposure, not in focus, poorly framed, etc) before i talk myself into keeping it

-Throw out all footage that is not intersting (fish ID type shots, boring, etc)

-Assemble remaining shots by subject (species, location, etc)

-Begin assembling based on storyboard or freeform for fun vids

-Rough cut/trim to desireable lenghts (3 to 10 seconds)

-Assemble according to storyboard

-Throw out redundant clips and clips that don't add to story

-Do this again, and again and again until i am feeling seperation anxiety

-Cut/trim/move to remove jump-cuts (i.e. continue motion from adjactent clips, or little or no motion between clips, or very obvious contrast motion between clips)

-Insert transition shots as appropriate

-Avoid fades as much as possible unless using for effect such as apparent seemless motion of concept melding (most fades/disolves are substitutes for poor cuts)

-Color correction, gamma correction, etc

-Motion graphics and titling

-Music

-Preview, modify, preview, modify, repeat...

-Export

Great points there Shawn. For a new videographer you've covered a lot of ground. I wonder if there is anything you or anyone does that they think is unique to themselves, albet..thinking that they invented their own particular technique. It could be a special way to WB, an approach in the editing bay while log and capturing, a general formula for going from topside to under water, shots that have been done to death and therefore you wouldn't consider them....the old jumping into the water clip to start a film off as an example. Keep it coming folks.

Steve B)

Gee Shawn, you love typing...

Editing:

I have found that even though you can batch capture, just sucking in whole tapes is easier and harddrives are cheap as now days. Then you can just wizz through 60 min long files to trim out the bits you want and drag them to your timeline.

Then when you have filled up your drives, consolidate the edit to another drive and then delete a heap of footage, to free up room to suck in the next heap of tapes.

Open up the consolidated project and continue editing the same timeline. You can even go back and make small changes to the first part of you timeline as it has only trimmed all the clips.

For example we had over 700 GIGS of stuff and consolidated the project down to just 27 GIGS so we could go and delete a heap of clips we no longer needed to make room for more material.

If you have a HD DVD burner you could even burn the consolidated edit to it and then later on open it up and and start re editing the same timeline again or send it to a friend to fine tune the edit. Cool hey..

well, i sort of do the same as wags but not really...

Keep in mind i am talkin about dailies stuff here.

i start loading the tape onto the computer and go have lunch... once its on there i actually just drag everything to the timeline...

then i go through each piece one by one, trimming the starts and finishes or whatever... i don't have to do much as i know i just shot it a few hours ago and i try to do as little editing as possible..

if i am messing around on certain shots while down there i just take those out if i know i won't be using it for the daily vid.

Then i add the transitions and titles, and then the music...

and output to DVD, i always make a copy for myself as well as the sales, then i delete THE WHOLE DAMN thing off the harddrive...

I shoot waaaaaaaay too much video to keep it on the drive. (out shooting every day for months at a time starting around next week till april..)

Hard drives ain't that cheap!

Damn Mike, most people would kill for your 24/7 shooting/diving life. However, most people go on vacations a couple times of year and, for them, they have 10 days to get a years worth of decent footage. Ok, enough of wishing I were you. Personally, I have always log and capture my tapes clip by clip so that each clip is named enabling me to get right to it. I don't have unlimited HD space but have enough to be comfortable. I know many shooters who do the same thing as you, just download the entire tape but , now, especially with HDV, the files can grow.

Never the less, I appreciate the feedback you all are giving me. Hope to hear more approaches.

Steve B)

Yes day shooting is different. KISS

Shoot the day as is in the camera, suck it in add music and the start graphics then encode and burn DVD's.. Some days no editing what so ever if you got the day correct.

On a good day from start to finish with twin burners we could have 10 DVD's done in like hour and a half.

Before computers I use to shoot the day as is, get everyone in front of the TV back at the shop. Rewind the tape and feed it into the TV with my portable CD player feeding in some music while recording two VHS tapes. After it had finished I rewind the tape and do it again to make more VHS copies for customers. Could not make any mistakes those days when shooting.

