I'd like some opinions on video editing

[Dale D]

To those of you who do video editing, I'd like some advice. I am about to begin the task of editing my Middle East Trip video. The trip was 4 weeks long and I accumulated a ton of assets, both still images, and videos. The trip took us to Doha,Qatar; Dubai UAE, Abu Dhabi UAE, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Amman Jordan, Petra, Jordan, and Jerash, Jordan.

I have just finished the tasks of editing all of the assets in Photoshop, and I will edit the videos as I create the video. This alone took me 3 weeks.

The videos were a combination of iPhone, Osmo Mobile 6 (OM6), and timelapse from the Nikon DSLR. I am aiming for a show of approximately 25 minutes or less. There are no drone shots since drones are illegal and punishable by fines and jail ,where I traveled to. This will not be a 3 minute quickie.

My question is, what time duration do most of you use for still images? I usually use 3 seconds per image with a cross dissolve. But the volume of good images is overwhelming in this case, and I think I am going to have cut each image to 2 seconds. I usually do not do quick cuts (e.g.: less than a second).

All comments welcomed!

Dale
Miami

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Something I always touch base on is if you could add the Voice Documentary than you can leave the Pictures much longer as a nice fill in. I am sad that you did not get DuBAI on drone footage as that would be spectacular but than again there is the Death Penalty , lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. land on the Water and fly far from the Death Penalties.

 

[SmilingOgre]

For a documentary/reality video I use the narration/interview audio dictate the length of the clip. For clips with no supporting audio I go with the "vibe" of the presentation being careful to stay around 2 to 4 seconds. If the shear volume of images are too long for one video, consider making a sequence of videos broken into logical topics. Adding some movement to stills via panning or zooming can also help retain interest.

 

[waynorth]

It depends of what pace and rhythm you want in your show, and on the music you choose.
I once made a 20-minute video with stills of the Northern lights, and I used 4-7 seconds between each image. The longer duration was used when I applied a zoom effect in the image, slowly zooming in or out.
But this was a video meant to be slow, calm and relaxing, and the music was specially written for it.
If you want a faster pace in your video you should use a shorter duration, but for me 2 seconds is usually too fast.

 

[Dale D]

Something I always touch base on is if you could add the Voice Documentary than you can leave the Pictures much longer as a nice fill in. I am sad that you did not get DuBAI on drone footage as that would be spectacular but than again there is the Death Penalty , lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. land on the Water and fly far from the Death Penalties.

There is nothing I would have wanted more than to fly the M3 in Dubai! It is a paradise for drone filming, if you look at the You Tubes, of which there are many before they outlawed drones. I was even thinking of pirating one of those You Tubes!
The UAE has been under attack by weaponized DJI drones by the Houthi rebels supplied by Iran which certainly can explain the strictness of the regulations. As far as voice overs go, my voice is not great for that.

So I am tending to go with 2 seconds on each still image and very tightly going to cut the videos.
Thanks for your input and hope to hear from others too!
Dale

 

[Dale D]

For a documentary/reality video I use the narration/interview audio dictate the length of the clip. For clips with no supporting audio I go with the "vibe" of the presentation being careful to stay around 2 to 4 seconds. If the shear volume of images are too long for one video, consider making a sequence of videos broken into logical topics. Adding some movement to stills via panning or zooming can also help retain interest.

Great idea to use the Ken Burns effects on the stills. I do have a lot of videos. I am going with about 2 seconds on the still images unless the details of the image demand further scrutiny.

 

[akdrone]

I think 4-5 seconds with a 1sec transition is pretty reasonable. Keep in mind you probably have several videos. You needn't create a single 25min vid...If you have FCP or other editor that will allow multicam editing this may be a good use of that ability.

 

[JoelP]

I try to keep to a max of 5 minutes, so it seems you have material for 5 videos. Some stills require more time than others so Inwould set a default of 4 or 5 sec and modify each as needed. No doubt, Dale, that you have some
amazing images, but you need to show only your best ones that fit with your narration.

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

To those of you who do video editing, I'd like some advice. I am about to begin the task of editing my Middle East Trip video. The trip was 4 weeks long and I accumulated a ton of assets, both still images, and videos. The trip took us to Doha,Qatar; Dubai UAE, Abu Dhabi UAE, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Amman Jordan, Petra, Jordan, and Jerash, Jordan.

I have just finished the tasks of editing all of the assets in Photoshop, and I will edit the videos as I create the video. This alone took me 3 weeks.

The videos were a combination of iPhone, Osmo Mobile 6 (OM6), and timelapse from the Nikon DSLR. I am aiming for a show of approximately 25 minutes or less. There are no drone shots since drones are illegal and punishable by fines and jail ,where I traveled to. This will not be a 3 minute quickie.

