CHAPTER 1:

Using Studio
Creating movies with Studio is a three-step process: 1. Capture: Import source video material your raw footage to your PC hard drive. Possible sources include analog videotape (8mm, VHS etc.), digital videotape (HDV, DV, Digital8), and live video from a video camera, camcorder or webcam. Capture mode is covered in Chapter 2: Capturing video.
Availability: HDV capture is supported in Studio Plus only.
2. Edit: Arrange your video material as desired by reordering scenes and discarding unwanted footage. Add visuals, such as transitions, titles and graphics, and supplementary audio, such as sound effects and background music. For DVD and VCD authoring, create interactive menus that give your audience a customized viewing experience. Edit mode is the arena for most of your work in Studio. See Edit mode later in this chapter (page 4) for a fuller introduction. 3. Make movie: When your project is complete, generate a finished movie in your choice of format and
Chapter 1: Using Studio 1
storage medium: tape, VCD, S-VCD, DVD, AVI, MPEG, RealVideo or Windows Media. Make Movie mode is covered in Chapter 15: Making your movie. Setting the mode Select which step of the movie-making process you want to work on by clicking one of the three mode buttons at the top left of the Studio window:
When you switch modes, the Studio screen changes to display the controls needed for the new mode.
Undo, Redo, Help, Support and Premium
The Undo, Redo, Help, Support and Premium buttons are always to be found in the top right corner of the Studio window, no matter which of the three modes you are currently working in.
Undo allows you to back out of any changes you
have made to your project during the current session, one step at a time. Redo reinstates the changes one by one if you undo too far. The Help button launches Studios built-in help system. The Support button opens Studios technical support site in your web browser.

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The Premium button lets you expand Studio by
purchasing and installing premium content. page 11 for details.)
All other controls on the Studio screen are dedicated to tasks within the current mode.

Setting options

An activation key for each premium content item you

purchase;

Your Passport, which is a number generated the first
time you install Studio on your computer. You can view your Passport by selecting the Help My Passport menu command. Because the Passport is specific to one computer, you will need to obtain new activation keys if you install Studio on a different machine. These will be provided at no charge, but your user licenses for both Studio and any premium content you have obtained then apply to the new machine only.
Note: Although your Passport is specific to an individual computer, it is not affected by ordinary hardware modifications such as adding or removing expansion cards, drives or memory.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 13
If you dont have an Internet connection. You can purchase and apply premium content activation keys even if you dont have an Internet connection on the computer where Studio is installed. When you click one of the unlock links within Studio, a dialog will be displayed showing information needed for ordering the specific content you want, including:
An Internet URL where you can activate the content Numeric identifiers for the Studio program and the
item you want to activate Your Passport and your Serial Number Navigate to the given URL from another computer, enter the information, and complete the purchase as directed. You will then be given an activation key with which you can activate the content on the original computer by using the Help Enter Activation Keys menu command. Hiding and showing premium content If you would prefer not to view the premium content and features available in Studio, open the Project preferences options panel and uncheck either or both of Show premium content and Show premium features. (See page 290.) Importing content from past Studio versions If you are an owner of a past version of Studio, the chances are that you already own content items, whether on a Bonus Content or Premium Pack disc, or on a hard drive attached to your system. The Studio Transfer Content wizard walks you through the process of locating all such materials that are available to you, and importing them for use in the

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current version of the software. Among the item types handled by the wizard are:
Titles Disc menus Sound effects Hollywood FX 3D transitions RTFx video effects
To launch the wizard, look in the Studio group on your Start All Programs menu, and select Tools Transfer Content.

Chapter 1: Using Studio

CHAPTER 2:

Capturing video

Capture is the process of importing video from a video source such as a camcorder to a file on your PCs hard drive. Clips from this capture file can then be used in Studio as ingredients of your edited movies. You can open capture files into the Album in Studios Edit mode (see Chapter 3: The Album).

