Edit Foundry

I’ve been editing on non-linear systems for 12 years.  With each passing year I’m happy to say I’m still learning.  One of the tools that took me a while to really grasp was the trim tools.  In fact it wasn’t until I had to learn Final Cut Pro about 7 years ago that I truly started to appreciate the power of the trim.

I use the trim tool daily, hourly, probably many times a minute.  The trim tools make an editor’s life easier.  Trimming is like the wax you put on your car.  Sure you washed it and it looks good.  But to get that extra shine without doing any more washing you put the polish on. Trimming is polishing your edits.

I think trimming is one of the hardest concepts to grasp when you’re learning about editing.  I still get frustrated at times.  With my frustration comes education.

What is trimming.  I took this definition from Final Cut Pro HD Hands On Training by Larry Jordan.  “Trimming is the process of removing, or adding, frames to the beginning and end of your shots so that the edits flow naturally, maintaining your story, without calling attention to your editing.

So why should you trim?  What the great benefit?  Why should You learn to slip and slide, ripple and roll?  Because these are the tools that make your edits better and it’s quick.  Eventually it’ll make you better.

I’m going to speak about trimming in general and why and how.  I currently edit exclusively on Final Cut where I work and where I teach.  But I’m still very familiar with Avid.

I used to edit on a non-linear system very linear-ly.  Meaning I would mark an in and an out and place it into the timeline.  If I didn’t like the edit I would undo and reset my in and out.  That’s a waste of time.  The material you want is already down in the timeline.

If you don’t like the in Trim it.

The Tool I used the most is extend edit.  Both Avid and Final Cut have this function.

I’ll use the story, Swinging on the Trapeze on my Youtube site to show you how I utilized some trim tools in the edit.

At [:21] into the story you hear the beginning of a sentence from the gentlemen helping Kellie with the harness.  He says “It’s gonna be…, then I show him.

I place the edit of Kellie and the gentlemen down on the time line.  I then extend the video of the woman on the trapeze just over the this new edit.  I made a J cut.

Extend edit in both Avid and Final Cut are the easiest way to trim this edit.  Simply select the edit you want to extend.  In this case the end of the clip that has the woman on the trapeze (ONLY THE VIDEO)  I move the playhead to where I want to extend the edit and hit the extend edit button. It’s really that easy.

The roll tool also work just as well.

At [:35] I make another J cut.  You see another women on the trapeze.

And you hear Kellie say, “So this’ll keep..”  and then I cut to Kellie after that.

Between these to shots I select the edit.  I select the Roll Tool and drag that edit forward to where I want it to be.

At [2:06] is a match action sequence of Kellie swinging on the trapeze.

The 2nd shot in the sequence is Kellie swinging from the platform and then all the way back to the platform.  I’m confident the action is matched here.  But maybe I want to tweak it a few frames.  I like my duration of the clip (two seconds) I’ve laid down.  I want to slip it a few frames.

Meaning I’m going to change the in and the out with one tool.  I’m going to zoom in to the clip on the timeline,  select the Slip Tool, and drag the clip forward and backward until I like my new in and out point while maintaining my duration.

The Slip tool works great for situation like this.  Trying to help with your match action in a sequence.

Slip, Roll, Extend Edits are the easiest I think to try and explain.  A ripple while isn’t any more complicated, It’ just a hard to to explain in a blog.

What do I want you to learn from this entry?  The next time your editing and you want to change something, use a trim tool.  Sometimes just playing around with the trim tools are your best way of learning.  I still discover new uses for the ripple tool everyday.

Play and learn.

I’d love to hear your comments about this entry.  Honestly this was the hardest blog I’ve tried to write in a long time.  Explaining trimming without showing you is difficult.

In my last post I wrote,

It wasn’t until the 1900s that editing started.  Did you know that one of the very first reasons for editing is that studios wanted films to be longer.  They wanted multiple film reels compiled into one continuous movie.  After that revelation they started putting images together to try and tell a story.

So, the first reason for editing was longer films.  The next idea was lets put these images together and tell a story.  You’re a storyteller.  It doesn’t matter if you are editing a news package, a documentary, a film or an online feature using stills, It’s all storytelling.

Putting the images together to try and tell a story is editing.  It’s the beginning of editing, it’s also the middle and the end of editing.  Every edit should be made for the story.  Before sequencing, action/reaction, movement, eye trace, continuity, is the story.

