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Overwrite and Insert Editing

In this module we are going to learn more about the Three-point Editing tools and use them to complete Assemble 1 of Mr. Poole’s Craft Making Scene.

Video Transcript:

  1. To get started, I launch Premiere by clicking on the program icon.
  2. In the upper left, I click on ‘Open Project’.
  3. In the browser window, I navigate to the LLL Project Files folder on my computer’s internal drive and double-click on the Editing Exercises Premiere project file.
  4. In the Timeline, I click-and-drag left on the Timebar until I am at the beginning of the Sequence. 
  5. I press the L key to play and review the Sequence.

It occurs to me that after the first Medium Full Shot (MFS) it may be better to see more of what Mr. Poole is doing, and the contents of the table, rather than cutting to the Extreme Close Up (ECU) of him folding the page.

  1. I return to Clip 5375 in the Source monitor and find the wider Over the Shoulder (OTS) Shot that I am looking for, starting at 8 seconds.
  2. I return to the Sequence to remind myself of the action at the end of the first Shot. He moves his hand to the right and then starts a motion back to the left.
  3. In the Source Clip, I use the JKL keys to locate a matching action. At the beginning of this Medium Close Shot (MCS), the camera stops moving and Mr. Poole’s hand starts to the left at 00:00:08:03. 
  4. I mark an In-Point with the I key.
  5. From here, I play the material and use the JKL keys to find an Out-point. I decide to end the Shot in the action of him turning the page at 00:00:13:25.
  6. I mark an Out-Point with the O key.
  7. To mark my third point in the Sequence, I use my Snap-to command. I hold down the Shift key and use the mouse to click-and-drag in the Timebar until the blue Playhead line snaps between the first two Shots.
  8. I first release the mouse button and then the Shift key.
  9. I press the I key to mark the third point.

Once again, I have my Three-point Edit set up with two points on the Source side and one point on the Sequence. 

To make the first two edits in our Sequence, we used the Overwrite tool. Let’s see what happens if I make an Overwrite Edit in this situation. 

  1. I press the Period key.
  2. To review the edit, I click in the Timeline before the first transition and press Play.

I see the first Shot, then the Shot that I just edited in, followed by the remainder of the Shot that was originally in the Sequence. The Overwrite Edit took the duration of the marked Shot in the Source monitor and replaced, or ‘overwrote’, most of the existing Shot in the Sequence.

Now let’s try the same edit as an Overwrite Edit. 

  1. I press Ctrl-Z to Undo the Overwrite Edit. 

Once again, I have three points – an In and an Out on my Source Clip and an In-point in between my two Shots in the Sequence.

  1. To make an Overwrite Edit, click the Insert Edit button at the bottom of the Source monitor or press the Comma key.
  2. Let’s take a look at our new edit.

This edit ‘inserted’ the new Shot between the two existing Shots in the Timeline. In doing so, it did not overwrite, but rather pushed the following Shot down the Sequence. This is called ‘rippling’.

There are problems with the pacing of the Shots and the continuity of the transitions, but it is exactly the kind of rough layout we want for the first Assemble edit. As mentioned before, we don’t want to waste time overworking edits and Scenes that we may change or even discard later in the editing process.

Go ahead and experiment yourself with Insert and Overwrite Editing. Remember there are no ‘mistakes’ because you can always Undo (Ctrl-Z). Follow the steps above to insert the wider Over the Shoulder (OTS) Shot in Clip 5375 (from Timecode 00:00:08:03 to 00:00:13:25) into your Sequence. When your Sequence looks like mine, come back here.

Let’s add five more Shots to the Assemble to practice the editing techniques we’ve covered so far.

Video Transcript:

With the first three Shots I’ve introduced Mr. Poole’s environment and activity. Now we need to get to know him better. I turn to my Shot Log to find a Close Shot (CS). I see that Clip 5374 includes a Close Shot (CS) of his head and shoulders in profile at 15 seconds. Let’s take a look.

  1. In the Bin I double-click on Clip 5374 to open it in the Source monitor.
  2. I scroll through the Clip to review it. 

I need to match the movement in this Shot to that of the last Shot in the Sequence.

  1. To remind myself of that movement, I click in the middle of the last Shot in the Sequence and press Play. He’s just finished folding a page and his hand moves off screen to the left. 
  2. Back in the Source Clip, I use the JKL keys to watch the Shot. Based on his motion, I see that he finishes moving his hand to the left around the 21st second.
  3. I use the JKL keys to find the In-point, which I’ll try at 00:00:21:22.
  4. I mark an In-point.
  5. I play forward again to find an Out-point. I decide to cut after he finishes leaning forward to flatten a page, at 00:00:27:12.
  6. In the Timeline, I Snap-to the end of the last Shot in the Sequence and mark and In. 
  7. I press the Period key to make an Overwrite Edit.
  8. I review the addition. 

Face Shots like this are crucial in almost every Scene as they establish and maintain our relationship with the characters.

Next, I’m looking for an Establishing Shot (ES) that introduces Mr. Poole’s living space.

