My NLE Autobiography

CAFEEN - My editing workflow

When I edit my videos, I go through 6 different stages or “video passes” as I call them.
Whilst I don’t drink coffee, I have acronym-ised these stages into the abbreviation CAFEEN

Cull
Arrange
Fit
Effects
Ears
Normalise

Now technically there’s also an i at the start for Import, but I don’t want to be sued by Apple (kidding!)

Let’s take a look at each stage

Importing (and organising your media)

A clean table makes for productive work!

When I create my project, I would first create some bins (folders) to organise my content.

I will generally have these named bins

• Masters
• Components
• Media
  • Audio
    • Music
    • SFX
    • Dialogue
  • Video
    • Camera 1
    • Camera 2
    • …
  • Images

The Masters bin contains the final timelines that I will end up exporting
The Components bin contains timelines that are used in the master timelines
The Media bin contains all of the assets used to create my component timelines

Generally I split my media by their type (audio, video, image), and I also sub-divide these categories too as seen by the above structure.

Of course this depends on the nature of the project.

Sometimes I might divide my video clips by ‘description’ (what’s going on in the video) for example dancing, running, clapping, singing etc… - Other times I might tag the clips with keywords so that I can search and filter through them later on

Cull

The origins of “culling” comes from population control, killing off wild animals in order to reduce their population.

In video-land (and photo-land), culling is the process of selecting the video clips that you want to use in your project.
In other words, “which clips do I want to keep?"
When editing photos, I’m often quite harsh with my culling process, however for videos I tend to be a bit more relaxed (in the event that I delete too much footage and end up with not enough footage D:)

During the culling process, I would mark the ins and outs of the clips to speed up the arrangement process (stage two). This way when I drag the clip onto the timeline, it will already be cut to the parts of the clip that I want!

In the event that the clip has several sections I want to use, I’d then drag all the clips onto the timeline and then scrub through them, deleting parts which I don’t want

Arrange

After I have selected the clips I want to keep, I would then do a rough edit of the clips.
Order the video clips, throw in audio dialogues and music (no SFX!), add any image overlays

I generally separate my clips into distinct layers.
Titles on one layer
Stills on one layer
Videos on one layer
Dialogues on one layer
Music on one layer

Resist the urge to make repeated micro-edits during this stage, and focus on the story that you are trying to tell. There will be many future edits to come, so get into the CAFEEN-ated mentality and make those edits later on (btw it’s the next stage)

The idea of having multiple video passes is so you do not get too caught up in a specific portion of the timeline. By applying the majority of the tweaks at the same time, you save HEAPS of time.

Girl: I wish I could be at the stage where I can make micro-edits to my video

Fitting Stage: Hi-

Girl: No
Fitting Stage: I’m literally that stage

Fit

Now that your bare and rough edit is done, it’s time to clean up the timeline!
Release that withheld compulsion to make those micro-edit that you had from stage two (arrange)!

Here I will trim the clips to their desired lengths, and make sure that all of the images, videos and sounds are aligned to how I want it.

Note that if there are any sound effects, they are still not added into the timeline yet.

Effect

Add some ✨flourish✨

This is the stage where we can apply transitions, fade-ins, fade-outs and all sorts of effects to the clips. I would add any needed sound effects here too.

At this stage your timeline should be looking quite decent.
But it might be sounding or looking abit flat.

Let’s fix that

Ears

You can get away with bad video, but bad audio? nuh uh.

I would argue that audio is so much more important than video.
Although that’s a very opinionated statement from someone who does audio stuff as a living (I also do video stuff too!!!! but not nearly as much as audio)

A film can be black and white - and you can still understand it through the sound track.
A film could be pitch black - and you can still understand it through the sound track.
A film could be shaky - and that’s alright because it might be conveying motion or something 🤷‍♀️.
But a film with uncomfortably loud, noisy, or hissy audio? I don’t think I could watch it longer than a few seconds.

That being said, both are equally as important: Audio contributes to half the video, the visual contributes to the other half.

In this fifth stage, I assess the soundscape of my timeline.
Think landscapes, but in terms of sound - Where are voices and dialogues? How far away am I (the audience) away from the sound source? Are things balanced?

Note - Generally I perform most of these sound-related edits in the NLE, but for any custom BGM mix, I’ll do them in my DAW (Studio One).

When soundscaping I focus on three things.

Audio Quality - “Is the audio clear?”
Here I would work on the clarity of the audio.
For example: EQ, HPF, Hum Removal, Noise Reduction, Compression, Reverb, etc…

Spatial Quality - “Is the audio in the right place”
Did you know that mantids are the only creatures on Earth with only one ear?
Humans (and other creatures that can hear, bar mantids) have two ears - and therefore are able to process stereo sound. Therefore the sound in our video should be soundscaped for stereo listening!

Here I focus on the placement of sound - left/right panning, as well as the presence and proximity of the sound

Temporal Quality - “Is the audio at the right time?”
Silence is just as important as sound.
Sometimes you just want silence (or whatever ambient noise track you have)

Of course, also make sure the audio levels are balanced between your dialogue, music and sound effects!

