Edit Foundry

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.

Lip Flap

I have a pet peeve.  It’s called lip flap.  Lip flap is when you take a shot and the person or persons in the shot is talking.  Maybe they are talking to the reporter, or another person in the shot.  What they’re really doing is distracting the viewer.  Anytime I see a shot like this edited in a story I think it’s very distracting.  I’m trying to listen to the reporter track and I’m trying to listen to what the person in the shot is saying.  With all that listening I’m retaining hardly any information.  I don’t see lip flap nearly as much as I used to but I did notice it in this piece on the Booty Parlor.

In this story there are six shots with people talking, that’s lip flap.  I know people are talking in this type of story but you can still build an effective story without all that lip flap.  I know because I did it.

Passion Parties is my version of a the same type of story, only without any distracting lip flap.

So first watch Booty Parlor and then watch Passion Parties please.

As you can imagine the ladies talked a lot throughout the entire party. I simply chose edit points to eliminate any distracting lip flap.

Intimacy

How often do you see stories on the air that, when edited properly get you intimate with the information.  This is one of those stories that needs intimacy.  How do you get intimacy?  You do it with tight shots.

Sometimes extremely tight shots as to avoid future conversations with a Producer or News Director.

As you can see I had to use shots that gave the viewer enough information to process what they were seeing, without being obscene.  This was a very challenging edit.

and Shot Variety

Another difference in these two stories is shot variety.  Obviously I’m going to use tight shots.  I also want to give you a feel of the room.

Who’s sitting next to who, how big of a room they’re in, who’s interacting with whom.  I noticed in Booty parlor a lot of medium to medium shots that blanded what should be a colorful story.

I felt a comparison of two stories similar in subject but executed differently was a good learning tool.

One final note.  I didn’t have a good ending shot but I did have a good ending moment.  Always end with something memorable!

I’m still using the Journey of Hope Documentary on my Youtube page for my series of post on long form editing.  I’m talking about Journey of Hope Part 2 in this post.

So what do I mean by complimenting the photographer’s shooting?  When I get a story that I know the photographer has put a lot of effort into, I want to honor his/her shooting.  I want him/her to feel like I’m an extension of themselves.  The best compliment I can get from a photographer is “That’s exactly what I was thinking when I shot that.”

A good editor can see why a photographer shoots a shot and extrapolate how the photographer would use it.  Each time Dave Wertheimer came into the edit bay he loved what I was doing and liked that I got into his head and edited the story as if he was pushing the buttons.

I’ll give you some examples.

From [:10] to [1:09] is Scott’s head shaving party.

My photographer got plenty of stable locked down shots.

My photographer got plenty of shots I could choose from.

My photographer shot sequences.

My photographer stayed ahead of the action.

I had every shot I needed to make this a good sequence without forcing any meaningless or undeveloped shots.

I, for the most part used the shots in order.

From cutting his hair to shaving his head I advanced the story with each edit and used the shot like I think the photographer would.  Watch that sequence again.  It should feel like you were in the room with all of them seeing all they see.  That’s what my photographer shot, and that’s what I put together.

From [1:10] to [2:04] is the sequence at in the MRI.

I honored the sequences of the Scott in the MRI.  I start with him going into the MRI and work him coming out to get straps tightened.  I’m honoring the sequence that was shot.

Dave likes shooting match action.  Dave will get shots, change camera angles and then wait for the match action to happen like the two shots at [2:17].

A good editor finds those shots, knows they’ll work together.

The photographer’s made two edits for you when shooting good match action.  You just have to find where to put them into the story.

While all this is important in long form editing, paying attention to what is shot and how it is shot can save an editor a lot of frustrating time.

Next time your editing ANYTHING you did not shoot ask yourself why did he/she shoot that?  If you can figure it out you can probably find a place to that shot in your story.

In my last post I talked about the music I chose.  Allow me to explain how I started using it a little bit along with some pacing controls and subtle visuals for the beginning of the story.

