There are three stages of video editing. Stage one focuses on the technical.
Level two focuses on criteria like story, rhythm, sound, and action,
and level three focuses on emotion.
I've been a pro editor for over 20 years, and today
I'd like to invite you into my edit suite so I can explain these three levels
of editing in the context of a broadcast commercial I worked on.
Stick around to the end for one of my favorite editing tips.
Let's take a look at the commercial so we can dive in.
We all know saving the world has its risks.
So Bob from HR has enhanced our health benefits by switching us to Select Health.
Does it cover city bus being thrown at you?
Yes, urgent care is included.
Select Health gives us $0 employee assistance programs and $240
annual wellness reimbursements,
and no out-of-pocket costs for our virtual visits.
Nobody's invincible.
That's why Select Health
makes sure your employees are super covered.
I loved what you did with the Mole Men.
All three levels are important and necessary.
Most of us start at level one.
We get excited about editing, so we download some software,
we learn to import clips, make an edit, maybe add some music.
Eventually we get to level two
where we begin to realize there's a vocabulary to editing.
So you might start refining your in and out points.
Maybe you do more sound design or even add some story structure.
But eventually we get to level three, where our primary focus
becomes how we want the audience to feel.
So we use all of our editing techniques and technical proficiency
to support that goal.
I teach that we should all start at level three, no matter where we are on
our editing journey. So that's what we're going to do here.
And it doesn't have to be complicated.
Think of emotion as a North Star that you can keep coming back
to throughout the editing process.
So what was the emotional North Star for this project?
Well, I would say there were at least a couple of emotions I was aiming for.
At the beginning of the spot,
I wanted the audience to feel a sense of awe.
Then toward the middle, I wanted them to experience a sense of delight.
I wanted them to smile or laugh.
At the end, I wanted the delight to continue,
but I also wanted there to be a sense of closure.
You likely won't have a project where you're only shooting for a single emotion.
In fact, if you're only targeting one emotion for an entire video,
that should be a warning sign
that you're not taking your audience on much of a journey.
So now we have an emotional map:
Awe, delight, and closure. Simple as that.
Bonus points if you discuss the emotional map with your collaborator,
like a director or producer,
before you start your edit.
Now to level two.
What editing techniques can we use to accomplish the emotional goals
of the piece?
Before I answer that, I want to show you the raw opening shot.
Let's check it out.
We all know saving the world has its risks.
When I chose this taken an early rough cut,
here are a few things I was thinking about.
I knew we were going to work
with the visual effects artists to replace the background with a cityscape.
That was going to give the shot scale, and really add to that sense of awe.
I had an idea to add a piece of orchestral score to the opening.
I knew we were going to do a color grade, and we could work with the colorist
to make it feel like a superhero movie.
I knew I wanted to cut in when her cape was blowing,
and with sound design, I could sweeten her footsteps.
And I really
wanted to cut to the next shot as her fist came down to give it a real nice
defining moment,
These are all editing techniques that made it into the final piece,
but the key was they were all in support of our emotional map.
Let's look at the next section.
Does it cover city bus being thrown at you?
Yes, urgent care is included.
Select health gives us $0 employee
assistance programs and $240 annual wellness reimbursements,
and no out-of-pocket costs for our virtual visits.
We tried a lot of different versions for this middle section.
In fact, the original script called for the camera
to stay on the main character during her entire speech.
But through experimentation in editorial, we decided it would delight the audience
most if we cut away
to the different superheroes using their powers during the speech.
This was actually all improvised on set.
So kudos to the director, Scott Rice, the creative director and the actors
for coming up with those moments on the fly.
So instead of staying on the speech, we actually cut away from the main character
for almost a third of the commercial. After we leave her in the second shot,
we go to six different shots before returning back to her.
So that's pretty unique.
Now let's take a look at the ending.
and no out-of-pocket costs for our virtual visits.
Nobody's invincible.
That's why Select Health.
makes sure your employees are super covered.
I loved what you did with the Mole Men.
So what were a few things
I was thinking about to evoke a sense of closure from the audience?
Well, I would say the thumbs up from Aquaman feels like an ending.
Even more so, I would say cutting wide and seeing all the superheroes
at the table together, especially with the camera zooming out,
really feels like an ending.
I love the sound design of them all, flipping the page at the same time,
and then bringing in the musical motif from the beginning
really ties it all together.
And then we have one last joke after the art card,
which in the commercial world is called a button.
I loved what you did with the Mole Man.
All of these techniques are valid and were supporting our emotional goal.
And finally we'll discuss level one where I want to give you a few practical tips
that you can incorporate into your editing today.
First music.
If you're working on a project without a composer,
I suggest going to a site like ArtList and listening carefully
through their orchestral library.
It might take some digging and some time,
but you'll probably be able to find little sections of music
that you can place in your edit to give it the feel of a real score.
Now for one of my favorite technical editing tips that I use all the time.
When you have a static shot with two actors in it,
and there's a little bit of space in between them,
you've now exponentially increased your editorial options
because you can choose the best take from one actor
and the best take from another actor, and combine them.
You can do this in most editing software with something simple, like a crop
or a matte, and oftentimes it doesn't need more finishing than that.
Here's an example from this spot.
We took the best shot of the superhero, leaving your chair, using the restroom
and coming back.
And the best reaction shot of Bob from H.R..
I hope this video inspires you to prioritize emotion
and then criteria like story, rhythm, sound and action.
And finally, the technical.
Pursue those three levels of video editing in that order and you'll go far.
If you got value out of this video, please subscribe
and you might want to check out my free editing guide,
which you can download at the link in the description.
If you enjoyed this video, you should watch this one next.
Happy editing!