Editing

• Do NOT place two clips of the same interview next to each other and try to cover the transition with a dissolve (or worse, a cut!). If you absolutely must cut up an interview so that you have two soundbites from the same person right next to each other, then cover the middle with relevant B-roll. Yes, I know that abrupt cuts or dissolves are frequently used on television and in movies, but we try to avoid using them in news.
• In fact, try to avoid using dissolves or fades under any circumstances. We are producing news, not movies or music videos, and so we don’t want or need fancy transitions.
• The quality of your editing is dependent upon the quality of your shots. No amount of skillful editing can make up for crappy shots.
• B-roll should remain on screen for at least four seconds so the viewers can understand what they are seeing. B-roll should never be on the screen for more than eight seconds. Six seconds is plenty for static shots.
• All B-roll should be relevant to whatever voiceover is heard underneath it. Don't reuse clips in a single story. We should never see the same shot twice.
• Avoid flash frames. Those are very brief flashes of black screen that appear whenever two clips aren’t right next to each other in your editing timeline.
• The rhythm of your editing is very important. Edits convey almost as much information as shots and angles. Keep editing rhythms consistent with each other and also with the tone/content of your story.