THE DISC MENUS SECTION

This section of the Album contains a collection of artist-designed menus for VCD, S-VCD and DVD authoring. Menus in Studio are really specialized titles: they can be created and edited in the Title Editor, and either saved from the editor into a disk folder or incorporated directly into your movie.

Chapter 3: The Album 59

As with video scenes and other visual resources, disc menus that are in use in your movie are distinguished in the Album by a green checkmark symbol. For information on using disc menus in your movie, see Chapter 11: Disc menus. The Disc Menus folder: The icons in the Disc Menus section represent files in the folder named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. Menus can be added to the section by storing them in this folder. You can also select a different folder to be the source of the section (see Source folders for Album content on page 39). The motion background symbol: Some of the menus supplied with Studio incorporate a background of moving video rather than a static picture, and you can also create such menus yourself. This motion background can help give a professional look to your finished disc.
Availability: The motion background feature is available in Studio Plus only. See Adding a motion background on page 224 for information on creating or editing a moving video background.
Menus with motion backgrounds are indicated by a small symbol in the bottom right-hand corner of the Album icon. Obtaining additional disc menus Besides those installed with Studio, additional disc menus are available for purchase through the Pinnacle web-site. For more information about purchasing premium content for Studio, see Expanding Studio on page 11.

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THE SOUND EFFECTS SECTION
Studio comes with a wide range of ready-touse sound effects. These wav files are installed into a number of folders, covering categories such as animals, bells and cartoons. The Sound Effects folder: This section of the Album displays the sound files contained in one disk folder, named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. You can display the sounds in a different folder not necessarily one of those installed by Studio by selecting that folder to be the source for the section (see Source folders for Album content on page 39). Besides wav (Windows wave) files, files in mp3 format and avi animation files are also displayed in this section of the Album, and may be drawn upon for supplemental audio in your productions. Any sound clip can be previewed simply by clicking its name or icon. For information on using sounds in your movie, see Chapter 13: Sound effects and music.

The pan-and-zoom controls are used here to focus in turn on four vignettes in the satirical painting An Election Entertainment by English artist William Hogarth. A fifth view pulls back to show as much of the entire canvas as will fit in a wide-screen frame without black sidebars. The tool automatically generates smooth motion from one view to the next, panning and zooming simultaneously as needed.
Chapter 10: Still images 187
Animating pan-and-zoom with keyframes Studio Plus users have another option for animating their pan-and-zoom productions: keyframing. The use of this feature enables a string of pan-and-zoom movements to be associated with a single clip, instead of having a single movement on each of a series of clips. See Keyframing on page 130. The pan-and-zoom effect interface As an alternative to pan-and-zoom with the Clip properties tool, you can enter the framing properties numerically with the Pan and zoom video effect. This alternative interface is provided by the Video effects tool. You can also combine the two methods, using the tools graphical interface to specify the initial settings, then fine tuning them with the numerical effect parameters. The Pan and zoom effect is found in the Fun Effects group. The parameters for pan-and-zoom are exactly parallel to those offered by the tool interface: you can use the sliders to set Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position. The red-eye reduction controls of the tool interface do not have equivalent parameters, however.
Tip: Studio Plus users can use keyframing to create Pan and zoom slideshows using the effect parameters.
Parameter settings for the Pan-and-zoom effect.

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THE FRAME GRABBER
The Frame Grabber can capture a still image from any video capture source supported by Studio, or extract a single frame from any video clip in your current project. The grabbed frame can be added directly to your movie or saved out to disk in any of a number of standard graphics formats. Once you have saved a grabbed frame to disk, you can:
Use it in other software applications. Manipulate it in image-editing software. Import it back into your movies as a still image via
the Album or the Title Editor.

