Experienced promo editor in London
Since leaving the BBC in 2009 I’ve been editing promotional videos for a wide range of clients. In this case study, I explain the process of editing four short videos.
Editing commission
I was commissioned as a promo video editor to edit a series of four 90 seconds to 2-minute films by Solutions a digital film and design company. Solutions were delivering a project for their client UIC part of the Oxford International Education Group. The purpose of each film was to promote each college and location to potential students viewing the UIC website. Each separate video was filmed over the course of one day at one of four different UIC educational colleges.
Camera media delivery
After each day of filming the cameraman sent me the camera rushes on a hard drive through the post. Four each day the quantity of media filmed ranged from 80 to 100GB. This equated to between 3.5 and 4.5 hours of filmed footage per day. This was to be edited down into less than 2 minutes. To start the editing process I first copied the C300 media onto my Promise Pegasus RAID 5 drive. I then created a new Avid project and AMA linked the camera files into the Avid bin. To enable a smooth editing process I then transcoded all the C300 media into Avid friendly .mxf files. Once the media had been fully transcoded I then started to edit the contributor interviews together.
Editing promotional videos
Initially, I made a long edit of each day’s interviews. I then edited down the interviews after repeatedly watching the edit sequence. After each edit, I duplicated the sequence and called it a different version i.e. EDIT 2. Over the course of some hours, I was then able to determine the best contributor sync from both the students and teachers. This up sound sync then formed the basis of each films edit. By editing the audio down in this way you can easily refer back to a previous sequence should you need to find a word or a different sentence to help the edit work.
Improving the edit
Once the best sync audio had been found I then rearranged the edit order to give more of a story to each film. With the body of the audio and it’s associated video in position, I could then look at painting in the additional video that would help illustrate all the points required for each film. Some of the films also contained some up sound live-action elements that were edited into the existing audio timeline.
Delivering the edit
I sent the producer some production music selections for her to approve. The agreed selections were then edited into the film and the vision edits trimmed accordingly to ensure a polished result. Other elements that were edited in included the opening and end titles with logos and the contributor name titles and credits.
Once each film had been edited to my satisfaction I exported each film and uploaded it to my Vimeo channel. I then sent an URL link to the producer. In this instance, I was pleased that I had delivered all four films to the satisfaction of the producer apart from a few detailed adjustments.
Once the producer had signed off the amended versions they were then sent to the final client for sign off. As a result of their feedback, the opening title graphics were adjusted. I also had to send a few different versions with different music tracks so that they could consider some different music.
Uploading the videos
After final sign off from the client and the producer, I uploaded the films to the client’s YouTube channel so that they could embed the four videos into their website. If you would like my help with editing promotional videos please get in touch.