  1. I refer to my Shot Log and see that there’s an Extra Long Shot (XLS) in Clip 5378.  
  2. I open the Clip in the Source monitor and familiarize myself with its content. Once again, I need to match the action between this Shot and the last Shot in the Sequence.
  3. I play the last Shot and see that after flattening a page his upper body is coming back to the left.
  4. I scroll through the Source Clip and see a similar movement at 9 seconds.
  5. I use the JKL keys to find the In-point at 00:00:09:15. 
  6. I press the I key.
  7. I then look for an Out-point. I decide to cut toward the end of the Shot before his arm starts moving, at 00:00:13:11.
  8. In the Timeline, I once again snap the blue Playhead line to the end of the last Clip, and 
  9. Press the Period key to make the Overwrite Edit.
  10. I review the addition.

For the final three edits, I’ll find some exterior Shots of Mr. Poole’s home, which is a great way to introduce his surroundings.

I see that there are exterior Shots starting at Clip 5382. 

  1. I open Clip 5382 in the Source monitor. 
  2. I find the Medium Shot (MS) that provides a view of Mr. Poole through a window from the outside.
  3. After a bit of shaky camera movement at the beginning of the Shot, I mark an In-point at 00:00:06:19.
  4. I play the Shot and decide to mark an Out-point at 00:00:12:08.
  5. In my Timeline, I once again edit the Shot onto the end of the Sequence using the Snap-to command and the Overwrite Edit tool.
  6. I review the addition.
  7. To see my full Sequence, I click and drag on this bar bar at the bottom of the Timeline.

I noticed while scrolling through Clip 5382, before making the last edit, that there is a tighter Medium Close Shot (MCS) of Mr. Poole through the window. This Shot is a bit more abstract and might be interesting to use because it engages the viewer’s curiosity by forcing them to have to figure out where they are and what’s going on. Our editing should aim to engage the viewer and pique their curiosity. I’d like to try making this Shot the first exterior view that we see of Mr. Poole.

  1. To do so, I review the end of the second to last Shot in the Sequence. The Shot ends as he finishes moving his arm slightly to the left. 
  2. I return to the Source Clip to see if I can match that action and draw the viewer’s eye into the next Shot. I see that Mr. Poole moves his arm to the right.
  3. I cut on this action by marking an In-point at 00:00:28:23.
  4. Then, towards the end of the Shot, just as Mr. Poole begins folding another page, I mark an Out-point at 00:00:33:06.
  5. I Snap-to the transitions between the last two Shots in the Sequence and mark an In-point.
  6. This time I’ll make an Insert Edit by pressing the Comma key.
  7. If needed, to better see what happened, I can zoom-in or out on the Timeline by pressing the Plus (+) and Minus (-) keys or by clicking-and-dragging on the circles at the ends of this gray bar. 
  8. Because I made an Insert Edit, the Medium Close Shot (MCS) rippled the Medium Shot (MS) down the sequence. If I had made an Overwrite Edit, it would have overwritten most of the Medium Shot (MS). 
  9. Let’s see how the last three Shots in our Sequence play together. 

It’s slow and uneven but we’ll refine it later in the editing process.

For my final edit, I see in the Shot Log that there’s a Long Shot (LS) of Mr. Poole’s home, which might be a good way to end the Scene.

  1. I open Clip 5384 in the Source monitor.
  2. The Shot does not have any action except a passing car in the background at 13 seconds. I’ll mark an In at 00:00:13:00, coming in on the passing car.
  3. Then, after I think the Shot has told its story, I mark an Out at 00:00:22:16.
  4. Lastly, I Snap-to the end of the Sequence and make an Overwrite Edit.

We’ve now completed our first Assemble of a Scene about Mr Poole working on his craft project. Let’s take a look.

As it should be, the first Assemble is a rough construction that allows the Scene to communicate its story. We’ll tighten and refine this Scene in upcoming editing modules.

Sooner or later in the editing process, I’ll want to export my work so I can watch it independent of the editing software.

Video Transcript:

To export the Sequence Assemble 1 – Craft Making: 

  1. I go to the Project panel and highlight the Sequence.
  2. I right-click on it, scroll to the bottom of the pop-up menu, and choose ‘Export Media’.
  3. In the ‘Export Settings’ dialogue window, I navigate to the right-hand column, and underneath the screen set the ‘Range’ to ‘Entire Source’.
  4. Then, in the ‘Settings’ panel in the center, I set the ‘Format,’ as it already is here, to ‘H.264’, and the ‘Preset’ to ‘Match Source – Adaptive High Bitrate’.
  5. Next, above Preset, I click on the blue text to the right of ‘Location’. This action opens the browser window, helping me stay organized. It’s essential to be consistent about where you store your exports. 
  6. I navigate to my external Editing Drive and then double click on the LLL Media folder.
  7. Inside LLL Media, I create a new folder and call it “Exports.” 
  8. I double-click on the newly created Exports folder and click ‘Save.’

Back in the Export Settings dialogue window, I click on ‘Export’ in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and wait for the Sequence to appear as a single file in the newly created Exports folder.

Exporting can get very involved, but that’s all you need to know about it for now. You’ve got plenty to practice and learn about constructing engaging Scenes using Three-point Editing.

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