There are many different types of video editing: simple cutting, based on a theme, reduction editing or compilation. Choose the best type of editing for you. ## Linear Video Editing The examples of editing below fall into what we call linear or timeline editing, working with the horizontal time axis, often reducing the overall length. Linear editing is as opposed to layer editing in Adobe After Effects where you’re dealing with the z-axis, from front to back. The objective for us in linear editing is to make a video more palatable more digest, shorter yes. We are often dealing with video of not necessarily the best quality, so the minimum is to remove the flagrant errors and the best case is to create an interesting short. The higher the budget, the more time one can take, the better the image, the higher the quality, the better the storyline. But here we are often talking about re-editing an amateur film. Embarking on a professional short or feature film is another matter entirely. When a film is shot specifically for a montage, scenes can be reshot. Editing is a different ball game when it’s shot one-time. ![[linear-video-editing.png]] ## Simple Cut Video Editing Editing digitally transferred Super 8 is different from bespoke editing, since the accent on cutting is different. First, the film is generally more valuable as it’s older and there’s less of it, although the quality of filming may not be so good. The first objective is to cut out the joins between the reels, generally every 3 1/2 minutes, and then probably to do some colour correction. We take out the worst of the transitions following VHS transfer. This becomes bespoke editing when it’s more than simple cutting. The first pass, simple cut, may remove whole sections so that only say the wedding is retained, remove poor quality or unneeded sections such as snow, the floor, ceiling, inside a bag or where the film is just unusable for video or sound. Here is an example of digitally editing VHS video recordings to take out the ‘snow’ which so often plagues old VHS tapes. Simple video editing is designed to make a video more agreeable to watch. [](https://youtu.be/3zCtwKYrn9k) ## Bespoke Video Editing We can take any source in any format and put it on a timeline. There can be as many different sources as you like, but generally, 4 or 5 is manageable. This enables you to collect multiple recordings of an event and edit them together. But by its nature, bespoke editing means made-to-measure. There are as many types of edit as there are types of events. And the type of edit depends on the amount of film source and the final objective. One objective of editing is to reduce the overall duration. Say you recorded 10 hours of film, you might want to reduce it down to perhaps 45 minutes. The technique then is about choosing the bits to leave and the bits to remove. Film transferred from analogue tends to be quite long – something to do with the period, people discovering filming and not always of very high quality. So cutting out the long bits is quite a priority. ## Review for Video Editing Many films have often not been seen for many years. It is worth reviewing the transferred film first and doing simple editing to reorder the reels if they are out of chronological order. This service may be subject to a charge or not, depending on the scope of the project. To facilitate this process, we can add a visible time code to the video to enable people to note the position at which edits should occur. This principle is possible for any project. We may add a time code, and then make complex edits based on customer recommendations or requirements. We supply recorded material to customers either on physical media or online, with or without time code. This is particularly useful if you don’t know the content of your films before recording to digital. ## Video Editing based on a theme Editing can be based on a theme such as holidays or particular people, so that the challenge is to bring together moments which connect, are similar and related. Say, all our holidays or Aunt Betty. Hand in hand with retaining the best clips is the choice of removing others, and so making choices about what is good and what is not, based on some explicit or implicit criterion. The most recognizable of themes are perhaps edits based on events such as a wedding or other family event, an outing, a holiday, a biker’s meeting, a jamboree, fête, school, professional or amateur play. Here, reduction editing is about taking generally long events down to something more manageable, highlights, a teaser or a summary. ## Editing Video From the Internet We were delighted to work for the French John Fogarty fan club to create a series of DVDs for personal use. Each DVD contained around 30 numbers from John Fogarty all of which were recorded from YouTube, inserted onto a timeline, image corrected and edited together. We can record material from any Internet site for use in your private edits, such as music from Deezer or Mixcloud. If there is an audio track that you like, we can include it in your edit. Of course, if you have the original CD or audio track we can include it in your video edit. Below are examples of what we call composition edits, where we edit together material from diverse sources. ## Multi-source Video Editing You can provide your video source to us in any format on any media. This may be of interest if you film events, or want to film an event with several cameras. Editing can then be done on multiple tracks, from multiple sources, varying formats, with or without voice commentary or added music. ## You Film We Edit Your Video The advantage here is to save expenditure on a cameraman for your private event. Indeed, you can ask your friends to film your wedding for instance, and then we do the editing. We call this 3rd party editing, since the material is filmed by you. It has the advantage that if several people film the same moment, you may benefit from either a better shot or cutting together multiple good shots from different angles. [](https://youtu.be/UXELqrfgOFg) ## Adding Voice Commentary You may wish to comment your film edits, either because there was no original sound, as per Super 8 or simply to add another dimension to your edit. We can do this for you, either by recording your voice and editing in at the appropriate moments, or ourselves according to a script. Adding voice commentary is a nice way of adding colour and meaning to your video and can enhance simple visual titles. Of course, you can also add titles to describe events, state the year of an event or the people present as a reminder, for posterity or simply for information or fun. ## Video Editing for Art Artistic editing is quite different again, has a specific objective, is quite probably scripted, prepared and seeks to film footage deliberately as part of a production. We had the pleasure of recording and editing the following plays. This video includes clips from - Texts by Christian Descamps at the Athena arts centre, Auray - Two plays by a local company les Traiteaux Trinitains, - Readings by local poet Charles Lescuyer, - Play organized at a local old people’s home in Séné, - Tribulations