Digital Video Editing

Course Outline:

This course is now FULL. No more enrolments are being taken sorry.

Explore the art of non-linear, digital video editing.  

Students will study the aesthetics and history of film editing, and learn hands-on skills needed to edit their own movies.   

Clips from important films throughout history will be viewed to create a better understanding of this medium.

Students will edit found video footage as well as record some of their own in small groups.

Students may bring their own digital camera to class.  Please check model with Jess before the first session.

Session 1: Intro to Editing

• Brief history of editing
• The Kuleshov Effect
• Learn the layout 
• timeline
• blade tool
• in and out points
• Labeling Clips
• Importing

Project: Re-edit a film from 1903 to suit modern tastes

Session 2: Filming for Continuity 

• Match cut
• 30° rule
• 180° rule
• Basic shots & angles

Project: Shoot a short scene for continuity

Session 3: Continuity Editing

• Import footage from camera

Project: Import & edit footage from previous week

Session 4: Sound

• Audio transitions
• Royalty-free music & sound effects
• Foley

Project: Use materials found in the classroom create sound to put into an old TV show clip

Homework: Find footage to edit together into a music video for the next class. 

Session 5: Breaking the Rules

• Using discontinuity as a stylistic choice
• Montage
• Jump cuts
• Filters/colour correction/distortion
• Video & audio effects
• Video transitions

Session 6: Meaning-Making in Editing

• Thoughtful editing

Project: Film an object from unique perspectives, then edit the footage to impose meaning,

Session 7:  Continue Editing

Session 8:  Exporting, Uploading, Sharing

Spend class cleaning up previous projects, adding titles & transitions as needed

About Jess Weichler

Jess Weichler is a media arts educator at the MakerBox.

Ever since childhood she has been creating digital worlds through game design. Aside from a few lessons learnt from her 8-year old students, she is self-taught in the Scratch programming language, the Processing java subset, and a robotic Hummingbird micro-controller. She has taught these skills since 2012, and her courses are still in use both locally and abroad in the United States.