TRY THIS Bare Essence

Short scenes keep a story moving. Movie and television scenes rarely last much longer than a minute.

Hmmmm. No wipes, no dissolves, no effects? Where does that leave us? Ah, yes. Cuts. Your video should now be composed entirely of cuts.

Look at your video in increments. A couple of scenes or so, no more than a minute at a time. For each chunk of video, ask yourself:

You need to tell your story in a way that they can understand.

Now imagine this sequence: In shot (a) the same guy walks down the street with his hands in his pockets, CUT to (b) the guy peers around a corner, CUT to (c) the guy walks down the street again, CUT to (d) the guy argues with his buddies in a bar. Do you understand what the character is doing? Me neither, and I wrote it.

Let a commitment to clarity guide all your video decisions.

The audience forgets nothing. When they watch your video, they’re focused on the screen, picking up on every nuance of story, every detail. They’ll see themes in your work that you may not even know are there. If you also pick up on these details and use them elsewhere in the story, it will be stronger, and the audience will be very happy. Ending

Editing gives you a last opportunity to “rewrite” your video in a way that’s more satisfying to your audience. Make one pass through your footage looking for loose connections. Most of the time, connecting them makes your video stronger.