Shooting for the Edit: Footage That Makes Editing Easier

Shooting for the edit means filming with the edit suite in mind. Will this shot join the next one? Does the editor have an alternative if the speaker stumbles? Can the cut be hidden? Many problems editors spend hours trying to fix, such as jarring jumps, noisy audio or a missing vertical version, could have been avoided with a few extra minutes on set. This guide covers coverage across shot sizes, B-roll and cutaways, handles, consistent settings, clean audio, marking takes, and shooting horizontal and vertical at the same time.

Think like an editor before you press record

Editors need options. A beautiful shot is not enough on its own if nothing else cuts with it. So think in sequences rather than single shots, and ask of every scene: how will it start, how will it end, and which shot will cover any cut inside it?

• Work from the script or storyboard and turn it into a written shot list, as described in Storyboarding: Planning Scenes Before You Animate.
• Know the story you're telling. Understanding the narrative structure tells you which shots are essential; Storytelling in Video Editing shows how editors think about structure.
• Know the deliverables: lengths, aspect ratios and languages all change how you shoot.

To see the stages your footage goes through after the shoot, read Video Editing: The Complete Beginner's Guide.

Coverage: wide, medium and close

Coverage means filming the same action in several sizes and angles, so the editor can build the scene and control its rhythm.

• Wide shot: establishes the place and the relationship between people, often used to open a scene.
• Medium shot: roughly from the waist up, suited to dialogue and explanation.
• Close-up: faces and emotion, or a product in detail.
• Insert: a hand writing, coffee being poured, a button being pressed.
• Over-the-shoulder: links two people in a conversation.

The five-shot sequence

A method common in mobile journalism for covering any action quickly: a close-up of the hands doing the action, a close-up of the face, a wide shot showing both, an over-the-shoulder shot, and an unusual angle. Those five shots are enough to build a coherent sequence without jumps. Digital and Mobile Journalism covers this approach in more depth.

Rules that prevent jumps

• Change size or angle clearly between consecutive shots. A small difference, such as nudging the camera at the same size, produces a jarring jump cut. The usual guideline is to move at least about 30 degrees or make an obvious change in shot size.
• Respect the 180-degree rule: imagine a line between two people in conversation and keep the camera on one side of it, so their eyelines stay consistent on screen.
• Repeat the same action in each size: ask the person to perform the movement the same way in the wide and the close-up, with the same hand and at the same speed, so the editor can cut on action.

B-roll and cutaways

• B-roll is anything that shows what the speaker is talking about. It covers edits in interviews and adds variety to the rhythm. Build your B-roll list from the interview questions: for every topic that will come up, a picture to cover it.
• Cutaways show the listener, hands, the location and the surrounding details. Their main job is to hide cuts in speech.
• Length: hold each B-roll shot steady for at least about ten seconds so the editor has room to choose.

Illustrative example: filming a perfume shop in Kuwait, don't stop at the owner's interview. Film the shopfront in the evening, the bottles up close, the assistant's hands wrapping a gift, a customer trying a scent, the sign and the street. Those shots will rescue the editor when a long sentence needs shortening.

The practical rule: shoot more B-roll than you think you need. No editor has ever complained about having too much.

Give the editor handles before and after the action

• Start recording three to five seconds before the action, and keep rolling for the same after it ends. Editors need those handles for transitions, J-cuts and L-cuts, and for adjusting rhythm.
• Start and end camera moves on a still frame: two or three seconds static, then the move, then two or three seconds static. The editor can then use the still part, the moving part or both.
• Do every move at least twice, ideally at two different speeds.
• Don't talk over the end of a take, and don't stop recording the instant a line finishes.
• In interviews, keep rolling after the answer; the most genuine expressions often come in the seconds after someone stops talking.
• Avoid zooming during a take unless it is deliberate and planned, and pan slowly enough to avoid stutter.

Consistent settings across shots and cameras

Settings that vary from shot to shot mean hours of fixing in the edit and grade, and sometimes those hours still aren't enough.

