For this assignment you’ll edit the footage you shot into a short film. Start by organizing and  renaming your video files. A format I recommend is “Year-Month-Day-Hour-Minute-Second_Device_Project.FileExtention”.

Sorting

Then if you haven’t already, install a video editing program on your computer. I will be using Premiere Pro, but a free alternative is Davinci Resolve. Then create a new project file and import your footage into the project.

Create a new timeline (or sequence) and add all of your footage to it in chronological order. Watch through all of your footage. I recommend using the video tracks to rank how much you like each shot and color coding your footage by scene. The goal is to be able to easily understand the footage in your timeline, so experiment with organization methods until you find what works for you.

Video Edit

After you have sorted your footage, create a new timeline for your video edit. This way you can easily return to your sorting timeline to get any shots you may need.

Then copy and paste your footage into the new timeline. I recommend starting with your best shots, and building your edit around them. Don’t worry about precise timing yet, for now just figure out which take to use for each story moment. Try to avoid using the same camera angle twice in a row so you can avoid jump cuts. I recommend duplicating your edit timeline and storing it in a backups bin before making any major changes so you can go back if you need to.

Once you have a rough first pass of your edit, go back and fine tune the timing of each cut. Try to trim your edit down so it is under 90 seconds long. Also add any fade to/from black or cross dissolve transitions you need.

Audio Editing (Bonus)

Bonus - I will cover sound design and audio editing later in this course, but if you want to get a head start you can add music and sound effects to your short film. You can record sounds yourself or download them from online, then import them into your project and add them into your timeline.