So you may know a thing or two about video editing. You may have commissioned someone to do some editing for you or your organisation, and you may even have edited something yourself using software like iMovie.
Did you know that there are two sides to video editing? There’s the technical side and there’s the conceptual side. This article briefly outlines each side of editing: to give you a better idea of what’s involved and why it’s important to consider both sides when you’re commissioning a company to edit your footage.
The technical side of editing
Once your footage has been shot, it needs to be edited into a singular piece of content that can be uploaded and shared widely: whether on television, a website or on social media.
To create a piece of content from footage, the footage needs to be edited using editing software. The footage and any audio recordings are ingested into the software and synced so that the audio you hear matches with the images you see of the people speaking.
The footage may have been shot using multiple cameras and may also include some additional footage such as b-roll (cutaway shots) or time-lapse.
Once all the footage and audio is ingested, the editor needs to arrange the footage onto a project timeline.
Once all the footage (and audio) is on the timeline, the editor then proceeds to edit. Editing involves hundreds of decisions: based on both technical and conceptual considerations.
The conceptual side of editing
It’s one thing to have shot beautiful footage that sounds great. It’s quite another thing to edit this footage to create a succinct piece of content that engages with your audience and tells a story. The choices made in the editing (aka post-production) phase determine whether or not the content is successful.
Editing is highly conceptual. When we approach the editing phase, we ask important questions like:*
- Who’s your target audience?
- What style will engage with them? For example, do we want the tone to be upbeat with fast cuts for a younger audience?
- What’s the story here?
- What’s the goal of your content? Is it to inform, entertain, or inspire viewers to take action?
Combining the technical and conceptual
The editing process is made up of many hundreds of decisions. This is no exaggeration.
Editing is a mix of technical and conceptual decisions that are made to ensure we deliver a piece of content that meets your project’s needs.
When editing, we review and select the most appropriate footage given the considerations mentioned above. This involves decisions like:
- Which takes are the best?
- How do we organise and order the footage so that it tells the right story? For example, we can start with the student recalling what inspired them to study at university; then we’ll cut to b-roll of them studying at the university; and we’ll end with them discussing their hopes for the future.
- Which camera angles are best for each portion of the edit? For example, if the content is about someone in a position of power, we may choose a camera angle that looks up at the character in the powerful position.
In addition to working with the shot footage, there are the other elements to add to the edit: such as the music soundtrack, logos, any pre-existing footage and static images. These elements also need to be added in such a way that help ensure the content is cohesive and tells the right story for the right people. Decisions here include:
- What’s the best style font, font size and font colour to use?
- Which colours work best for any titles?
- How do we display any logos? On the lower right-hand corner of the screen? Should the logo have some opacity so that it is a little see-through?
- What transitions work best between the cuts? For example, we can add cross-dissolves between the cuts, or we can fade to black or white.
- What colour palette will work best for the footage? For example, if the content will be viewed on mobile devices, we would add some saturation so that it’s more vivid when viewed on mobile.
- What style of music will work best? Upbeat? Corporate? Fast- or slow-paced?
- Are there sections of the video where we will fade out the music and go to silence? If so, where will be the most effective places for this?
- When we export the file, what’s the best file format to export to? For example, if it will be viewed on larger screens we export to full high definition quality. Otherwise, if the content will be exclusively for mobile and is of long duration, we would export to 720p HD.
Hopefully these examples and brief explanation gives you a better idea of how video editing is both technical and conceptual. There are many hundreds of decisions that go into an edit, which is why it’s important that we understand upfront what your goals are for the content. By being clear upfront, we can better ensure the success of your video content.
As always, if you have any questions about anything, reach out to us.
*Please note that we actually ask these questions before we even shoot the footage: to help ensure we get the shots we need to meet your project’s objectives. However, we’ve mentioned these questions here because this article is specifically about the editing phase of post-production, and the same questions apply to this phase.