• Frame rate: decide it before the shoot and set every camera and phone to match. For slow motion, shoot at a multiple of your base rate, such as 50 fps on a 25 fps project.
• Shutter speed: the common rule is roughly double the frame rate, such as 1/50 at 25 fps. Under artificial light in countries with 50 Hz mains power, such as the UAE, Kuwait and Egypt, speeds like 1/50 or 1/100 help avoid flicker. In 60 Hz countries such as Saudi Arabia, 1/60 or 1/120 work better.
• White balance: set it manually to a fixed color temperature rather than auto, so color doesn't shift within or between shots, and match it across cameras.
• Exposure: manual wherever possible, because auto exposure drifts during movement and the fluctuations show in the edit. The Exposure Triangle covers the basics.
• Picture profile: use the same profile on every camera. If you shoot log, budget time for grading, as explained in Color Correction and Color Grading.
• Syncing cameras: use timecode sync if available; otherwise, make one clear clap in view of every camera at the start of each take so clips can be synced by waveform.
• Phones: lock exposure and focus, and choose a fixed frame rate instead of the automatic setting. More in Professional Smartphone Photography.

Clean audio and room tone

Viewers forgive average pictures but rarely forgive bad sound, and noisy audio can never be fully repaired in the edit.

• Two microphones beat one: a lavalier on the speaker and a directional mic on a boom as a backup.
• Monitor with headphones throughout, not just by watching the level meter.
• Leave headroom: a common practice is to have dialogue peaks around -12 dBFS and to avoid clipping entirely, recording at 48 kHz.
• Control noise: switch off air conditioning, fridges and buzzing lights during takes, and remember to switch them back on afterwards, especially in a Gulf summer. Put phones in flight mode, and pause during the call to prayer before carrying on.
• Record room tone: 30 to 60 seconds of the location's "silence" with everyone standing still. Editors use it to fill gaps and smooth cuts in dialogue.
• Re-record lines as audio only if noise ruined them and the shot can't be repeated.
• Always record reference audio on the camera, even when the main sound goes to a separate recorder, to make syncing easy.

Audio in Video: Dialogue, Music and Effects explains what happens to these recordings in the mix.

Slating and logging takes

• The slate (clapperboard) shows scene, shot, take and date, and the sound of it closing gives a precise sync point between sound and picture.
• Tail slates: if you missed it at the start, slate at the end of the take with the board held upside down, a convention editors recognize.
• No clapperboard? Say the scene and take aloud at the start of the recording, then clap once in front of the camera.
• Flag the good take: say "that's the one" after a take, or give an agreed hand signal to the lens, so the editor spots it immediately.
• Shot log: file name or number, scene, take and notes such as "good", "background noise" or "soft focus". Hand it to the editor with the footage.

Shooting horizontal and vertical together

When the client needs horizontal and vertical versions, you have four options:

A quick calculation shows why resolution matters: a 9:16 crop from a 3840×2160 frame gives about 1215×2160 pixels, enough for a 1080×1920 export. The same crop from a 1920×1080 frame gives only about 607×1080, so the image has to be enlarged and loses sharpness.

Composition also differs between the two: vertical frames favor people and close shots, while horizontal frames hold the setting and the relationships between elements. Editing considerations for vertical video are covered in Editing Short-Form Video.

Managing media on set

• Copy every card to two different drives, with verification, before formatting it.
• Name cards and folders by camera, card and day.
• Protect drives and batteries from direct heat on exterior shoots.

Organizing a Video Editing Project and Its Files explains what happens to these files after handover.

Wrap checklist before the day ends

• Is every shot on the list captured, with coverage in several sizes for each scene?
• Is there B-roll for every topic raised in the interviews?
• Has room tone been recorded at every location?
• Did every take start and end with enough handles, and every camera move start and end still?
• Are settings matched across cameras: frame rate, shutter, white balance and picture profile?
• Were the required vertical versions and the packshot filmed?
• Has every card been copied twice with verification?
• Has the shot log been handed over with the footage?