Scott’s Story start at [:11] on My YouTube channel.  The editing in the beginning is pretty standard editing.  I’m not trying to be fancy.  Just simple S.W.A.P.  I’m going though the reporter track looking for shots that fit.

The beginning of the documentary was very important for me.  It sets the style for the rest of the piece.  The Photographer and the reporter both felt this was a simple and powerful story.  Scott’s story didn’t need any fancy editing.  In fact, my goal was to stay out of the way as much as possible.   I tried to make sure edits did not call attention to themselves.  I kept away from anything jarring.

During the beginning of the story I did want to throw in a few shots that showed Scott’s tremors.  I wanted to show this without the reporter talking about it.  Kind of like the surprise.  I wanted the first few times you see this to be subtle.

At [1:11] you see Scott laying on the ground working on the Go-Kart.

Then, I show a tight shot of Scott’s left hand shaking at [1:12].

Then, I show a medium shot with Scott’s left foot in the foreground at [1:14].  These 3 shots together introduce the viewer, subtly, that there is something wrong.  Most people won’t pick up on this consciously.  However, I strongly believe in the subconscious.  That’s what’s going to pick up on Scott’s Tremors.

At [1:34] The reporter track says

Firing up the Engine, you’ll notice something else.

Now I want to make sure the viewer sees the tremors and understand this is an important moment in the story.  So, I bring the music up full for a second and Scott says

This is hard to do with my hand shaking.

I then show a tight shot of Scott’s hand shaking.

I place the music here to signify a moment in the story.  Scott and Scott’s best friend are talking about his tremors.  There is a noticeable change in the mood of the story.  The music here helps with that mood.

I pot up the music every now and then.  Never just cause.  If the music comes up full it’s for a reason.  At [1:57] Scott says

Parkinson’s is a degenerative brain disease without a cure.

I bring the music up full after he says that for the same reason as before, a moment for the viewer to feel.

I leave the music underneath until [2:49].  Notice it just fades away?  Not really and neither does the viewer.

I don’t want to bring the fact the music is gone to the viewer’s attention.  So, I just slowly bring in down over 5 seconds.  Back to that trying to keep the editing as unnoticeable as possible.

I do want to bring attention to Scott’s hand, A lot.  Pay attention to just how many times there is a tight shot of Scott’s hand just in this first segment.

Music starts again at [3:50].  I don’t bring it full until [4:00].

• This is a great tip, bring the music up subtle before you need it.

I use dissolves sparingly in this piece.  At [4:00] I have 4 in a row.  Why?  I want to slow the piece down a little bit.  Slow the pacing.  I used dissolves to help slow the pacing down.

Notice the rest of the story keeps that slow pace.  But I don’t need to keep dissolving (is that even a word?).  I’ve slowed the pace down and cuts can resume.

Last Saturday I won an Emmy for a documentary I edited last year.

I loaded the documentary in 4 parts on The Edit Foundry YouTube Channel

Part 4 is the 15th video down on the list.  I used that part for a discussion on Using Music.

.

The documentary,  Journey of Hope, is the story of Scott Orr and his decision to have life changing brain surgery.  This surgery would help with the tremors associated with Parkinson’s Disease.  This documentary was by far the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done at a television station.  It challenged me on so many aspects of editing and production.  It pushed me as an editor to use every skill I developed.  So, I’d like to share some things I learned along the way that may help you if you ever get a chance to edit something like this.

I didn’t capture a lot of the video for this.  In fact my photographer, Dave Wertheimer, captured a majority of the video for me.  I still went threw every tape.

• Logging is extremely important process especially in anything long form.

I edited this is in Avid. Here is some things I did before I  started editing

1. Every time a shot changed I put a locators on the video (F3 in Avid).  That way I could toggle between EVERY SHOT.  So as I watched every tape that was captured I added locators.  Most of the time I watched the video at either two or three times speed.  I didn’t have time to watch everything in real time.
   

2. I sub-clipped A LOT.  I sub-clipped interviews, the surgeries, at the race track, head shaving party, etc.  So later I could just go to the subclips and looked a smaller amount of media at once.
   

