Post-production editing is always one of my favorite parts of the over all video production cycle. I personally edit on Final Cut, but there are many incredible programs out there to choose from. I wish there were enough time in the day for me to learn them all! But alas….
No matter what program you use, post-production is the process of weaving together a story out of the storytelling elements you are using.
Newcomers to video editing often think the entire point is to correct mistakes. That is a myth.
Video editing is about storytelling. Mistakes can be corrected, but that’s a side issue. Hopefully, whatever elements you end up with in the edit room are quality enough you don’t have much correction to do.
Step-by-Step Video Editing Description
- The first step in post-production is to gather all your building block elements into a new project. Open a new project and do a “save as,” same as you would with a Word document. Name your project well, so you can easily remember and recognize the name.
IMPORTANT!
File management, or where you put your video and audio files to use for your projects, is an important consideration with any video editing program. I hear some people gripe about file management because some programs do a lousy job of keeping track of files, so if you move any it can cause a world of trouble. That problem is not as bad as it used to be as programs get more sophisticated, but regardless, file management is still an important time-saving organization tool.
You never want to waste time searching for a file that has not been properly named.
I think the key is to be organized in the front-end stage, naming and organizing your files and folders. Develop a consist file organization strategy, so you can find files and projects later. Be warned that moving files later on can cause them to go offline, and you’ve got to go hunt them down. Some programs do a much better than job than others, keeping up with neurotic editors who are always moving master files. In Final Cut, you can reconnect offline files through File>Reconnect media.
The most typical editing project for me is going to be a simple style – short, not too much audio mixing. Generally, the workflow is always the same, so that is what the rest of the post describes. More complex final projects would require a different flow, and you would probably mix more as you go and finish small bits.
After establishing a new project and naming it well, I gather a typical list of building block elements: a background, ten or so JPEG royalty free file images fitting the subject, and appropriate royalty free music.
I recorded the narration for my script. I do this in final cut using a mic that plugs into my computer with an xlr/usb cable. Most video editing programs can handle a direct audio feed in this manner. If the one you have doesn’t, record your audio in a different program and then import it.
Once all my materials are assembled in my project bin, I hunker down and get to the task of layering all my building blocks in my timeline, adding graphics, transitions, filters and key frames. If a finished video runs about 3 minutes, it will take 4 to 6 hours to edit. That’s fairly standard for the easier style projects I do in size and complexity. Editing can be a very slow, meticulous task. The more complex the video, the longer it will take. I can easily see a high-dollar, 3-minute music video taking months to edit.
My first editing task with almost any editing project like this is to assemble the audio first. I have to sift through all my takes on the narration. I toss out the mistakes and pick the best cuts. I drag those cuts into the right position on the timeline. I keep going until I have a polished voice track.
Then I mix in the music on another audio line in the timeline. I usually give it a few seconds of solid music up full before the narration starts. Then I also continue the music for about 3 seconds at the end of the narration. Then fade it out.
AUDIO FIRST, VIDEO SECOND
After the music/narration mix sounds right, I begin with line one of my video, the background. I lay my choice of digital background down and bring the opacity down on it to about 40%. Backgrounds should be just that, BACKGROUNDS. At full transparency, lots of digital backgrounds are overwhelming, so I often tone them down via the opacity. Other times I tone them down by taking them out of focus.
DEFINITION OF OPACITY
Opacity is a term that refers to whether you can see through something or not. If it is opaque, you can not see through it. If it is transparent, you can see through it. At full transparency, it is invisible. At 100% opacity it is solid video, and you can not see through it at all. Higher end editing programs allow you to alter the opacity of any element. Backgrounds are a common thing to alter opacity on. That’s also how you would create the illusion of a ghost in your video.
Opacity is adjustable only in higher-level video editing programs.
In the picture of the woman silhouette over a jungle, the woman is very transparent. IOW, the opacity of the woman was lowered in editing.
DIGITAL BACKGROUNDS
Digital background images usually only last about 15 seconds. Good ones are loop-able. That means you can edit it to itself seamlessly if you match up the very beginning frame to the very end frame. Like wallpaper!
Sometimes a moving background is too much, and I prefer a still. Often, backgrounds are out of focus, so whatever you put on top of them will pop and not blend into the background.
