4 steps to edit a scene based on “feeling”
Ever felt frozen during an edit, when you just don’t know how to put a scene together?
Or it isn’t as creative as you would like it to be?
I was thinking about this recently and how much that has changed for me after I switched my perspective and focused on the viewers watching the piece. Instead of racking my brain trying to add some random creativity into an edit, I think:
“At this point in the video, what do I want the audience to feel?”
And I use those answers to guide my editing decisions. Let’s use an example from a recent film, Covid’s Silver Lining.
This scene is unique in the story because it feels stressful, tense, full of anxiety and unease. Let me break down how I edited this scene based on the feelings I just described.
4 steps to edit based on “feeling a scene”:
What do I want the audience to feel in this scene?
This part of the story talks about the effect that Covid took on Project Rescue, and how Jonathan kept getting calls of people and churches pulling their support.
The feelings that support this are: stress, anxiety, tension, unease…
And those are the feelings I decide to use as a guide for the way that I edit the scene.
2. Using the feeling to determine editing style
Next, as I started editing I thought about how best to represent “tension/anxiety” in the way I was cutting it together. Using quick cuts helped keep tension high and represents the anxiety and unease of Jonathan.
PRO TIP: Use this same trick to decide in advance how you’re going to film the scene. For these shots we went handheld, used lots of motion, and lit it with more contrast and shadows to represent the stress he felt.
3. Using the feeling to determine the soundtrack
As I’m looking for music for this scene, I continue to keep that idea of feelings of anxiety and tension into my music selection. Music is a very emotional tool, and can influence the story very strongly.
PRO TIP: Sometimes using no music at all can achieve the high-tension feel you may be looking for.
4. using the feeling to add sound effects
After music is in place, I think about the sound effects that can boost the scene with the same feelings of stress and tension. For instance, one of the sound effects I used in the scene above is a phone’s busy signal repeated because that effect in itself is anxiety-inducing.
And that’s the pattern I use for every different scene. I’m thinking about my audience, I’m thinking about how I want them to feel at any given time as they’re watching and basing my editing decisions on that!
Questions? Happy to get on a call with you and work through your editing hurdles. Learn More
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