The Frame grabber tool

Use the Frame grabber tool in conjunction with the Player. To access it, open the Toolbox and click the Frame grabber button. Play the movie or source video until the frame you want is displayed in the Player, then click the Grab button. The grabbed frame appears in the tools preview area, ready to be added to your movie or saved as a file on disk. Grab from: Select a source for the frame grabber by clicking either the Movie or the Camcorder button at the top of the tool. Choosing Camcorder means that the

Chapter 11: Disc menus 197
situation. If you check the Dont ask me again checkbox, your choice of Yes or No becomes the default action when you drag in a menu in future. You can also set the default action, or reinstate the confirmation window, in the When adding a disc menu area of the Project preferences options panel (see Project preferences on page 290).
To create your chapter links manually, rather than using the automatic linking feature, use the Set disc chapter command on the pop-up context menu for each video clip you want to add, or use the Set chapter button on the Clip properties tool for disc menus.

The DVD Player Control

Studios Player provides a specialized set of controls for previewing movies that contain menus, patterned after the button layout on a typical DVD remote control. Switch the Player to DVD mode by clicking the DVD toggle button at the bottom right corner of the Player.

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A grouping of DVD controls appears and activates below the Player preview screen:
Here are the functions of the individual DVD controls: Main menu: Jumps to the first menu in your movie and begins (or continues) playing. Previous menu: Jumps to the most recently active menu and begins (or continues) playing. Clicking the button again jumps back from the menu to the most recent clip. Previous chapter, Next chapter: Clicking the Previous chapter button takes you to the start of the current chapter if you arent there already. Click again to move on to the previous chapter. The Next chapter button takes you forward to the next chapter in the movie. Within a menu, these buttons step backwards and forwards through the menu pages. Button selection: The four arrow controls in this cluster move the on-screen cursor within a disc menu to select one of its buttons. The oval button in the middle of the cluster activates the currently-selected on-screen button, which is indicated by highlighting. Activating menu buttons directly One feature of the Player that set-top DVDs dont have is the ability to click the buttons directly on the screen. Whenever a button is visible in the Player preview area in DVD mode, you can click it to follow the button link.
Chapter 11: Disc menus 199
Editing menus on the Timeline
Menus can be trimmed on the Timeline just like any other still image clip (see Trimming on the Timeline using handles on page 89). Setting the clip duration is generally less crucial for menu clips than for other types, since menus cycle during playback while waiting for user input. If you want a looping video background or looping audio with your menus, though, you will want to match the menus duration to that of the clips involved. The menu track
Menu buttons link to particular points within your movie. Those points are marked by flags on the menu track, which materializes above the video track the first time a menu is added to your movie (and vanishes again if all menus are removed). The menu itself is marked by a colored rectangle in the menu track (M1 and M2 in the illustration above). Each link to a chapter is shown by a C flag. Here is a close-up of the first part of the Timescale, showing the rectangle identifying the first menu, and the chapter flags for three of the clips it links to.

Availability: The Motion thumbnails feature is available in Studio Plus only.

Chapter 11: Disc menus

Chapter-editing controls The controls in this area select or modify the individual chapter buttons within a menu. The Set chapter buttons: These set or sever the link between the selected chapter button on the menu and its target clip. To set a link: Position the Timeline scrubber within a menu, video, theme or still image clip, and click the button. For video and still image Create chapter clips, the chapter point is set to the exact location of the scrubber within the clip. To clear a link: Click the Clear chapter button. Set return button: This creates a return-tomenu link at the end of the current clip, which is where you almost always want it. During playback, the link causes an immediate jump to its menu. To create a return-to-menu link in the Clip properties tool, position the Timeline scrubber in the clip where you want the link, and click Set return to menu.
Availability: The Set return button is available in Studio Plus only.
The Return after every chapter checkbox: Set this option to add a return-to-menu link after every chapter in this menu. Clicking this checkbox, whether to set or clear it, removes all existing return-to-menu links for the menu. Return-to-menu links are normally draggable, but while this box is checked they remain anchored to the end of their clips. Creating links with drag-and-drop The Clip properties tool for disc menus supports dragand-drop as a quick and convenient way to establish links for menu buttons.

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To create a link using drag-and-drop:
Click the clip in the Movie Window that you want to
link to, and drag it onto a button in the Clip properties tool preview area. The button is linked to the first frame of the clip. Or, Click the button for which you want to create a link, and drag it onto a clip in your move. In this case you are linking to the point within the clip at which you drop the button generally not the first frame.

