Edit Foundry

Our Story for this post is Joe’s Smile.

Please go to my youtube sight and watch the story first.

In this post were going to talk about eye trace.  I’ve been doing a lot of research on the subject lately.  Here’s what I’ve come to realize.  Eye trace is a simple concept to begin with, and if you think about it in your everyday editing it’ll improve so many little things.

In this post I like to bring your attention to what is going on in the shots you choose.

• How action affects what the viewer’s looking at

• How eye trace sends the viewer’s eye where you want them to go

• How you can control what people are exactly going to look at

I know in our world you cannot think about every edit and what’s happening in every shot.  But, the more you keep this in mind the easier your going to make several edits in your story.

Keep in mind, I want the viewer looking at certain things.  My edits are going to help.  In Joe’s Smile you may see more example of eye trace, I’m only going to point out the certain ones.

Eye trace has two primary objectives.

1. To keep the eye focused on the same point on the screen (or close to there as possible) as the last frame of an edit ends and the new frame of the next edit starts.  Confused?  I was too.  Here’s an example.

In the shot above at [:15] in the story Joe looks up and turns his head to the right (our left).

Then, I make an edit as he’s in mid-turn.  He completes his head turn in the next shot.  Your eye catches his head moving, and then in the next shot I have your eyes exactly where I want them, to the left of the screen focused on Joe.  Your eyes followed Joe through the edit and didn’t scan the screen for something else to look at.  That’s eye trace, putting the viewer’s eyes where YOU want them.

Think of it as you are a magician.  A magician’s job is to get the audience to look at what he wants them to look at.  Like that ball in his hand and not the other hand in his pocket getting the next part of the trick ready.  Your ideal job as an editor, keep the viewer’s eye where you want them.

The edit’s also hidden by Joe’s movement.  Meaning you don’t really realize there is an edit there because the action looks natural.

Here another example at [:21].  Your eyes go to his head, as he start to move his head I cut.

His head movement completes in this shot above at [:22].  Your eye’s stayed on the left side of the screen in relatively the same place.  I kept them there using eye trace logic.

So, think about editing on movement the next time your doing a story.  Also think about keeping all that movement on same point of the screen.  Break you screen in 4 quadrants.  Try keeping the movement in one of those quadrants for 2 edits. It’s not that easy and won’t work ALL the time.  But it’s pretty when it does.

Ok, here a completely different example of eye trace.  People will always look at the eye’s of whomever is in your shot. Everyone’s natural curiosity is to wonder what he/she is looking at.  So, if you show a shot of someone looking at something, your next obvious shot is what they are looking at.

At [1:22] we have a shot of the dentist looking down.  Notice the dentist is predominately screen left. What’s he looking at?

We should show the viewer.  He’s looking at Joe’s teeth, or lack there of [1:23].  Notice Joe is predominately screen right.  This is another example of eye trace.  If you were to follow the dentist eye’s down from the shot of him to the next shot of Joe, you’d trace his line of sight almost perfectly.

This is another example of eye trace.  The viewer naturally looks down and as their eyes move down you take an edit and place what you want them to see in that next shot and that point in the frame.  Eye trace in action.

One more example.  Joe’s got his new teeth and he’s smiling!  What’s he smiling at?  Again realize Joe’s screen right.

I know there are two women in this shot, but the women on the left is laughing and catches your eye first.  So, following Joe’s line of sight it’s logical to think he’s looking at her.  And with this edit I make the viewer perceive that as well.  The women on the right looking at the women laughing helps as well with this.

I thought I show you an example of a bad edit too.  At [2:49] we have Joe smiling with his new teeth. Joe’s screen left as he smiles.

But in the next shot he’s screen right smiling.  I didn’t put the viewer’s eye where I should of.  Like I said, it won’t always work.

Now go and practice eye trace in your editing.

Our story for this post is Reminders of May 22nd

Quite often I’ll get a story that a reporter has written with more than a few lines in which I challenge myself to find shots that are relevant to the story.  This is one of those stories.  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 to edit in.  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 last year.

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 definitely 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 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 reporter track.

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

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

Showing the town of Windsor sign up I consider 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 reporter track.

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 reporter talks about rebuilding families.  There is symbolism in this shot is just subtle and that’s the board in the foreground, It’s subtle.

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.

P.S.  Hope to see you in Las Vegas on Thursday!

On Thursday June 11th  @ Convergence 09 I’m going to talk Edit Theory.  Among the things we’re going to talk about is;

• Just where does all this stuff about editing come from?

• Who made up all these rules?

• What’s the rule of six?

• Isn’t editing just cutting out all the bad bits?

• Seeing beyond the edit, what’s beyond the edit?

• Why don’t we ‘dragnet edit’ any more?