We learned about telling stories with pictures when we first started reading.  I have my kids read to me every night.  My sons were taught when they don’t know a word to look around at the pictures for clues.

As editors and storytellers we need to help the audience with clues.  We need to give them picture clues.  When the wild things “made him (max) king of all wild things,” Maurice Sendak shows a picture of this happening.

As editors we need to look back at the beginnings of film.  They started putting the images together to tell a story.  As storytellers we can take a cue from when we first started to learn about stories.  We read them and looked at the pictures.  The pictures helped the stories make sense.  Take this basic idea and apply it to editing.

The following story I edited a few years ago about a snowstorm here in Denver.

Please watch More Than Just An Inconvience on my Youtube site.

The entire story my goal (and usually my goal with every story) is to find pictures to help tell the story.

The very first line of track from the reporter is

This was the end of the line.

And my image is

The next three shots I’m just trying to match the pictures and the words.

Instead of an interstate highway

I-70

Was a dead end road.

After the reporter track is a soundbite

I’ve been doing this for 30 years, you get…you know this stuff happens driving a truck. And it’s going to happen sooner of later and more than once.

I cover the second half of his soundbite with a truck with snow on it.

The shot supports the story and helps tell the story.

The next piece of track is

But twice in a week

And I show this

Multiple trucks in the shot.  The closest I can get to some kind of symbolism of twice.  I still think this shot advances the story.

The story continues

Truckers pass the time

with bottomless cups of coffee,

and John Wayne

on the TV.

I’m making every effort I can to show what the reporter is talking about.  Using pictures to help tell the story.  Please continue watching

More Than Just An Inconvience

Putting images together to try and tell a story.  The same thing they started doing over 100 years ago.

Why is video editing?  Yes, I know that’s not proper English.  I often here the question, “What is video editing?”  If you are reading this post then you’re probably aware of what video editing is.  But do you know why we edit?

One of the first films ever created is Round Hay Garden Scene (1888).

Watch it here Round Hay Garden Scene

Some may argue that Horse in Motion (1878) was the first film.  That film was accomplished using multiple cameras.  These were still photographs assembled into a motion picture.  They used 24 cameras to capture this.  I never took a film class.  But the fact that standard film shoot 24 frames per second and the first film used 24 camera doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

Actual motion picture cameras weren’t developed until the 1880s.  That’s when camera started capturing all the single images on one reel.  As this time there was no editing (how sad).  Each film ran as long as there was film to roll.

Filmmakers often would shoot and just stop the crank of the camera when they felt they completed capturing that scene.  Then they would reset for the next shot and start cranking again when the next scene was ready.  You could say this was the beginning of editing.  It was editing in the camera so there still was no manipulation of the reel.  So, technically not yet.

It wasn’t until the 1900s that editing started.  Did you know that the one of the very first reasons for editing is that studios they wanted films to be longer.  They wanted multiple film reels compiled into one continuous movie.  After that revelation they started putting images together to try and tell a story.

One of the very first films to employ many techniques that I teach today is The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Watch this movie The Great Train Robbery and realize

1. There is action/movement in every scene

2. They maintain screen direction (except for one edit)

3. There is sequencing

4. Each edit advances the story

5. There is an effort made to pacing/rhythm

Yes this is film.  But it’s the base for editing moving pictures together.  It doesn’t matter if you are broadcasting, web-casting, pod-casting, or some other casting yet to be invented.  The simple rules for telling a story with knowledge of editing apply. Editing hasn’t changed much in over 100 years.

Last week I have the wonderful honor of being a guest lecturer at The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. I had a wonderful time talking about video editing.  I love to share my passion, hence why I blog about it.   I spoke about;

• Editing on action

• The Rule of Six

• Match Action

• Pacing (which is part of the Rule of Six)

• Importance of tight shots

• Sequencing

• Screen Direction

I also told the students I subscribe to a philosophy called Imitate the Eye.  I first heard this phrase from Lou Davis.  Lou’s 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.

• Imitate the eye.
  

When your at an event.  What does you eye focus on?  Now put those same shots together in the timeline.  You’re editing via Imitating the eye.  That’s the basic concept.  Let’s go through a story and see how it applies to shots I’ve chosen.

Please watch Run Fast, Shoot Slow first.