The Disc menu tool

If you open this tool while a menu is selected, it is equivalent to opening the Clip properties tool; otherwise, it provides a Create Menu button that takes you into the Title Editor to begin creating a new disc menu. (See Editing with the Clip properties tool, page 202, and Chapter 12: The Title Editor.) Because developing a menu is a relatively intricate operation, Studio takes the opportunity to remind you that pre-built menus are available in the Album. When you decide that this reminder is no longer needed, check the Dont ask me this again box before clicking the OK button.

CHAPTER 12:

The Title Editor
Studios Title Editor is a powerful facility for creating and editing titles and other graphics. Its extensive suite of text and image effects and tools provides endless possibilities for the visual design of your movie.

Availability: Rolls and crawls are supported in Studio Plus only.
The fourth button is for creating disc menus, which you can usefully think of as titles with buttons. In fact, a menu is just like any other title except for two attributes:
A menu has at least one button. A title has none.
Adding a button to a title turns it into a menu, and deleting the last button on a menu turns it into a title.
Chapter 12: The Title Editor 211
By the same token, if you click the Menu button while editing a title, Studio automatically adds a button to the title. A menu cannot have rolling or crawling text. The Title Editor does not allow you to add menu buttons to a rolled or crawled title. Because disc menus are allowed only on the main Video track of the Movie Window Timeline, the button for creating disc menus does not appear when a title from one of the other tracks is being created or edited.

Object toolbox

This cluster of four Title Editor tool buttons is located at left below the Edit Window. The first tool (the arrow) is used for all editing operations upon the currently-selected object. A selected object is surrounded by a number of control points with which you can change its size, position, proportions, and other geometrical features. The other three tools are for creating objects in the Edit Window text boxes, ellipses and rectangles. Each is used in the same general way. Click one of the three tools, then click the Edit Window at the point where one corner of the object should be. Drag the mouse to outline the new object as indicated by the dotted line.

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When the object has the size and proportions you want, release the mouse. Whatever its type, the object is created with the specified dimensions. Its other attributes color, shading, shadow, etc. are determined by the currently selected look in the Title Editor Album. All attributes can later be changed at will. After the object is created, the object tool you used deselects, and the selection arrow again becomes active. The object itself is selected shown in the usual way by its control points and can now be manipulated with the mouse. Reordering objects in three dimensions Because objects can overlap one another, it is easy to get into situations where an object that should be completely visible is partly or wholly obscured by one or more other objects. In such cases, use the four reordering commands on the Title Editors Layers menu. These commands affect the currently-selected object, symbolized by rectangle 3 in the diagram.

The Voice-over tool

Recording a voice-over in Studio is as easy as making a telephone call. Just open the Voiceover tool, click Record and speak into the microphone. You can narrate as you watch the movie play so your words match the action on the screen. You can also use the tool as a quick way of capturing ambient music or home-made sound effects via your microphone.
Before you can record audio using the Voice-over tool, you need to connect a microphone to the input jack of your PC sound board. You must also have at least one video clip in the Movie Window. Review the video scenes in your movie and decide where you want the voice-over to begin and end. When you are ready, open the Voice-over tool. Note that the recording lamp the dark rectangle in the upper left of the above illustration is not lit. Select your starting point on the Movie Window Timeline. You may do this by selecting a clip, playing the movie and stopping it at the desired point, or by moving the Timeline scrubber.
Chapter 13: Sound effects and music 237
Position the microphone for use and try speaking a test phrase to check your recording level (see Voice-over level below). When you are satisfied, click the Record button (which toggles to a Stop button). Wait for a few moments as the recording lamp first signals STAND BY then steps through a 3-2-1 countdown.
When the recording lamp signals RECORDING, and the movie begins to play back in the Player, perform your narration.
Finally, click the Stop button. The lamp goes out, and the voice-over clip is automatically placed on the sound effects and voice-overs track. Review the clip by selecting it then clicking the Play button.
Voice-over level The record level for a voice-over clip is set when you create the voice-over and cannot be changed thereafter. However, you can adjust the playback volume at any time. The record level is set with the Recording level slider and its accompanying level meter on the Voice-over tool. Watch this meter to make sure your recording levels dont get too high or low. The indicator changes color from green (0-70% modulation), through yellow, to red. Generally, you should try to keep your audio peaking in the yellow (71-90%) and out of the red (91100%).

