When an Editor Should Cut to the Interview Subject
The concept of editing, whether it’s a news piece, documentary, or corporate video, is fairly straightforward.
First you assemble your A-Roll, which consists of all the sound bites you want to use in your video.
Second, you add B-Roll on top of all the interviews, in order to illustrate what the subjects are talking about.
Third, you cut between the two.
That’s the concept. The reality is that editing is an art, full of nuance. Each cut has a purpose and the way in which cuts are assembled can have a dramatic impact on viewer emotions.
The question then is, “How does an editor know when to cut?” Or “Why does an editor make a cut at a certain point?”
Cutting away from a b-roll shot to a talking head shouldn’t be an afterthought. You shouldn’t place your interview subject on the screen just because you ran out of b-roll. Like every other edit in your piece, there should be a reason behind that edit. So, when do you show your interview subject on screen? In this video I talk about a few methods for editing your A-roll more effectively.