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Step 7: Edit your film

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Photo by Steve Zazeski, http://www.sxc.hu, used with permission

Editing seems to be that thing which most people assume is where all the ‘movie-making’ happens.  I’ve lost count of how many times it has happened that when a person has enjoyed a film I have made, the first thing they seem to say is “What editing software did you use?”, as if that must be the reason that the video turned out ok.  Surely that’s where all the creative work is done and that’s what has made this video good (they think).  By having a fancy program, he’s been able to make it a good video!  And unfortunately, I think this is in the back of people’s minds when they start out making video.  They think that if they can just get the right editing software, then they can make a good video.  But there’s an underlying false assumption.  In this view, how good the video is depends solely on the editor and their software.  Not so.  Do you remember the two basic principles of video making?  The second was that good equipment does not equal good videos.  The reason behind that is that there are 8 (or more) steps to making a video, not 1.  Editing is not actually a glorious job.  It’s damage control.  The editing can only ever be as good as the content that the editor has to work with.  This means that the best editing that is done is mostly hiding other people’s mistakes rather than actually doing something new.  It’s firstly about cutting out bad stuff.  So, ten top things to know about editing…

1. It’s not about you
Get it into your head before you start that editing is not about promoting yourself.  It’s not about showing off the coolest trick you’ve learnt to do.  A lot of it is making your mark invisible.  You want to make cuts between shots appear seamless.  You want to help the viewer immerse themselves in the story.  You want to cut out all possible distractions from that.  And sometimes that even includes cutting out shots – even shots you really like.  Whatever will best help the overall video.  And this means that ‘fancy’ transitions like star wipes are pretty much out of the question.  Most of the time, when different transitions are used, they just show that the editor wanted to try to show their mark, but they just look tacky.  They should only ever be used when absolutely stylistically necessary.  Most of your transitions should be straight cuts.  The fade-to-black is the next most reasonable transition, but even this can be poorly used.

2. It relies on the success of the first six steps
No matter how good an editor you are, you can only ever make the final product as good as the footage, which is only ever as good as the cast and crew make it, which is heavily reliant on the quality of the preparation, script and storyboard, which can only ever be as good as the initial idea.  I find few things more frustrating than, having agreed to edit something, coming to the footage and storyboard/script to realise it was all based on a terrible idea.  When people look at the final film, they’re not going to think “What great editing!  He saved the whole film!”.  They’re going to think “That was a terrible film!”

The other thing is that the amount of time it takes to edit the film will correspond to the success of the first six steps.  That is, if the planning and execution of the footage has been really good, then the editing should be reasonably quick.  But if the planning and execution of the footage was poor, then the editing will take a lot longer.  The tell tale signs are copious amounts of footage with lots of different options of shots for every scene (as in, lots of different angles that have not been planned as to how they fit together).

3. The software needs to do what you need it to
Now don’t mishear me.  I’m not saying you need a really expensive editing package.  If you’re starting out with video, you should not be planning to make movies that involve incredible special effects, because you will not yet have the skills to pull it off.  What you need to do first is learn how to make straight cuts appear seamless.  The cool thing is that most video editing software can do this, including the one that probably came free on your computer (like imovie).  But it’s not as simple as just lining up video next to each other.  You also need your software to allow you to manipulate the audio, including the levels for the audio that is attached to your video footage and any music or sound fx you might add.  I’ll outline this a bit more below, but for now, the point I want you to understand is that you can do great editing on pretty basic software, so long as you understand that editing is not about you!  You don’t need to do special effects, but you do need to hide anything that will distract the viewer from immersion in the story.

4. You need media in order to edit
This will include all your footage, as well as any music, sound fx, images, animations, and plugins or additional compositing software to supplement your editing software (once you’re at that stage).  You can start without all the elements, but you should know what you still need before you start.  If your film has been well planned, you should be well aware of what is required.  Often it will be up to you as the editor to source things like sound fx and music, and this can take a while.  Make sure that you have permission to use any media that you source (check out my posts on copyright for more info on this).  The basic test for this is to ask whether or not you could put ‘used with permission’ next to the credit you put in for the music (or whatever other media you’re using).  I put this in anyway just to keep myself accountable.

