SCENE 1

You've got to imagine the scene ... David Jackson, our tutor, hovers spider-like at the centre of his web, eyes peeled.  To cries of distress and groans of despair he makes rapid radial excursions outwards to the workstations positioned around the perimeter of the room.  He homes in on the mouse and with a flurry of movement too fast for the human eye to follow, brings the time line wrestler back onto the straight and narrow.  Best of all he seems to know this General Failure, and further, knows why he's reading my hard disk.

So ended our last day of a fascinating three day Premiere NLE course at Wansfell College in Theydon Bois, Essex.  22 of us gathered together at the end of February for a high speed pressure-cooked course of solid Non Linear Editing instruction, demonstration and interaction.

THE INTRODUCTION

But first let's backtrack three days.  Having unloaded at the college's front door and plugged in and tested our workstations, we all gathered in the main drawing room for an informal introduction.  We pushed and pulled at all the sofas and chairs to make a large inward facing circle, and David J went round name tagging us all with self-adhesive stickers - very useful when you're suddenly introduced to dozens of strangers.   One by one, we introduced ourselves to the group, taking it in turns to tell the assembled Nellies whatever sprang to mind.

It's a great way to break the ice, to explain why you're there, to ask for technical help, to offer your own skills.  You suddenly meet people you've only ever e-mailed to, and it's a wonderful way to realise that in this pioneering world of NLE, we're all in it together.  Some of us are up to here: Desmond and his long tale of NLE woe; Valrie as to why she'd spurned the PC for (as we called it) a dirty mac; Brenda wanted to buy a whole new kit, going totally DV; David had just done so and was itching to use it; Richard successfully disbanded the discussion by announcing it was his birthday and led us grudgingly towards the bar - we insisted he paid.

THE CLASSROOM

Right, the first solid day.  We're all raring to go and rumble into the lecture-theatre like over-excited school kids.  David Jackson tells us what's in store - sssh at the back please - and it's straight into the almost unplumetable depths of Premiere 5,1. As experience is something you don't get until just after you need it, we were going to have to take David's word as Gospel.

We were all presented with a thick folder of notes with every topic covered in great detail, from overview through settings, transparency, filters and transitions. We're talking over 1,6kg of instructions here (I've just weighed it).

David J had come up with one excellent exercise that was designed to demonstrate very many of the tips and techniques he was going to explain.  Immediately we all had our noses to screens, making a Humpty Dumpty "Wot?" behind the brick wall, and animating him.  It's great fun, and opened our eyes to the vast potential of something so seemingly simple as Titling and Motion.

MORE FOOD

Trouble is that waitresses kept ringing bells and bashing gongs at us.  It always seemed to be coffee time or lunchtime or tea time and hours would flash by at 4x speed (don't forget to de-interlace in 4.2).  We'd all change tables at meal times, meeting new people and hearing new NLE stories of saviour and frustration, and many of us would stay up well past midnight delving into the complexities of this emerging science.

DEMONSTRATIONS

One afternoon Marcus Harrison - a visiting lecturer - came to show us films he'd made using After Effects.  These beautiful "Tangerine Dream" movies blended pastel colours, merging shapes, altered motion, sympathetic sounds into dream-like sequence movies that make you wonder what goes on in his brain (in the nicest possible way, mind.)  His technical explanation of how he manipulated and strangulated Premiere to give him what he wanted made my brain hurt.  He's a dedicated and talented specialist.

So too, David Blundell, who in his Photoshop demonstrations, showed the ease with which near perfect faces could be made absolutely perfect.  He took us patiently and expertly through all the tools available to us in Photoshop, using each in turn to explain the differences between melt and merge, feather and fluster.  I'll wager this guy knows more about Photoshop than the original programmers, and all the time he's able to make us laugh and get our minds around RGB Interference Mattes (I made that one up) and Gamma Correction (genuine). Everyone has a photographic memory, David.  Just remember that some of us don't have film.

Then came the wonders of  transparency and transitions - David J painstakingly elaborating upon everything Premiere had to offer.  Everything his PC produced was projected five feet wide for us all to see, and interjected questions always brought forth instant and knowledgeable answers.  Has this man lived two lifetimes to know so much?

FILM NIGHT

Thursday night was film night.  Good entertaining evening this, when we all were invited to show a movie whether it be DVC, S-VHS or VHS.  We set up the video projector in the drawing room and each film-maker was invited to give a short introduction to his or her movie before projection began.  From animated dragonfly lava to balletic Red Arrows, from underwater lung busters to crazy architecture, we saw a huge variety of films, all of which had been deftly manipulated by NLEditors.  But as David J pointed out, it's the art that conceals art that packs the biggest wallop; when you can't see that time line up there on the big screen, NLE is working at its best.

Not over yet, and it's David B's turn again.  Back to the classroom to listen wide-eyed to Sound Forge as it magically expands a voice-over soundtrack by 20% to fit the film, yet leaves the pitch unaltered.  At the same time we'll remove tape hiss, mains hum and camera noise.  And while we're at it we'll remove the little gasp as she draws breath before each sentence.

Again we chat excitedly beyond midnight; there is just so much to learn.  I'm acutely aware that while I'm here in a conversation about the Sony TRV900, over there there's three more conversations I'd love to be listening in on.  One on slow motion, one on aerial photography, one on 5.1 tips and tricks.

SHOWDOWN

And so to our final exercise.  David J has set us a task: to produce a short movie to promote Premiere to a select audience. This is it - let the tournament begin.  We now seriously wrestle with the time line and bravely go where we haven't been before (and happily split our infinitives.) David J doesn't stop, zig-zagging across the floor to reset an icon here, to pull down a menu there, to show a shortcut, suggest a solution.  At the same time (and with his left hand) he's cutting us all a CD ROM of clips and downloads and handing out the last of the printed notes.

Final showdown time.  Our last treat is to watch the ten rapidly produced movies one after another.  They've all been constructed from scratch in a matter of three hours or so, and it's an absolute delight to watch every single one of them.  The "Welcome to Wansfell" spoof had us falling about with laughter, others flash wonderful spinning titles, a myriad of filters and special effects.  They may not be great movies, but the course has made enthusiasts of us all, and it shows.

THREE IS NOT ENOUGH

We all know that three days is not enough.  We all realise that you could spend every waking hour on titling and motion alone and die without having had time to shoot some footage worthy of manipulation.  All of us Nellies know that NLE is the way to go, and it's this common and focused belief that's brought us to Wansfell in the first place.  Many had travelled hours to be there and for some this was their third time - there really is no end to the learning curve that stretches ahead.

But we're all most grateful for the IAC backup which started long before we ever assembled.  We'd all received maps showing how to get there; letters telling us the names and addresses of all the other course members and who we'd be sharing a workstation with.  Another letter told us what we'd need to bring as regards hard and software - even suggestions that we label everything and check out out insurance policies.  Everything had been thought out, and with nothing left to chance, nothing went wrong.  I like that - it shows how thorough planning pays off.

[Please note this is an archived report from 2003. IAC no longer organises courses at Wansfell College.]

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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