-
Smoothing Out Interview
I am relatively new to Final Cut pro and only edit basic interview videos. When I take all the ums and other filler words out I have been putting cross dissolve in were the cut it and it’s making the video look jumpy. Any other technique I could use to make the video look smoother. Thanks in advance for your help!!
Christine -
3 Replies
-
Hi Christine,
You would normally use cutaways or B roll or a 2nd camera to cover up the kind of edits that you mention. Without something to cover the edits you are going to have pretty unacceptable jump cuts.
You could try a dip to black instead of a dissolve but thats going to get just as annoying if it happens every few words.
You could also try zooming in on the picture so that there is a size change at the cut point. Be careful not to do this too much as the quality will suffer but you should find that you can get away with this depending on the format and quality of your source material.best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv -
I agree with Neil. Also, sometimes it’s just better to leave the ums in. It’s natural.
One other thing to try is to grab a few frames’ worth of room tone and lay it over the um without cutting the video. If the lip flap is not too great, it reads on screen as just a silent pause.
By mixing all the different techniques Neil mentioned and not using any particular one over-much, you will get a better overall product.
The REAL cure for this, however, is in using an experienced cameraman to change up his framing live, in those split-seconds, when the long pauses happen, and a field interviewer that isn’t afraid to ask the person to say it again a second or third time, perhaps in a different way. THAT is what gives you enough material to cut around a lot of mistakes and pauses.
-
Thank you so much for your input!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up