159 Part Two: Creative Editing Basics

Editing to Music

Cutting to music is a good example of following a pre- set pace. Most of the time, it does not look good to cut on the simple beat of the music because it is too pre- dictable. You will have a better flowing piece if you cut on the back beat, but even then not on every beat. Use the edits to emphasize or punctuate the music, so that the cuts are not simply a tapping foot, blindly follow- ing the lead of the music.

Picking out one instrument to follow with the edits can give the edit pace a nice tie-in: the images will flow with the music but never be predictable. Sometimes, switching from one instrument to another for differ- ent parts of the song can add to the interest of the pacing. With the current abundance of rock videos, there are many examples of good editing to music. Take a close look. If you turn down the sound and watch the edits, you can get a feel for the dynamics of the editing without the music. Learning to feel the pace without audio clues is a good way to learn any style of editing.

Varying the Editing Speed

By changing the pacing of edits, you can change the whole mood of the piece. Switching from long- running shots to quick edits can heighten tension, ac- tion, excitement, or anticipation. Slowing down the pace can give a more relaxed feeling, an easier flow, or an emotional touch with the feeling of relaxation, se- renity, or even sadness. Sit back and watch how your piece plays after you complete each segment. Do not just watch how the shots fit together, but watch how the piece feels as it moves along. Is it too fast or too slow? Does it convey the wrong mood? Does it flow as one unit, or is it simply a slide show?

Ask another editor to take a look at your piece. Sometimes you can be too close to your own work to give it an objective critique. Bad pacing can make a piece drag on forever or seem as choppy as rough seas. Good pacing can make a piece fly by while conveying much information, or touch the hearts of the viewers through its warm flow of images.

Comprehension

One of the biggest and most common mistakes made in all forms of video production is failing to perceive the finished product as a viewer would. The mistakes are often most noticeable in news stories. In the drive to make pieces exciting and dynamic for the viewers, the editors make use of every trick to keep the flow of images coming at a blinding pace. Fast cuts, zooms, and special effects abound. Music videos seem to be the standard by which stories are cut.

The problem with the music video style is basic: comprehension—and the lack of it. Music videos are cut the way they are so teenagers can see the same video dozens of times and still get something new out of them each time. The satisfaction gained from a sin- gle viewing is extremely low for that reason: the producers want you to see it over and over. The typical news story is just the opposite. By far, the majority of the audience sees a story one time and one time only. If there are any distractions at all while viewing the al- ready short presentation, comprehension is thrown off. If there is no time allowed for absorption, what chance does the viewer have for understanding?

It is important that you, as the videographer-editor, make sure the edit pacing is right for the comprehen- sion of the story as well as the dynamics of the story. Sometimes the rapid assault of images effectively con- veys the emotion and content for which you are striv- ing. But if there is more to communicate than that, make sure there is breathing space for the audience to take it in.

Adding Postproduction Value

Up to this point, we have been addressing the most used type of edit, the simple cut: an instantaneous transition in which the full frame of one shot replaces the full frame of the previous shot. However, editing software allows you to add other types of transitions and effects to your editing. The most common effect is the dissolve or mix, in which the two images are blended momentarily during the transition. Other ef- fects are also available, such as wipes and squeezes, in which geometric patterns are used to replace one im- age with another or one image changes size or dimen-

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sion, perhaps appearing to zoom into or out of the pre- vious image.

In most video editing programs, you simply place two shots together on the timeline and then select the effect you want from some type of “Effects” menu. In some programs, you might place one shot on the “A” video track and the second shot on the “B” track. You then overlap the two shots by the number of frames you want the effect to last (e.g., 30 frames for a one- second effect), and drag and drop the type of effect over the overlapping edit.

The use of an A track and a B track has its roots in the early days of TV, when most news stories were cut on A and B film reels (or rolls). The A-reel had all of the pictures with the sound: talking heads, soundbites, stand-ups, and so forth. The B-reel had all the cover footage to be used over the reporter’s voice track. The piece would then be assembled live on the air. It re- quired the technical director to switch from one cam- era pointing at a film machine to the other and back at the proper times so that there was always a picture on the air. This led to the term B-roll, referring to all the shots without dialogue that illustrate what a speaker is discussing—the close-ups, inserts, cutaways, and so on that visualize a story. This technique was appropriately called A/B-roll editing. (See Figure 7-13). That same concept is found today in editing software that uses both A and B tracks on the timeline.

The Dissolve

Special effects can allow an editor to explore a whole new area of pacing and mood creation. The dissolve or mix can be a boon or bust to the finished piece. The dissolve is an excellent way of showing the lapse in time from one shot to the next. To go from the coun- tryside in daylight to the city at night with a straight edit (or cut) would be rather abrupt, but a dissolve can make the transition smooth and even artistic. (See Fig- ure 7-14.)

In many pieces, this way of showing the passage of time can aid in the telling of the story, because fewer shots are needed to make the transition. You can take a subject from one location to another with a simple dissolve instead of transition shots. In a long piece, it is a good idea to use both transition shots and dis- solves for variety.

When a piece calls for a slow-edit pace, a dissolve adds to the relaxed feeling and to the flow from one shot to the next. In going from static shot to static shot, such as shots of photographs from an old family photo album, the dissolve takes the hard edge off the edit and gives a desirable, fluid transition. For the artis- tic piece, the story on fall colors or the day in the life of a nursing home, the dissolve can add to the beauty of the shots or give a feeling of sensitive compassion.

The basic rules of editing should still apply, how- ever. You do not dissolve between two shots that are very similar in composition. You still try to give variety to the shot selection and follow basic sequencing pat- terns. For a solo dancer on a stage, dissolves are desir- able, but each shot should be as different as possible from the next. If the dancer is framed screen right in a wide shot, the next shot could be a medium shot with the dancer in the left part of the picture. In other words, do not overlap similar images.

Let the mood and pacing of the piece determine how long a dissolve should last. A duration of 30 to 60 frames (1 to 2 seconds) seems to look best for most uses. The slower the pace, the slower the dissolve. You must keep in mind, however, that making all edits into dissolves can make the piece boring and predictable.

Figure 7-13 An editor operates an older A/B-roll editing system. Multiple VCRs and monitors are mounted in the racks. The edit controller, video switcher, effects generator, and audio mixer are mounted in the console. Today, all this equipment is replaced with a computer and editing software. (Photo by John Lebya)

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