The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Question for those of you who do video editing:

This past week, a friend and I shot video of a "variety show" style performance at a local high school, outdoors and about 40 minutes long. We had four cameras: a master shot (camera doesn't move and it picks up the whole stage area) and three mid/close cameras (friend was moving between cameras, so each one has some shots where the camera doesn't move and some where it does). Everything has been transferred to the computer and I will shortly be looking at going through and figuring out which clips to use in the final video.

I assume that one of the first steps will be to go through the three mid/close cameras and get rid of anything that's entirely unusable, but once I'm past that, any suggestions on ways to get down to a finished product, particularly in terms of choosing which camera to be on at any specific point in the show?

Thanks,
Charles (KA)

Lots of coffee (or tea); a comfortable chair; and a big empty wall for hanging screen capture "storyboards". I'd recommend concentrating on one number at a time, unless you don't sleep .

And lots of patience, heh.

Do you have any audience reaction shots? Not absolutely essential, but very helpful.

Arranging the shots is the easy part — at any given moment, show the camera angle with the best view of what's going on. If that means hovering too long on one shot, you can splice in another view (or those audience reaction shots) for a few seconds.

Don't insert more than one cut every five to ten seconds unless something really crazy is happening.

The really tricky part is getting the cuts to look seamless. The best way to do that is to ensure that the cuts occur during an instant when the subjects (or at least the primary subject) is doing something. For instance, picking up a mug of coffee, making a gesture with his/her hands, etc. It may seem counterintuitive, but if your cuts happen to interrupt these kinds of motions, it'll make the whole edit feel smoother.

Finally, don't be afraid to edit non-linearly. If none of your shots work for a particular moment, keep the audio and see if you can splice in video from another part for a few seconds. If the star is talking during this section, you can probably use the master shot — at that distance, it'll be hard to tell that the lips don't match. Otherwise, if something is really unsalvageable, see if you can't cut it out completely.

When I did this kind of stuff for a living, I often had to cut out sections immediately before and after the cameraman changed tapes (and we only had one shot). So for instance, about sixty seconds before the tape change, the primary interview subject picks up his glass of water and takes a drink. About another minute after that tape change, the subject takes a drink. I'd cut it where he picks up the glass, splice in an audience reaction shot, and come back to the stage shot just as he's putting his glass down. Then I'd have to finagle the audio to match, but that's relatively simple if you've got a sharp ear.

Any of that make sense, Charles?

Rabid - yeah, I was afraid that was how it would be

Generic - yes, makes sense, some very good ideas. I don't have any
audience reaction shots, but I do have about 250 still shots from the
rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and I'm thinking
I may be able to insert a few of those here and there between songs,
something like that. I also have video of the rehearsals, but since
the performance is at night, I can't really cut that stuff in cleanly...
but I shot the rehearsal just in case something went horribly wrong
recording the performance, I could at least edit the rehearsal into,
"well, here's what the show was, it's just not the final performance."

The hint about where to make the cuts is helpful, too. I guess I didn't
make this clear, but this is a "variety show" in the sense that it's about
ten different songs, most of them performed by different groups of 20+
people, from kindergarteners to 12th grade. Some of them have live
singing (soloists or small groups), some are dance numbers where it's
just dancing (this was sort of a mixed-theme thing - country music and
Halloween; one of the numbers was the dance to "Thriller"). So I can't
really cut much in terms of content (although there are a couple places
where I could cut the 30 seconds it takes to get one group off and
the next group on). I just have four cameras' worth of stuff for almost
the whole performance, and I need to figure out how to organize that
and fit it together. I guess that's where Rabid's helpful hints come in...

Charles