Cool Wags - I used to do the same thing before computers - rigging up the cd player/vcr/tv/camera all together! Definitely where I learned to be a more efficient shooter, but definitely a pain copying them all right there on the spot - we had two vcr's hooked up - and that was wild for us at the time, for sure.

We do the Daily Videos as well here - 6 days a week, year round. I do the same as Mike/Wags - gotten to where we edit in the camera while shooting so we don't need to mess with it later - sometimes some hiccups of course - but for the most part, drag and drop, move the music around underneath so everything jives and then send it out to tape.

Because it was taking so long everyday for our computer to burn an hour long dvd, I went a different route - probably not the best way, but it works problem free for almost three years now - I export the movie out to tape and have a Mini DV deck hooked up via firewire, that is also hooked up to a Sony DVD recorder. This way it records 'real time' and I have a master done after it finishes - 1 hour. I then drop it in my duplicator and burn em out - it burns 5 hour-long dvds in 20 minutes.

I then delete out all the footage, while keeping certain clips from every day and then filing them into my external drive. I have the names of each and every fish/mammal/invert labeled in different, separate folders - so everything is easy to find when looking back for clips.

I think everyone definitely has there own ways to doing things, both shooting and editing - myself, I'm a techie idiot and am a total mut - all self taught - so most of what I do is definitely not the right way, just the way I have found that gets the job done. So, needless to say - you don't need any of my advice for this article. I'm continually learning - mostly from the people that I hire to do my bigger jobs - that's the best way to learn for me - get someone who can do everything, sit with them, walk them through how you want it to look and watch as they do the cool cuts/edits/tricks I didn't know before that day.

For instance, I still don't know how to get HD footage burned onto a SD dvd - the simplest, cleanest way. Yesterday I had to do a quick short for a Resort here for DEMA - after countless attempts at compressions and eye-burning forum research I decided to go my own route - - I sent the HD movie from FCP back to my camera as HD - then, I downconverted the footage - and imported it as a single clip (20 minutes) into iMovie (don't ask me why - trial and error). Then, I burned the disc. It looks great - better than anything I did in Compressor, which also took HOURS with not so great results - I know there's an easier/better/more efficient way, but I haven't figured it out yet.

I guess this doesn't respond much to your initial question, Steve, but most of the obvious stuff seems to have been covered already - this was just an escape from what I need to be doing. I typically check out Wetpixel when my stuff's rendering, every day.

Aloha Oi

Bryce

well, i sort of do the same as wags but not really...

...

Then i add the transitions and titles, and then the music...

 

and output to DVD, i always make a copy for myself as well as the sales, then i delete THE WHOLE DAMN thing off the harddrive...

 

I shoot waaaaaaaay too much video to keep it on the drive. (out shooting every day for months at a time starting around next week till april..)

 

Hard drives ain't that cheap!

i've had good luck with

- keeping all tapes with original footage (never reusing tapes)

- once the editing is done, burning a DVD image AND copying the edited project back to a new tape (as you say, waaaay cheaper than a hard drive)

Then I can delete the files if I want, but already have the DVD image, and the original and edited footage on tape.

...

 

For instance, I still don't know how to get HD footage burned onto a SD dvd - the simplest, cleanest way. Yesterday I had to do a quick short for a Resort here for DEMA - after countless attempts at compressions and eye-burning forum research I decided to go my own route - - I sent the HD movie from FCP back to my camera as HD - then, I downconverted the footage - and imported it as a single clip (20 minutes) into iMovie (don't ask me why - trial and error). Then, I burned the disc. It looks great - better than anything I did in Compressor, which also took HOURS with not so great results - I know there's an easier/better/more efficient way, but I haven't figured it out yet.

 

...

Aloha Oi

Bryce

I'm definitely going to give this method a shot -- I just got my FX1/Bluefin rigged up and my first trip is this saturday to get the setup dialed in.

You've all given me some great feedback on your approaches and while there is some diversity, those in the know have much in common. Thanks all and if someone has something else to add, keep it coming.

