Example Two: Advanced Techniques

Example Two: Advanced Techniques

Here you'll learn some more advanced editing techniques that will enable you to finesse your work a little more. The simple video created for this example uses footage from the U.S. Army Big Picture film, “Research and Development in the Arctic” as well as a drone shot from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Imagine that the below is just the opening of a longer video about the U.S. military in the Arctic* with this particular portion being meant to “set the scene” and establish a tone. As you are watching, consider the concepts and techniques that have been discussed so far.

*The topic of the U.S. Military in the Arctic is complex with there being a lot that can be said about it both in regard to the past and the present. In this case, the topic is only being touched on superficially for the purposes of demonstration.

Here is the same video as seen in iMovie:

Video Commentary

The following explains some of the thinking behind the editing choices.

Advanced Techniques:

• Cutting on softer sounds like vowels as opposed to hard consonants when someone is speaking

• Cutting on movement, be it movement in a shot or the camera moving

• Using sound bridges between shots or scenes

Alternative Version

Just for fun, and so you can see how much of an impact music has, here is the same video with a different song.

Credits

• Videos: Big Picture: Research and Development in the Arctic, National Archives and Records Administration (circa 1957) CC0 1.0 Universal; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Flying Low over Southeast Greenland, (2013), Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

• Music: Video 1 - Minimal by Xylo-Ziko is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, Video 2- Shimmer by Krackatoa is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike