Teacher Needs Help Editing DVD

[Alt+F4]

I'm a high school Social Studies teacher and I'd appreciate any advice in regard to editing a DVD, in particular it's "Pearl Harbor". I want to edit out the boring love story and just burn a DVD with the historical/attack scenes. Is there a way I can do this on my PC? Is there specific software I would need? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Soapy Sam]

Sorry - no idea about vid technicalities, just a word of caution. If you intend to use a movie to teach history, remember
1) It's a movie- ie fictionalised.
2)It's copyrighted.

[Alt+F4]

Sorry - no idea about vid technicalities, just a word of caution. If you intend to use a movie to teach history, remember
1) It's a movie- ie fictionalised.
2)It's copyrighted.

1) I've been a teaching history for 13 years, so I know the difference between fiction and real life.
2) I've also been teaching economics for 13 years and know what fair use is.

[alfaniner]

ULead Video Studio is one of the cheapest and easiest to use.

[fuelair]

1) I've been a teaching history for 13 years, so I know the difference between fiction and real life.
2) I've also been teaching economics for 13 years and know what fair use is.

With no offense ('cause my belief -as opposed to what I must act upon-is copyright restrictions should not apply to any public school /system), make sure your district/county/whatever does not have a more restrictive policy, the violation of which can get you terminated (as it happens, mine - and many others in Florida - does - and allows only the use of materials purchased or copied officially over the air :jaw-dropp ( pay cable is illegal period :jaw-dropp )) so do be careful!!:) :)

[bruto]

With no offense ('cause my belief -as opposed to what I must act upon-is copyright restrictions should not apply to any public school /system), make sure your district/county/whatever does not have a more restrictive policy, the violation of which can get you terminated (as it happens, mine - and many others in Florida - does - and allows only the use of materials purchased or copied officially over the air :jaw-dropp ( pay cable is illegal period :jaw-dropp )) so do be careful!!:) :)

I'm no expert on this, so I'm just curious: if the teacher owns a copy of Pearl Harbor, and creates a single edited copy for this one lesson would this constitute fair use? The question assumes the new copy would still be in the owner's possession, not further copied.

[fuelair]

I'm no expert on this, so I'm just curious: if the teacher owns a copy of Pearl Harbor, and creates a single edited copy for this one lesson would this constitute fair use? The question assumes the new copy would still be in the owner's possession, not further copied.
From the standpoint of Fed. copyright law, it might - there are intentional quibbles in the law. From the standpoint of local (School Board policy) - at least those I have seen- it wouldn't as most require administrative approval - if not going further as I described in previous post. Purposes of these requirements generally are to prevent "questionable" materials from surprising anyone (per ex: a previous county owned the Connections series and were not aware of the full frontal female nudity in (IIRC) ep. 5 or so and a school had picked up a copy of Manon of the Spring - unaware of similar - I informed them on both before any "disasters" occurred) and to avoid even an appearance of copyright violation. But............

[bruto]

From the standpoint of Fed. copyright law, it might - there are intentional quibbles in the law. From the standpoint of local (School Board policy) - at least those I have seen- it wouldn't as most require administrative approval - if not going further as I described in previous post. Purposes of these requirements generally are to prevent "questionable" materials from surprising anyone (per ex: a previous county owned the Connections series and were not aware of the full frontal female nudity in (IIRC) ep. 5 or so and a school had picked up a copy of Manon of the Spring - unaware of similar - I informed them on both before any "disasters" occurred) and to avoid even an appearance of copyright violation. But............

I can certainly see why they'd want to preview things like this, though it's kind of too bad about Manon of the Spring.

[aerosolben]

2) I've also been teaching economics for 13 years and know what fair use is.
Certainly, showing the DVD falls under fair use. But last I heard, DeCSS is still illegal in the US, and still a pre-requisite for copying (and therefore editing) a DVD.

[kevin]

The DMCA makes no provisions for fair use. Decrypting a DVD is still illegal under DMCA no matter what the purpose.

From the EFF's study on the unintended consequences of the DMCA:

By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for circumvention, the DMCA grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the public's fair use rights. Already, the movie industry's use of encryption on DVDs has curtailed consumers' ability to make legitimate, personal-use copies of movies they have purchased.



