12. Editing and finishing film footage

Editing and finishing film footage is a world on its own and there are a lot of approaches. 

Below you can find 12 steps in editing and finishing your filmed material:

Editing can be complex and there are a lot of approaches. Apart from this, it’s essential to familiarise yourself with the footage. Take time to look through the images so you are refreshed with the content and where to find certain shots.

Tips for editing video footage:

• Before you start editing, take time to organise the project in your editing software. Make different bins or directories for video, audio, sequences, archive footage, graphics, exports, music,... Import all the footage into the right bins. Use colour labels to organise the media and the sequences. This will help to make the project clear and workable.
• Start editing from the script and see how well you can build the edit shot-by-shot. 
• If you have interviews, then you can start from there. Clean up the interview footage by selecting/isolating the quotes that you will use. From there, build up the edit by combining and reordering quotes or with footage that illustrates what’s being said.
• If there are clear scenes in the material, start by assembling these as a starting point and build up from there. See how they all connect together and proceed to edit by deleting or adding material into the final form.
• Start by making rough edits in separate sequences/on separate timelines. Bring the media of each filming day into its own sequence/timeline and edit them so that you are only left with potential usable shots. From there, copy and paste interesting shots or scenes into a master sequence/timeline where you can assemble the final form.

Slider: montage and montage overlay illustrating the different sequences.

• If possible, take time to let your work rest. If you are not sure if the editing is going in the right direction, looking at your work with fresh eyes will be more productive than proceeding without a clear vision.
• It can be rewarding to attempt several editing approaches. Sometimes what you think will not work can become interesting after seeing it.
• Pay as much attention to your audio as to your image. The audio brings everything together and it will help the finishing of the video.
• Use all the creative tools of your editing software - such as repositioning, stabilising and speed changes- to help edit the footage. 
• It is advisable to do the editing with the active participation of the practitioners.

Look at your footage from different perspectives. Maybe it’s possible to fulfill/cover different functions with the footage. 

For example: An interview added with the images made to fulfill the transmission function can result in an edit that perfectly suits the ‘raising awareness’ function. A selection of images to fulfill the research function can be used to make a trailer to communicate the project.

Depending on the function of your video, a voice-over is best to be recorded on a playout of the final edit. 

This way, you avoid having more essential audio than images that can be used with the audio. For the transmission function, you can have longer edits and choose to let the practitioners speak freely from their perspective. After that, you can re-edit the video with selections of the newly recorded voice-over.

For most functions (or goals), it will not be necessary or expected to use music as you want to hear the sounds of the craft or the heritage practice clearly. 

When dealing with an approach of communication (awareness raising), using music will be expected or needed to make it more pleasing to watch. Using suitable music or other ambience sounds can be challenging and searching for it can take a lot of time. 

Tips for the use music and audio in video:

• Be aware that you will push the emotional impact of your video in a very specific direction when you use music. This may be what you are after, but it can easily not work for people who have a different music preference. 
• The music will also be a factor that influences the rhythm of the edit, as you will have to adjust the in and out points of the shots or sequences to the music. It can be rewarding to see if you can find music that closely relates to the specific craft or heritage practice.

Share your edit with the practitioners and everyone involved before finishing the final video. 

This can be done by exporting a low resolution video of the edit. Be sure to mention that this is not the final video, as it is sometimes hard for outsiders to look beyond the unfinished image and audio. Collect all the feedback and adjust the edit accordingly.

Take time to adjust the final audio mix. Be sure that all spoken sounds are correctly audible and the music is levelled to the speech. 

Background noise can sometimes be eliminated through processing of the sound or some words can be more understandable by adjusting the volume of this specific piece of sound. The basics can be done in your editing software and can make a huge difference to the overall quality of your video. Listen to your final audio on different devices to hear how the result translates.

Some shots may be recorded at different times, with different white balances or exposures. This can be distracting to look at. With the colour correcting process, you can balance each shot so that the overall look of the video is consistent. 

If you want to accentuate some parts of shots, or shift the emotional feelings from the realistic-looking images, then you can grade the images. Here you adjust the colour and luminance information from the image to a specific mood. 

This is a creative process that can become technical and challenging. Most software packages have a basic tool set for colour correction and colour grading. Be sure to work on a calibrated monitor when doing this work. Look at your work on different devices to see how the result translates.
 

Some information or chapters of the video can be made clear with the use of graphics. Evaluate your edit to see where you can add or may need this extra information. 

Tips on using graphics in video:

• Be sure not to over-use graphics as this will be distracting.
• Give the attention needed to the titles and the mandatory mentions.
• Mention the people and institutions that cooperated on the video correctly in the end credits. This information can be placed on some specifically selected shots. Doing this keeps the attention of the viewers. All editing software has tools to be creative in this part. 

The process of subtitling consists of marking the in and out points of each spoken phrase and making a translation that fits the length of that selection.

Be aware that this is a big job and is time consuming. The subtitles can be embedded in the image or saved in a specific text format that makes the titles more dynamic when played.

Tips on subtitling:  

• The subtitles should not come on screen before the spoken text starts, and should also stay at least until the end of the spoken text.
• It is best not to run subtitles over major image changes (a major image change is, for example, a change of location). To the extent possible, take small image changes into consideration.
• The subtitles should be on screen long enough to be easily read. A good guideline for intralingual subtitles (English-English) is about 12 to 14 characters per second.
• Subtitles should not be too wide, so split long subtitles into two lines. The division between the two lines should preferably be as balanced as possible, but should also make linguistic sense. Sentence parts that belong together should be split as little as possible.
• The subtitles should reproduce the spoken text as literally as possible, but for fast speakers it will usually be necessary to abbreviate/summarise.
• Last but not least, subtitles should be linguistically correct.

Master file and deliverables

When all the work is done, you can combine the finished audio, video, graphics and subtitles in a final high-quality export. Use this as a master file. Export any needed deliverables from this master file. Be sure to backup this file along with all project files.

Local and short-term backups can be made by using two copies on two separate hard drives saved at two different places.

We advise you to contact external organisations (for example a museum, an archival institution, a digital heritage institution …) for long term archiving and sustainable preservation of your film material.

No matter what the final purpose is, it is of the utmost importance to first present the final result to the communities concerned. 

Organise a screening for all parties involved in order for them to make comments and suggest needed changes. 

Depending on the function and/or purpose of your filming project, communicating or presenting the footage will be done differently:

• school presentation
• public screening at festivals
• archival of the film for future research
• part of an exhibition
• freely accessible on social media and/or websites of those involved
• ...

Here you can also re-engage with partners, both inside and outside the trajectory (think regional, thematic, ... partners).