• What’s a ‘dragnet edit?’

• The Blink

I’m really a total geek when it comes to editing.  I study it. I twitter about it (are you following me?).  Obviously I blog about it.  I like to watch television and see what people are doing.  There are so many different styles of editing.

• old NPPA

• New NPPA

• MTV

• Jump Cut
  

• Cinéma vérité

• Food Network Style
  

• CNN

• Network News

And many more.

But it all comes from the same beginnings and we’re going to talk about all that and much, much more.  I hope you’ll join me in Las Vegas in a few weeks.  I’m excited about it and I hope to share my passion for teaching and editing with you.

I brought up styles here.  I’ve gone through a few styles of my own.  I’ve experimented with various stories and I have come back to a more simpler style of editing.  I don’t make nearly as many edits as I used to.  I’m simply trying to do a story justice.  Last year I edited a story about a cemetery skills competition.   There was no need for quick edits, no need for lots of sequencing, no need for an over-abundant amount of natural sound.  Just simple slow story telling.  Simple and effective storytelling.  So please watch the story We’re Serious, We’re Professionals

Things to watch for in  We’re Serious, We’re Professionals

• Natural Sound is very simple

• Pacing matches storytellers natural pace, in this case the organizer of the event

• I cut when talking about the the competition

• I dissolve when talking about the cemetery in general

And think about this.  Sometimes the most important edit you make in a story, is the decision to not make an edit.

The Edit Foundry Blog is going to change a little over the next few months.  Posts will be more often and I’ll always leave you with an Edit Foundry Thought.

Edit Foundry Thought -  If your edit evokes an emotion, the next edit shouldn’t take anything away from that edit or emotion.

The Edit Foundry@Convergence09 is 3 weeks away.

The Edit Foundry Faculty is;

Lou Davis, Photojournalist for WTVD in Raleigh-Durham

Matt Rafferty, Video Editor for WJW in Cleveland

And myself, Shawn Montano, Video Editor at KWGN/KDVR in Denver

The 3 of us have been a team for 4 years.  Teaching in Springfield Missouri, Nashville Tennessee, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and now next month in Las Vegas Nevada.

Combined we have nearly 50 years of newsroom experience in 12 different stations across the country.

We work as a team @ The Edit Foundry.  We each provide insight into each topic we teach.  Providing our students with more than one perspective about an editing concept.

We all have different styles and different approaches to the craft of editing.

We’ll lay the foundation of good editing.

So if you decide to join us for The Edit Foundry@Convergence09 you’ll learn from 3 very passionate people.

How, Why and Apply!

We’ll explain how we edit, why we edit and then you’ll apply that we teach to a timeline on your Avid.

The Avid’s we’ll be loaded with 4 different stories and lots of raw video to play with.

We’ll also have some fun and get a chance to learn a few Avid tricks along the way.

The Edit Foundry will stress;

• Movement in your edits
  

• Match Action

• Motion and emotion in your edits

• Natural Sound Placement

• Non Linear Editing Tips

Between the 3 of us we have knowledge of Final Cut, Avid, and Grass Valley.  So, we’ll be able to explain how to apply tips on other platforms as well.

If you can’t make it the Edit Foundry in Las Vegas, the Blog will always be here.  For those of you new to the Edit Foundry here’s a list of the first 19 entrees.

Part 1. Editing a Natural Sound Story

Part 2. Editing Under Deadline with Limited Video

Part 3. Keeping it Simple. Editing A General Assignment Story

Part 4. Movement in your Edits

Part 5. Match Action

Part 6. Emotion and Pacing

Part 7. Dissolves

Part 8. Subtle Editing Tips

Part 9. Opportunities

Part 10. Writing and Editing

Part 11. Using Music

Part 12. Natural Sound Logic

Part 13. Pacing

Part 14. Eye Movement

Part 15. Time management with special guest Region 9 POY Everett McEwan

Part 16. The cut as an effect

Part 17. An Experiment with Natural Sound

Part 18. All My Effects are really simple

Part 19. A story with emotion sometimes needs a little help

For those of you new to the Edit Foundry, here is how it’s works.  I upload a story to YouTube.  I ask you to go and watch the story and then come back here and read as I breakdown the editing.

Our story for this post is click here -> How Far She’s Come <-.

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

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

I did have a few exteriors to choose from.  But I decided to start with the little girl.  I’d rather see her cute face and I feel the viewer would rather see her than the exterior of the apartment complex.

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 I put a slow zoom onto her.  I do a slow zoom on the very next shot as well,

and the next shot.

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

Here another trick I use when I think a story needs a little help with emotion.  I’m going to slow the track down.  I’m NOT going to alter the voice.  Here’s my trick, between her sentences I’m going to 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 track down is to put ten frames of nothing or silence down.

