Our story for this post is How Far She’s Come.

I’ll bet you’ve edited a story very similar to this.  The story is great but the visuals you have to put it together with are just ok.  I strive to make every edit the best I can.  Here are some tips and tricks to help you the next time you get a story like this or any story for that matter.

This is a story about a little girl that fell out of a window in an apartment complex.

Our story begins inside the apartment.  The first shot is of the little girl.

I did have a few exteriors to choose from.  I decided to start with the little girl.  Would you rather see a cute little girl or an exterior of a building?  

I use a lot of natural sound from the little girl.

This post is about adding elements to a story to help convey emotion.  At [:15] is my first little addition.  I do a match frame from her cute face…

..and then I slow the video down 50% and increase the scale of the frame.

 I increase the scale on the very next shot as well.

the next shot after that too.

My logic for using these frame scale increases is I like to pull the viewer into a story.  It’s a subtle way of adding a little emotion.

• Tip #1 Increase scale to mimic a slow zoom as a way of pulling viewers into the story

Here another trick I use when I think a story needs a little help with emotion.  I’m going to slow the narration down.  I’m NOT going to alter the voice.  Here’s my trick, between her sentences I put 10 frames of nothing.  When I think a reporter is talking to fast, a quick way to help the pace out and slow the narration down is to put ten frames of nothing or silence down.  When I edit documentaries and use this trick to slow the down narration elements.  It’s a good little trick, those 10 frames often gives the viewer time to absorb information.

You can really hear it at [:24].  Now that I’ve pointed it out, look for other places in the story where you hear me putting space between narration sentences.  There are more in this story.

• Tip #2 Add 10 seconds of silence between the narrator’s sentences to slow down the narrator.

At [:26] I pan down from the top floor of the apartment to the ground below.  I am not a fan of pans.

 Once in a while a pan works.  This is one occasion where conveying the fall to the viewer works with a pan down.

At [:29] here me pausing her narration again.  10 frames make a big difference!

Another scale increase at [:31]

You’ll also notice every shot from [:18] to [1:03] is a dissolve.

A series of dissolves with several shots and frame scale increase.  All my little tools to help pull the viewer in and add a little emotion.

I also decided to add music to the story.  I chose something very simple and unrecognizable. 

At 1:03 there are no more dissolve (well for a while) and no more music.

Back to go old storytelling.

Why?  I don’t feel a need for any music now.  The little girl is recovering, she’s in therapy, and I have lots of good stuff to convey the feeling of the day.  I don’t need music here to help.

It’s not till [1:54] that my story need a little help again. We’re going back outside, back in time talking about the fall.  I use dissolves and frame scale increases again to convey to the viewer were in the past again.

The reporter stand up is something that was shot on a different day at a different location.  I tried to convince the Reporter and an Executive Producer I could make the story better and work without the stand up.  Obviously I lost that one.  You can’t win every editing battle.  But I’m happy I tried.

The closing shot is that of the little girl again playing being cute.  I’m book ending the story keeping the opening and closing shots similar.  I also think this is a much better shot than say an exterior.

Thanks for reading

Shawn Montano

If you can’t use S.W.A.P use symbolism.  What’s S.W.A.P.?  Synchronize Words And Pictures.  So when the narration says “This Bus,” you ideally would show the bus.

Have you ever had a section of narration and you have absolutely no idea how you are going to cover it?  Ideally you strive to cover a interview or narration with whatever they’re talking about.  Well, that’s not always going to happen.  Quite often a reporter, writer or producer will right you into oblivion, and you have to figure out what video you should use.

Here is an example of a story like that and what I did with it to make it work.  A majority of the story I felt the shots I chose worked well.  But there are some lines of track I really struggled finding the right shot.  So please watch the story and check S.W.A.P (Synchronizing words and pictures) when it works, then look at the shots I choose when I don’t have a good relevant shot, here I try to use symbolism.

The story is a look at the recovery efforts after a tornado hit the town of Windsor Colorado.

So here’s some of my logic to the story Reminders of May 22nd

Our first track is

There are still reminders of May 22nd.

I start the story with a medium shot of a bare tree.  I felt this bare tree looked like a tree you would see in any day of tornado stories.

The next shot is of that same tree but now you see what appears to be what’s left of an aluminum shed.

Then I take a tight shot of that ripped shed. Notice I take the edit mid-motion.  Like if you were there you’d here that noise the aluminum makes and then you would look at it.

Take notice that the first 6 shot in this story all have slow zooms I added in editing.  My subtle way of pulling you into the story.

