Tag: Editing

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Editing and the Story

I’ve grown to love the editing part of the video production process.  It’s where I “craft” the story and take it where I want it to go.

Last Spring I attended a conference at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan.  The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MichiganWhile staying at this historic gem, my goal was to create a short web video on the hotel and the island.  I shot the property in a dozen different ways getting b-roll footage of carriages, guests on the porch, tea in the parlor, the orchestra and other areas of the hotel as well as scenes in town. I also interviewed third generation owner and President, Dan Musser III and carriage driver Tom McCarthy.  Those interviews as well as some soundbites from a talk given by concierge Bob Tagatz – gave me my narrative track.

When I returned I gathered all my assets – interviews, b-roll and music and started to layout the story. Generally, I lay down my best soundbites first.  This drives the story.  I’ll then go through all my b-roll and live action shots and select the best clips that best illustrate the narrative track.  I was fortunate on this piece because I was able to capture footage of the harpist at the Grand Hotel and this not only provided me with some nice visuals, but it gave me a music track to work with that made sense in the context of the story.

After piecing together the story in Final Cut Pro, I then went  back and “cut” it.  Given time, I may even live with it a bit, going back and cutting more each time giving it more punch.  I’ve uploaded my first two cuts on vimeo.  Here’s a link to my latest rough cut. http://www.vimeo.com/5889700 I’ll probably live with it a bit and then go back and cut out another 20%.  It’s always hard to cut but it makes the piece stronger and these days – people don’t take the time to look at long web videos.

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Editing Anywhere

My partner and I recently completed a documentary called Freedom’s Ride. We documented two groups of high school students from diverse backgrounds as they retraced the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. http://vimeo.com/4106326.

It was the first time we went HD and the first time we went tapeless. The shoot and working on the fly is a story in itself, but for this entry I’ll talk about the edit. Since the shoot itself was of the trip and interviews, the material was brought into the system along the way. When I got to home base, I transfered the files into mov files for Final Cut, imported them into my project and stored the media on external hard drives.

My intitial rough cut was 90 minutes long and was only intended for the students and teachers who had taken the journey. I wanted to make sure that all the kids were included in that edit. It also became the structure of the piece.

After that first cut, I got involved in other things,  but I knew that I was headed up to Maine in a month and I wanted to do the next edit working completely mobile while there.

I packed my MacBook Pro loaded with Final Cut Pro Suite, one external hard drive, a zip strip, headphones and a mouse into a relatively small backpack and headed up to Rockport, Maine. While my partner took The Platypus Workshop, I’d set up my portable editing suite at either the Rockport or Camden Library. It was quiet, peaceful and the Camden Library had the added plus of a beautiful seascape right out the window.

By the end of 9 days, I had cut the piece down to 28 minutes. My goal had been to finish before I headed for home. I not only made my goal, I got to show it to the Platypus participants who gave it a thumbs up.