Wednesday 3 December 2014
Three-Point Editing
In the Assembly phase of the edit process, you saw how to select a part of a video clip and add it to the sequence at the position in time where the playhead is on the timeline. The basic editing process involves marking 3 points in time to set the start and length of the clip to edit into the sequence and the position it will be added; this is why it is called Three-Point Editing.
However there are lots of different ways you can mark the three points; for example the In and Out points can be on the timeline itself and Premiere will use the Playhead in the Source Monitor as the third point. This is really useful if you know exactly where you need to place a clip in your edit and you want to replace a specific part of what is already in the sequence.
One reason you might do this is if you want to keep a line of dialogue in the edit but you want to show it from a different camera angle. If you've filmed your scene from multiple camera setups and have an alternative take of the line, you can "patch" it over the top of the edit to show a different point of view.
In the example edit below, there are three clips on the timeline. An establishing shot showing the male character on the phone, a cut to a woman sitting in a chair who stands up and leaves frame right; and a final shot showing the woman entering from the left to finish off the scene.
In the second shot, both actors have lines and take turns in the dialogue. On set, the sound recordist has wired the woman's microphone into one channel of the sound recording (the Left channel) and the man's microphone to the other channel (the Right). This is a very common way of recording the sound of two actors in the scene. Dialogue doesn't have to be recorded in stereo, a mono track will do. So its possible to use a lapel mic for each actor for the clearest sound and record the two actors at the same time straight into the camera. At the same time there will probably be a Boom mic operator recording one or other of the actors into a separate sound recorder.
You can actually see the different lines of dialogue in the sound track. Each time the woman speaks, there is a peak in the Left channel on the timeline and each time the man speaks there's a peak on the Right channel.
So the dialogue is switching between the two characters, but the picture in this clip is always of the woman. What if we want to cut to the man delivering one of his lines?
Because we have a visual clue from the sound waveform, we know exactly where the line of dialogue is; all we have to do is select that part of the timeline and replace it with a shot of the man saying the same line.
To select on the timeline, we can use IN and OUT points exactly as we would in the Source Monitor. To mark In and Out on the timeline, click on the timeline window to make it active then just press the I Key and O Key where you need the points to be.
In this case that means just before the man's last line of dialogue and just after, using the sound wave as a guide. The selected portion of the timeline will be highlighted.
We now have two of the points we need for an edit. For the final, third point, Premiere will use the Playhead in the Source Monitor. Now (as long as the Track Targets are set to V1 and A1) when you do an Overwrite edit the new clip will replace just the part of the timeline that is highlighted.
Using the IN and OUT points this way round makes it really easy to replace a line of dialogue with a different shot taken from another angle.
- In Point: marks the start of the clip you will be adding
- Out Point: marks the end or length of the clip
- Playhead: sets the point in the sequence where the clip will be added
However there are lots of different ways you can mark the three points; for example the In and Out points can be on the timeline itself and Premiere will use the Playhead in the Source Monitor as the third point. This is really useful if you know exactly where you need to place a clip in your edit and you want to replace a specific part of what is already in the sequence.
One reason you might do this is if you want to keep a line of dialogue in the edit but you want to show it from a different camera angle. If you've filmed your scene from multiple camera setups and have an alternative take of the line, you can "patch" it over the top of the edit to show a different point of view.
In the example edit below, there are three clips on the timeline. An establishing shot showing the male character on the phone, a cut to a woman sitting in a chair who stands up and leaves frame right; and a final shot showing the woman entering from the left to finish off the scene.
In the second shot, both actors have lines and take turns in the dialogue. On set, the sound recordist has wired the woman's microphone into one channel of the sound recording (the Left channel) and the man's microphone to the other channel (the Right). This is a very common way of recording the sound of two actors in the scene. Dialogue doesn't have to be recorded in stereo, a mono track will do. So its possible to use a lapel mic for each actor for the clearest sound and record the two actors at the same time straight into the camera. At the same time there will probably be a Boom mic operator recording one or other of the actors into a separate sound recorder.
You can actually see the different lines of dialogue in the sound track. Each time the woman speaks, there is a peak in the Left channel on the timeline and each time the man speaks there's a peak on the Right channel.
So the dialogue is switching between the two characters, but the picture in this clip is always of the woman. What if we want to cut to the man delivering one of his lines?
Because we have a visual clue from the sound waveform, we know exactly where the line of dialogue is; all we have to do is select that part of the timeline and replace it with a shot of the man saying the same line.
To select on the timeline, we can use IN and OUT points exactly as we would in the Source Monitor. To mark In and Out on the timeline, click on the timeline window to make it active then just press the I Key and O Key where you need the points to be.
In this case that means just before the man's last line of dialogue and just after, using the sound wave as a guide. The selected portion of the timeline will be highlighted.
We now have two of the points we need for an edit. For the final, third point, Premiere will use the Playhead in the Source Monitor. Now (as long as the Track Targets are set to V1 and A1) when you do an Overwrite edit the new clip will replace just the part of the timeline that is highlighted.
Using the IN and OUT points this way round makes it really easy to replace a line of dialogue with a different shot taken from another angle.
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