At [:13] You hear the reporter and then I cut to her visually.  This is another little trick I do a lot.  Helping take the viewer to a new location and imitating the eye.  If you were looking at that tree and then heard the reporter talk, you wouldn’t look at her until she already started speaking.

I’ve got music going in this whole story but this [at :16] is the first time i bring it up full.  I give a moment for the viewer to adsorb the shot….

…now my journey to try and find some relevant video begins.  I show the shot above because the mayor speaks about houses with no roofs.

Then he talks about someone losing half a home so I show this shot.

Then when he’s talking about fences being gone, I use downed fences video.

He then talks about seeing the living room and kitchen so I show this shot.

Throughout the story so far I’m doing my best to find shots relevant to the story.

Obviously the tornado should be shown.  I had to pull it from a file package so I only had a few shots to choose from to make this section work.

Now my true symbolic adventure begins.  There are several lines of track I’m totally not sure what to cover with.  I try to find shots that have some kind of symbolism,  something the viewer can look at and it helps understand and correlate with the narration.

The soundbite I’m covering with these two previous shots is

For what we’ve seen in a year, it’s a great accomplishment.

Showing the town of Windsor sign up is just a symbolic shot of the town getting back to normal.  Tornadoes knock down trees, so showing trees ready for disposal is again a symbolic shot of recovery.

This doesn’t require reasoning.  Showing someone working on a house shows repair from the tornado.  I think it’s important to point out that I work very hard to find relevant shots, I’m only going symbolism route if I cannot find a shot that truly works with the narration.

This day care was heavily damaged and people familiar with the story will appreciate this shot.  Sometimes an edit may only be for a few.

The narration is about rebuilding families.  There is symbolism in this shot is just subtle and that’s the board in the foreground.

Please continue watching.  There are a few other symbolic shots that I think work very well.  I challenge you to find the right shot for every edit.  I do.

Those challenges aren’t always met.  Several edits in life you just have to find something that’ll work.

Thanks for continue to read

Shawn Montano

The story I am going to use for this post is Minimoto.

This story was on my 2007 Editor of the Year entry.  It’s a natural sound feature.  Looking back on this package and the effects I used I think it still holds up today.  The effects don’t look dated.  This looks like something I might edit today.  I try to keep all my effects very simple.  I am just looking for a few effects to enhance a story and not to distract from it.  Trust me I’ve had my fair share of edits where the effects were so distracting you didn’t even know what the story was about.  I encourage everyone to play with all those effects in your palette.  I encourage you even more to create effects of your own.

This was part of a program I produced called Colorado Getaways Extreme.  My co-producer and I liked the show to look different so we added effects to each story.

You’ll notice as we go along I use the same effect in a story over and over.

I’m going to take you through these and describe how I did them.  You don’t need a high end machine to do any of these.  All you need is a simple NLE that will let you do two layers of video.

The story starts right off with effects at [:01].  This is simply two layers of the same video.

Video layer 1 is normal. Video layer 2 is the exact same shot.  I increase the size (scale) to about 200 percent and drop the opacity to about 40 percent. This gives the feeling of speed and a blur sensation.  The video is slowed down by about 50 percent as well.  This helps with the blur sensation.

Right after that is single frame edits at [:02] at half opacity of a swish pan my photographer shot.

I love single frame edits. I use them whenever I can.  I could write an entire post about single frame edits…hmmmm.

• I use single frame edits whenever and where ever I can.  I love them!

• You’ll see lots of single frame edits in this story.

Next is a shot of a minimoto moving left to right at [:03].  Video layer 1 is blurred.  Video layer 2 is cropped so you just see the body of a minimoto,scale increased to 200% and blurred as well.

after that is more single frame edits using that same swish pan.  Using a swish pan and single frame edits create that motion feel.

This is a circle wipe.  I just layed the wipe onto the video like an effect.  Then moved it to match the contour of his face.  The wheel is scaled to 200% to cover the entire screen.

After that sound bite you see a combination of single frame edit and the effect I used at [:03] This is the exact same crop used from earlier.  I saved the effect.  I do this in a lot of stories like this.  I’ll reuse and idea over and over.

More single frame edits.  I dropped the contrast down to make the bikes look darker here. There is also a slight blur.  Very slight.  The quick cuts are edited to the music.

 Same circle wipe from earlier at [:06].  Just moved to to the other side of the screen.  See, same effect over and over.

Same circle wipe again at [:09].  Moved down on top of her windshield.  Another slight blur to disguise the bikes a little.

At [:10] I speed up a driver putting on his helmet.

The next shot I slow down another driver moving her head.  I like the look of two speeds juxtaposed together.

This is a cool wheel shot.  I like editing when movement has already started (If you know me you know I’m a huge proponent of editing on motion).

