Commercial Editing Techniques

Commercials editing

Post-Production

The job of a video editor is challenging. Making films for instance, whether short or feature-length, requires a strong sense of story, pace, and emotion. Editing adverts is a different beast altogether. Yes, the end product is far shorter than that of high-budget feature films, but this doesn’t mean the work requires any less strenuous thought and effort. In fact, the conciseness and specific aims of an advert present a whole new set of obstacles for the editor to overcome. This is because with adverts, you want to create something that not only leaves an emotional impact on your audience but also convinces them to buy into the brand/product/service being advertised.

TIMING

The best length for a commercial or ad is an often debated topic. For a typical ad, most national broadcasting stations allow either a 15-second, 30-second, or 60-second slot. Choosing the right length is going to be difficult, as every product and company differs. Some companies go ahead and produce all three commercial lengths, using each ad in different markets. They may use a 60-second spot for national television, 30-seconds for local television, and a 15-second spot for web ads.

Shorter commercials have been increasing in popularity. Advertisers can spend less on 15-second time slot versus a 30-second slot. This allows them to run the ad more often and for longer periods of time.

60-Seconds

Is the point of the commercial spot to tell a story? Then you will most likely need to use a full 60-seconds. This allows the most time to tell a brand story and leave viewers with a longer message. The downside is that this may be too long for most viewers. In fact, it’s been noted that an audience begins to lose attention around the 45-second mark. 60-second videos are also great at introducing a whole new ad campaign to viewers, which can result in shorter versions of the same ad, as well as different spots in the future.

When Geico and the Martin Agency launched a new ad campaign deemed the “unskippable” promos, they first introduced a 60-second version to show the concept to audiences. This version carries the gag from the 13-second mark when the dog first starts eating food up until the end.

30-Seconds

Commercial spots that focus on humorous campaigns benefit the most from 30-second spots. Viewers also have 75-80% the recall of a 30-second spot compared to a 60-second spot. With the right joke or amount of humor, the 30-second spot can also be more memorable than a 15-second ad. However, some believe that the 30-second ad is dying.

To further the example of recutting the same ad three times, here is the 30-second version of the same Geico ad. Note that the dog starts eating at the 10-second mark, shaving off three seconds from the previous ad. The ad ends before the dog gets on the table to eat the other plates.

15-Seconds

If the company is looking for the biggest return on a limited budget, a 15-second spot may be the best answer. These ads also tend to be more focused on sharing product information and using easy-to-explain messages. They can also be aired more frequently — and as mentioned previously, they are more likely to go viral on social media. The downside is that not all brand stories can be told in 15-seconds, and it can be difficult to convey larger messages. That said, shorter ads have a better chance of being repurposed for use on television, online, mobile, and in-store displays.

In the 15-second version of the Geico ad, the dog starts eating at the 12-second mark, and only eats from the father’s plate. It’s 1/4 of the length of the original 60-second ad, yet the joke still works in every version.

DON’T get precious over the material. In advertising, where many pieces of work will be a mere 30 seconds, this idea applies tenfold. It may be that there’s an amazing shot which is beautifully composed with perfect lighting, but if it doesn’t serve the overall narrative of the video, it should go. You have a very limited amount of time to make an impact on your audience, so every frame counts, and something that doesn’t help towards effectively getting your message across might as well be empty frames.

DON’T leave in mistakes. Sometimes, mistakes in the footage will limit your choice of where to make a cut. An actor’s brief hesitation midway through an otherwise great line reading, a shot that is perfect except for one second where the subject steps out of focus or the camera shakes – these small mistakes may dictate where you need to cut away in order to cover them up.

Cutting video and audio

DON’T cut video and audio at exactly the same time for every single shot. It is one of the tell-tale signs that a video has been edited by an amateur. Let’s say your ad involves two characters talking. You have one long take of an actor delivering all their lines and the reverse shot of the other actor delivering all theirs. You may think that the simplest way to edit this is to stay on the first actor as they say their whole line and then cut to the second actor as they say the entirety of theirs and so on. While I can’t say that cutting back and forth in this way is always wrong, doing it consistently not only shows a lack of creativity but also drains the sequence of naturalism. This is because it’s ignoring the subtle complexities, flow, and dynamics of an actual conversation, robbing the sequence of any resemblance to real life in favour of a stilted rhythm that is more like a verbal tennis match. Instead…

DO edit the video and audio separately. A good technique is to overlap the audio from one take to the previous shot so that the audio is heard before the source of it is seen on screen.

This is called an L-Cut (or J-Cut) and is one of the simplest yet most effective skills an editor can implement.

Match cuts are a great way to transition from scene to scene. But, they aren’t as simple to as one would hope, and the more complicated the transition, the more you need to plan.

Our videos breaks down the different kinds of match cuts in film editing, and shows you some of the most successful match cut examples across multiple film eras.

You’ll also learn about:

Graphic Match Cuts

Audio Match Cuts

Movement Match Cuts

please watch the video below

Editor, Walter Murch, outlined some helpful tools. In his book, In the Blink of an Eye, Walter Murch details The Rule of Six, discussing the six categories that make for a great cut.

Cut for emotion

A good rule of thumb for understanding this is to ask yourself: how will this cut affect the audience emotionally at this moment?

Not necessarily that you have to make them feel sad at one cut, or happy at another, this rule has more to do with what the film feels like.

Is this transition or cut in line with the general emotional experience of the story? General emotional experience of the story is the vibe or tone you have set. If you want to maintain this tone throughout the story, the cuts and transitions should match that tone.