3. I had a different bin for each tape the photographer shot.  VERY important for organization and for sanity.
   

4. I had additional bins for music, graphics, sequences, etc.

5. I made sure my media was as organized as I could possible have it.

I went through all the video and got very organized.  I got the reporter’s logs.  I made mental and written notes.  No notes on paper.  All my notes were in Avid.  Using the locators to tag video and write things about my video within the locators.

• Double click on a locator in Avid and you’ll be able to type text associated with that locator.
  

The next thing I did was figure out music.  Before I started editing I wanted the music to help set the mood.  I wanted the all the music to feel like a score in a movie. So the whole documentary would feel like it had music composed for it.  Obviously I didn’t have music composed.  But I did find a soundtrack that worked well.  I’m a big fan of Thomas Newman.  He’s composed music for many films like Finding Nemo, Pay it Forward, and Cinderella Man.

I decided to use the soundtrack to the movie Erin Brokovich

I chose this for several reasons.

1. It’s a great soundtrack

2. I liked the selection of music I could choose from within this soundtrack

3. The movie came out in 2000 so it wouldn’t be fresh in the viewer’s mind.

I never use anything TOO popular.  I  want the viewer to have as little emotional contact with a song as possible.

I know my last post was about eye trace but it’s making me rethink how I edit stories.  Last week I was given a natural sound story to edit.  I’ve placed it on The Edit Foundry’s Youtube channel. The story is called We’re Shootin the big ones. It’s nothing special, It’s a story about setting up a fireworks display.  However, it was a chance for me to think about eye trace and do it with a limited amount of time.  I only had about 2 hours to edit this story.  In my last post I tried to explain what eye trace was, in this post I’m going to explain how I used eye trace to make edits.

So, at [:02] into the story I have a tight shot.

He picks this item up.  Before it leaves the frame 100% I cut to another shot.  Your eye is watching the item go up and so your eye is in the top middle of the frame.  So, I looked for a shot that

1. Matched the action

2. Has some action to look at in the middle of the screen to maintain eye trace

I found one.

I’m keeping your eye in the middle of the frame.

This gentlemen walks screen left.  So, I looked for a shot that has action screen left.

This is the shot I could find.  I wanted something more screen left but I didn’t have it.  So, this was the best shot that I could find.

So now, not only am I looking for what is in the shot, I’m looking at the action in the shot and how it maintains eye trace with the next edit.  It’s really interesting to think about.

The next time I use eye trace in this piece it at [:08].

I’m looking at the next shot and what’s going on.  I’m thinking ahead.  In fact during this piece I was often thinking at least 3 edits ahead.  For this edit I’m thinking about the end of the shot.  When it’s start isn’t nearly as important as when it ends.  I’m thinking about eye trace to the next shot.  So, I wait until the guy walks far enough screen left just as he bends down I cut.

Notice this gentlemen is screen right, maintaining eye trace, and he moves subtly to our right. His movement helps the edit.

The next shot at [:11] the action is also screen right.

But the next shot at [:12] is not a great edit.  Now, the viewer’s forced to move their eyes all the way screen left.

My new goal is a perfect eye trace package.  The day I get that done I’ll definitely show you!

If I had a shot to move the viewer’s eyes from screen right to screen left this shot would of worked better.

This shot does work for eye trace on the next edit.  I’m thinking about eye trace as much as I can and making as many edits as I can work. The gentlemen walks screen right

Just when he gets to the point I want him at, I make a cut

To the interview that’s set up screen right.

Again, with this edit I’m thinking about what happens at the end of the edit more than what happens at the beginning of the edit.

I hope you see how thinking about eye trace can add a little something extra in everyday ordinary stories.

There are several other instances of eye trace in this story. Watch where their is some movement in the story.  A person walking or something coming into screen.  Notice all the edits I’m paying attention to eye trace.

So here’s a test for you.  The next time your editing a story, think about the end of the edit more than the beginning of the edit.  Is something moving?  Can you use eye trace to make your edit better?

Thanks for reading the Edit Foundry Blog.

Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @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.