Tuesday was an edit day for my project at UC Irvine. It’s a training video for distance learning instructors.
A project like this has three stages: writing, shooting, editing. You try and follow a roadmap, but ideas change, things are fluid.
Editing is where stories are made or lost. It’s critically important, but functionally unknown to most outsiders. Video editors often work alone in windowless closet sized rooms with video monitors and the constant whir of computer fans.
Shaunt Kouyoumdjian, who shot our video, is editing. All the clips are in a server. Sony Vegas is running, mathematically pasting together snippets of video. Shaunt commands an arsenal of electronic wizardry which treats video like Photoshop treats stills! Even for this simple production, some sections have a half dozen simultaneously overlapping layers of video.
Video editing is one of the few computer applications where faster processing power really matters. The calculations necessary to edit HD video are mind boggling, but easily within the reach of modern high end PCs.
We pick it up Thursday morning. I love this stuff. It’s just in my blood.
