Production of a Motion Picture (page 4)

the video crew and virtual editing

Once a series of shots has been filmed, the video crew can digitize them (transfer them to a removeable hard disk drive, with data reduction algorithms along the way to reduce file sizes) and hand them over to the editor within minutes. The editor can be in a caravan parked a few yards from the set (that was the case for BASIC INSTINCT and for practically every movie since then), equipped with a hard disk editing system (Avid, Lightworks, Media 100, etc...). As soon as he is handed the removeable media, he can start the editing of the scene.

The most obvious advantage is that the director can oversee the shooting and the editing almost simultaneously, and therefore react rapidly. For example, the editor cas show him a scene, and advise him to add a short shot somewhere to perfect that scene. The director can then go back to the set and ask the assistant director to add this shot to the day's schedule.

- "But the picture and sound quality that the editor is manipulating is quite poor !"

That's not the point. The point is that the time code adresses he is manipulating are the same as the original, "full quality" picture and sound elements.

During such an editing process (on a direct to disk system), the picture and sound files aren't manipulated, only pointers, parameters, indicating how the playback of picture and sound files should be done from the hard disk drive : which picture file, from such TC to such TC, with such video effect, along with such sound file, on which track, from such TC to such TC, at such level, with such fade-in, such fade-out, etc... These playback parameters can be displayed as a text table, forming what is called a Text EDL (more on that further).

example of a Text EDL

When the editor performs his edits (specifies these pointers, in other words), he creates a list of these edit decisions in the editing system's memory. This EDL (Edit Decision List) can be printed, and of course, saved to a diskette.

The most popular EDL format is the CMX format, but each editing system has its own format. There are therefore dozens of formats, pertaining to Avid, Lightworks, Media 100, SADiE, Pro Tools, Sonic Solutions, Sony, Ampex, Akaï, etc... The file can even be saved or read as a text file, the columns being separated by tabulations, for instance. As the file only contains pointers, it only weighs a couple hundred kB. The real picture or sound files weigh several MB, even GB, and are generally stored on dedicated disks.
Usually, a direct to disk editing software offers to manipulate the elements graphically. These elements are represented by picture or sound blocs, or sound waves, on different tracks appearing on screen. It is really nothing else than a graphical representation of the EDL, a lot more fun to manipulate than a list with a bunch of columns. Moving an element on screen with the mouse is the same as modifying the timing position of that file's playback in regard to other files.  

 

example of a graphical EDL

   

The same result could have been obtained by changing the Start TC of that file in the Text EDL, even though it's a lot less user friendly. All editing softwares should nevertheless give access to this raw form of the EDL.



Once the editor has finished his work on a scene (or even on the whole film), he just has to send the EDL to the film lab, which will then conform the negative : they analyse the TC adresses that determine the editing in the EDL, and reflect them on the negative. Years ago, this work was done by hand, at a pace of about 3 cuts an hour ! Since at least a decade, the negative conforming is robotized.

The negative is now identical to the editor's work. The picture just needs a bit of tweaking : the color timer will go over each scene with the director of photography, changing the colors, the contrast, the brightness, to see that each shot blends well into that scene.

About sound

The sound editor got his hands on the multi-channel "full quality" audio media, recorded by the production recordist during the shooting, and has transfered everything to his audio editing system (Pro Tools, SADiE, Sonic Solutions, Screen Sound, etc...). All the sound takes are therefore on his disks, with their original TC : good takes as well as bad takes, unless he already sorted things out using the sound report he got at the same time as the audio.

When he gets his hands on the editor's EDL, he just has to load it into his audio editing system. The EDL indicates, as we've seen earlier, exactly what sounds, from which TC to which TC, have been chosen by the editor, as well as many other basic choices he has made (fade-in, fade-out, playback level, etc...).

On a professional audio editing system, you're only a mouse click away from conforming the entire sync sound track : the software places the "full quality" audio files according to the EDL. You can even specify that a little "extra" sound be present before and after the edit points in the original EDL, to make longer cross-fades than the ones the editor made, for instance.

Once the audio conformation has been done, the sound editor can start working on all the other sounds that make up a film's sound track (re-recorded dialogues, sound effects, foley, music). Then, "all that's left to do" is mix all these tracks.