Editing

1. Retrieving the footage

I started by removing the SD card from the Canon EOS Mark II and using a card reader plugging it into my Lenovo Ideapad 3 However, due to the large file size produced by the camera, the footage took almost 45 minutes to completely transfer.

2. Viewing/playing back the footage

To view and playback the footage, I used Windows Media Player Legacy. This media player works very well with the footage from a Canon EOS Mark II camera, as it allowed us to use a broad format support, backward compatibility, and a familiar interface. 

3. Pick out all the footage we will use

This was quite a laborious task. I went through file-by-file viewing the footage in the Windows Media Player Legacy, and I decided if footage was either:

- Not needed/not usable

- Decent/possibly usable

- Perfect/Definitely usable 

- If footage was not needed/not usable, I left it. 

- If footage was decent/possibly usable, I put it in a new folder on the flash drive, called "Footage for edit", and I tagged it red. 

- If footage was perfect/definitely usable, I did the same as decent/possibly usable, but I tagged it green.

4. Begin sequencing

I created a new Premiere Pro project. The project settings were 3840 x 2160 (Pixels), 4K UHP. I also changed to 16:9 to create a more seamless viewing experience for the majority of viewers.

Most of the editing was done on my personal laptop rather than the school computers because the school uses an older version of Premiere Pro. Their systems run the 2023 version, while mine has the 2026 version, which makes the project files incompatible. To avoid constant conversion issues and missing features, we chose to work on our own computers. Even though my laptop can be slower at times, it offered newer tools, better compatibility, and the flexibility to edit whenever needed.

I imported all of the usable footage by dragging the “Footage for Edit” folder directly into Premiere Pro and began arranging the clips in the timeline. I consistently selected the clips tagged in green, since those were our best takes. When no green‑tagged version existed, I chose the strongest red‑tagged clip. Annabelle and I created a list in my Notes app as we reviewed each shot, deciding which ones best matched the script, storyboard, and the overall vision for the film.