After watching your classmate's mid-term projects, pick 1-2 projects to identify editing techniques and transitions that worked well and others that did not work. Then, describe how you would modify the aspects of the video that did not work and what affect your suggested changes would have.
Good Editing Techniques
This series of six shots tell a story with no dialogue. Through the use of jump cuts, varied camera angles and the little girl's expressions we see all we need to know. First, is the establishing shot of the little girl looking out the window.
Second, the jump cut to a different camera angle. The little girl's new position suggests we have skipped ahead in time. We don't yet know if she is waiting or just bored.
Third, a jump cut back to the wide shot of the little girl in front of the window. Again, she has changed body position from the previous shot suggesting more time has passed.
Fourth, a jump cut to a new camera angle. This time, we see the little girl drumming her fingers in anticipation of something. We now know she is waiting for something or someone.
Fifth, a jump cut to a new angle suggests even more time has passed. But this time something has caught the little girl's attention. Is it what she has been waiting for?
Sixth, YES! A final jump cut confirms we had once again advanced in time. We see by her joyous expression that her long wait is over.
These six shots are an excellent example of how simple jump cuts and camera angles tell the story.
Suggested Improvement Techniques
This cooking video could use a three point lighting setup to make the kitchen more inviting and the chef / ingredients stand out. First, the establishing shot could benefit from a tripod.
Next, the first edit clips the beginning of the chef's dialogue in the next shot. The edit also dissolves into the same shot. I would suggest cutting away to the ingredients (the potatoes) being discussed. An L-cut transition would preserve the audio of the next shot and provide a change in the visual.
Next, the same shot continues with no cut away. Since the framing and lighting are flat this 25-second clip could use a cut away to break it up. An L-cut showing cookware or ingredients would help.
Next, this food prep shot is good. But it dissolves from a landscape-oriented shot like the rest of the video into the next shot....
.....,a portrait-oriented microwave shot lasting one second. The dissolve is fine but it needed to match the previous and following landscape shot for continuity. It would also have been more useful if it was longer than one second. The portrait-oriented microwave shot dissolves...
....back into a landscape-oriented shot of the kitchen. The chef is talking about the next ingredient. It would have been more interesting to have used a dissolve from the potatoes in the microwave into a closeup of the next ingredient being prepared.