Tag Archives: Video Editing Tips and Tricks

In The Style Of Jump Editing

Anatomy of an Edit, , ,

You know how to edit.  You understand the basic concepts of video editing.  You know the importance of a sequence.  You’ve grasped screen direction.  You know the importance of tight shots.  You know the rules, which are more guidelines than rules.  So, you want to break some rules?

This is a style that you could use, no matter what type of storyteller you are.  I call this jump editing.

Jump cuts are intentional.  There are some rules to jump editing (or guidelines).

Are you ever given a story that just screams jump cuts?  I was given a few of these in my time in a newsroom.  The goal is to tell the story of a makeover while weaving a story of a woman that is ambushed.  I have fun with stories like these.  I do have a method to this madness I call jump editing.  I’m going to share my process.

I cut the story as tight as I can.  I fit as much story and visuals as I can in 1:45.  You see lots of edits, not too many, but enough to make the story fast and fun.

Our story for this post is She’s a Lady.

Our story begins with our host walking up to an unsuspecting woman.

In the second shot of the story [:02], I increase the scale to 130%.  I take the edit mid-motion.  Taking edits on motion helps disguise jump cuts a little, music videos do this all the time.

Why did I increase the scale?  So the next shot isn’t as brutal of a jump cut with this shot.  The change in scale creates two shots with a little bit of a difference in composition.

Her position in the frame helps as well.  Another idea I didn’t do.  Re-size the image and move it to adjust where the person is in the frame.

The next shot, the videographer pans from our makeover candidate to our show host.  The shot ends looking like this.

I break up the host talking about the ambush (she rambles on with information that doesn’t advance the story) when I make the next edit. It is this [from 08 to 10].

Again, I use the same trick as before.  I increase the scale of the shot. In this shot, I increase the scale to 120%.

It is enough of a compositional change that hides a jump cut (sort of). I make another edit breaking up our host talking.  I change the scale back to 100%.

You’ll see later in the piece jump cuts where our woman is in different spots in the store.  I’m ok with those kinds of jump cuts regardless of editing style.  When you are going from the interview or the one being interviewed and the composition is the exact same, I think a subtle change in composition really helps these edits not become too jarring.

When our subjects accept, the shot of her accepting is fast.  There are two pans back to back.  Another way I hid the jump cuts, I use the pan and make my cuts on the movement or right before the movement starts.  After the pans, we are introduced to an assistant in the makeover.

Then I edit a shot of everyone entering the first store. The camera is still panning when I take the edit, and everyone entering the store is moving [:09].  There is a lot of change in the composition as well, two things that ease the jump cut.

They are in the store, and then I go back to the interview in the middle of the mall.  Why?  I always like to show emotion on camera.  Emotion overrides all in editing, right?  That’s why I go back outside of the store because our candidate is excited about her makeover.

A music montage follows.  I’m using Tom Jones’ She a Lady for this story.  I love me some Tom Jones.  The song also fits the story very well. In the montage notice again a lot of movement.

The edit at [:15] I take just when she pulls her head up.

The next shot at [:16] I take the edit right as she turns her head.  The next shot at [:17], there isn’t much movement.  It’s also not a jump cut from the shot at [:16].  Back to a jump cut at [:18] and back to finding the movement to edit on.

After the music montage, I tell a little bit about her story.  We get to know our candidate.  Everybody has a story.  The prime objective is to just show the makeover; however, I wanted to tell a more of a story.  I am a storyteller, you know.

Several Jump cuts after this use as much movement as I can find in the shots the videographer brought back.

At [:39], the videographer does a swish zoom out.  I only use this once.  It’s too distracting for me to use a lot.   I liked using it here to break up all the jump cuts.

Transitional shot next at [:42].  Not everything has to be a jump cut.  A chance to bring the music up full as well.

I use the transitional to transition them into the next store.

Once I get into the store, I use more tight shots than I did before.  We are in a jewelry store, and jewelry is small, that just lends itself to tight shots.  How else are we going to see the pretty jewelry?

Another music montage at [:56].  Again I’m finding motion in the edits.

We move to another store at [1:03]. This time I simply use a pan down from the outside store sign to them entering for my transitional shot.

The sequence from [1:13] to [1:21] is my favorite part of the story.

Women LOVE trying on shoes.  I say it again.  Women LOVE to try on shoes.  Showing all these shoe shots is good.  Showing her moving her foot, in the mirror, her foot bouncing all shows happiness in her, and the viewer feels it.

This is followed by her asking her daughter if she likes mommies shoes, and then she says, “so fun!”  I don’t change the composition of the shots.  I don’t cut away. Why? Editing for emotion.

So what to take out of this post?

  • Learn the rules (guidelines) and break them (appropriately).
  • Use motion to help with your jump cuts
  • Re-size shots to change composition a little to help with jump cuts
  • Jump cuts are fun, but don’t go overboard.  Too many become distracting.  Find a balance.
  • Still, try to tell a story
  • Remember, emotion first. That overrides all else in editing.

Thank you for reading.  Please follow the Edit Foundry on Facebook

Imitate The Eye

Anatomy of an Edit, , ,

I first heard the phrase, imitate the eye, from Lou Davis.  Lou is a photojournalist in North Carolina.  “Capture the world as your eye sees it,” he’d say.  I’ve taken this and applied it to my everyday editing.

When you are at an event.  What does your eye focus on?  Put those same shots together on the timeline.  You’re now basically editing via imitating the eye.

Please watch Run Fast, Shoot Slow.  This is a natural sound video I edited several years ago.

