Tip One

If you want a hassle free edit the first thing you look for is a package that suits your genre and doesn't require hours of preparation. With documentary and travel editing, your assets, video, digital stills, audio, artwork often take hours to ingest, converting from one format to another, perhaps MPEG to AVI or a MOV file to an AVI. Edius v5 has conquered this exhausting workflow and will accept just about any format you may have.

Tip Two

On the timeline Edius has included an F7 function which resizes any digital stills or artwork in a very simple fashion. Just highlight the clip you want to work on and press F7. A work window will open displaying the video layout. Two viewing monitors are available for source and output and a host of tools ready for cropping, manipulating the position in frame, stretching the source vision and even providing a fill colour for background. A number of presets are available and you can save your own work as a preset for future edits. The video layout tool has key frames allowing you to manipulate the input over time.

Tip Three

You can convert Alpha files to Canopus Lossless or Canopus HQ with alpha to save space right in Edius 5 and it's easy to do. Just follow these steps:

1. Select your file in the bin, for example a 32bit Digital Juice overlay in the uncompressed AVI or QuickTime uncompressed format.
2. Right click on the file and go to Convert > File. Pick Canopus Lossless or Canopus HQ online and when complete you'll have a brand new file with an Alpha channel. Easier on your computer with these smaller sizes and the quality is great on the HQ or Lossless files. Your file is automatically added to your bin.

Tip Four

Creating new effects can be a long-winded exercise. When you've finished, and particularly if you need to reuse that effect, you should save that preset in the EFFECT bin. This is how to do it:

1. Drag your effect or transition from the INFORMATION window and drag it to any folder in the effects window. Automatically you'll have a preset
2. Create new folders so you can categorise your favourite filters and transitions
3. Simply rename folders/transitions/effect sets by pressing F2, the Windows standard shortcut for renaming files and folders.

Tip Five

A frequently used function on the timeline is the insertion of IN and OUT points. Mouse clicking is very convenient but just exactly where do you click? Follow this simple formula for a quick result.

You can create an IN and OUT point by double clicking on the ruler above the clip. Just make sure the track that the clip is on is selected.

By John Westwood

Formerly a banker come accountant, John Westwood, in his early twenties, made his first documentaries and sold them to the ABC. After twenty years in the finance industry and a long involvement in amateur film and video clubs John turned professional and created Redgum Television Productions in 1984. Since then he has made over 3000 documentaries with more than 200 broadcast in seven different countries.

Although camera work is a key starting point for most videographers John has a bent for scriptwriting and editing and has won international acclaim in North America, the UK and a number of Asian countries. More commonly known as Redgum, John still has a strong involvement in the amateur club scene and can be found between documentary shoots trolling the local video clubs sharing experiences with budding filmmakers or relating that experience through the pages of the auscam magazine.

Currently, John is working on a commission to produce five one hour documentaries for an international agency. This type of work will keep him busy for two or three years and add another element to his industry based training regime for budding documentary makers. John can be contacted through www.redgumtv.com.au