After you record your footage, it is time to edit. Video editing is the process of cutting the best parts of your video footage, then combining and rearranging it to tell a story.  When editing B-Roll, you will support the news story that your anchors will tell on air with visuals from the event or subject.

Editing is one of the most complex parts of the video production process, with most of the work being done by only one or two individuals. Students learning how to edit should always understand that every session is a lesson to learn. It takes time to edit efficiently. It’s impossible to learn everything overnight. Most professional editors are constantly learning as they work with different video formats, software updates, media genres, and refine their technique.

How to Edit B-Roll into a Polished Video 

1. Organize your video clips Watch all of your footage and name your video clips. This is called ‘logging and capturing’ your video footage. You can name your video files or cut video files and rename them with titles that represent the shot. This will make it easier to find footage you are looking for later when you make a sequence of shots from start to finish. Most editing software will allow you to create folders, sometimes called ‘bins,’ to organize your clips. Some software will also organize your files into ‘Events.’ At this point, bad clips can be deleted, but putting all those clips into a separate folder may be useful later.

2. Choose the best It is common to shoot far more footage than you actually need. Choose only the best material for the final edit. Often, you will shoot several versions, or  ‘takes’ of a shot and choose the best one when editing. Cutting out unwanted footage in video clips will help save time. Your editing software will have a blade-like tool that you can use to mark the start and stop point of a video clip. This can also be referred to as ‘in’ and ‘out’ points in video editing software.

3. Edit Sound Depending on the source of your footage and the location, most of your audio may be undesirable. However, if you have sound that is important to your story, such as cheering fans at a game, or sounds from any other event – it will help tell your story. Even if it’s only for a few seconds. These short sound clips are called ‘sound bites’ and will help communicate your story to your audience.

4. Layout your sequence The script for the news story should dictate the order of your shots. The first shot is usually an establishing shot which is a wide view of the location of the event. This could be the football stadium, the school quad, etc. Overall, look for the shot that would best tell the news story if you could only use one photo.

When an editor puts the remainder of the B-roll from start to finish, he or she must remember to keep the running time of the story in mind, which should be about two to three minutes.

5. Add Transitions Adding effects between shots are known as transitions, although technically, a simple ‘cut’ is a type of transition. You can improve most videos (and have a lot of fun) by adding effects. Dissolves are the safest bet for most editors, which have shots fading into each other. A popular transition for professional editors is a ‘soft cut’, which is a dissolve of just a few frames, or in a fraction of a second. A good guideline is to have the first shot fade in from black, the last shot fade out to black, and make sure every transition in between adds something to the story and footage without distracting the audience. A good editor should make a story shine, and not attract attention to their ability to add flashy effects.

After the transitions are added, the edit should be complete. It can be a good idea for the editor(s) to have the camera operator and other classmates who worked on recording the footage come watch. They can help find mistakes and give feedback on the edit. Again, everything is a learning process, and student feedback is encouraged to be constructive and positive. 

6. Export The editing process takes many hours, and it is wise to take time and pay close attention to detail when adjusting settings for the export process. Depending on the format and software you are using, the export process may take 10 minutes, or up to an hour. The goal is to export the video clip into a file that can play on the media laptop, and then into the HS-3200 switcher. The production laptop should be set up with software for playing video. A PC will come with Windows Media Player installed, and a MAC will come with QuickTime Player installed. Both of these types of software play H.264 files, which is the recommended codec for your production workflow.

Format

The output resolution should be as follows:

• Resolution: 1280 x 720
• Frame rate: 60 frames per second, progressive
• Codec: H.264, .mov or .mp4
• Bitrate: 10,000kbps (10Mbps)

These settings will result in smooth playback on the HS-3200. Video files in the above format can also be uploaded directly to YouTube or your preferred video hosting service to play in HD quality.  After the export process is completed, a USB flash drive can be used to transfer the video file to the laptop that will be used to display it on your broadcast.

Other Formats

If H.264 is not functioning in your workflow, there are various ways to get a file format that is compatible with your production laptop.  Which one is best for your production workflow? Here’s some information about which export option is best to use under various circumstances.

MOV

This is a format popular with QuickTime video player software, which is mainly on MAC OS computers, but also on Windows PCs.  It is used as a ‘container’ so there are various codecs you can use to compress the video and audio. These codecs include MPEG-2, H.264, PRO RES, and many others. The type of codec you use will determine the file size and the quality of the video. VLC video player also plays QuickTime, .MOV files, but QuickTime is the best player for .MOV files.

MPEG-4

MPEG-4 is very popular. It is supported by a variety of players, including VLC and QuickTime. They have good quality and yet retain a small file size.

AVI

This is short for Audio Video Interleace and is the Windows standard video, but it is an older format. If you are using older editing software, this may be a viable option. It is supported by all computers running Windows. AVI files are usually large and although they play on VLC player and Windows Media Player, they may have difficulty on QuickTime and other players.