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Voice-over recording options The Studio setup dialogs include several settings that affect your recording configuration and quality. This section provides a brief summary. See Video and audio preferences on page 294 for detailed information. To access these options select Setup Video and audio preferences from the main menu bar.
The Microphone dropdown list on this dialog lists the multiple ways a microphone can be connected to your particular sound card. The entries on the list should look something like the following, from a system with an NVIDIA sound card:

Drag track icon directly (L) or with locator knob (R). Viewing volume and balance contours Each audio clip in your project displays a contour line showing one of its volume, left-right balance or frontback balance. To select which of the three types of line is displayed, use the commands on an audio clips right-button context menu (see Anatomy of an audio clip on page 243). The contour lines can be modified directly on the Timeline using adjustment handles. For details, see Adjusting audio on the Timeline on page 245.
Chapter 13: Sound effects and music

CHAPTER 14:

Audio effects
You can modify any audio clip in your project using Studios plug-in audio effects, which are accessed with the Audio effects tool, the sixth tool in the Audio toolbox. The operation of this tool is identical to that of the Video effects tool. See Using video effects (page 125) for a complete description. As with video effects, your library of audio plug-ins is expandable. Any audio effect using the popular VST standard can be used in Studio just like effects supplied with the program. Icons for audio effects In Timeline mode, any special effects you have applied to an audio or video clip are indicated by small icons along the bottom of the clip. These correspond to the categories shown by the Add new effect browser in the Audio effects and Video effects tools. Those categories are explained under Video Effects Library on page 136. You can open the appropriate tool for parameter editing by double-clicking any of the icons.
Chapter 14: Audio effects 255
In the illustration, the Noise reduction effect has been applied to both audio clips. The star icon below the video clip shows that one or more of the effects in the Fun category has been applied to it. About the effects The powerful Noise Reduction filter is provided in all versions of Studio. It is covered immediately below. Studio Plus includes an extra group of audio effects. These are each briefly described starting on page 258. Full documentation of the parameters for the Plus effects is included in their context-sensitive on-line help which can be viewed by clicking the help button at the top left of the parameters panel for each effect, or by pressing the F1 key when the panel is open. In a special category is the Studio Plus Speed effect, which is currently unique in that it operates on video and audio simultaneously. It is covered on page 140.
This advanced filter suppresses unwanted noise in any audio clip. The filter responds dynamically to the changing noise conditions within the clip. The preset you choose provides the starting point from which the adaptive algorithm proceeds. You can often further improve your results by adjusting the Noise reduction and Fine tuning parameters. There is a lag of about a second before any new setting has an audible effect, so you should make changes in small

To output your movie to disc, or to a disc image:
Click the Disc tab to bring up this display:
The two circular displays summarize your disc usage. The upper one shows the amount of hard drive storage that will be required during the making of your movie, and the other shows an estimate of the time the movie will occupy on your writable disc. Use the upper folder button to change the hard drive location Studio uses for storing auxiliary files. If you are creating a disc image, it will also be stored in that folder. The matching button on the lower display lets you choose which burning