Let’s start with the opening sequence. I’m trying to make an edit as close to 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.

• Edit like the eye would move.

Would your eye capture everything from the beginning?  No, 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?

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] Car door is already opening

at [:27] running onto the firing range

at [:41] going over obstacle course

There are many more in this story.  This is much more to the concept of Imitating the Eye.  Please continue to read for more about this philosophy in future posts.  Don’t forget to follow along next semester too with my Video Editing II class!

Next Spring I began teaching both Videography and Video Editing II at Front Range Community College in Longmont Colorado.

I’m going to use this blog as a kind of home base for my students education.  I’m letting you know now so if you’d like to follow along I think it would be a fun experiment.  What I think I’ll do is post my syllabus on the Edit Foundry sight.  That way you’ll see what’s coming up on on the sight and you can see if any of it will correlate to your school.

You’re not a student or teacher?  Yes you are.  If you’re reading this right now you’re here to learn or get information to pass along.

I’ll also update and re-post some of my blogs from the past year as well.  Since I’m teaching videography I may expand ever so slightly in that realm as well on this blog.  The blog’s focus will always be video editing.  I’ll just apply useful things for videographers in respect to helping an edit.

I’m not teaching in the Journalism department at Front Range.  I’m teaching in the Multimedia department in Front Range.  So, a lot of what I write next year will come from my experience in a newsroom, my experience producing programs and documentaries like for the Discovery Health Channel and from my occasional corporate experiences in video editing.

I’ve learned more about editing in the past year then I’ve probably learned in the past 10 years.  I’m excited to grow and learn that much more next year.  Teaching really does make you learn WAY more than you thought you ever needed to know.

I’ll try and update this sight a little now and then but my primary focus will be getting ready for class in the spring.  So, join in the fun.  Learning is fun, yeah I said that!

In the mean time I continue to load my Extreme Kellie edits on my Youtube sight.

Please watch and enjoy.  I also have the Extreme Kellie Special on my Youtube sight.  I really enjoy posting shows.

Looking for some editing tips read Subtle Editing Tips as post from last year.

The story for this post is We’re Going into Their World on The Edit Foundry Youtube Page

I continue to edit the series ‘Extreme Kellie’ for News on the Deuce.  This time Kellie 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.  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 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 package with music up full for 3 seconds to establish the 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?  Because 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 there to do, things will go really smooth,” I take a shot from above the tank.  I added a slow push into 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.

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 how nervous she is.  I then cut back to the sharks swimming from above.  I’m following the logic of eye trace.  Kellie’s looking at something, I show the viewer what she’s looking at (eye trace).

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

The next shot I choose is that of a sharks opening his mouth.

With this shot I bring up the music full again.  But 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.

After this I cut back to Kellie.  Again, I’m waiting for Kellie to make an expression.  The fake smile is a good shot.  I’m continuing to show she’s nervous.

At [:39] I cut away again from Kelly, for the same reason as above.  I don’t like my shot choices and I don’t want to make a jump cut.  I continue this theme of cutting to shots in and underwater spliced with Kellie getting ready.  The shark shots are much more engaging to the viewer so I don’t have a problem editing like this.

At [:58] I bring the music up full again and show a great shot of Kellie.

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 not so nervous anymore.  But intrigued by her dive.

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

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

I was speaking to one of my photojournalist today.  He asked me if there was anything I didn’t have that I wanted visually for a story he shot and I was editing.  We talked about a few things but of particular interest I asked him why he crossed the axis.  All of the action in this story he’d shot was frame left.  However, there was a few tights shot in which he reversed screen direction.  So, the action in these few tight shots were from frame right.  Why?  After the discussion he realized my dilemma.  Which bring me to this post.

Make Your Editor (which may be you) Happy with Screen Direction

The story for this post is Slow and Steady.

If you’re new to the Edit Foundry Blog this is how it works.  Watch the story I’ve uploaded on my Youtube channel.  After watching it follow along as I comment on the story.

We’re going to talk about screen direction. First a few definitions to help us along in this post

• Action Line - This imaginary line follows the direction that the people or object are facing.                    
  

If you keep your camera and people (or object) on opposite sides of the action line, screen direction is never a problem.

• Frame Left - indicates movement towards the left side of the screen.

• Frame Right - indicates movement toward the right of the screen.