My question is, what time duration do most of you use for still images? I usually use 3 seconds per image with a cross dissolve. But the volume of good images is overwhelming in this case, and I think I am going to have cut each image to 2 seconds. I usually do not do quick cuts (e.g.: less than a second).

All comments welcomed!

Dale
Miami

Dale, I think 2 seconds is too short. My advice is to cull the amount of images down to only the best ones. I think 5 seconds is the shortest I would go personally.

 

[BobaFut]

I try to keep to a max of 5 minutes, so it seems you have material for 5 videos. Some stills require more time than others so Inwould set a default of 4 or 5 sec and modify each as needed. No doubt, Dale, that you have some
amazing images, but you need to show only your best ones that fit with your narration.

I think I largely agree with this, but I guess it depends on what the definition of "documentary" is and who the audience is. If it's just descriptions and maybe a little history voiced over photos and short clips, then 25 minutes is pretty long. For me, I think ~20 minutes is an upper limit for vlogs that combine commentary, music, and clips (so like, equipment reviews, walkthroughs, travel diaries, etc...), so if it was more like that, then I guess 25 minutes is okay. Also, if this is just something you're going to play for friends and family and you have a captive audience, then the length is somewhat irrelevant. But if it's just clips/photos with you talking over it, and you're hoping for views on YouTube, then I'd say breaking it into much shorter videos would be the way to go.

 

[Dave Maine]

I think that the most useful approach is to write the narration and pick the music first, and get that to a form where it is interesting,
and then add the slides and video and edit to taste.

Even a silent video will need different lengths for the image pieces depending on their visual complexity and the audience’s ability to take in them.

The decision needs to be clear as to the goal of the production. Is your goal to show off your best shots, or tell a story that will carry the audience through their exploration of your story.

For me, as a seasoned editor, the latter is the only choice.

 

[Robert Prior]

I would use varied lengths, assuming you are using pan-and-scan to provide some movement. Some images take longer to appreciate than others.

Most importantly, figure out the story you are telling, and use the shots that fit the story.

 

[SmilingOgre]

Story line
Screenplay
Shot list

Then put the puzzle together.

Compose music fit.

 

[DVPOWERS]

As a professional videographer/editor, I like about 5 seconds per photo. Add music (no vocals) and perhaps a voice over. Someone mentioned the Ken Burns effect: slowly zooming in on the photo in general or to a particular point of interest in the photo. And don't go crazy with transitions. A nice dissolve is about all you want.

 

[Dale D]

Story line
Screenplay
Shot list

Then put the puzzle together.

Compose music fit.

Well, guys, I have already started my video editing after 4 weeks of producing the "Assets Folder." Because of the absence of drone footage (illegal in the countries I visited), I took mostly still images with the DSLR and Osmo OM6 videos as well as as many time lapse sequences as possible. I am finding that 3 seconds is actually too long for most images. I have finished editing one of the 7 sites we visited (Doha, Qatar) and that took 3 minutes! At that rate, by simple matte, 3 x 7 = 21 minutes for an entire video using a 2.5 second time duration on the stills.

Dale

 

[hiflyer201]

Dale, Interesting answers from everyone. I know from previous conversations that we both love the film A River Runs Through It. I always thing of a scene where the Rev. reviews a work of his son and tells him. Thats fine now cut it in half.

 

[PaJi]

Lot's of great advice. I always start with 'who is your audience' and go from there. Enjoy the editing process.

 

[Dale D]

Dale, Interesting answers from everyone. I know from previous conversations that we both love the film A River Runs Through It. I always thing of a scene where the Rev. reviews a work of his son and tells him. Thats fine now cut it in half.

You are so right- "A River Runs Through It," was one of my most favorite films of all time. I know the film and the river well and have fly fished the North Fork of the Blackfoot River near Ovando,Montana, , and the Gallatin River many times. The movie was filmed at both places.

As far as cutting it in half, I have actually removed 9 out of 10 images of each subject already. So I have cut the material down to 10% of what was actually shot. It is that 10% that I am now editing. In some case I have shot 20 or more images and found none to keep or only the best ones to keep. You are going to see the best of the best in the Final Cut, but there is still a lot of material to deal with.!

I will advise my viewers in advance to either skip the video or plan to watch it for 20-25 minutes. Those whose time is limited will skip it and those who are really into travel photography and travel videos will stay with it. And at the very least, I will have another family heirloom to leave my wife and kids.

Dale
Miami

 

[hiflyer201]

As far as cutting it in half,

Hope you didn't think I was suggesting you do that..Looking forward to seeing the video.

 

[Dale D]

Hope you didn't think I was suggesting you do that..Looking forward to seeing the video.

For you, a status report;
5:39 minutes is the time of my show so far having covered Doha and partly Dubai. I have two more days of material in Dubai and then Abu Dhabi, Luxe desert camp (very photogenic), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem , Petra, Amman, and Jerash Jordan. I'm fugurting about 5 minutes of show for each place.

Dale