Steve B)

Hey Steve,

How goes it? I've been out in the boonies a while working on some stuff.

Anyway, for the dailies my workflow is pretty straight forward. Having been working off and on associated dive operations for a number of years I have developed my own way of filming depending on the dive site in question. If for example we are going to Blue Corner from either the incoming current or outgoing current side I know the best angles and positions to be in in relation to the divers planned location. Knowing the site this way means I can film in a way that requires very little editing. I shoot, over a two tank dive approx 40 mins of footage and tend to whittle that down to 30mins max. Most people have an attention span of around 25 - 30 mins so I keep that in mind too. Remember, non diving friends and family members will also be dragged into viewing the dive vacation souvenir DVD. There's no difference between that and remembering the times as a kid when I would be subjected to the countless albums of family trip photos.......

If I'm going to an unfamiliar dive location then I just shoot, and keep shooting. As wags said you can cut out all the shaky cam POV changes in the editing phase. Nothing like losing that territorial or defensive yawning of a Scorpion Fish as you're waiting for the heads to spin back up once you've hit rec after a wider sequence on the fish. Tape is the cheapest commodity in the whole videographers kit bag so use it and keep using it. Nothing like not having enough footage after a week spent in the most isolated of dive spots, too late when you get home and realise you're missing what seems to have been an ordinary shot but one which now can be seen as an integral aspect for your story line.

Shoot slightly upward if possible for better fish perspectives. Pan slowly if you ahve too and whilst you may zoom with the camera rolling as you change POV's I tend not to show zooms in any final edit, you can get away with a tight to wide shot as that can be used as a way to expose the environment of a certain critter. Its down to the storyline if you have one.

For the editing I use FCP and ingest all the footage from the day. A double click on the file allows me to see the clip in the viewer window and from there I can jog through the clip marking in and out points for smaller clips which are then put to the timeline. I prefer not to drag the whole file onto the time line and do it from there as I personally dont like having to look for sequence changes on a timeline, I prefer the viewer window method, just a personal thing I guess. Once I have the timeline sorted I then have all the individiual clips arranged and can then set transitions if I need to. If I do use transitions I normally go for a 3 to 4 secong cross fade. One of the errors, if you wanna call it that, of first time video enthusiasts is that they like to use all the flashy transitions one after the other which can be distrubing to the viewer. Nice n easy for me, just like being underwater.

Then set the music, export as a quicktime file, conversions between NTSC and PAL if needed with MediaStream and then out to mpeg2 with Compresor2. For DVD production I use DVD Studio Pro4 and have templates already designed and prepped so its just a matter of selecting the appropriate menu etc for the mood of the project. Some dives like Blue Corner are more energetic whilst dives on Wrecks for example tend to be more sombre etc. Once I have the final QT version I will discard the captured footage files to free up some space from the drives. At this point I then archive the tapes, making notes of date, dive sites and content for future retrieval. If there is anything significant on the footage I will also make a clip copy and store that on a hard drive for collection at a later date when working on a compilation project or whatever.

I can normally turn around the whole DVD, bearing in mind I actually start the editing work at around 4pm on the return to the office, in around 4 hours or so. I prefer to get daily stuff done that same day as I don't like backing up projects etc. Gets too confusing.

My 2c

Best,

Mark.

Hey Steve,

Missed the start of this thread, just returned from a Guadalupe White Shark trip.

I'll be giving a couple of one hour seminars at DEMA this year for Light & Motion on "Editing Basics for Underwater Photographers and Videographers" and will talk a bit about different approaches to editing different genres, such music videos, narratives and documentaries. Very basic stuff, but the main point being that there are a number of ways to approach editing underwater videos, and each of us will develop our own approach to the editing process depending on what we're trying to create.

All of the responses to your question are great, and I'll discuss the some of the different workflows that have been described here. I would also love it if some of the other pros would stop in and share some about their approach to basic editing of underwater vids in the question and answer segment of the seminars! I think it's a fantastic topic, and I learn something from everyone on this topic! Hope to see you there!