Alcoolisées by l'Association Seconde Souffle  ## Video Editing of Live Events Live events are interesting to edit because of the real-time nature, whether theatre, dance or music, since errors occur either on stage or in the filming. The editor must make choices to maintain flow. We recorded this event and edited the video in 2013 for the [A Portée de Choeur Auray](https://apdc-auray.com/) Charity, which raises money for people in difficulty via les Restos du Cœur. [](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2_51-bs2R7mtydx8NgJbQLKvhmoAOMbA&si=VYFXBwsQaAP4iuYv) ## Length Reduction Video Editing Anti-tedium editing is about time-slicing to reduce the length of scenes, while keeping the essence of the mood, focusing on people, while trying to keep everyone in, reducing the boredom factor, without slash and burn. For instance, if it’s a holiday film, keeping each place visited, but reducing the time spent there: the shot of the church only needs 7 seconds, not 3 minutes. In a wedding film, similarly, we need to see the married couple, but we might keep just some of a long walk to the town hall, just so that people understand what is going on.  These video edits are about making something new out of something old. The input footage is not planned perfect shots; it is generally a mix of varying quality shots. The idea is to retain only what is good or essential. These edits are about taking souvenirs and making souvenir edits. Reduction Video Editing is about reducing perhaps 10 hours of film to one hour or less. Watching ten hours of film is, of course, possible, but it is nice to have a shorter version that can be watched easily.  ## Editing to Accentuate the Highlights Highlights editing is a variant of anti-tedium editing. The idea is to mark all the events of interest and cut everything to say 7 seconds. This means that everything decent is retained, but just as a highlight. This can be difficult if the scene goes on, but involved hard choices. It creates a certain style of edit and can be useful when either there is relative liberty to cut and or when the subject has little meaning for the editor. The viewer gets a flavour of all events. The pieces must still be joined and possibly ordered in order to create something reasonably aesthetic. ## Photo Slideshows Photo slideshows are generally about retrospectives about happier occasions. People may focus on years, periods, holidays. We generally display a photo for between 4 and 6 seconds and include anything from paper photos, slides, reverse negatives, screen prints, digitized film up to HD film from phones. Any source is possible. Here once again the criteria are the final length objective of the edit and the amount of material available. Compiling a photo slideshow, putting it to music with transitions is a straightforward way to show them to family and friends.  We often deal in memories. When asked, it was natural to do an edit with all the photos from someone’s life even after they had passed away. It is, of course, primarily for those who remain. Below are two examples of compiling a video of photos with the music that the person liked. These are all done in haste in between the person passing away and the service. For those who remain, there’s no need for special effects, the photos speak for themselves. [](https://youtu.be/eQXpPoyPTW8) Sometimes our edits are about sad events, even death. We have done one or two retrospective and photo montages for funerals. While not necessarily sophisticated, for the people concerned they certainly have an effect when played at a funeral or memorial service. Generally composed of photos and film from the life of the deceased, friends and family, they may well be cobbled together in hurried circumstances. It is obviously a sensitive time for the families in between death and funeral. So they might be quite simple, but just enough to remind people of favourite photos and music. It doesn’t take much to evoke emotion in such circumstances. ## Video Subtitling We add subtitles to video as well, often for business customers but it is possible to add subtitles to any video as long as transcription is possible and therefore that audio is audible. Subtitles can be in the original language or translated into any language and then re-pasted back into the video or retained simply as an SRT subtitle file to play with an appropriate viewer such as VLC. See the [[Media Translation]] we offer including video subtitling, audio and video transcription. ![[video-subtitling-subtitle-edit.webp|Video subtitling timeline from subtitle edit]] This is a video subtitled by us which discusses the [[Plan Do Check Assess PDCA]] management method.  ## Diverse video editing projects Below is a short fun edit based on content recorded on an iPhone, edited quickly with a sound synchronization effect.  Create a souvenir event video of your wedding, baptism, communion, that does justice to the original event. We can reduce up to 10 hours of film into a one-hour summary edit. All you need to do is give us a digital film, and we take care of the rest. ## Souvenir Video Editing Projects It is best if several people film the event so that wan can choose the best shot of the scene. Several versions of the same scene allow us to improve video editing by showing multiple angles. [](https://youtu.be/pBAxhw4nNS8) ## Compilation video editing projects We had the pleasure of working for the John Fogerty Fan Club in France – for those connoisseurs who know exactly what bits to choose. ![[foo-fighters-and-john-fogerty.jpg]] ## Documentary in Brittany This is a documentary on Jean Guillemet, [l’Espérance de Vie](https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/vannes-56000/esperance-de-vie-raconte-le-passe-de-jean-guillemet-1077025), which was screened in three local cinemas – in Josselin, [Locminé](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locmin%C3%A9) and [Grand Champ](https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/grand-champ-56390/). The main protagonist, Jean Guillemet at the age of seventy-six, gives us his views on the changes in society since the Land Consolidation, the departure of people to the city. Shops and schools no longer exist in their countryside. ‘Life was simpler, but harder,’ he says. Jean depicts his vision of simpler personal relationships, people were in more direct contact, more open, and encourages us to reflect on his maxim, ‘It’s the motivation that counts’. Editing is complex depending on the theme or objective. This semi-documentary film edit of one hour based on 22 hours of material was filmed on 4 different types of cameras over the space of 2 years. The subject was really centred around the person who brought us in, to follow his activities such as digging a well, but also to talk about how life had changed in the countryside. All unscripted, filmed on the hoof, without rehearsal, real time. Events took place, and we just captured what went on. However, only later did we realize that there was a message behind the dialogue, and so the challenge was to select and retain the important material and make a coherent subject. Not easy without a budget. [](https://youtu.be/CASVCfZfssY)