The "act" prohibition, set out in section 1201(a)(1), prohibits the act of circumventing a technological measure used by copyright owners to control access to their works ("access controls"). So, for example, this provision makes it unlawful to defeat the encryption system used on DVD movies. This ban on acts of circumvention applies even where the purpose for decrypting the movie would otherwise be legitimate.



http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php

[bruto]

The next question that arises is whether or not you could do it the old fashioned way, by recording the output from the DVD on a VHS tape, and simply editing with the pause button as you go. If you preview the DVD and make notes of the scenes you want to excise, it should not be too difficult, though it would have to be done in real time. Some DVDs and players will not allow taping (another copy protect scheme), but some will, so it might be worth a try, and might be easier to defend as fair use.

ONe of the other problems of doing it DVD to DVD is that recordable DVD's hold only about half of what a regular DVD does, making it difficult to dub some movies to a single DVD without compression.

[Chris Haynes]

It would be difficult to download the files from an encrypted movie DVD, plus it is illegal (it can be done from a laserdisc, which is unprotected but needs to be converted from analog to digital).

Also, video editing has a bit of a learning curve. One of the reasons I own a copy of Video Editing for Dummies (http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0471782785.html). Not only is there the process of downloading the video to your computer (with a large and fast hard drive), but there is the process of cutting sceneds, deleting... forming a video, creating chapter stops and the burning it to another DVD.

One suggestion is to look at the chapter stops on the DVD. Figure out which chapters have the stupid love story... and as you play the movie for your class hit the "Skip chapter" button there.

[kevin]

It would be difficult to download the files from an encrypted movie DVD

Actually it's very easy, there are lots of programs out there that can do it, many are free. Doesn't fix the "illegal" part.

I use Handbrake on my mac. They have a Windows and Linux versions available as well.
http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Also, video editing has a bit of a learning curve. One of the reasons I own a copy of Video Editing for Dummies (http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0471782785.html).

Just another reason I prefer my Mac for this. iMovie and iDVD handle these tasks exceedingly easily. Takes very little to actually edit a movie with those.

One suggestion is to look at the chapter stops on the DVD. Figure out which chapters have the stupid love story... and as you play the movie for your class hit the "Skip chapter" button there.

Yeah, I think this or the dubbing to VHS (which is not illegal for this use) are the best answers for a school.

And encourage your representatives to add fair-use provisions into the DMCA so this stuff isn't illegal anymore.

[Alt+F4]

Thank you everyone for your advice. The thought of me getting in trouble for attempting to edit this DVD is ridiculous. Do you really think the copyrite holds of this particular bad movie want to drag a teacher into court who has: 1) bought the original movie legally; 2) isn't making any profit by editing it; and 3) is using their crappy movie to teach kids?

I know what you're thinking, if I feel the movie is so bad why do I care to begin with? Overall it's bad, but the parts involving Dorie Miller and the Japanese perspecitve were good from a teenage point-of-view.

[Soapy Sam]

Thank you everyone for your advice. The thought of me getting in trouble for attempting to edit this DVD is ridiculous. Do you really think the copyrite holds of this particular bad movie want to drag a teacher into court who has: 1) bought the original movie legally; 2) isn't making any profit by editing it; and 3) is using their crappy movie to teach kids?

Technically (at least in the UK) simply copying a movie from a legally owned DVD to my own legally owned hard drive is an illegal act.
Using it in a public demonstration is also illegal. This may not be so where you are.

Anyway- the cautions were kindly meant and if you are confident of your legal status, then best of luck with your project.

[geni]

Thank you everyone for your advice. The thought of me getting in trouble for attempting to edit this DVD is ridiculous. Do you really think the copyrite holds of this particular bad movie want to drag a teacher into court who has: 1) bought the original movie legally; 2) isn't making any profit by editing it; and 3) is using their crappy movie to teach kids?

Probably not. Just be glad getty don't make movies.

[Chris Haynes]

...
Just another reason I prefer my Mac for this. iMovie and iDVD handle these tasks exceedingly easily. Takes very little to actually edit a movie with those.
....

