READING & WRITING
Summary of Chapters Ten, After the Shoot – Editing from The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video by Tom Schroeppel
In his usual clear and succinct way Tom Schroeppel continues to explain and demystify camera operations and related topics. As I delved once again into the “bare bones” simplicity of the text and graphics of this final chapter, it was easy for me to see why over 700 colleges chose it as a basic text.
In Chapter 10 Tom discusses the important post shoot function of editing. True to form, he begins with an analogy. He takes something that virtually everyone understands – taking an imaginary drive in a car – to explain the concept of photographic sequences and demonstrate the principles of editing. Without my usual breakdown by the book’s subtopic here’s some tips, learnings, and issues that resonated with me from this chapter.
Essence of Editing – Here Tom is underscoring is the fact that you control the reality or the window through which your viewers see and hear the world of your program. Implicit is that this control takes skill, understanding, tactics, and a strategy. Now Tom uses the word “program” frequently in this chapter which threw me off – until I just accepted it – sort of.
Establishing Shot –Tom mentions using an establishing shot at least a couple times and I intuitively get its importance.
Divorce is Your Friend – Tom talked about divorce at least twice. No, not in a court of law. Here I gathered Tom is talking about divorcing yourself from the director or the editor – even if that’s you – to get down a good product. Nobody cares if you spent 3 days getting that perfect shot or had to wait 6 weeks to get location shooting permits. If that shot doesn’t contribute. Dump it.
Keep Good Logs – It probably is beyond the scope of what any of us did in class, but Tom encourages folks to keep good logs (regarding Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3 etc.) and the same descriptions (e.g., “good” for usable take and “NG” for no good takes. I appreciated learning that such notational discipline applied to the world of photo and video editing.
Paper Editing? Do it. It. Edit your materials on paper including scripts. Make notes. Absolutely don’t the mistake of editing a documentary or other unscripted program without a good log or paper edit Tom counsels.
A Few Final Editing Tips Gleaned –
- Look for basic sequences, then use them
- Make sure each shot is different (I think this tip is particularly important to this week’s video assignment: Montages)
- Ensure your pacing fits the situation (my interpretive tip) For example, slow down if presenting complicated material. Makes sense.
- Use an appropriate editing style. (This includes using basic sequences, making shots different and pacing). Your editing should actually be invisible!
- In terms of sound mixing separate your tracks because in this way you have maximum control of it. (For example, if Person A and Person B are talking at different levels if they are on the same track, you will be constantly making audio adjustments).
In summary, while I may not immediately recall every one of Tom’s tips, for me this classic will certainly always be a just-in-time, solid reference book. I believe that the fundamentals Tom emphasized in previous chapters as well as chapter 10 are likely to stand the test of time for years to come!
RESEARCH TO INFORM
Researching, looking at, and thinking about some of the different video and film editing styles did help to inform my montage creation process for this week. As did a corporate welcoming montage, the corporate video example and the montage example below were particularly helpful.
1 —— An Exelon Corporation Interview –- In this interview, Matthew English, VP of HR from my company discusses how Exelon employees are embracing our new ethics and compliance policies. I chose this corporate video to get a sense of the look and feel of how at least some of our corporate videos are traditionally done, since my montage video this week would be of the corporate variety.
As it turns out my montage video necessarily took a different stye and tone in part because of the generally younger crowd that I am trying to engage, in part because due to the nature of my scenic visuals, and in part because I just wanted to have some creative fun.
The tone and pace are moderate, and the transitional cuts and swipes are conservative as I would expect an editor to create due to the conservative nature of the topic and venue.
CLICK BELOW on the link below to access the Exelon corporate video being referred to. It is the first video on the left side of the page.
https://content.exeloncorp.com/myth-vs-fact/videos
2 —— Fast-Paced Video Editing Example –- Although I did not find this video in the wild it is, by definition, a great example of a video that demonstrates a fast-paced editing style. I say style because of the with the tremendous engagement thrust upon the viewer in this clip, the viewer is likely more engaged in the fast pace of the actual start-and stop action, sounds, and be much less aware of the fast-paced editing style per se. In this clip the editor employs a bevy of flashy lighting, zooms, close ups, and, again, stops and starts. All of this quick activity, which features space creatures, bloody humans, fighting, and all-around gore is punctuated by scenes dominated by the color RED. I think the editor used all of these techniques and fast pace to underscore the blood, conflict, and confusion that is ever so quickly taking place as one group – lets call them the forces of good – battles it out with the forces of evil. Also as one commenter indicated, the intensive editing had to be kept faced-paced just to keep up with the music!
