Search Marketing Insomniac…The Blog of Adam Henige

Since I’ve been doing some video work lately, I figured it would be time to come back with another installment of the ever popular (at least by Google Analytics standards) HTMYVTDS series. The topic of today’s ridiculously acronymed segment? Post production. Thus far we’ve covered lighting, audio recording and framing, so once you’ve gotten those topics down, the last item to tackle is post production. There are some basic fundamentals that you’ll want to know as you begin any editing project, as it can be very easy to make editing mistakes that can ruin an otherwise worthy production.

• Jump cuts. Jump cuts are bad. Very bad. And nothing will make your video look more amateur than jump cuts. What are jump cuts, you ask?  Jump cuts are when a stationary camera cuts to the same shot with the subject(s) at a slightly different location.  Imagine if you cut out random sentences when someone was talking.  Their position would change and they would appear to twitch or “jump” around the screen.  This looks bad.  Very bad.  To avoid this, you can shoot with more than one camera and cut between them.  When this isn’t an option, it can help to change your camera shots frequently between tighter and looser shots.  This can provide the appearance of multiple cameras.Here’s a pretty good video covering these topics…although the guy is admittedly a bit weird, his points are nonetheless valid:

• Since that’s not always an option either, the best editing solution can be dip to color edits, or using b-roll.  If you have footage that covers the topic of conversation that you can briefly cut away to when the subject is talking, this works well, and is often what’s done in TV news.  When that’s not an option a simple dip to color dissolve of 1 second or less will give the viewer the impression of a change in time, but not jar them visually.  We do this regularly when we cut up talking head videos.
• Fix your audio.  Yes, you may have mic’d and mixed your footage well, but the very nature of the human voice will require you to do some fixing 99% of the time if you want quality audio.  Whether it’s the movement of the person or the peaks and valleys of their intensity, the audio will fluctuate, and it’s your job to even things out in editing to avoid highs becoming distortion and lows becoming inaudible.  Find a happy medium level that exports well and try to minimize the peaks and valleys where necessary.  I find that -6db works well as a midpoint for my work in Final Cut Pro.Music beds.  Be careful with them.  I know YOU may like the tune you have under the subject, but unless it’s more important than what they’re talking about, keep it to a dull roar.  -20 or less is probably safe, but give it a few listens to make sure you’re not muddying up the audio of a speaker.  For intro and outro music, make sure you drop to these levels while someone is talking and gently fade in and out.  Don’t be afraid to extend out those fades either.  Often the pre packaged transsitions are only one or two seconds, which is an awfully fast rise or fall in volume.  Stretch it out to 4 seconds or beyond for a nice smooth intro and outro.
• LAY OFF THE  CRAZY EFFECTS.  I know your fancy new editing program can do spins, slides and wipes and page peels and I’m sure your mother will be impressed.  But nothing will make a good production look worse than overdoing it with cheesy effects.  Quick question.  When was the last time you saw someone use one of the aforementioned effects in a movie?  A TV show?  Any professional video production?  Rarely to never.  Stick with the basics - cuts and dissolves (and don’t overdo these, either!)  Simpsons fans may remember Homer’s fascination with the star wipe, and you will also know that his producing career fizzled rather quickly.

Don't pull a Homer