Hiki Nō Editing Tutorial “Shape Your Story Through Editing” Script v3 June 23, 2020
Video Audio
Cut to scissor montage Music up full, then under…
Sounds of scissors snipping
Graphics/text on screen VO: What is editing? What is EDITING?
Hongwanji kids cutting and piecing paper cut of story together
Smash cut to jujitsu fighters flip Slam of body hitting the ground
Young jujitsu kids sparring VO: When we edit, we put the story together.
Mochi pounding b-roll Sound of pounding
Shots of people interviewed VO: We put together the sounds and images of people speaking and telling the story.
Interviewee on camera Interview with mochi pounder: “Everybody’s not Buddhist, but you still have the tradition.”
Archer shoots, hits target Whack of arrow hitting target
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 1 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Haku lei maker weaving flowers and VO: We connect and clarify their words speaking on camera by adding the sounds of the reporter’s words.
Reporter VO: Miss Yiunige strives to make a difference by giving haku lei to others and teaching aloha to her students.
B-roll from Alabama transplant story VO: We transport the audience into the lives of the characters by adding video Cut to dog owner high fiving dog images from their workplaces or homes.
Cut to roller derby team in huddle Roller derby team cheers: Wahoo!
Cut to roller derby player in action VO: We show them in action.
Music stings out, new music transition begins up full, then under.
Cut to Kōnane players VO: We might add music.
Cut to montage of still images from VO: We might add still photos. various stories
Cut to Hiki Nō graphics VO: We might add text or graphics.
Shirley on Camera SOT: And the goal is to put the story together in a clear, interesting and creative way that moves the audience and makes them feel something.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 2 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Football team on field executing a play Sounds of football, calling plays, cheering
Football continues VO: Editing is collaborative by nature.
Cut to solo editor editing VO: There is usually one editor who is in charge of editing the story.
Montage of students in production and VO: But a Hiki Nō editor works closely post production. with a team that includes the reporter, the writer, the cameraperson, a teacher, a mentor, the HIKI NO Managing Editor, the Executive Producer, and the Online Editor who assembles the show in which your story will appear.
Player shoots basketball through hoop Balls swishes through net
Montage of students in production and VO: At some point all of these people post production will either contribute to the story, Cut to Roosevelt kids and teacher or weigh in on whether the story is reading feedback email on computer working or not, and how it could be improved.
Shirley on Camera SOT: And so, knowing how to be a good collaborator is one of the most important skills any editor can have: to be open to other ideas and willing to try them.
Music transition, bright and inquisitive
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 3 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Montage of students editing, getting VO: It’s not enough to have technical notes, talking with teacher. editing skills and know how to operate the editing software in your computer.
That’s important of course; an editor needs to know the tools of their craft. But a good editor needs to know how to receive notes from their teacher or mentor and then be able to figure out how to make those changes in order to deliver the strongest story possible.
Cut to runner on track It’s important for every editor to (need to add footstep sound here) understand that editing is a marathon and not a sprint. No one ever edits a perfect story on the first try.
Cut to shot of many rough cuts on Typically, a Hiki Nō story goes through Weebly six or seven or even more revisions before it gets approved for a broadcast.
Cut to Kapa Making, pounding and So, the editor is going to edit the first wetting, pounding and wetting, more cut of the story and then, after getting pounding. feedback from their teacher and their mentor, they and the team are going to re-edit, re-write, re-shoot and re-edit some more.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 4 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Shirley on camera SOT: It’s in this re-writing and re-editing that the magic can happen. New connections are made. And new ideas emerge.
And so it’s important to be open to the possibilities that come from the editing process and getting to understand your material better.
Music transition, new music
Shots from a Hiki Nō story You might have gone on location and not gotten the footage that you hoped for.
Shots from a Hiki Nō story Or you might be surprised by some of your footage and your story might change.
Shots from a Hiki Nō story Or you might discover something fantastic that someone says, but that you don’t have footage for yet, so you arrange to do another shoot or collect more images.
Shirley on Camera SOT: So, let’s look at this editing process and how to shape your story through editing.
Music stings out Do we need to add any titles to the end of this?
VIDEO ENDS HERE, TRT: 3:43 ###
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 5 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Rough outline of script of the rest of So, let’s start by watching the first rough the class begins here cut of a story by the students at Waiakea High School with their teacher Donn Yamamoto.
Cut to RC1 of Foster Care story TRT 3:11
This first rough cut was made for a summer workshop in Hilo, and amazingly this story was made in just four days. So I think these students did a really good job. The Hiki Nō staff asked them to develop the story further and they asked me to mentor the team. So, I sent them these notes.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 6 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial CU of email from Shirley Shirley reads email: Thanks for sharing your student's Rough Cut 1 with me. In general, it looks like this crew certainly knows how to edit a sequence and they have done a nice job cutting this story.
Frankly, I find the beginning of this story pretty boring. We begin the story about two office workers doing office work. There's no hook here. It became slightly interesting when I learned that they were a married couple who work together. Small hook...might catch small fish. But this story didn't really get interesting for me until we got to their foster daughter, hearing about her relationship with them and hearing about the fact that they foster lots of kids.
Is there a way to lead with their fostering and build the rest of the story around that? Less office work and typing, more talking about the challenges and rewards of being a foster parent. What do you think?