Our  story starts out with video that was given to us by Thunder Valley Motocross.  It’s a montage of shots from various races.

Even though this was given to me I edited it with screen direction in mind. Notice all shots from from [:00] to [:11] are frame left.  There is one shot at [:11] in the music full montage I take from frame right.  Why?  When I’m in montage mode, I like to break rules and go for coolness of shots.  I liked the way the shots from frame left and frame right worked.

After that montage I go back to all shots frame left until the I take the interview full at [:18].  Then all shot are frame right, back to interview. After that I tried to cluster several shot in which in action is coming mostly straight at you. Some are frame left and some are frame right but because they are mostly head on I didn’t feel the direction change was to drastic to be visually unpleasant.

At [:38] is a shot of Kellie on the bike, followed by a shot of the wheel, followed by Kellie on a motorcycle going over a bump.  I break screen direction with all three of these shot.  It works because they are all tight shot, I haven’t established any real screen direction and it’s a mini-montage.

This post is about screen direction, so let’s get to that.

At [:40] Kellie and David are talking getting Kellie ready.  My photographer’s action line keeps David frame left and Kellie frame right.

But at [1:04] They switched sides.  Kellie’s now frame left and David’s frame right. Cutting those two shot together with the reverse in screen direction looks bad, feels bad and I won’t do it.  Lucikly for me my photographer shoots a pan up that helps me get out of my reverse frame problem.

If you’re a photographer and this happens, remember to shoot yourself out of the problem.  You and your editor (again may be you) will thank you in the edit bay.  My photographer does a good job with the action line.  However, he can’t control Dave moving around.  As an editor it’s my job to make sure this doesn’t get in the way.

How do I do that?  At [1:11] Dave is frame left.  I wait until he’s out of the shot

to make at edit.  Dave’s now frame right again.  But I use a shot of Kellie’s hands and their torso to make the jump less harsh.

When Kellie finally starts riding the bike she rides away from the camera.  Notice I take the edit when she slightly leans left to get her around and back.

From there on in the sequence she’s always riding frame left.

At [2:00] she reverse’s direction.  I use another pan up to help me get out of this looking to jarring.

The next 3 shots are frame right.  In the third shot I allow her to turn in the shot.

and now I can get her going frame left.

At [2:22] I let her turn in frame again, allowing me to get her going screen right again.  The reason why I turned her around again is because her final little post interview she’s frame right.  I’m thinking ahead making sure I don’t have a screen direction problem.

A 4 shot montage after the interview I break the screen direction rule again. why?  I’m in montage mode and don’t follow the screen direction rule.

• Screen direction helps the viewer understand your visual realm your creating.

• The action line keeps people or objects on the correct sides of the frame.

• Imitate the eye.  People and objects don’t reverse screen direction in the real world, why do it in editing.

• You can break screen direction, just understand the rule before you break it.

On October 12th the Edit Foundry was born.  An idea of mine was to create a blog that focused solely on the aspect of editing. For the past twelve month I’ve created over 30 posts and discussed many topics. The site has had over 5,000 page views.  Not bad for such a focused blog.   As I enter year two I’m looking forward to many more posts.  I hope you enjoy reading them and learn something along the way.  Any maybe, just maybe you’ll re-learn something too.

As some of you know I’ve been teaching at Front Range Community College part time.  I’ve known I wanted to teach ever since my first presentation way back in April of 2001 in Fargo, North Dakota.  I’ve traveled to teach numerous times each year for the past 8 years.  Now I do it once a week.  Next year I’ll be teaching 3 times a week.

Ok, so why should you care?  Something I’ve learned about teaching is in order to teach you have to learn and re-learn. Last year at Convergence 09 I taught Edit Theory.  A ‘what’s editing and why’ 101 type of seminar.  I had to study and read up a lot before giving that presentation.  I had to re-learn so I could teach.

Now I’m teaching edit theory and Final Cut Pro in my video editing class at FRCC.  I’m a solid editor in Final Cut. I learned probably a lot like many of you did.  I got a few days training and the rest was up to me.  I’ve known Final Cut for about 5 years now.  Used it, then didn’t use it, then used it again.  Last year when I got hired at KWGN I had to get back to using it.  I went through a book from page one to remember everything again.  While I went through the book I picked up a few ways to do things I never learned the first time around.  I used many shortcuts, tool, and keyboard function I never used before.