Mary Lynn

Hello Everyone

Thanks for the ideas in editing. But you all here seem to be in the tropics or warmer water shooting. I am in the Great Lakes Region and shoot mostly shipwrecks. Does anyone have any suggestions for editing this type of footage? I have lots of footage but no ambition or working knowladge to start cutting it down.

Thanks

Chris

I am my own worst enemy and could just never force myself do the "in camera edit" thing, and this is one reason I pretty much gave up doing day trip vids.

Partly I'm passionate (or maybe just anal) about building the best quality archive I can, partly I'm hell bent on getting every sale I can on our liveaboards, and partly I'm just stupid, so even after 5 years I still shoot far too much. My edit ratio is still something like 3 or 4:1 for liveaboard trips. I do nothing but eat, sleep, dive and edit on the liveaboards but as a result I achieve something like 80% sales and I have a pretty enormous categorised archive of marine life footage. I must be doing something right because we have a lot of repeat customers on our boat and 95% of them fork out another 3500 or 4000 baht for another DVD even from the same route. Some have bought 5 years on the trot now.

The system I now have is that I set the Z1 to downsample to DV and capture after most dives in Sclive using a GSProxy-' prefix for the files so that I can edit HDV proxies on my old laptop. I dump them all on the timeline and just go through sequentially deleting or ripple editing. I'd say about 95% of my clips get deleted or shortened (... told you I was stupid). Then I dump that project into a template which has titles, music etc ready in it. On the 2nd night of the trip I show a polished 20 minute preview from the first day and then the next morning I go around and get my orders.

Back at base or if I have time on the boat I also capture the m2t files using HDV split with ' as the prefix and %Y%M%D %h.%m.%s as the filename format. With this filenaming scheme I can then use the Gearshift plugin in Vegas to replace the DV files on the timeline for the HDV ones. I'm doing this for the first time today and I'm still not sure whether I'll encode the MPEG2 for the DVDs from the DV proxies or the HDV originals.

As for the dives themselves, I pretty much go around and shoot what I like. I don't have much of a plan, I just see what's interesting and what looks like it would make a nice shot. After doing the same sites for years I know my special spots but no 2 dives are ever the same. It's always a moving feast. I get good closeups of the divers' faces early on so that they're in the bag and appear early in my preview.

I kind of subconsciously go for wide and close shots of a subject if appropriate. It's not a conscious "wide - medium - close" thing. One of the things I'm really trying to work on at the moment is deciding when to follow a subject and when to let it swim out of shot. This really is an art and a well-judged end to a take is something that can really make video look pro.

You have already covered most of the bases with respect to editing your footage. First of all, I don't have the luxury of going on daily shoots, getting away where the water is warm and salty two or three times a year is about the extent of my underwater videography. But then neither am I faced with a daily deadline and, if necessary, can take several weeks to produce a DVD of the week's diving. One thing that has worked well for me has been to edit to the music. I will choose several music tracks that I think are useable from any number of royalty free catalogues and then after trimming the usable video clips down to say 6 to 10 second chunks will select the music that is going to accompany the video. If I have 6 minutes worth of trimmed clips I will select a music track that is approximately 4 minutes long, a ratio of about 3:2 seems to work out. Then I will further trim the clips to the downbeat of the music. Although this can be somewhat time consuming, the net result is that the mind seems more accepting of a scene change when it is also accompanied by a change in the music. However, I have recently purchased SONY's Cinescore to go along with Vegas and DVD Architect and am interested to see how that will affect the manner in which I edit in future. By the way, I consider it extremely hypocritical to emblazon your video footage with watermarks to copyright protect it and then use popular music for your sound track without obtaining the appropriate licenses.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. So many of you offered sage advice for both the beginner and pro. I will be incorporating a great deal and will keep all posted once I have a publication date.

Sorry I missed so many of you at Dema but I had to leave on Friday. Sat on the plane returning home next to a woman with some severe gastric intestinal problems( if you get the drift) and then caught the flu on top of all of that.

Thanks all,

Steve B)