Tips for Editing Award-Winning Visual Sequences

What are some of the proper editing techniques in video sequences? Professional videographer, editor, and media production professor David Burns weighs in on how to effectively edit video sequences in order to provide context and meaning to the viewer. David Burns is a professor at Salisbury University and also teaches electronic journalism workshops around the world, most recently in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

My Name is David Burns

I am a professional videographer, editor and media production professor.

In a previous tutorial we discussed how to shoot a visual sequence to use in a story.

In this tutorial we will discuss how to edit these sequences into an effective storyline.

The effective use of basic sequencing of visual clips is a foundation for good story-telling.

Sequences condense time.

Maintain the viewer interest by providing a variety of shots.

and they provide context and detail for advancing the story.

I like to think of a single visual shot as a complete sentence or thought

and a series of shots as a paragraph.

Effective visual editing uses wide shots, medium shots

and close ups to weave a coherence story-line

The human brain prefers to process images first by taking a wide vista,

then, segmenting that wide shots into smaller areas of interest

and lastly by examining the details in the scene.

Alfred Hitchcock, the well-known producer of many psychological thrillers

often started a scene with a close up or extreme close up

to initially confuse the viewer

and to start an internal dialogue in the viewer's mind,

what's happening? why I am seeing this?

This is an effective way to capture the viewer attention,

but since it involves disrupting a natural human need,

the need for context and meaning,

it also means the viewer will not be listening to other messages

you might be conveying to the viewer at the same time.

So if your goal is to present context and information at the same time,

stick with the traditional wide shot, medium shot and close up

sequence to effectively convey meaning to your viewer.

When editing a visual sequence keep the pace moving with a series of edits

that use a variety of shots, various camera angles and many many close ups.

Take several seconds to establish the scene with a wide shot,

bring the viewer attention to a portion of the scene with a medium shot,

then provide detail of the action using close up.

The close up's are the key to good story telling,

your story should have four to five times more close ups than wide shots or medium shots,

when editing be very conscious of jump cuts, a disruption of continuity

an action that confuses the viewer or violates the rule of time or logic.

Close ups help avoid jump cuts since they only show a small portion of the overall scene

jump cuts can be used effectively to purposely disorient the viewer.

Here is an example, see how jump cuts disrupt continuity, and disorients the viewer.

Editing visual sequences into your stories allows you to

efficiently and effectively condense complex actions into a few shots

and keeps the viewer's interest by presenting a variety of shots and angles,

using visual sequences also allows you to satisfy

or manipulate the viewer's human desire for context and detail.

Good luck and have fun.