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hardware to use, if you have more than one device available. 2. Select the Disc Type you are using, then whichever Video Quality / Disc Usage preset best matches your intent.
If you wish to fine-tune your output settings, choose the Custom preset then click the Settings button to bring up the Make Disc options panel (see Make disc settings on page 299). 3. Click the green Create disc button. Studio goes through the steps described above (render, compile, and if necessary burn) to create the disc or disc image you have specified in the Make Disc options panel. 4. When Studio has finished the burning operation, it ejects the disc. Quality and capacity of disc formats The differences amongst the various disc formats can be boiled down to these rules of thumb regarding the video quality and capacity of each format:
VCD: Each disc holds about 60 minutes of MPEG-1
video, with about half the quality of DVD. S-VCD: Each disc holds about 20 minutes of MPEG-2 video, with about two-thirds the quality of DVD.
Chapter 15: Making your movie 269
DVD: Each disc holds about 60 minutes of full-
quality MPEG-2 video (120 minutes if the disc recorder supports dual-layer recording). DVD (AVCHD): Each disc holds about 40 minutes of full-quality AVCHD video per layer. DVD (HD DVD): Each disc holds about 24 minutes of full-quality DVD HD video per layer. DVD HD: Each disc holds about 160 minutes of full-quality DVD HD video per layer.

OUTPUT TO FILE

Studio can create movie files in all of these formats:
3GP Audio only AVI DivX Flash Video iPod compatible MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 Real Media Sony PSP compatible Windows Media
Choose whichever format matches the needs of your audience and the details of their viewing hardware.

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The size of the output file depends on both the file format and the compression parameters set within the format. Although compression settings can easily be adjusted to produce small files, heavy compression comes at the expense of quality. The detailed settings for most formats can be adjusted by choosing the Custom preset and clicking the Settings button. Other presets load settings designed for typical situations. See Appendix A: Setup options for information about options in Studio. When your output options are in place, click the Create file button. A file browser opens to let you specify a name and location for the video file you are creating. As a convenience, the Output Browser also provides buttons for launching any desired media file in Windows Media Player or Real Player, so you can view your output file in an external player as soon as you have created it.

The YouTube option offers only one preset, Best Quality. The frame size is 320x240, and the data rate is 256 Kbits/second.

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No additional format settings are required for either destination. After selecting the upload site and preset you want, click the Create button. This opens the Web Upload dialog box, where you can enter editorial information about your production. Set the title, description and comma-separated search tags as desired, then check up to three categories in which your movie should be listed. If you have previously logged into your Yahoo! account from Studio, but this time want to use a different user ID, check the Login as a different user box. Unless you are already logged in, the Yahoo! Desktop Login dialog is now displayed. If you have an existing Yahoo! Identity, enter your user information now; otherwise, you must first click the Sign up link to set up a new Yahoo! account.
Studio now automatically creates and uploads your movie. Click the Watch video online button if you would like to visit the Yahoo! Video site in your web browser to confirm the success of the upload.
Chapter 15: Making your movie 281

APPENDIX A:

Setup options
Settings are provided to adjust various aspects of Studios operation. The default values have been chosen to work well for the majority of situations and hardware. However, you may wish to modify them to suit your work style or equipment configuration. About Studio setup options Studios setup options are divided between two tabbed dialog boxes, both with several panels. The Main Options dialog box has four panels covering options relating to Capture mode and Edit mode. Open this dialog box to any panel by selecting one of the commands in the first group on the Setup menu.
The Make Movie Options dialog box has three panels, one for each of three media types: disc, file and tape. Access this dialog box by selecting one of the commands in the second group on the Setup menu.
Option settings in Studio apply to both the current and future Studio sessions. There is no master reset.
Appendix A: Setup options 283

Capture source settings

Remember that any changes you make on this panel affect all future captures. If you want to configure only one capture session, make sure you restore the old values before the next session. The settings are grouped into areas: Capture devices, Scene detection during video capture and Data rate. Capture devices Studio senses which capture hardware you have installed on your system for both video and audio. If you have more than one available capture device in either category, choose the one you want to use for the current capture session.