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW to access the fast editing style video being referred to.
3 —— Montage Video Editing Example –- In sample video 1 above I looked at a corporate video since the montage video that I’m showcasing this week is of the corporate variety. Since the video that I’m showcasing is also a montage video, I thought it would be useful to briefly examine Rocky 4, a known boxing training montage movie, to see what editing techniques might be present.
Right away I noticed the fast pace of this Rocky 4 montage video as, true to this genre, it seemed apparent that the editor’s intent was to juxtapose various shots of Rocky’s work outs with those of his Russian opponent. Sometimes Rocky’s workouts would cleverly and seamlessly dissolve into his Russian counterpart’s workouts. I think that the editor’s intentionally created a face pace to allow for an ample number of juxtaposed scenes to be revealed.
With an ample number of various intense workout-related scenes the editor effectively created a certain kind of emotional tension for the viewer. This emotional tension played well with the similar physicality of the two fighters against the competitive patriotic undercurrent and interest that was already on display.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW to access the montage video editing style video being referred to.
CREATE
Doing my Edison Place Welcome montage video was fun and exciting and also a fair amount of work to get my desired results. I think I Iearned as much or more from some of the many challenges that I experienced as I did from some of the successes and good shots that I feel that I obtained. Although I’m pretty happy with the overall results of my corporate video montage, I still consider this it a work in progress.
With some luck perhaps my company communications team and other parties within my company may work with me to further develop this project for potential corporate use. I certainly plan to appropriately infuse my video with corporate branding in the future. I usually like what I call “two fers” …. where I can minimally use one effort – in this case a class video project – to the benefit of a second effort or cause. In this case that second or third effort would potentially be in support of my company’s marketing efforts and own my creative brand within my company.
What Can We Learn From Project Challenges?
In the creation process it may be easier to point to successes (hopefully in such visual projects the good speaks for itself) but what can we learn from project challenges?
When a reporter asked Thomas Edison (the namesake of the building I filmed), “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” “Great success is built on failure, frustration, even catastrophe.”
With that in mine here are just a few of the challenges — uh steps — that occurred during the creation of my montage video. Although I did a solid amount of pre-production planning, thinking, and questioning most of my challenges were of the planning kind.
“Case of The Nickel vs The $433 Tripod” — Had I not asked the salesperson to set up and demonstrate my new tripod, I could have been on location, ready to set up and shoot but scrambling to just find a nickel, which is what is needed to tighten up and secure that three-legged beast!
“Oh Yeah Cuz – You Need an SD Card in the Camcorder That I Loaned You ” — I found myself on location searching for a SD Card. The camera store, which was very close to the location of my filming had a SD card and it was “only” $3000.00! It was a high capacity one and they were out of stock of the lower capacity ones that I needed. Did they see me coming?. I wound up having to track down this little gem at a Best Buy on another day.
“Sir I Forgot to Mention you Need a “Reader” for that SD Card ” — I’m on my way out the door SD card in my Best Buy bag. A reader, of course, is the small device that allows you to transfer your footage from your SD card via the USB port of your laptop to the laptop’s hard drive. Yes … The devil’s is truly in the details.
Also this can be an expensive hobby if you are sometimes impulsive. Get the idea? Planning and a questioning attitude counts! This is especially important if you are a more of a newbie, although sometimes you just don’t know the right questions to ask!
BTW — I have a new respect for Production Assistants (PAs) — PAs can be helpful in so many ways. For just ONE example it wasn’t necessarily a lot of fun lugging my tripod, camcorder, and other equipment around while trying to keep it and myself secure. All while trying to focus on getting good shots! ‘Nuff said!
“Through it all” I was able to finish and you can access my corporate Edison Place Welcome Video by clicking on the graphic below!
Enjoy!,
Kevin
Alternatively
Enjoy! — Kevin