When soundscaping, I often like to close my eyes and listen to the video.
I mean… half the time when I’m watching a video, I’m not actually watching it…

Note: Compression and reverb are both tools that affect the audio and spatial quality of sound. Whilst compression is often used to control the dynamic range of an audio source, it can also be used to raise the ‘presence’ of a source

Normalise

Finally, the last stage - normalising your video! We’ll add the finishing touches to your video by tweaking the colours - this is commonly a two step process known as colour correction and colour grading.

First, colour correction.
Here we strive to make all of the different clips look consistent and/or cohesive.
Correct brightness, contrast, skin colour, colour temperature, etcetera.
Generally I will colour correct my clips inside the component timelines

After that is colour grading - where we add a tonal quality to the video to heighten or exaggerate the depth of the video, or for aesthetic quality!
Generally I will colour grade only my master timelines.

And with that, you’ve just (hopefully) finished your edit!
Thanks for reading my rant :)

Now here are some tips and tricks to make your video that little bit better 👌

Tips and Tricks

In a somewhat linear order of when you should consider these

[V] A Clean Set

A good video is not edited well, it is filmed well.

Get ample lighting (key light, back light, fill light), clear unwanted items off the stage, add props (that aren’t too distracting), practicals (in-frame lights), make sure there are no vector lines sticking out of the subject. (Vector lines are lines that run across the camera frame which cause our eyes to get distracted)

[V] Set The Lights

Lights are important too. I won’t write them here, but you’ll especially want a key light and probably a back light.

If you have the time you could also set up a fill light, top light, background light, blah blah blah go Google about film set lighting!

[A+V] A Complete Set

A good set will require good camera placement, lighting placement and audio.

Camera - Refer to _A Clean Set
_Oh also - if recording people, position the lens lower than the subject and tilt up! This gives the subject a heightened personality, a sense of authority in the scene!

Lighting - Refer to _Set The Lights

_Audio - If interview style, a cardoid / hypercardoid / shotgun microphone at the top positioned roughly 15cm from the subject’s forehead pointed towards their chest is a good spot. Otherwise a lav mic is good too!

[A] Using Ambient Sound

Sometimes it feels too sterile to have a completely silent section of a video, followed by some dialogue or sound effect.
You may want to add some ambient sound (recorded on-site), or even just some generated white noise

[V] Stabilisation

Your NLE probably has an in-built video stabiliser. Use it!

[V] Stabilisation on a Tripod

Image stabilisation aims to correct camera shake and jitter through micro-movements of either the lens or the camera sensor

If your lens or video camera has some sort of image stabilisation function, and your camera is mounted on a tripod, experiment with turning off the stabilisation functionality.

When mounted on a (good and sturdy) tripod, your camera is in a fixed position - with only the subject moving. With image stabilisation turned on sometimes the camera/lens may think that the camera has moved (because the subject has moved), and will (incorrectly) decide to attempt fix the ‘movement’ - This in turn may actually induce unwanted camera shake!

[V] Multicam

Record multiple angles of the set! This may help you later on with transitioning between movements in the set, as well as creating more visual interest in the film!

Your NLE probably has a multi-camera function built in, which allows you to easily manage several angles/views of the same scene. Whilst you can just throw in two layers of video footage, multi-cam features (such as non-destructively recording switches) are a big timesaver!

[A+V] Synchronising Clips

If you have many project files (i.e. several video clips from multiple cameras and audio from a field recorder) you will need to eventually synchronise them together.

This can either be done manually, using your NLE’s clip synchronisation feature, or through a third party tool like PluralEyes.

To help facilitate the synchronisation process - at the start of every new file recording (whether it be a video recording that started, or a new audio recording) perform an audible clap (or if you have a clapperboard). This will create a peak in the audio waveform which you can then use as a reference point for synchronisation later on.

[A+V] Let The Music Pick The Pace

If you’re creating some sort of montage video, first decide the choice of song.
This will help you to
A) Not create a video that’s way tooo long
B) Consider the appropriate and compatible clips (and the order of them)
C) Consider the appropriate and compatible transitions and cuts

[A] Keeping Ambient Sound

Sometimes it may be hard to completely eradicate noise from a dialogue track.
But, _if you can’t beat em', join em!
Whilst you still want to try to remove the noise, you can counter the noisiness by adding more noise 😲

Remember, when building your soundscape, it is about the balance!
Us humans are pretty cool - we’re able to forget and ignore sounds that are constant (provided it’s not a harsh sound)

[A+V] Nested Timelines

If your NLE supports it, make use of nested timelines!
This is essentially what my Components bin is - a bunch of reusable timelines that each contain bits of media that should always stay together

[A+V] Audio Leads Video

I don’t like getting scared. No one does.
So it’s nice to introduce some sort of cue to the viewer before something changes (i.e a scene change).