Let’s start with the opening sequence. I’m trying to make edits as close to the action as possible.  So, a gun is shot, and it recoils immediately. Like in the edit at [:12]

>

and the edit at [:15]

Notice I don’t sit on the shot for more than a few frames before the action happens.  Once the action happens, I move on to another shot.  I’m attempting to imitate the eye as best as I can. I still need the viewer to comprehend the shot.  If you were there at the shooting range, your eye would probably move faster.

Would your eye capture everything from the beginning?  You would catch several things in mid-action.  Just like many of my edits.  Go back and look at my edits from [:10] to [:16].

Notice some of the shots the action of the gun being fired has already begun.  Imagine if you were there.  Wouldn’t your eye ping-pong around the shooting range just like that?  Q

Please watch the story again and notice just how often I take an edit right on an action of just after the action has started.

Here are a few examples;

at [:17], the car door is already opening.

At [:27] running onto the firing range.

At [:41] going over the obstacle course.

The shot at [:47] I start the edit well after the participants have started running.  If you were on top of the hill, watching this is where you head my turn and pick up the action.

 

Not every edit in this story follows the imitate the eye concept.  I still have to tell the story.  I do back-time natural sound moments, and I’m going back and forth with the interview, and there are a lot of other elements to the edit.  For this post, I just wanted you to pay attention to your eyes the next time you are out shooting.  When you come back to edit, try thinking about this concept.

 

Thank you for reading.

 

 

She’s nervous. As an editor it’s my job to help convey that in the edit.

Anatomy of an Edit, , ,

You are an editor.  Occasionally…. wait…I’m mean you’ll always have to convey emotions when you edit.  Sometimes it’s easy.  Your subject is laughing, crying, showing emotion, and it’s easily seen and understood.  Quite often, it may be more subtle, and you’ll need to help convey the emotion with the help of some editing tools.  Here is a story I produced and the tools I used to help express how Kellie felt as she went into a shark-tank with sharks.

The story for this post is We’re Going into Their World on my Youtube page

This is from the ‘Extreme Kellie’ series I produced for KWGN. In this story, Kellie MacMullan (now DeMarco) takes a dive with sharks at The Aquarium in downtown Denver.

The first thing I did before I edited this story was to find music.  Using something from the soundtrack to Jaws or any other scary aquatic movie wouldn’t be appropriate. It’s also a cliche.  People already have an emotional attachment to the theme from Jaws.  I want to help the viewer understand how scared Kellie is to actually do this all the while, not making a mockery of the dive. Music isn’t an easy thing for me. I’ll often spend hours and hours listening to finding the right music for a story.

For the opening portion of the story, I choose something the average viewer wouldn’t recognize.  The song is Heed Our Warning from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Score.  I start the story with music up full for 3 seconds to establish mood.

The 1st five shots of the package are all from the HD underwater camera.  Notice all 5 shot I take the edit with the shark predominantly in the middle of the screen.  I always have eye trace in mind when I edit.  I want to keep the viewer’s eye right in the center of the screen for all these shots.  Why?  The impact of the shark in the 5th shot shown here…

That shot really grabs the viewer’s attention.  I bring the music up full for just a beat during this shot to give it just another second of impact.

At [:11] When Shane Taylor, Kellie’s instructor says,

“We’re going into their world, you know I think if you just respect what they’re to do, things will go really, really smooth,” I take a shot from above the tank.  I added a slow push-in to this shot.

Why do I choose this shot?  During the interview at [:11], Shane looks down. What’s he looking at?  If you place the camera at his eye level and pan it down, this is what you’d see. This is another example of how I use eye trace.  I know this post is about helping convey emotion, but there are always other elements going on in editing, and I like to point those out.

At [:24] I have a shot of a shark swimming shot from above,

followed by a shot of Kellie looking into the tank.

Look at this shot closely.  I wait for Kellie to have some expression on her face.  I want to show the viewer she’s nervous.  I then cut back to the sharks swimming from above. I’m following the logic of eye-trace.  Kellie is looking at something, I show the viewer what she’s looking at (eye-trace).  But it’s not just eye-trace. It is also finding something in the video to show the emotion of the moment.

At [:32], I show Kellie, and she says, “I’m nervous.”

The next shot I choose is that of a shark opening its mouth.  Wow, looking back on that edit, I love it. I’m really conveying the emotion of the situation.  The shark opening its mouth really works here.

With this shot, I bring up the music full again. Why did I cut away from Kellie to this shot?  In the sequence of Kellie in the water, I didn’t like my choices of shots.  They were either jumps cuts or cutaways, adding nothing to the story. I’m trying to keep the viewer engaged as much as possible.  Cutting a sequence of Kellie dropping into the water isn’t nearly as powerful as cutting back and forth from Kellie to the sharks.

At [:58] I bring the music up full again and show a great shot of Kellie.  With the music up full and her expression, you can really feel the tension she’s feeling. That’s good editing.

Notice coming out of this shot at [1:00], I wait until she slightly moves her head.  The next shot wide, her head continues to move.  I like using match-action to help hide edits.  Little things like this make an average editor better.

At [1:25], Kellie goes underwater, and I change the music. I’m now using the song Grand Central from the soundtrack to the movie K-Pax.

This song has a feel of discovery.  I want the viewer to realize Kellie is not so nervous anymore.  She is intrigued by her dive.

I bring the music up full several more times.  The shots are beautiful. Kellie’s taking this all in. I want the viewer to take it all in too.  So, I let a few shots just breathe.

This was a fun piece to edit.  Great underwater shots to choose from.  I kept editing very simple.  Trying to let shots breathe.  Simple music and notice no dissolve.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to like The Edit Foundry on Facebook.