This isn’t an effect I created in the edit bay. I field produced this story.  I had my photographer shoot with a forced perspective.  So as not to give away the true size of the minimotos.

A good idea when doing a story when you want to use foreground but don’t want to give away all the story.

At [:11] Coming out of that interview above I have the video scaled to 200% and then quickly resize it to normal.  All of these color effects I use I’m just playing with contrast.  This is really simple to duplicate. Use your color correction filter.  Drop your blacks down, increase the mids and highlights.

Another forced perspective.  I love these kinds of shots.

I like to using shot when photographer are zooming in or out of moving to another shot.  This is an example at [:15].  My photographer was zooming in to get the shot and I used it.

• I like using photographer mistakes or the moments before they set up for great shots.

This is two layers of the same video at [:23].  Layer 2 opacity is dropped,  and I scale starting big and pulling back to 100%.  In this same sequence is single frame edits using the same swish pan I’ve been using.  I’m also using the same color effect from above.

Reiterating what I said before.

• All my effects are really simple

• I use the same effects over and over in  stories.

At [:25] scale, single frame edits, playing with the opacity, using color correction or color effect and some cropping and that is most of the effects I use.

Those simple things are all you need to create effects like these.

From [:26] to [:43| there are no effects.  I do want to tell some of the story without effects getting in the way.  When you're doing an effects drivin story just sprinkle the effects here an there.  When you're cooking you don't put spices in constantly, you put them in the beginning a few during your cooking and then some at the end right?  Well, you should edit like that.

Notice the next effect section at [:41]. Then, not again until [1:07]. Then a last bunch toward the end at [1:28].  You don’t have to go hog-wild with each edit, just sprinkle it in.

Thanks for reading.

One of my favorite stories I have ever done is It’s a Kid’s Game.

I love using natural sound (you should too).  I love experimenting with natural sound.  I have used too much natural sound in a story.  I have used too little natural sound in a story.  The only way to figure out if you use too little or too much is to experiment.  Ultimately you have to decide if your story has too much or too little natural sound.  

I did more than just experiment with natural sound in It’s a Kid’s Game.  I experimented with the rhythm of natural sound in this story.  A Long time ago someone told me that using natural sound elements in threes was his/her guideline or rule,meaning he/she would use 3 distinct ‘pops’ of natural sound when appropriate.  This rule/guideline helped with rhythm of stories.

What if you tried to do anything but three natural sound pops.  What if you did four, five or six.  What if you did just one but tried to avoid 3.  That’s what I attempted to do one day while doing a natural sound story.

I’ve written the story out here as if I was following was a script.  The natural sound ‘pops’ are numbered.  So, watch It’s a Kids Game, then read the script, then watch It’s a Kids Game again.

Here is the script;

1. Wiffle ball being thrown
2. Player taking deep breath
3. Swinging a ball
4. Pitcher saying ‘All right’

It’s kind of like a swiss cheese ball.

1. A wiffle ball being thrown
2. A ball hitting the chain link fence
3. A ball bouncing on the tennis court
4. Someone hitting a wiffle ball with a bat
5. Spectators saying ‘nice’

It sounds like baseball.

1. A batter take a big sigh
2. Someone saying ‘One out’
3. Someone saying ‘bases loaded’
4. The pitcher saying 3,1
5. A batter hitting the ball

It resembles baseball a lot.

1. Batter hitting a wiffle ball
2. Another batter hitting a wiffle ball
3. A batter watching ball go by and hit hitting net
4. A spectator saying ‘just a bit outside, ball two’
5. Ball going into net and batter saying aw!

They’re all kids when it comes to this game.

1. Guy saying oh! as he misses a ball while batting

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen an adult play wiffle ball before.

1. A batter hits a wiffle ball

Wiffle ball, all the way.

1. ‘Count’
2. ’2-0′
3. Natural sound of someone missing

The Balls are a lot smaller.

1. Sound of pulling ball out of bucket
2. Sound of pitcher’s efforts

And they’re a lot obviously lighter. It’s pretty much like throwing air.

1. Sound of wiffle ball going by and hitting fence
2. Guy saying ohh!

It’s the baby brother of baseball.

1. Guy hitting fowl ball

It’s America’s game.

1. One guys hits wiffle ball
2. Another guy hits wiffle ball
3. Guy saying ‘yeah baby’

It might be the next olympic sport you never know, yeah you never know.

1. Guy saying ‘all right’
2. Give you something to hit

We’re all a bunch of has-beens, bunch of has-beens never will be’s.

