Citizen Journalism Blog

After running through rolls and rolls of films and editing clips not filmed by me, I have somewhat establish a regular routine of doing things. Here are my step-by-step of editing :

1) Know what’s the main content of the documentary and don’t digress. When we digress from the main core issue, viewers get confused and didn’t get any message but merely entertainment. When doing video journalism, it is more important to let the issue settles in the mind of the viewers than how beautiful the shots are.

2) Pull into Video 1 all the clips according to the timeline they are taken, with oldest first and end with newest first.

3) Start chopping off all the unimportant or unrelated part. Usually the main is the interview or talking parts. However, some parts may be important but they are not related to the main message, so chop off and maybe make a separate documentary next time.

4) Fine tuning the main parts, cut off further. Snip and video/audio fade in/out if necessary.

5) Pull into an area at the end of Video 1, but place in Video 2 work area the padding shots. Snip, snip, snip them to small parts. Remove audio clips.

6) This is when the wide angle shots mix with close up and medium close up come in. Always arrange them in proper sequence.

7) To note is make sure the padding shots do not have the person who are talking, walking around. Sometimes, it is inevitable. I have done a few interview, sitting down and next minute, the padding shots show me walking somewhere, looking at the things being mentioned. Well….

8 ) Start layering padding shots on Video 2 on top of Video 1. Don’t cover all the good facial expressions because they are important too.

9) Let the thing run through, add music if necessary. Add transitions if absolutely necessary.

10) Add titles, names of the person, credits. Add logo or whatever needs to be added.

11) Check and check again.

12) Save and publish….

Hmm….did I miss out any parts?