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 sentences.  There are more in this story.

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

• I’m not a fan of pans

However, 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 track again.  10 frames make a big difference!

Another slow zoom at [:31]

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

A series of dissolves with several shots with a slow zoom in.  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.  I don’t like using music that’s too popular or well known.  People often have there own emotional tie to music.

I want them to remember my story and not some ex-girlfriend.

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

Back to standard 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 slow zooms 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

Edit...@gmail.com

Our story for this post is Minimoto.

This story was on my Editor of the Year entry last year.  It’s a natural sound feature.

I added effects to this story.  This was part of a program I produced called Colorado Getaways Extreme.  My co-producer and I liked the show to look different.  Each story was driven with effects.

Like most stories I do with effects,

• the effects are really simple and easy to create.

• I’ll also use them 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.  In fact you could duplicate what I did using Final Cut Express or Avid Express.  All you need is a simple NLE that will let you do two layer 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 to about 200 percent and drop the opacity to about 40 percent. This gives the feeling of speed and blur. 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.

If you read Part 15. The cut as an Effect.  You know how much I like single frame edits.

• 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 cycle, 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 blown up to about 200% to cover the entire screen.

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.

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.

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

This is a cool wheel shot.  I like editing when movement has already started.

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 at 200% and then quickly resize it to normal.  All of these color effects I use I’m just playing with the contrast.  This is really simple to duplicate. In Final Cut use Color Correction. Drop your blacks down, increase the mids and highlights.  In Avid you can use Color Correction or just the color effect to duplicate this.

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.  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 doing a resize 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] Resize, 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.

This theme of using the same effects continues throughout the story.

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

Our story for this post is It’s a Kid’s Game.

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Let’s talk about sound.  Natural sound is key to storytelling.  I’m sure everyone reading this blog understands this.

This post is about an experiment.  Long 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.

This is a natural sound piece I turned in a day.  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 alot 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 suprised to see a lot of these guys have gotten it over the fence here

1. You got it, get over, get over

2. Hey this guys to 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 come in

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

1. 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

1. 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.

It’s time to hear from everyone  on this one.  What did you think?  You were intentionally watching the story for the natural sound pops.  Do you feel the rhythm was affected too much?  Do you think is was affected at all?

Next time your editing a story, experiment with you natural sound in this way.

Our story for this post is New York Street Boys.

Please watch the story first.

Then watch the story again later.

In this post we’re going to talk about

• Using a cut as an effect.

• Using quick edits as a transition device

The cut is the device storytellers use most often.  I’d guess 95% of the content you see in film, television and the web uses cuts.

Dissolves are primarily used to enhance emotion, transition to another time or place, or used as in some kind of effect.

We often see storytellers use effects to enhance a story.  Many of us know what our effects pallettes are capable of and can grab any one of numerous effects to enhance a story.

New York Street Boys is an effects driven story, except the effect is simply a cut.

Our story beginning at [:02] in YouTube starts with a wide shot of crowd gathered.

After that shot we have 44 cuts in less than 8 seconds.  All of these cuts are edited to the beat.  I’m creating an effect by simply cutting quickly.

There are only 3 shots that are wide shots within this series of cuts.  Your eye probably only reconized two of those wide shots.  I did that because of the way the brain process information.  The brain can only process so much information at a time. If you’re going to use this type of editing and you still want the viewer to gather information about the story, tight shots are the way to go.

• The less information in quick edits like this, the easier it is on the viewer to capture information

I’ve established the style in which I’m going to tell the story right from the beginning.  I’m going to use quick cuts, often single frame edits.  Does this represent the way the eye would work if you were there?  No.

If you’ve heard me in any presentations you know I’m a big fan of imitating the eye.

• We are going to discuss imitating the eye quite a bit at The Edit Foundry@Convergence09

New York Street Boys is not about imitating the eye.  It’s about using a tool, in this case a cut, to enhance the viewing of the story.

• I want the viewer to see the story, hear the story and I’m going to try and make them feel the story.

Quick cuts are my attempt to take the viewer as much into the story as I think I can.

In the series of cuts from [:12] to [:14] the tight shot have little going on in them.

In a few frames you see the drumstick hitting the trash can.  But other than that I keep what’s going on in the quick edits simple.

In the first 14 seconds of the story I have lots and lots of cuts.  It would be an epic edit if I kept that pace up throughout this piece.  I don’t do this for a few reasons.

• I don’t want this style to get in the way of the story

• I’m just trying to use it to enhance the story in places

• It would of taken me a long, long time to edit.

So from [:14] to [:31] I’m simply just trying to tell story.  I also introduce our first character in the story, Alex.

The next time I use quick edits is at [:32].  I’m using it as a transition devices to introduce another character, Dean.