If you’ve already gone through the last step on importing, then this is all already done.  All the media you need should be in a new project in your editing software, ready for you to start hacking away.  If not, and you need more, check out my posts for some ideas on where to get royalty free music and graphics.  So, now is the time that our basic principles come into full force…

5. AUDIO IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN VIDEO!!!
Audio should dictate your editing.  I have seen many great editors using a number of different workflows for the order in which they do things, but the best that I think I’ve been shown in terms of producing a great product reasonably quickly is to remember all along that the audio needs to dictate the video, and not the other way around.  What this means is that you need to be listening more than watching.  The audio is how you will work out how long each shot should be and when you need a different shot over the top of the audio.  You are looking to establish an appropriate rhythm for each scene and for the video as a whole.

Let me give you an example of how this might work in practice.  Take an interview video, where the main form of content is a video of someone being interviewed.  So the main audio is the person’s voice.  This means that you’ve already got a problem.  A simple talking head will almost always be boring, and is too much to take in if they just keep talking.  The way you can first work on this is by adding a music track, then editing to the rhythm of the music.  Start your editing with the music track already there, and then add in chunks of the interviewee talking – but listen to the rhythm.  You will hear when an appropriate time is to make a cut because you will feel that the interviewee has said enough on a point, or has transitioned into irrelevant information, or has become boring.  At this point you need to leave a gap, where just the music would continue underneath.  When it feels right, and in the rhythm of the music, add in the next appropriate segment of the interview.

Now you may be thinking this is crazy, because after this you’re left with a whole load of gaps in the footage.  But I say that audio is more important, and there are ways of hiding these gaps.  Fix up the levels of the voice and music so that the music is soft enough that the voice is dominant when speaking, but raised up in the gaps so that it takes the focus.  Then, use things like title screens, graphics, animations, and cutaway footage to cover the gaps, and even as much of the segments of talking head as you can.  What you finish with is a video that carries the viewer along by the rhythm of it’s audio, and a video in which the visual makes sense because it complements the audio as well as covering any glitches.  You can see how I do this in Final Cut Pro in the below video.

If your video was well storyboarded, planned and executed, then you should have all the resources you need to do this quickly and effectively.  It will be harder if not (usually because there is not enough usable cutaway material, or if the audio in the interview is bad).

6. Be intentional in every stylistic decision you make
The genre that your film is aiming for (e.g. horror film, documentary, drama, comedy, etc) will help you with this.  You will generally either be trying to align your film with a genre – so if you’re editing an action film with a car chase, generally you’re going to go for a fast paced scene with intense music and sound – or you will be trying to subvert a genre to have a particular effect – so it was particularly scary when children’s nursery rhymes were first used as a soundtrack for a horror movie.  Just make sure you’re always intentional with the decisions you make.  Never do something just for the sake of it, and I’m particularly targeting those of you who just love those cheesy transitions.  Please leave them out unless you can justify why you have used them.  Everything sends a message, and you need to be as intentional as you can if you are going to communicate the message you want to.

7. Regularly back up your work
Need I say more?  Editing software uses a lot of computer power, and is prone to crashing your system, usually at the most inconvenient time.  So make sure you have a way of backing up your work and your footage.  Another great feature of some editing programs is an auto-save vault.  Find out if yours has one – it has saved my life on a number of occasions.

8. It will take longer than you think
and
9. You will always encounter an unforeseen problem
So be prepared as you plan your timeframe and aim for deadlines.

10. Have fun
Although it’s not as glamorous as you possibly first thought, editing requires a lot of creativity, and you get to transform a whole load of bits and pieces into something beautiful (hopefully!), so get into it.  And take heart.  Your speed and skill at editing will both increase dramatically alongside the amount of editing you do.  I’d almost say that you need to make a few shockers before you come out with something decent, but that’s probably trying to justify my own experience, especially when so many great films get made by first timers.  I’m excited by the fun times that you have ahead of you as you wade through the ocean that is video editing.

Please comment if you want any more details about the above step.

If you want to see an example of this, check out my post that details a bit of how I went through the 8 steps in making a recent film.

This post is part of the series 8 Steps to Making a Video



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