Creating a shooting plan

It is not always necessary to have a shooting plan, but it can be very helpful for large video projects. The plan
Appendix D: Videography tips 349
can be as simple or as complex as you like. A simple list of planned scenes might be enough, or you might also want to include some notes regarding detailed camera directions or prepared dialog. The really ambitious can go all the way to a full-fledged script in which every single camera angle is described in detail along with notes about duration, lighting and props.
Title: Jack on the kart track
No. 1 Camera angle Jack's face with helmet, camera zooms out Text / Audio Jack is driving his first race. Noise of engines in the background. 2 On the starting line, driver's perspective; low camera position. Music is played in the hall, noise of engines. 8 sec Tue. 06/22 Duration 11 sec Date Tue. 06/22
Man with a starting flag is Let's go. accompanied into the Carry out the start, scene to the start add starting signal. position. Camera stays, man goes out of the scene after start. Jack on the start position from the front, camera follows, shows Jack up to the bend, now from behind. Music from the hall no longer audible, fade up same music from CD over noise of engines.

12 sec

Tue. 06/22
Draft of a simple shooting plan

Editing

Using varying perspectives An important event should always be shot from varying perspectives and camera positions. Later, during

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editing, you can use the best camera angles alone or in combination. Make a conscious effort to tape events from more than one camera angle (first the clown in the circus ring, but then also the laughing spectator from the clowns point of view). Interesting events can also take place behind the protagonists or the protagonists may be seen in a reverse angle. This can be helpful later when trying to establish a sense of balance in the movie. Close-ups Dont be stingy with close-ups of important things or persons. Close-ups usually look better and more interesting than long shots do on a television screen, and they work well in post-production effects. Long shots / Semi-long shots Long shots provide the viewer with an overview and establish the scene of the action. However, these shots can also be used to tighten longer scenes. When you cut from a close-up to a long shot, the viewer no longer sees the details, and it is thus easier to make a chronological jump. Showing a spectator in a semi-long shot can also provide visual relief from the main action, and the opportunity of a transition away from the action if desired. Complete actions Always shoot complete actions with a beginning and an end. This makes editing easier. Transitions Cinematic timing requires some practice. It is not always possible to film long events in their entirety,

Appendix D: Videography tips 351
and in movies they often have to be represented in severely abbreviated form. Nonetheless, the plot should remain logical and cuts should almost never call attention to themselves. This is where the transition from one scene to the next is important. Even if the action in neighboring scenes is separated in time or space, your editorial choices can make the juxtaposition so smooth that the viewer bridges the gap without conscious attention. The secret to a successful transition is establishing an easily-felt connection between the two scenes. In a plot-related transition, the connection is that of successive events in an unfolding story. For example, a shot of a new car might be used to introduce a documentary about its design and production. A neutral transition doesnt in itself imply a story development or a change of time or place, but can be used to smoothly connect different excerpts from a scene. For example, cutting away to an interested audience member during a podium discussion lets you then cut back unobtrusively to a later point in the same discussion, omitting the part between. External transitions show something apart from the action. For example, during a shot inside the marriage registry, you might cut to the exterior of the marriage registry, where a surprise is already being set up. Transitions should underscore the message of the film and must always fit the respective situation, in order to avoid confusing viewers or distracting from the actual storyline. Logical sequence of action The shots strung together during editing must interact appropriately in relation to the action. Viewers will be

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unable to follow the events unless the storyline is logical. Capture viewer interest from the very beginning with a fast-paced or spectacular start and maintain that interest until the very end. Viewers can lose interest or become disoriented if scenes are strung together in a manner that is illogical or chronologically false, or if scenes are too hectic or short (under three seconds). There should be some continuity of motif from one scene to the next. Bridging the gaps Make an effort to bridge the gaps from one filming location to another. You can use close-ups, for example, to bridge chronological jumps, zooming in on the face, then back out after a few seconds onto a different scene. Maintain continuity Continuity consistency of detail from one scene to the next is vital in providing a satisfying viewing experience. Sunny weather does not fit with spectators who opened their umbrellas. Tempo of cuts The tempo at which a film cuts from one scene to the next often influences the message and mood of the film. The absence of an expected shot and the duration of a shot are both ways of manipulating the message of the film. Avoid visual disjunctions Stringing together similar shots in succession may result in visual disjunctions. A person may be in the left