Comments on: Style Guidelines for Media Producers and Video Editors

By: Style Guidelines for Media Producers and Video Editors | Russ Pond

Style Guidelines for Media Producers and Video Editors | Russ Pond — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:26:11 +0000

[...] From Phil Cooke’s blog [...]

By: Rick Q.

Rick Q. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to share. This was a encouraging read!

God Bless you today!

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great advice!! Is there a good book out there on camera framing and subtext?

By: ChURcHwORlD 2.0

ChURcHwORlD 2.0 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Please more blogs like this so I can take them to my Church and Ministry clients and say look ~ Phil Cooke said so ~ when I’ve already told them the same thing. (Disclaimer: Only .22% of this statement is a joke.)

By: ProducerD

ProducerD — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Most video editors aren’t that skilled or knowledgeable in creating the kind of program opens and graphic elements that exist in secular television today. Most of these graphics packages go through an elaborate storyboarding process and take a team of people weeks or even months to produce. It’s better to hire a specialist or company if you want a top-notch polished look.

By: @JohnsonStephenM

@JohnsonStephenM — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Overall, great post with great advice, but when are we as the Church going to stop chasing secular media? The Church used to be the source of great media… Sistine Chapel for example… why shouldn’t be strive to lead the way again?

By: Danob

Danob — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Love it. Asked the graphics guy at church if he had a style guide? He said he was working on one, but mostly it was in his head. He's really good, but it would help me figure the headroom for branding the pieces I get for vid. Our producer(he too is really good) is going to push it and he likes it BIG! I'm trying to figure out how big, big is. Seriously great post. I find myself seeing motion in every id, opener, inters, bump, mort and tag I see, mostly cause now my church might really use it!!! Render, render render.

By: Russ

Russ — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great stuff, Phil!

I appreciate your willingness to share such insightful production information.

By: Russ

Russ — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

By the way, was #5 so amazing that it couldn’t be shared with the Internet public?

By: Paul A Rose Jr

Paul A Rose Jr — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ProducerD, as an editor with almost 20 years of “secular” experience, I heartily DISagree… I have seen too many times where a major company was brought in to outsource the graphics or design package only to have the local animators, editors and promo staff have to adapt the material to make it work. We had one instance where the outside company created animated graphics for our station where half of the elements rotated clockwise and half counterclockwise. We were told by higher-ups that the outsource company would not redo the graphics without compensation and it was not affordable. The local editors and graphic animators had to work together to blend the graphics so that the sudden switch from clockwise to counterclockwise in the middle of the news open was as unnoticeable as possible.

I don’t know about most editors, but over the years I have developed a fine eye, catching even a missed frame while playing real time. The best advice I would give editors is practice, practice, practice. I started editing tape to tape long before non-linear was all the rage. When I started editing on a non-linear system, I had to edit at least 2 spots per day. Now, they weren’t always the best looking spots at first, but doing it every day, the easy cuts become rote, leaving more time for the more difficult and creative editing, time to be creative and play.

Also, take the time to learn how things were done in the past. Too many editors these days rely too heavily on computers to make things work visually. We did not always have computers and even my tape to tape editing was nothing new. But I had someone I worked with who had been trained by his brother, one of the top editors in Atlanta, how things were done when he started editing, back in the early 70′s. Knowing how a visual effect was created back then can often aid in discovering how to make it work on the computer, whether its nesting effects or even just straight cuts. Even just the way something is shot can assist with the editing process. Or knowing that if an image was shot in poor lighting that yields a bluish tint, it can be fixed by applying the right orange filter to compensate.

And never, never say to a client during the shoot, “It’s okay, we’ll fix it in post…” If you have the capability to do it right the first time, please do so.