Before a scene change, fade in and cue the audio track for the new scene a second or two before the visual transition occurs!

In video editing lingo, this is called a “J Cut”

[V] Transitions

There’s many ways to transition from one clip to another, and for each way there’s many variations too! As they’re hard to explain in words, check out the countless free tutorials that are on YouTube for all sorts of transitions!

Generally when changing pace, a transition can be a straight cut.
When changing location, the transition should be seamless.

Some transitions may require you to intentionally film parts of the transition on the camera (i.e. a motion blur cut) - so planning is important!

[V] Immerse Your Overlays

Camera lenses have an aperture ring that controls the amount of light entering the camera sensor, and it also affects the depth of field (a zone of ‘sharpness’). The human eye also has a biological aperture (known as your pupil), and it’s around f/2.4.

When dealing with overlay graphics (i.e. titles), you may wish to consider how they tie into the scene. Perhaps you might want to blur the title until the position it is overlaid on top of is also in focus

[V] Play with Cropping

Provided your video footage is on a high enough resolution (larger than your timeline canvas), try to change the crop / zoom of the video to get the looks and vibes that you want. This way you can also induce slight motion panning.

[A] Mixing in Mono

If your audio mix sounds trash in mono, it’s still going to sound trash in stereo.
If possible, set your speakers to mono mode, and adjust the levels until the balance sounds good. Then, and only then can you go crazy with spatial stereo sound effects

[A] Loudness vs Volume

Loudness does not mean volume!
Volume is the intensity of a sound, but loudness is the perceived intensity of a sound.
Instead of relying on the VU meter in your NLE/DAW, have a look at the loudness (“LUFS”) instead.

I like to mix to about -13 LUFS.

I use a free piece of software called Youlean Loudness Meter, which I also use in my DAW as a VST. DaVinci Resolve has an inbuilt LUFS meter

[A] More on Ears - Spatial Panning

Here’s some food for thought when developing your soundscape…

The visual of a door opening on your left should be accompanied with the sound effect of a door opening that is heard stronger on your left.

For a stranger walking from left to right, their footsteps should slowly get stronger towards the right.

[A+V] Tools and Equipment!

There are lots of audio and video accessories that will make your life easier. Whilst the professional stuff are quite expensive, you can also find heaps of cheap things to buy too, or even DIY them!

Audio Tools

• QR Plate - I mentioned this separately, because you can buy them individually and whack them on any 1/4” or 3/8" threaded device! WOHOO UNIVERSAL COMPATABILITY
• Shotgun microphone - These work great to pick up directional audio, and help to hide the mic from the camera frame
• Lavalier microphone - These microphones work well for a moving actor, especially when you’re a one man filming crew
• Hotshoe microphones - There also exists microphones (often shotgun-style) that can be mounted on the hotshoe plate of the camera, keeping your setup compact
• Audio Interface / Field Recorder - If recording multiple audio sources you may want to invest in a recording device that can independently record sources to individual files

Video Tools

• Tripod - To mount your camera on for a fixed shot, get the ones with a Quick Release (QR) plate
• Lights - If you can’t get good quality LED lights, then get fluorescent lights.
  I don’t like the look of ring lights, and wouldn’t recommend them
• Lens focusing handle - This is a cheap rubber extension that helps you get a nicer rack focus
• Camera slider - This can help induce motion and aliveness into the scene, as it stops the scene from being just a drab fixed scene. Works well when used as for “Camera B”
• Tripod dolly - This helps you to truck and dolly (not pan)
• Stabiliser / Gimbal - These help you get smoother video by reducing camera shake and impulse movement
• Camera jib - Whilst it might sound overkill (it is though), you can get really nice shots!
• Shoulder rig - If filming handheld for a long time, a shoulder rig can help to reduce hand and arm strain. Take care of your body!
• Neutral density filters - Often you are unable to push your shutter speed and/or ISO to reduce the brightness of the scene, meaning that you will have to narrow down the aperture. But in doing so you’ll lose your nice depth of field :( Instead use a neutral density filter to reduce the light entering the lens and sensor!
• Mist filter / diffusion filters - These filters help to accentuate the bloom of lights (i.e. the soft glow around light sources), and also help to smoothen the skin! Do note that it is basically an overglorified “vaseline on glass”, so it does take away the sharpness and digital edge of your scene; but hey cinematic right?
• Field monitor - If filming on a rig, a field monitor will help you see what you’re recording, especially if your camera screen is small or doesn’t swivel out

Miscellaneous

• Tape
• Card reader - I use a Kingston Media Reader HS4 for my CF and SD cards
• Tape.
• Storage - LaCie Rugged drives if you’re out and about, else anything decent will do
• Did I mention tape?
• Clapper board - Unnecessary, but cool
• DC couplers - When filming for long durations, you’d rather not have to keep worrying about how much battery power is left on your camera/microphone/etc… Most cameras allow you to power them from AC power, either through a power brick, or a special adapter that goes into the battery compartment!