157 Part Two: Creative Editing Basics

or non-news, your goal should be to establish a good story line.

In the scriptwriting chapter (Chapter 5), we cov- ered the elements of a basic story: a beginning, a mid- dle, and an end. In visual terms, the beginning is like a wide shot; it establishes the primary setting, charac- ters, and relationships. The middle is like a medium shot; it pulls the viewers into the story with more de- tails that move the characters and events forward. The end is like a close-up; it drives home the main idea with the most intense or dramatic moments. Each of these three parts of a story can be conceived as consist- ing of one or more paragraphs, or segments. By visual- izing each segment, you can shoot and edit a thor- ough, interesting, and satisfying story.

Visualizing Paragraphs

No set length or number of shots makes up any seg- ment. The beginning may be just one shot or many. The total length of the story usually determines how long each segment will be. A 90-second story probably will not have a 30-second opening sequence. Once you have established a story line in your head or on pa- per, break it down into its beginning, middle, and end. Take each part and look for the visual paragraphs, or sequences, that make up that part. By organizing your- self before you shoot and edit, these visual paragraphs should come together in a flowing, descriptive story.

In many TV scripts, it is impossible to establish much in the way of a visual story line. Many pieces end up being laundry lists of shots or wallpaperjobs. The script has no real visual interpretation, except for the very literal. A story about banks that are in finan- cial trouble may be made up of exterior shots of the banks named in the story. The news photographer and editor have little creative input on the story line. If the writer and photographer can work together as much as possible, some of these situations can be avoided or worked out.

The point is to strive for good TV—that mesh of good audio and good pictures that communicates the maximum information to the viewer. In following the script, strive for the best sequencing and story line. You have a good chance of communicating something if you can visually hold the viewer’s interest. Some- times pretty pictures are the best solution to the story

line problem if you cannot obtain sequencing within the confines of the script. In this case, each shot should be able to stand alone as a complete idea or picture.

Shooting without a Script

The biggest difference between ENG and EFP is the order in which the product is assembled. For EFP, you are shooting to a script, and it is easy to get what you need to cover that script. You go out knowing which pictures to get. For ENG, you are shooting for a script that has not been written yet. It is hard to second- guess how the final story will be structured, what parts will be included or left out, and what specifics will be written about. You must shoot to maximize the edi- tor’s latitude when the piece is edited. At the same time, you cannot provide too much material, because there will not be enough time to go through it all within the usual TV news deadlines.

Sometimes you must shoot for two or three differ- ent story lines because the outcome or direction is un- clear as the story develops before you. At a certain lo- cation, the story might be the crowd at the beach, the heat, the traffic, the troublemakers, or people being turned away because the park is full. All of these ele- ments, or only a few, can be included in one story, or you may concentrate on just one. The final script de- termines the type and amount of material that should be shot, but the final script does not materialize until long after the shooting is over. How do you cover all the possibilities and come up with good sequences and story lines but not overshoot?

The writer-producer is often not present when you shoot the video. However, if you follow the basic guidelines regarding what kind of shots to get, and keep in mind what it takes to edit a story, you should have the material for any good basic piece. If you look at each situation as a mini-story (beginning, middle, end) and shoot each situation as though it will be se- quenced together (wide shot, medium shot, tight shot, cutaway), then you have covered all the bases.

By getting the minimum number of essential shots, you have covered the story and given the editor the basis for cutting to almost any script. Get the ba- sic four-shot sequences first, just in case that is all you get. Extra shots or artistic shots can be taken only af- ter the basics are recorded and time permits. If the ed-

158 Chapter 7: Part Two: Creative Editing Basics

itor is in a hurry, there must be places in the video where the basic shots can be found without much searching through shots that, while good, may be of lesser interest or importance to a basic story line.

Pacing

The last element in the relationship among shots in editing is the pacing, or timing, of the shots. The tim- ing of each shot helps determine the mood of the piece. As a general rule, a shot less than two seconds long will not be consciously perceived by the viewer unless it is a very graphic or aesthetically simple shot. A shot longer than seven seconds with no movement is usually longer than the viewer’s attention span. The av- erage length of most shots in EFP and ENG is about four seconds. A zoom, pan, tilt, or action in the picture can allow a shot to run almost any length, depending on the mood you are trying to capture.

Ultimately, it is not a fixed number of seconds that is important. What counts is that the shot is on long enough for the viewers to “get” the information and not so long that it causes them to lose interest. So just when should you cut from one shot to another? The overarching answer is: when the visual statement is com- plete. That is, once the viewers see the expression on the face in the close-up, or note the object in the sub- ject’s hands in the medium shot, or recognize in the wide shot that the scene is set on a flooded street, it is time to cut to the next shot.

Editing for Dynamics

If all the shots are static with no camera moves, the pace of the edits will generally be quicker than if there are some camera moves or action shots. If you are cut- ting several static shots together, try not to make the edits on a predictable beat. Vary the time between edits to give the piece some dynamics of its own. Let wide shots stay up longer than tight shots. It is easy to see what is in a tight shot, but a wide shot usually contains more information that takes longer to perceive.

Zooms and pans must be allowed to run their course. Cutting in the middle of camera movement is most often uncomfortable to the viewer. By their na- ture, these types of shots should be going somewhere,

and cutting out early makes them unfulfilling to the viewer. Anticipation is created with no real payoff.

If movement is needed, but the entire shot is too long, it is better to start in the middle of the movement than to end in the middle. Let the shot finish. It is usu- ally easier to see where the shot was coming from than not to know where it is going. It sometimes works just to use the middle of the movement, no start or finish, as long as you can tell what it is you are looking at, such as a long pan of rows of books. Seasoned videog- raphers sometimes shoot camera moves three times: one with a slow pan or tilt or zoom, one with that same movement at a medium speed, and a third at a fast pace. This gives the editor a choice to select the camera move at the speed that best fits the pace of that mo- ment in the story.

A camera move shot has a certain mood to it that may not fit with the rest of the piece. Camera moves are most often used to add dynamics to what editors and producers see as dull pieces. There is a fine line be- tween adding editorial interest and false excitement. Camera moves can add complexity that you may not want to your piece, distracting the viewer from the subject at hand. That is why most new videographers are asked not to use zooms and pans until all other ba- sics have been mastered.

Avoiding Predictability

While staying within the sequencing, story line, and continuity guidelines, try to vary the pace of the shots enough to avoid any predictability. The worst case is when the viewer can tell when the next edit is about to occur. The viewer should always be expecting more in- formation (until the end of the piece) but should never be able to guess how or when it will come. As long as this anticipation is satisfied, and the viewer cannot pre- dict the next edit, the edit pace is correct. A fast-moving story requires faster edits. A slow-moving story requires more time between edits. A good action piece can have quite a few short shots if they advance or enhance the action. In a fast-paced sequence, the shots may be shorter than three seconds, as short as 20 frames, but they must still be aesthetically clean enough so that there’s not too much information and the viewer can perceive what is in the frame. This usually means using many close-ups and extreme close-ups.

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