Sometimes a video edit takes a single draft. Sometimes it takes three. The nature of editing is that it’s a crazy, unstable flutter of video clips, soundbites, sound effects, and PNGs all flying around that somehow ends up in a final, polished video. And sometimes you have to go through a couple of cits to get it there.

Project Scope

I worked for Brent Clapp Media Services for five years doing media production before I founded what has now become People Project Media. In December of 2020, I made the jump to leave on good terms and start my own business. My wife and I were ready to move, and this was the right decision at the time.

Trouble was that I was the primary editor (at that time) for all BCMS projects. When I left, we had an outstanding project with Youth For Christ Eastern Oregon I had shot but had not yet edited.

YFC Logo

Youth For Christ is an organization that serves high school kids in Eastern Oregon both practically and spiritually. Every year they put on a banquet to raise money. And every year they contract with BCMS to produce a short testimonial video to showcase the effect that they have had on some of the kids.

This video had a tight deadline. I left in late December, and it was due in early January. Time was ticking down, and so Brent (the owner of BCMS) decided to contract with my new business to do the full edit of the video.

Problems

Producing videos with kids as the main interviewees are tough. Getting teenagers (especially teenage boys) to be vulnerable and articulate about their feelings is sometimes like escaping from a finger trap: brute strength won’t get you anywhere.

Getting kids to open up is tough sometimes!

Also, matching teenagers’ schedules to film is an act of herding: you just start to walk in the right direction, try to corral the wandering members when they try to wander off, and hope when you reach the end everybody is still around.

If you want too long between shoots, the weather changes, and the b-roll is off. This is particularly difficult in La Grande in mid-December when snow is just around the corner, and you never know when the first inch of white is going to change your setting entirely.

And once we did get it all shot, we had about a two-week turnaround for editing. Not an ulcer-causing immediacy, but there wasn’t enough time to dilly-dally around.

Solutions

Before leaving BCMS I scheduled and shot the videos as an employee. Every year getting the kids to open up is a challenge. I never like to let a client perform an interview. The interview content is the cornerstone for a powerful video, and it’s not as simple as just asking questions and hoping for a good answer. There are techniques to use, ways of showing up and holding yourself, all of which make the interviewee feel comfortable and help them to open up. It’s not something anyone can do well, and it’s really tough to edit over bad interview content.

Even still, the YFC people liked to participate in the interviews. I did some questions, they did some questions. And in the end, it was… okay.

Once the interviews were over and the B-Roll had been shot, the post-production process began. The first drafts of the video used slow, methodical music to really highlight some of the struggles the kids went through. It flowed together well and ended up in a six-minute video that told the story of the struggles of four kids that participated in YFC.

But the client didn’t like the cut. It was too long, too drab, and too, well, depressing. They were trying to get people to donate to the program, and it didn’t make enough of a statement about the good things that YFC had done for the kids.

Back to the timeline… (a timeline is an editing term).

With only two days to re-cut the entire product, I brewed myself a cup of coffee, cleaned off my desk, and cleared my schedule. I was going to get them the edit that they wanted.

And sure enough, later on, that night (about 1 am to be precise) with new music, a lot less lengthy but a lot more pointed material, I sent off my third and final draft of the video.

Which – thank God! – the client liked.

Outcome

The final product was a concise, balanced, three-minute video that showcased what YFC had done for the four kids featured. The video showed at the banquet and – we hope! – contributed to YFC continuing to be a fully-functioning organization in Eastern Oregon, investing in the lives of high-school kids materially and spiritually as well.

What I Learned

  1. Never let a client do an interview. It’s not that they don’t mean well. It’s just that interviewing is a skill, like any other. You wouldn’t let your client frame the house if you were a contractor. You wouldn’t let a client install their own fiber-optic cable if they wanted internet services. No, interviewing is a skill, one that should be done by someone who has trained in it to get the best results.
  2. Always talk about mood, aesthetic, desired outcome, purpose, and style before embarking on production. Had these things been discussed beforehand, the early drafts and re-cut could have been avoided entirely.