So, I felt again pretty competent with Final Cut.   When I got the job teaching video editing I got yet another book and start going through it from page one.  Guess what?  There is yet even more tools, functions, keyboard shortcuts I’m now using.  I learned and re-learned.

So, this post isn’t so much about editing.  It’s more about learning.  If you’re here then you want to learn.  I’ll teach you.  I’ll give you everything I can.  Maybe some of my post are to ‘101′ for you.  But maybe if you go back and read them you’ll learn something old that’ll be new again.

Learn, learn and then go learn some more.  Never stop learning.  Keep growing.  I am, as this blog will.

I would first like to apologize for not updating the Edit Foundry Blog for almost a month now.  I’ve been teaching and getting paid!  I teach Video Editing (part time) at Front Range Community College in Longmont, CO.  Building a lesson plan for each week takes a lot of time and I’ve been devoting all my spare educational time to that.

I realize how much I like teaching now.  It’s a tremendous amount of work.   Each Thursday when I leave class and I see people learning about Final Cut Pro and editing concepts it validates all my efforts.

So, with that the Edit Foundry Blog returns with,

‘The Rule of Six.’

What’s the rule of six you ask?  The rule of six is something I learned about when I read In The Blink of An Eye, by Walter Murch.

Walter Murch is a film editor.  He’s the editor responsible for Apocalypse Now, The Godfather III and many others as you can see here in the Internet Movie Database.

His list is as follows

1) Emotion
2) Story
3) Rhythm or pacing
4) Eye-trace (leading or directing the eye to what the viewer should look at)
5) Two-dimensional plane of Screen (or screen direction/180 rule/)
6) Three-dimensional space of action (or continuity)

This list is primarily for film editing.  What I’m going to do is explain how I use this logic in broadcast editing.  I use this in News, program, documentary, and commercial/promotional editing.

Are you new to the Edit Foundry Blog?  Here’s how it works.  I have a story on my YouTube sight I want you to watch.  Watch it first.  Then, read the blog.

The story we’re going to use for this post is

(click here >>>) We’re Just Floating Along.

It’s part of a series of stories I’m editing for our station ‘The Deuce.’  The series is called Extreme Kellie.

Our anchor Kellie Macmullan experiences an extreme activity.  In this story she paraglides.

I start the story with a nice aerial of paragliders.

The next shot is that of a shadow of a paraglider.

Notice how both shots have what I want you to look at on the left side and just over center (rule of thirds I’m thinking about too, but that’s for another post.)  I’m placing your eye exactly where I want it.  I’m using eye trace, rule 4.

The next shot I’m cutting for rhythm/pacing, rule 3.

I always like to think about eye trace when I’m editing.  But every shot won’t work.  If you truly went for eye trace in each shot you’d spend a lot of time looking.  Frankly we don’t always have that kind of time.  So I’m cutting for rhythm or pacing.  I wanna maintain a certain pace and this rule overrides eye trace.

So what about story, rule 2?  Are each of these shot so far advancing the story? Yes.  Are each of these shots important to the story? Yes.  Before you think about the rhythm or eye trace think about the story.  Do the edits advance the story.  So far yes.

I do a series of faster edits at [:08] for rhythm. I’m simply cutting to the music I bring up full.  Notice the paragliders are mostly centered in this series of shots.  I always have eye trace in the back of my thoughts.

Now here’s a spot that you could argue that rhythm, rule 3, is over-riding story, rule 2. The shots are still relevant to the story.  I’m not showing crazy tights shot of the sky?  I’m showing paragliders.  Story and rhythm are working together here.

Back to eye trace here at [:11]

Paragliders are just above center and just to the left (that rule of thirds again).

and in that same spot just above center and to the left, Kelly’s head (The instructor not my anchor); more eye trace in action.  Check out the next two shot at [:17] and [:20], more eye trace.

The shot at [:23] is for rhythm and advancing the story.  As you can see no eye trace into the edit.  but out of the edit take a look.

At [:25]

Your eyes are just above center and to the right.

The next shot at [:27] Kellie and Kelly’s heads are just above center and to the right.

Ok, I’ve think you’ve got the whole eye trace thing.  So, I’m not going to point those out any more.