I do this quick edits transition again at [:52] to introduce the final New York Street Boy character.

Looking back on this story I realized I didn’t introduce the viewer to him like I did with Alex and Dean.  I guess that’s the reality of natural sound stories.  You don’t always have all the elements to tell the whole story.

At [:58] I use quick edits again as a transition device.  The story moves from them banging on trash cans to banging on their heads.

I have quick edits agian at [1:09].  I use them for a transition to the crowd.  I felt I needed a little crowd reaction here with cheering.

• You’ve got to have reaction to all those actions in a story

I go back to quick edits at [1:15] to transition to the final element of the story.  The New York Street Boys using fire.

Again at [1:22] for the beginning of the fire portion of the show.

And then there’s my big finally at [1:32].  After doing all these quick edits in certain places I wanted to create a big finale in the editing.  Just like the New York Street Boys create a finale for the viewers on the mall, I wanted a big finale for the viewers watching the story at home.

Our story closes with a series of reaction shots from the crowd.

This was one of the funnest stories I’ve ever put together.  I took me about 8 hours to edit.  I edited this story tape to tape.  There are 246 edits in the story.  It runs [1:45]

Quick edits, when used in an appropriate story can often enhance a story like this.  Taking the viewer in more intimately than even someone watching just a few feet away.

I’ve created a page with more information about The Edit Foundry @ The Convergence

Our story for this post is Tis the season for Travel by Everett McEwan 

It’s a story done in every market a few times a year.  Tis the Season for Travel is about holiday travel.

Everett did such an effective job with this story that it was awarded 2nd place in the NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2009 for General News.

Everett McEwan is a photojournalist at KWGN in Denver.  Everett was recently awarded NPPA Region 9 Photographer of the Year.  This is Everett’s 4th time winning this award.   He has some tips for time management and I decided to post his ideas here on the Edit Foundry.

Everett, take it away…..

“First, start the story with a plan, talk to the reporter and plan it out so that when you get there it’s just a matter of going down your list of elements and getting what you need and only what you need.”

“You’ve shot it before and you will again so you know what elements there are and how the story will be told. On the 45 minute drive out to DIA  Audra (the reporter) and I talked about what we needed,

outside shots, planes taking off,

the check-in counter,

the security lines,

the baggage area and interviews with at least 4 travelers and ideally some who had problems.”

“Very straight forward and simple, but it was a game plan and a it gave us a mental checklist of what we needed. Within an hour we had shots we needed. The one element we did not know about was the carolers singing to passengers,

 we found them at our first stop, the check in counter and quickly adapted our plan to shot them for natural sound and as part of the story. They made the story, giving me some great music to weave in and give a start and finish to the story.”

“Some reporters might have tried to do interviews and write about the singing but Audra kept it simple and stuck to the original story, travel and only used the singing as an element.”

“(a good idea is to) edit in your camera as you go. Although I did roll on the music without stopping I made sure that rest of my b-roll was edited in the camera, sequenced and composed before I pressed record. This can save you time later searching for that cutaway or the wide shot you need.”

“One important thing I always do, something I was taught in college, get an establishing shot.” 

“In the case of this story it was of the airport from the road as I drove in, and it’s the first shot of the story.”

“And don’t just have a checklist for the B-Roll and interviews, have a checklist of natural sound that you need to get. I have shot so many stories at DIA that I know what natural sound I can get and what I can’t get, so I know what to expect.”

“I know there are beeps at the check-in kiosk.”  

“I know that bags make a noise when they are wheeled over the ribbed floor/escalator.” 

“I know that security has those rollers for the trays.”  

“I know that bags bang when they fall off the baggage carousel.”  

“I know I can use my scanner to get the air traffic control frequency as I shoot airplanes.”

“But even if it’s a story I have not shot before I know I need at least 5-10 different sounds to use in the story later. Don’t focus in on just one thing and spend your whole time shooting the same b-roll and natural sound.   Seek out variety, look around for what you are missing and go get it.”

For time management Everett will often cut natural sound sequences before he gets his script from the reporter.

“I put these into the time line in a rough order of where I might use them in the story. When I did this story I built the opening natural sound sequence first and showed them to Audra who was writing behind me, after seeing how I used the music, she came up with the “T’is the season to travel” opening line. “

“I later cut and pasted her track in over my sequence. I put these natural sound breaks down in the time line and then when I get the track and script I insert the story in the middle and park the natural sound breaks at the end after the story and as I edit I go to the back.  Sometimes I might lay it down in one spot and change my mind latter and move it to another part of the story. It’s just a matter of cut and paste, having those pr-edited sequences making it a breeze to spice up your story with good natural sound.”

“Keep busy and use your time wisely, there is so much you can do in a day.”