casestudies

I’ve had a chance to work on some really great projects with some wonderful people. Below are some of the projects I am very proud of and the method of which I went about creating them,

Project overview:

I was lucky enough to work with Jimmy Lynch (https:// www.rascal3.com/) on a video about gifting and donations to the Vanderbilt Medical Alzheimer’s Center. This video connected a story of a couple whose families were both touched by Alzheimer’s, and their desire to give back to their community in the form of monetary gifting to the Alzheimer’s Center at Vanderbilt to further Alzheimer’s research.

My role: I was initially tasked with being a Production Assistant on set, and was later given the rough draft edit of the video. After sending the rough draft, I was tasked with the full edit of the video minus color correction and audio mixing.

Goals and Challenges: The goal of the video was to convey the Munro’s story and inspire others to support the Alzheimer's center. The major challenge was condensing 3 hours of interview footage into a concise 4-minute video while maintaining the emotional impact and narrative coherence.

The Process

Initial Setup:

Organization: The first step for me in any edit is the initial organization. I matched the project structure I received on the SSD drive in the Premiere file, and I then imported footage and audio into the correct folders in Premiere.

Multi-cam set up: I watched a lesson from Scott Simmons (https:// www.scottsimmons.tv/ ) on Premiere multi-cam setup, and followed his methods on setting up a multi-cam timeline. For this shoot we had 3 cameras (A, B, C) and one external audio source to sync for two different interviews. I created the multi-cam sequences, and then created workable sequences with both full interviews. There were two full interviews total, so two complete sequences built from the multi-cam sequences.

The Edit:

Text-Based Editing, Selects Sequences, & Pancake Method:

For this video in particular, text-based editing was going to be crucial to finding the story. I set up the text-based editing window for both interviews, copied the transcript it generated, and pasted the transcript in Pages so I could have a larger view of the total transcript. From there, I went through and highlighted what I viewed to be important pieces to telling the story. These highlights were then taken back to premiere where I utilized text-based editing to cut out the important pieces from the main interview timeline and pasted into a DV Selects sequence. I utilized the Pancake Method of editing to make this more efficient (seen below):

Text - based editing + highlighting important pieces

Pancake Style Editing

The Rough Cut - Storytelling Through Intercutting:

After making my Selects Sequences I then begin to piece together the story. The client had an initial outline they wanted to follow for the story, so I stuck as closely to that as I could while utilizing what was said during the interview portions. I used the storytelling method of intercutting to cut between interviews, weaving the story between interviewees (the doctor and the couple). This cut was much longer than the final cut would be, as I wanted to make sure I included as many areas I thought were important as possible for the client to ultimately choose what to cut. I also received feedback from Jimmy (and created a Selects sequence for him as well). During this step it was helpful for me to add placeholders for where I believed B-roll footage could go.

The Full Cut - B-Roll, Music: Once we were satisfied with the rough cut, I was tasked with a full cut - including adding b-roll, music, etc. At the shoot, we had gotten several sets of B roll with the couple as well as with the doctor. There were pieces of the story that needed additional b roll, some of which Jimmy had in his libraries, some of which I found through Envato Elements. The music was also half supplied by Jimmy, and half found through Envato as well.

Revisions and Final Touches:

Client Revisions: We sent the cut on to the client and worked on the client revisions. Once we received the go-ahead, we then exported for color correcting and audio mix.

Final Result:

https://www.vanderbilthealth.org/munros