The Basics of Video Editing: Part 2

by Andrew Alexander
Published on Aug 28, 2001 12:00 AM



In the previous article, I discussed the preliminary steps to the actual process of video editing. Now let's get down to business. The process of video editing is generally the same regardless of content, hardware or software. In essence, you are taking the best moments of the footage you've captured and putting them in the best order.

Editing your video is where your creativity will be allowed to shine. Your magic will be to take the clips you captured and arrange them in an order which tells a story.

Arranging your content

The process of arranging clips tends to follow a logic of its own - for example, in weddings, graduations or formal ceremonies, there are established "steps" that you want the video to show in the same order as they occurred at the time. In other cases, such as stories you design, you may well decide to re-arrange the clips in a different order to tell the story differently.

Transitions

When you switch from one clip to another, you are making a transition (also known as a "cut") between perspectives. This switch is a fundamental part of editing, and getting smooth transitions can take a lot of time and patience. A smooth transition is one where the viewer doesn't even realize you have switched their perspective. The golden rule for transitions: Don't cut just for the sake of cutting. Make sure that the perspective you cut to is the best way to show the moment you want to show. A good place to start is that if you want your scene to be fast-paced, make lots of quick cuts between perspectives; if you want it to be slow-paced, don't cut so often. Let's take an example of an equestrian (horse-jumping) event. You have a medium shot of the horse running to the gate it's going to jump over (clip A), and then you have a closer shot of the horse actually jumping over the gate (clip B) taken from another camera. You want to have a transition from the medium shot to the close shot. You could choose to cut before or afer the jump has happened, but in this case it would probably be more dramatic to cut just before the horse has jumped the gate - it's the most exciting part of the footage, and you may want to get as close as possible. Or you may decide that you want to be close until the jump, and then cut to a medium shot of the horse jumping. This is the power you have as the editor.

Either way, your transition has to be timed precisely; if you cut and sequence the clips so that you end clip A just as the horse is jumping, and begin clip B when the horse is still running to the gate, it's going to confuse the viewer. Your video editor program will allow you to trim the clip precisely by lengthening or shortening the clip to the exact transition point that makes the moment make sense.

Transition effects Instead of just a straight cut between clips, you may decide that you want to use a transition effect such as cross-fading, wipes or dissolves to elaborate the switch between perspectives. Transition effects can also have secondary effects to the theme and flavor of your content; for example, a "fade-to-black" transition can suggest the passage of time. Movies in the Star Wars saga used many "wipe" transitions to indicate changes in place and character. The cross-fade transition can allow for very smooth and subtle changes. Video effects and filters

There are a number of special effects that can be accomplished depending on the complexity of the program you're using. Reversing the motion of a clip or slowing it down can completely alter the dynamics of the action. Changing a clip to black and white instead of color, or using a color filter, can suggest a different emotion or flavor to your content. Again, this is outside the scope of basic editing, and I hope to cover these advanced effects in a future article.

At the end of your editing, you will have created a blueprint for your program (the "final cut") which is basically an instruction for the video editor program for how to synthesize your clips together. When processed, this will form your final product. Of course, there are a number of things to consider when putting it all together, and in next week's article, we'll cover the last point in the process - finalizing the project.