So the shot from Kellie and Kelly wide above to the shot tight shot Kellie putting on the backpack,

fall under two dimensional plane of screen (screen direction), rule 5.  Kellie (my anchor) is on the left and Kelly (the instructor) is on the right.  I maintain screen direction but I override continuity rule 6.

A word about Rule 6 - Three dimensional space of action or continuity. Continuity is the rule I break the most often.  In the news world it’s extremely hard to maintain continuity because photographers are gathering action as it happens. Since we don’t re-create situations continuity is a simple rule to break.

The easiest way to get around continuity is tight shots.

From [:45] to [:59] I’m just thinking about rule 4 or screen direction.  This is a sequence of getting the paraglider up.  I’m also advancing the story, rule 2.

At [:59] I cut to a shot of Kellie giving the camera a thumbs up.

This shot is for emotion, rule 1.  I’m showing Kellie’s enthusiasm.

From [1:00] to [1:10] I’m thinking about rhythm.

At [1:11] Kellie talks about being nervous.

Emotion or rule 1.  I’m NOT going to make a cut even though the photographer adjusts the iris during the shot.  I break rhythm too by keeping this shot up so long.  This is a true example of emotion over-riding all.

From [1:20] to [1:44] I’m cutting for rhythm and for story.

At [1:45] Kellie shows emotion and I stay with it.

There are several more examples of the ‘rule of six’ and how it implies to each edit. I invite you to watch the piece and really look at each edit and ask yourself, why did he do that?

Remember rarely is one edit made based on one rule.  More often several rules are in play.

I do want to point out something toward the end of the story.

These 3 shots are jump cuts.

and I don’t care.

Each shot has emotion.  No need to cut away from it.  This is another example of emotion over-riding all.

Thank you for your patience.  I’m glad your here reading the blog.  As always I love your comments.

Shawn Montano (shaw...@gmail.com)

More and more stories are being shot by more and more people.  Everyone in the newsroom (paper, multimedia, advanced, traditional) are being asked to shoot and help out with stories.  I’m not afraid of this, I’m embracing it.  I look at it as a challenge to maintain my editing desires and blend them with video shot by amateur professionals.  Amateur professionals?  I kinda like that term.  It’s self explanatory I think.

I’m doing a series of stories for News On The Deuce.  It’s our 7pm newscast.  The shows target audience is a younger demo.  Editing for the show allows our editing staff to add music to a lot more pieces than we’d normally do for a newscast.

The series I’ve been editing a lot for is called Extreme Kellie.

Our anchor, Kellie Macmullan goes out and takes part in some great activities.  For this one, It’s Not What You Expect, Kellie skydives.

This story is a good example of using amateur professional photography.

I start the story off with a few aerial shots just to establish where the actions going to be.  You’ll notice I dropped the saturation and added a little blur on the video.  Why, just frankly cause it looks cool.

Kellie asked me to do this one as a natural sound story.  I’m experimenting with storytelling and different styles of editing with these.  I’m not going crazy with effects.  I frankly don’t think any of these stories need that.  They are extreme all by themselves.

What I am doing is having a lot of fun with music.  The first song you’re hearing is Raining Oil by Thomas Newman from the Jarhead Soundtrack.

I chose this song because I felt it created that anticipatory feeling.

Our story starts out with the man she’s going to tandem jump with getting her all set up.

Kellie is featured predominantly in these stories.  So obviously I’m going to show her a lot.  These little moments (like her facial expression above) are particularly important to help the audience understand her hesitation.

I add the owner of the skydiving company to help tell the story.

You’ll notice from [:38] and on the story uses mostly video shot by the skydiving company.

I love to sequence whatever video there is.  Sequencing regardless of who shot it still helps tell the story.  More importantly sequencing advances your story visually.

From [:40] to [:47] is a simple sequence edited to music to simply get us up off the ground and into the air.

The music I choose for this section is Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder from the Into the Wild Soundtrack.  As you probably guessed I love using music from soundtracks.  A lot of this music is written in part for storytelling.

Another sequence at [:50] to establish they are up high in the sky.

From [:53] to [1:13] is another sequence of Kellie and her instructor.  They’re getting ready to jump out of the plane.

• Sequencing, match action and no jump cuts all with amateur video.

From [1:20] to [1:35]  I’ve got shot variety, match action, mixing up wides, mediums and tights.

Yes you can still tell good stories and have good editing with amateur video.