I'm usually trying to edit home movies so they aren't boring... I assume that iMovie has some kind of automatic "remove boring scene of stupid camera operator putting down camera and forgetting to turn off the record button"... or automatic "remove nauseating scene of 8 year old playing fly-camera".

Anyway, the Video for Dummies book I have shows Pinnacle Studio and iMovie, there really isn't that much difference between them (the new version uses the Adobe $$$ product).

[Alt+F4]

Anyway- the cautions were kindly meant and if you are confident of your legal status, then best of luck with your project.

99% of the folks I've dealt with on JREF are great. I appreicate everyone's advice. Yikes, I may need help in the future with a World War I movie. :)

[Admiral]

99% of the folks I've dealt with on JREF are great. I appreicate everyone's advice.

That other 1% wouldn't happen to me, would it? :(

Just kidding. (We're outside the politics board now).

What I'd do with the DVD is just to use the remote to skip ahead in chapters wheny you'd need to. Because of the way they divide the movie up, it's very rare that they'd start a chapter with boring romantic stuff and end the same chapter with stuff you'd want to show.

Also, I'm not trying to tell you how to teach your class, but why Pearl Harbor? I'm not a history teacher, but I'm positive there are dozens of better movies for teaching World War II. There are movies like Flags of our Fathers that are from the Japanese perspective much more than Pearl Harbor is, and (also important), they're not laughably bad.

[Chris Haynes]

...Also, I'm not trying to tell you how to teach your class, but why Pearl Harbor? I'm not a history teacher, but I'm positive there are dozens of better movies for teaching World War II. There are movies like Flags of our Fathers that are from the Japanese perspective much more than Pearl Harbor is, and (also important), they're not laughably bad.

Letters from Iwo Jima (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498380/) is not out on DVD yet. Though it looks like Flags of Our Fathers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418689/) was released on DVD last month.

And, yes, there are lots of good WW II movies out there. In my high school we watched Patton (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066206/) in the school theater (from a projector) over about half a week.

For the Japanese part of movies in that era there is Tora! Tora! Tora! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066473/)

Also, there is The Longest Day (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/).

And, yes... I am old. Thank you for not asking!

[alfaniner]

Just be sure to explain the bad physics of the one bomb dropping straight down onto the USS Arizona.

[kevin]

Thank you everyone for your advice. The thought of me getting in trouble for attempting to edit this DVD is ridiculous. Do you really think the copyrite holds of this particular bad movie want to drag a teacher into court who has: 1) bought the original movie legally; 2) isn't making any profit by editing it; and 3) is using their crappy movie to teach kids?

I think they would sue you if they found out about it. they're pretty retarded that way. But I don't think they would find out about it as long as you don't throw it up on a sharing network.

Personally I'd probably use handbrake i mentioned above and MPEG Streamclip to chop out the sections you don't want.

http://www.squared5.com/

[Alt+F4]

Just be sure to explain the bad physics of the one bomb dropping straight down onto the USS Arizona.

Ah yes, the bombcam shot.....

[Alt+F4]

Also, I'm not trying to tell you how to teach your class, but why Pearl Harbor? I'm not a history teacher, but I'm positive there are dozens of better movies for teaching World War II. There are movies like Flags of our Fathers that are from the Japanese perspective much more than Pearl Harbor is, and (also important), they're not laughably bad.

There's a teacher at my school who recently obtained a 13 part series on the history of World War II, all in Russian with English subtitles! He can't wait to show it to all the 15 year-olds in his classes.

For the World War I unit he showed "Paths of Glory" a movie I personally love but automatically becomes a snoozefest for teens for no other reason than it's black & white.

I'm restricted on the amount of violence I can show the kids and Pearl Harbor does fine for the points I'm trying to make:
1. Pearl Harbor was a terrible attack.
2. Why did Americans at the time accept "Korematsu v. U.S."?

[Alt+F4]

And, yes, there are lots of good WW II movies out there. In my high school we watched Patton (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066206/) in the school theater (from a projector) over about half a week.

I would get so much, "Miss....this is soooooooooooooooo boring."

[Alt+F4]

That other 1% wouldn't happen to me, would it?

Of course not! :D

[Michael Gray]

... Do you really think the copyrite holds of this particular bad movie want to drag a teacher into court...

Please tell me that you do not teach English.