Once the background is long enough to cover the entire audio track, I take the still images and place them in the timeline where I thought they fit with the narration. Remember in video editing, when you stack multiple layers of video, the one on the top show. If each individual shot is small enough, and they placed right, you can get multiple layers of video to show at once.
I often add a matte filter to JPEG still images, so they will be shaped as an oval or rectangle. I add drop shadows and soft edges. I adjust the size and spacing to get multiple images on the screen at once.
Next, I use the graphic tool to add words. I create a “sample text” element. I choose a style of font, color and add a drop shadow. What I’m doing is creating one basic template of how I want all my words to look, then I copy and paste it as many times as I need to in order to fill the entire audio track. This saves time and I do not have to add the exact same color and drop shadow to every graphic element throughout the 3-minute video.
Making it Move
I add key frames to the graphics in order to make them grow or move onto the screen. Key frames are a common video editing technique. You can watch a video I did about key framing here, but basically, key framing is a way to do simple 2-D animation when editing video. In other words, you can make the building block elements of your video grow, spin, or move. Many values are key frameable and if it is, that means you can make that value change over time by using key frame. Size, shape, color, position, all those items are key frame-able.
I also add transitions, mostly basic cross dissolves, to get in and out of images. A transition is just that… it takes you from one image to the next. Cuts, dissolves, wipes are all transitions.
Transitions have meanings that are often a holdover from the early days of film editing.
Keep Up the Pace!
I like to keep the video elements moving in order to make the video more visually interesting. If I had just taken one or two images and one or two graphics and drug them out for the entire 3 minutes, it would be a very boring video!
5 seconds per shots is a good rule of thumb for a standard video of this type.
Then I tweak and fiddle as much as my little obsessive-compulsive neurotic editor inside wants. Bigger, smaller, to the left, to the right.
Once I am satisfied with the final video, I convert it into a sharing file for the web. This takes all the individual elements and turns it into one file. This is much like the process of turning a word file into a PDF. This file is called a SHARING FILE and the current web favorite is MPEG4
That’s all for this post. Whew! If you read all that, then you must really want to learn video editing! I salute you, my friend!
Lorraine Grula
Lorraine,
Thanks for the ideas. I’ve never considered putting the audio track down first. I’ll have to try that in my next project. I’m in the middle of a couple of documentaries right now. Where I tend to start is with the main video track, which are the standups and interviews. Those, of course, have the audio attached. I start there because I want to get the essence of the story worked out first. Everything else including background noise, voice-over, pics with Ken Burns, all are filler to keep the main story going and to fill in where needed. But, I’m intrigued by your idea here and look forward to trying it.
By the way, I use FCE for editing. Love it but hope to get to FCP for the color correction primarily.
Hi Dave.
I positively love producing documentaries, they were my absolute favorite genre. I’d love to see what you’re doing.
All video projects are slightly different. I can certainly see laying down the stand ups and interviews as you describe. That makes total sense, especially if what you are doing is long, like 30 or 60 minutes. But whatever works. Editing is a process. With the project I was describing, it was only 3 minutes and there were no stand ups or interviews, just a straight audio track.
I actually love final cut express. I think it is fantastic that you can get into a high level program like that for just $300. On a creative level, FCE and do most everything it’s big brother can do. Biggest difference is that Final Cut Studio accepts more video file formats and more capacity that way. But when it comes to key framing and filters and that sort of thing, the two programs are remarkably similar.
Keep me posted on how your documentaries come out.
Thanks,
Lorraine
I do like FCE. As I mentioned, color correction is my main reason for thinking of the move to FCP/Studio. Because FCE has fairly limited color correction (I can change SAT, Blacks, White and Mids as far as I know) I’m using presets on my Canon XH-A1 to get close to the color I want for the final cut of the video. What I’d prefer to do is shoot without the presets and do all my color correction in my NLE. I’m also interested in Motion and some of the other tools in Studio but don’t have anything to compare them again in FCE.
You can see what I’ve done over the last year at my website (http://dakvideo.com). I’ve shot some stories for the local media and done a documentary on a West Texas photographer on that site. Each of them has been a pleasure to shoot and a learning experience.
BTW, I’d love to see you do an article on how your methodology on how to capture the best audio. Audio always seems to give me fits.
