Editing Blog: Getting the Length Right

    

     I was the editor for this project. As soon as I got home from filming, I began transferring the footage onto my external SSD. Having refined the technique from previous projects, I was able to do this successfully on my first try despite its finicky nature. I plugged in my phone via USB cable to my computer, and copy-pasted the files into a folder on my SSD. This process took around 20 minutes, due to the large file size of the footage. The editing program I decided to use was DaVinci Resolve. This was because I had a very good experience with it for the music video project, as it has a whole suite of features available for free. A professional editing software, audio editor, and color editor all built into one application. I created a new project and configured the settings. These settings remained mostly unchanged from the music video, 1080p resolution at 24fps. I then transferred all the footage into the media pool, and organized it all into folders. I had folders for each scene, for instance: outside, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen. I also had a junk folder where I put any shots that I deemed unusable. After this, I created a rough outline of the opening sequence.

     I put the shots in order that they appear in the storyboard and cut them to appropriate length. Once I had done this, the opening sequence was far too long than the requirement (3 minutes in fact). This meant that I had to remove some of the shots and cut down on time where I could. I sent what I had so far to my groupmates for any suggestions as to which shots could be shortened. We decided that significant time could be cut out from the starting shots outside, as well as some from the kitchen scene. After using these suggestions, I was able to get the time down to the 2 minutes required.