I've just recently gotten the hang of video editing, about five months ago. I've been doing for years though. I got my hands on an academic copy of Adobe CS4, so I've been working with that. Anyway, so far I've observed the following rules: 1. NEVER use any transition besides fade unless a specific effect or vision is being relayed. 2. NEVER record audio from a camera with moving parts. EVER. 3. Color Correction is your friend. 4. Lyrics in music are not good unless it is synced. I've never actually been taught, I'm entirely self taught, I was wondering if any Editing gurus out there would be willing to give use newbies a little info.
I'm also a self taught editor/director/writer/all in one visual production. Your tips are very accurate. Look on google for some tips if you want.
1) It all depends on what you're trying to do. Most used transitions are fades, because they are simple transitions that don't degrade the quality of your film. There are times where other transitions can be used, but those are only in Montages, and things of that sort. 2) I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain more? 3) Not all the time. Again, it depends what you are making. This is more for movies, as if you are trying to make an older looking film maybe not color correct and damage your film so that it appears more worn. It's all about aesthetics. 4) Again, not necessarily. Depends what you are doing. Montages and things like that should be synced to the best of your ability. But then as well you can have other pieces of music that just add to the scene, lets say a sad scene where there is no dialogue there can be a song that's not synced to the video. Two examples of this would be: Synced YouTube- XForgery Feature: Sassafras Not synced YouTube- gears of war (mad world) The second, non synced video, can be argued about. But if you look closely, even though some scenes may start off at a new set of lyrics, there isn't anything that fits with the lyrics or tone of song to be synced in my opinion. But honestly, with the music, it's all your call. If the song fits un-synced, then it keep it and see how the entire film plays out around it.
1) I meant preset transtions like the keyhole opener 2) Cameras with moving parts record sound, but even loude they record the sound of the moving parts in the camera, coming out as a "buzzz" it sucks. 3) Unless you have a super perfect camera and lighting. brightness/contrast and color correction is usually your friend. 4) I meant direct relevance with "synced" also, forgot to type it.
1) You are correct about most presets. 2) Ah. Yes, you should avoid those. 3) Of course, it all depends on your budget, but for most cameras what you said is the case. Well, in my opinion it wasn't synced as well as it could have been.