S | 2 | Television Scene Edit

The culmination of this unit: using everything from 2.2–2.4, you’ll edit a real scene from a television show, from raw footage and a script, through three deliberate editing passes, to a finished, delivered export.

Project Briefing (~10 min)

Watch the teacher demo one Assembly Edit pass on a sample scene, narrating each choice out loud: which clips get Inserted vs. Overwritten, and why this pass isn’t trying to be perfect yet.

  1. Gather your resources:
    • Script
    • Footage
    • Graphics
    • Sound effects

Organize

  1. Ensure that Google Drive for Desktop is syncing to your computer.
  2. Create a Project Directory (Folder) in your Google Drive Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM Project Name
  3. Try to keep all of your project files for the explainer video together, so your work is not interrupted due to technical difficulties.
  4. In your project directory, maintain subdirectories for every category of resource you will be using.

Storing all your files in the /Downloads folder in your computer is a BAD idea. If any of these files are lost/deleted you will have to reconnect them. Put them in your project folder directly. This will also be helpful in the event of any computer issues.

YYYY-MM Project Name
📁 Source Footage
📁 Graphics
📁 Sound Effects
📁 Music
📁 Script
  1. It’s also good to include directories for related files
📁 Project Files
📁 Exports
  1. While editing your project, it will benefit you to right click on your project folder and select: “Make Available Offline”. This will keep your files stored on the local computer while you are editing. When you are finished editing the project, you can deselect this to free up space on your harddrive.

Project Set Up

  1. Launch Adobe Premiere
  2. Create a New Project in Adobe Premiere
    • Project Name: Use a Conventional Naming Scheme YYYY-MM Project Name
    • Location:Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM PROJECT/Project Files
    • Template: None
  3. The next screen will have an Import screen. The only important setting to adjust is Sequence Name.
    • Sequence Name: YYYY-MM Project Name-YourLastName Whatever you name your sequence will become the name of the video you export at the end
  4. You can press skip for now. I prefer to import footage by dragging and dropping from Google Drive Desktop.

Import Footage

  1. Drag the folders containing your assets to the Project Window in the bottom left.

Premiere does not automatically update the files in a folder. If you add files later on you will have to manually import them in the same way.

Project Work Time (~23 min)

Assembly Edit

  1. Import your footage into your bins, following 2.2’s bin structure.
  2. Use your script to create an offline edit of the scene, using Insert and Overwrite from 2.3.
  3. Maintain the original spirit of the scene. Stay as true to the original vision as possible.
  4. Don’t worry about being frame-accurate yet. The goal is a sequence that tells the story.

Offline Edit

  1. Fine-tune the edit to clean up transitions and pacing, applying 2.3’s L/J cuts and cutaways where they genuinely help the scene flow (2.3 covered both the rough cut and continuity techniques together, so this is the same skillset as the Assembly pass above).
  2. Bring in music, sound effects, and audio to bring the story to life.

Online Edit

  1. Perfect your cuts, checking for accidental jump cuts.
  2. Mix audio and apply filters/effects.
  3. Adjust color correction to balance the look between shots.
  4. Add graphics and titles.
  5. Crossfade all audio stems.
  6. Fade in and out to black.

Halfway check-in: trade seats with a partner after your Assembly Edit pass. Does their scene still tell the same story the script describes? Flag anything confusing before they move on.

GMetrix/BrainBuffet (~30 min)

Finish Module 1: Barbershop Social Promo, including its module-completion checkpoint. Due today, entered in the gradebook alongside this project.

Deliver, Export & Submit (~5 min)

Deliver

  1. Finalize your timeline.
    • Delete out any spaces in your timeline.
    • Mark Ins and Outs (Best Practice)

Export Finished Project

  1. Go to File>Export>Media>
  2. Specify your export settings
    • File Name: YYYY-MM Project Name-Lastname
    • Location: Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM Project Name/Exports
    • Preset: Match Source (or use a High Quality Preset to reduce file size)
    • Format: H.264 (The most compatible format)
  3. Choose H.264 from the Format menu. This will create an mp4 file on export.
  4. Click Export. The export script will run until finished.

Strike

Film sets “strike” (tear down) the set when shooting wraps. Editors do the same with their drives. Once your final export is delivered and your portfolio page is published:

  1. Delete the raw footage from the project folder on your computer. Your final export and project file are all you keep.
  2. Empty the Trash. Deleted footage still takes up space until you do.
  3. Confirm your final export plays from Google Drive before you leave class.

Publish your work to your Google Sites Portfolio

  1. Create a new page on your Google Sites Portfolio to catalog your work.
    • Your work should be exported in a web-safe format in a manner that allows for the work to be embedded without requiring Google Drive permissions
  2. Your work should be accompanied by a detailed project description
  3. Submit the published portfolio page to your LMS (Schoology)

🗂 Organize: Put your Project Setup Checklist and reference sheets from 2.2–2.4 in your binder. Save your Premiere project file in the Project Files folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive. Save your final exported scene in the Exports folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive.

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