Shirley on Cam: So, these notes were written to a teacher who is a colleague I have worked with on many, many stories. Let’s break them down.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 7 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial First, never start a story this way: “This is my name, this is what I do.” For Hiki Nō, we always introduce a character with their name and title as text on screen, so there’s never a need for them to say it themselves. I think they did it here because they were in a workshop and they didn’t have titles. But more importantly, every story needs a hook at the start: something you say to your audience or show them at the very beginning of the story that makes them lean in and say, “Tell me more!” It has to be something that the audience connects to either intellectually or emotionally. And if you have to choose between the two, emotion wins every time.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 8 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial So, here’s the most important lesson and if you only remember one thing in this entire tutorial it’s this: always edit for emotion. For me when watching this first rough cut, I didn’t lean in until Ronnie the former foster kid showed up in the story at 1:44. I felt real emotion when Ronnie told her story. And when Danielle and Jonathan talk about being foster parents, they light up and your can just feel how meaningful the experience is for them. So truly, the work that they do in their office is far less interesting. But the fact that they care for other people’s children when the parents can’t…that’s the part of the story I want to hear more about. So, with those notes, the students re- wrote, acquired more footage, re-edited and created rough cut 2.
Cut to rough cut 2 TRT: 3:43
So, it’s very rough and missing a bunch of footage, but that’s okay at rough cut 2, especially when I know that their story is changing, and they haven’t done their second shoot yet. These are the notes I sent to the team:
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 9 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Great. I think your students have done a good job in making the story more about Foster Care. I know your students are still editing and so I'll just offer some very broad comments.
Once I know that these two are married and both work together at Catholic Charities, that's enough about that. It's the least important or interesting part of their story. They can probably say one thing less about it in the beginning.
If the story is running long...have the students trim from the beginning of the story. The faster they can get to the fostering part of the story, the better...this is where the story really gets interesting for me.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 10 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial So, I want to bring back something I mentioned in the introduction: it’s important to be open to the possibility of the story changing in the edit process. This team originally pitched a story about a couple who are married who have also worked together in the same office for 20 years. The foster care part of the story was kind of secondary for them. And so, they really believed that the hook of the story was this idea of a married couple working together for 20 years, and the idea that they also foster children was an interesting twist to the story that they would reveal later. You can hear in my notes that I am trying to strongly suggest to them to lead with the foster parenting or at least move it WAY up in the story.
The team was also working with the subjects Danielle and Jonathan to get photographs of Ronnie when she was young and living with them and also working to get permission to film one of the children they are foster parenting. So, with these notes and with those plans, the team produced Rough Cut 3.
Cut to Rough cut 3 TRT: 3:48
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 11 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial So, can you see the difference and how this story is changing and getting better with each version?
Here are the very brief notes I sent them, via Susan Yim because I was traveling that day.
Thanks for picking up the baton Sue! I watched their story early this morning.
I would flip the first two sound bites: wife speaks first then husband. Maybe split her sound bites in half and put the husband in the middle. I think the b-roll is fantastic! Story is really strong!!!
So, sometimes the mentor will give very detailed notes about the editing and which shots should go where. But this team is very advanced, and these students really know how to shoot and edit sequences. What’s important to note here is how much more emotion there is in the story now.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 12 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial The foster child they filmed is so adorable, and you can see in the footage that the Mendozas have a close and loving relationship with him. For example, the close up of Danielle holding his little hand.
And instead of opening the story with images of office workers typing at computers, they started with a vibrant scene of the couple and the foster child at the table coloring. Way more visually interesting than people at computers in cubicles.
Every voiceover or soundbite or shot has to help tell the story and move the story forward. If a shot doesn’t move the story forward, take it out and find one that does.
In this rough cut, you can see that they developed Ronnie’s story so much more. We get to see photos and video of her when she was their foster kid, and that shows how big a part Danielle and Jonathan played in her life.
And when we see Danielle speak about Ronnie, she really lights up with love and enthusiasm. Emotion, emotion, emotion!
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 13 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial One editing technique that this editor uses which I think is very effective is bringing natural sound up full for a couple of beats in between the interview soundbites. Note these examples:
Cut to brief clip of Danielle with foster Nat sound up of Danielle to Foster Child child brushing teeth brushing teeth: “Oh! Good job!”
Cut to brief clip of Ronnie and Danielle Nat sound up of Ronnie: “Oh my and Jonathan looking at old photos goodness, look how small I am!” Danielle to Ronnie: “Wait you’re gonna love this one…”
A person can tell you something in an interview and you can use that soundbite to convey that idea to your audience. But if your audience can hear it and see it happening in the footage without anyone having to say it, sometimes it can be more powerful. Or a moment like this, where you see and hear your characters have real emotions or reactions, can underscore and emphasize what they say in their interview.
So, while the Waiakea High team held on to their idea of the married couple working together for their open, this is now really a lovely story about what it means to be a foster parent and foster child.
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 14 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial At this stage, it’s time to fine tune the picture edits, clean up all the audio edits and address the small notes I gave them. I thought some of the soundbites went on for too long in the beginning and so I suggested changing the order and cutting one of Danielle’s sound bites in half.
The Waiakea high editor made that change in rough cut 4, and we sent the story to the team at PBS Hawai‘i to review. The HIKI NO Managing Editor, Executive Producer, and Online Editor all watched rough cut 4 and they offered suggestions for small changes, which the Waiakea High editor addressed in rough cuts 5 and 6. Rough cut 7 was approved and here is the final story as it aired on Hiki Nō.
Cut to Final Story TRT: 3:50 (with pad)
Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 15 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial Cut to text on screen to underscore So, to review: these points. - Editing is collaborative by nature and being a good editor means being a good collaborator: knowing how to receive feedback and how to apply that feedback in order to tell the strongest possible story. - Be open to the possibility that your story might change in the editing process and don’t be afraid to go for the stronger story if one emerges. - Start your story with a strong hook that makes your audience lean in and want to know more. - Every shot should move your story forward. If it doesn’t, lose it. - And always, always edit for emotion.
Shirley on camera Good luck with your editing for Hiki Nō and aloha!
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Hiki Nō Edi ng Tutorial - Shape Your Story Through Edi ng - Page 16 of 16 Shirley Thompson Editorial