DVD Pick of the Week - Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers is a 2007 American film starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey. It is based on the book, The Freedom Writers Diary, by teacher Erin Gruwell. The title is a play on the term "Freedom Riders", the black and white civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961.

Trailer:



IMDB User Rating: 7.6/10

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Non-linear editing

Non-linear editing

for film and television postproduction is a modern editing method which involves being able to access any frame in a video clip with the same ease as any other. This method is similar in concept to the "cut and glue" technique used in film editing from the beginning. However, when working with film, it is a destructive process, as the actual film negative must be cut.

Non-linear, non-destructive methods began to appear with the introduction of digital video technology. Video and audio data are first digitized to hard disks or other digital storage devices. The data is either recorded directly to the storage device or is imported from another source. Once imported they can be edited on a computer using any of a wide range of software. For a comprehensive list of available software, see List of video editing software, whereas Comparison of video editing software gives more detail of features and functionality.

In non-linear editing, the original source files are not lost or modified during editing. Professional editing software records the decisions of the editor in an edit decision list (EDL) which can be interchanged with other editing tools. Many generations and variations of the original source files can exist without needing to store many different copies, allowing for very flexible editing. It also makes it easy to change cuts and undo previous decisions simply by editing the edit decision list (without having to have the actual film data duplicated). Loss of quality is also avoided due to not having to repeatedly re-encode the data when different effects are applied. Compared to the linear method of tape-to-tape editing, non-linear editing offers the flexibility of film editing, with random access and easy project organization.

With the edit decision lists, the editor can work on low-resolution copies of the video. This makes it possible to edit both broadcast quality and high definition quality very quickly on normal PCs which do not have the power to do the full processing of the huge full-quality high-resolution data in real-time.

The costs of editing systems have dropped such that non-linear editing tools are now within the reach of home users. Some editing software can now be accessed free as web applications, some, like Cinelerra (focused on the professional market), can be downloaded free of charge, and some, like Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker or Apple Computer's iMovie, come included if you buy the appropriate operating system.

A computer for non-linear editing of video will usually have a video capture card for capturing analog video or a FireWire connection for capturing digital video from a DV camera, as well as video editing software. Modern web based editing systems can take video directly from a camera phone over a GPRS or 3G mobile connection, and editing can take place through a web browser interface, so strictly speaking a computer for video editing does not require any installed hardware or software beyond a web browser and an internet connection. Various editing tasks can then be performed on the imported video before it is exported to another medium, or MPEG encoded for transfer to a DVD.

Fast & Slow Cutting

Fast Cutting

It is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shots of a brief duration (e.g. 3 seconds or less). It can be used to convey a lot of information very quickly, or to imply either energy or chaos. Fast cutting is also frequently used when shooting dialogue between two or more characters, changing the viewer's perspective to either focus on the reaction of another character's dialog, or to bring to attention the non-verbal actions of the speaking character. One famous example of fast cutting is the murder-scene in Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho (1960).

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Slow Cutting

It is a film editing technique which uses shots of long duration. Though it depends on context, it is estimated that any shot longer than about fifteen seconds will seem rather slow to viewers from Western cultures. A famous example of slow cutting can be found in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). In a segment that lasts three minutes and fifteen seconds and contains only three shots, the main character (Alex de Large) is followed as he walks the length of a futuristic record store, meets two young ladies, and brings them back to his (parents') house. Another example is Alfred Hitchcock's film Rope (1948) consisting of only eight cuts. Each cut lasts about as long as a full 1000 foot roll of 35 mm film (about 10 minutes). And of course, the prime-beef of slow-cutting being Russian Ark, which consisted of one long two hour plus shot.

Freeze frame shot

A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph. Hong Kong director John Woo also makes extensive use of freeze frames shots, usually to gain a better focus on to a character's facial expression or emotion at a critical scene.



Freeze Frame is also a drama medium term used in which, during a live performance, the actors/actresses will freeze at a particualar, pre-meditated time, to enhance a particlular scene, or to show an important moment in the play/production. The image can then be further enhanced by spoken word, in which each character tells their personal thoughts regarding the situation, giving the audience further insight into the meaning, plot or hidden story of the play/production/scene. This is known as thought tracking, another Drama Medium.

Jump Cut

A jump cut is a cut in film editing where the middle section of a continuous shot is removed, and the beginning and end of the shot are then joined together. The technique breaks continuity in time and produces a startling effect. Any moving objects in the shot will appear to jump to a new position.

Demonstration of Jump Cuts



In classical continuity editing, jump cuts are considered a technical flaw. Most cuts in that editing style occur between dissimilar scenes or significantly different views of the same scene to avoid the appearance of a jump. Every effort is made to make cuts invisible, unobtrusive. Contemporary use of the jump cut stems from its appearance in the work of Jean-Luc Godard and other filmmakers of the French New Wave of the late 1950s and 1960s. In Godard's ground-breaking Breathless (1960), for example, he cut together shots of Jean Seberg riding in a convertible (see right) in such a way that the discontinuity between shots is emphasized. In the screen shots above, the first image comes from the very end of one shot and the second is the very beginning of the next shot — thus emphasizing the gap in action between the two (when Seberg picked up the mirror).

Match Cut

A match cut or raccord is a cut in film editing from one scene to another, in which the two camera shots are linked visually or thematically. It can be used to underline a connection between two separate elements, or for purely visual reasons. In a match cut, an object or action shown in the first shot is repeated in some fashion in the second shot; the objects may be the same, be similar, or have similar shapes or uses.



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