Dave
Thanks for posting all this great info. Video marketing is one area I have not entered yet but need to get involved with real soon. Your expertise will help immensely.
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You are more than welcome, thanks for the compliment! Online video marketing is the opportunity of the century and I love being a part of it. On this blog, I have about 300 articles and video tutorials to teach you everything you need to know. And it is all free!
Lorraine Grula
Cool! Thanks Lorraine. Going to check out Final Cut and Veeple too.
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Hey George.
Final cut and Veeple are two of my favorite things when it comes to video, so you will enjoy them. I have several videos on VPT about how veeple works of those will help you.
Thanks,
Lorraine
Cool post, just subscribed.
Thanks! I hope you learn to make great and awesome videos!
Lorraine
Hey Dave.
Color correction is one good reason to upgrade to final cut studio. There are lots of reasons of course. Exposure correction is more difficult than correcting color in my experience.
Getting good audio can be difficult if you do not have much control over the situation where you are shooting. Here are a few suggestions.
Get your mic as close as possible. Use lavaliers for talking people.
Eliminate extraneous sound as much as possible.
Use a wireless lavalier when possible because when people forget they are wearing a microphone you tend to get the best and most natural sound. The lav of course is going to get the best sound quality of someone talking and wireless let’s you not have to deal with an umbilical cord.
Always use a wind sock if you are outside. They even help inside to keep p’s from popping and s’s from hissing. Some at least.
Plug into a sound board if you are shooting in any kind of situation where there is a sound board. Like in an auditorium. You often have to use a DB resistor to knock the level down so it will not over modulate and be distorted. Set the audio board to mic level not line level.
I hope these tips help you.
Thanks
Lorraine
Lorraine,
hmmm. more questions from the novice in the crowd:
What’s a DB resistor? Funny you should mention getting distortion from a board feed. I was at a bluegrass festival a couple of months ago and got the sound guy to give me an XLR input for the audio. I was really anticipating good stuff. Once I got it plugged in (straight into the XLR input on my Canon XH-A1) the sound was slightly distorted. Enough that I felt going off air with the onboard mic would be better. Well, you probably know about the onboard mic stuff: never really good audio. So, in case I have a chance like that again, what’s a DB resistor and how do I get one? I’ve wondered if I need to buy my own sound board with 4 or 6 inputs so I can control the audio myself.
I do use a lav mic for the interviews. Had one recently for the documentary we are working on and there was a ton of noise in some of the audio. I guess from wind but it just sounded plain strange so I wondered if it was some sort of electronic interference. So, tomorrow night, we’re going back to the location and I’m crossing my fingers it will sound better. Truth is, I don’t know what caused it so I don’t know how to fix it. My lav only has the supplied foam screen on it but I can’t imagine putting something else on the lav for wind protection because it will start looking like something is attacking the speaker.
I also have an Audio-Technica AT897 shotgun but am having a little trouble figuring out how to get good sound out of that.
So, I keep trying but audio always seems to give me fits. Wish I was smarter.
dave
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Hi Dave.
I bet anything that you got a distorted line feed out of the bluegrass festival sound board. Bummer. That sounds absolutely like what the problem was. DB resistor stands for decibel resistor. Db is an abbreviation for decibel. A resistor knocks the level of the feed coming out of the sound board down by about 50 decibels. Then it will sound great. They are small, about the size of an index finger, 4 inches or so. It plugs into the mic XLR and the sound board itself. Last time I bought one it was about 50 bucks. Got it at an electronics store that sold every little doo-dad and gadget known to man. It was also called a “pad.” It was part of the standard issue equipment and I used it all the time. That will help you more than your own soundboard. I only used a mixer out in the field if there were more than 2 microphones going at one time.
If there was a ton of noise in your lav here are some thoughts. Was it wireless? If so, you can absolutely get interference from nearby audio signals like cell phones or police scanners. Change your frequency. Or, perhaps the batteries were going dead. Wireless mics eat batteries like crazy.
A wired mic can also need batteries. A drained battery will produce an audio track with lots of crackling.
The shot gun mic will sound best at a distance of 5-8 feet probably. Hopefully the noise is relatively loud.
Hope that helps.
Lorraine