1. Natural of shoe sraping ground
2. Sound of his second foot scraping ground
3. Batter hitting the ball

They don’t run like the bases, they just basically have points where um it’s used for 1st base, 2nd bace or whatever cause there’s not enough room you know to run.

1. Sound of wiffle ball
2. Sound of ball hitting fence

You can’t get a full team of guys together anymore we’ve got work, kids.

1. Bat hitting wiffle ball
2. Kids saying whistle ball
3. Gentlemen clapping

Gives us a chance to come out and be heros even if it’s in front of six guys on an afternoon.

1. Guy missing pitch

I’m really surprised to see a lot of these guys have gotten it over the fence here.

You got it, get over, get over.

Hey this guys just hit a home run.

I always used to think it was a kids game but it’s actually gettin’ to be pretty serious.

1. Bat hits ball
2. Wiffle ball comes in

It’s just kind a come out here and be a kid for a little while.

I should of hit that one.

I played it back in elementary school but that was it.

1. Ball coming in
2. guy hitting ball

It is a kids game.

More adults are getting into it.

1. Ball hits backstop

If it makes me just a little bit younger.

1. “Nice buddy”

I’ll take every second of it I can get.

Good game, good game.

As you observed, I only used natural sound in groups of threes only 4 times.  I tried to avoid doing that but I also had to get this story to air.  I wanted to prove you don’t need to follow some rule or guideline simply because.  Understand the rules (which are really just guidelines) and then break them.

Thank you for reading

In my post-news career in the freelance world I do many different types of productions.  I do corporate videos, presentations, music videos, business profiles and much more.  The rules of editing I learned in my news career I still apply as often as I can when I produce material today.

One of my recent productions went viral.  This Ignite talk by Ash Beckham is on it’s way to becoming the #1 Ignite talk viewed ever on Youtube.  As of this writing it’s been viewed over 250,000 times.  Yeah! 250,000!

My editing had nothing to do with this video going viral.  The content drove it to be viewed by so many.  I do think my editing helped in the viewing and understanding of the content.  Yes, there is logic in editing this video.

If you are familiar with Walter Murch you know about blink points.  If you’re not allow me to explain.  When you listen to someone talking to you your blinks may in fact coincide with your understanding of the information.  You quite often blink when you’re brain has processed some information.

Walter Murch has a theory that the human blink is an emotional punctuation.  Murch found that nearly every single time he decided to make a cut, a character in a movie he was editing would blink very close to the frame he chose to make an edit on.  He concluded a person will blink every time they understand a thought or emotion.

“So it seems to me,” Murch says, “that our rate of blinking is somehow geared more to our emotional state and to the nature and frequency of our thoughts than to the atmospheric environment we happen to find ourselves in.  The blink is either something that helps an internal separation of thought to take place, or it is an involuntary reflex accompanying the mental separation that is taking place anyway.”

As I was editing the Ignite Boulder presentations I used this ideal.  The first sentence Ash says is “My name is Ash and I can say unequivocally I am so gay.”  and right after she completes that thought I make an edit.

W

I put her graphic on the screen full and she says “… eliminating the word gay as a pejorative from our lexicon.” She completes the thought, and I make an edit.

I am using her completions of thoughts to make edit decisions.  I’m not using her complete sentences.  Quite often you see multiple edits make before she completes a sentence.  Now I will sometimes use other cues to make my decision.  Perhaps I make a decision because I want cut to the full screen graphic because she talking about it.  For the most part in this edit I used what I felt were thought completions. Here’s an example.

Explain to you the difference of what I just said and what this image conveys (CUT).  Now you may be saying Ash we live in Boulder we love gays here, (CUT) we have pride, we have BCAP all true, (CUT) but I guarantee you there are places you go every day (CUT).

As you can see I’m not waiting for her to complete a sentence but a thought.  Watch the entire video and really concentrate on when she makes a complete thought.  Watch how often I have an edit at that same moment.

Here is another example in the edit when I use blink points.  At [1:38] she says

“..The top row they’ve all come out, (CUT) now the bottom row we cross our fingers but (CUT) until they do, their cartoons and muppets so at the very least they’re happy (CUT).  Now there is a long list of things that you should never call so gay (CUT), an assignment you don’t wanna do is not so gay(CUT).  Someone’s new haircut is not so gay (CUT). A workout you don’t like is no so gay (CUT).  A test that you bombed is not so gay (CUT).  Someone’s car is not so gay (CUT).   Now again I may be preaching to the Boulder loving gay choir (CUT).

Blinks point can be used in ANY type of edit.  Blink points should be used in EVERY edit.  Next time your stuck with where to make an edit, think about blink points.

Thanks for reading.

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