The Focus Bikes Video Edit Challenge

Let’s Talk Junior Editor demonstrates their newly acquired editing skills with her first full length edit for Focus Bikes.

When I was challenged to create a full length edit of our films for Focus Bike’s Ambassador Challenge to demonstrate all that I had learnt during my first three months at Let’s Talk, it was a (metaphorical) bull that I had to grab by the horns.  This my story of how I approached the editing project …

Story Planning

In my video I wanted my edit to be more personal and share the stories of the riders, their emotions and the challenges they faced rather than the bikes themselves.

I started with a ‘sync pull’ of each interview, then selected  the answers I liked the  most and arranged them into an order that flowed. I wanted to create an edit that told the story of the contestants’ challenges and captured their emotions, as opposed to concentrating on the bikes.  I had to edit the audio and add audio transitions to keep the answers short and sweet and ensure a smooth, natural feel. I then went through the ‘G.V’s’ and chose the most fitting clips to tell the story.

Sound Editing

Although some editors would leave the music until last, I wanted to cut the video to the beat and found a suitable upbeat track from Artist.io (a great music licensing source of music from indie artists for video and film use). As part of the challenge was to keep the video at 3 minutes long, I had to be clever with my cuts and transitions.

Colour Correction

Once I was happy with my overall edit, I looked at colour grading. Cameras are usually, if not always, best shot over exposed as it is easier to colour correct than if they are under exposed. To get the colour grading and white balance correct, I took a screenshot from each camera and made a LUT in photoshop; added them to the footage and adjusted them further if needed in Premiere Pro.