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Control the Timing of the Story

Lesson 14 from: How to Edit Video in DaVinci Resolve

Casey Faris

Control the Timing of the Story

Lesson 14 from: How to Edit Video in DaVinci Resolve

Casey Faris

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Lesson Info

14. Control the Timing of the Story

Like ingredients in a recipe, each video clip you select contributes to your bigger story. In this lesson, Casey teaches you how to choose and combine clips that support the story you're trying to tell.
Summary (Generated from Transcript)

This lesson is about how to control the timing of a story when editing video in DaVinci Resolve. The instructor explains that by adjusting the duration of each clip, the pacing of the story can be altered, allowing the editor to evoke different emotions and create different effects for the audience. The right pacing depends on the story being told and the desired emotional response from the audience. The lesson emphasizes the importance of watching the entire project and seeking feedback to ensure that the pacing effectively communicates the intended message.

Q&A:

  1. How can the timing of a story be controlled in DaVinci Resolve?

    The timing of a story can be controlled by adjusting the duration of each clip in the timeline.

  2. How does altering the duration of each clip affect the pacing of the story?

    Shortening the duration of each clip will make the story move along faster, while lengthening the duration will slow down the pacing.

  3. What factors should be considered when deciding the right pacing for a story?

    The right pacing depends on the story being told and the desired emotional response from the audience. It is important to consider the context and purpose of the video.

  4. How can editors ensure that they are achieving the desired pacing in their edits?

    Editors can watch the entire project in its entirety to assess whether the pacing is effectively conveying the desired emotions. Seeking feedback from others can also provide valuable insights into how the edit is being perceived.

  5. Is there a right or wrong answer when it comes to the pacing of a story?

    There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to pacing. It depends on what the editor wants to communicate to the audience and the effect they want to achieve.

Lesson Info

Control the Timing of the Story

The last major aspect of control that we have over our story here in The Timeline is with timing. We can use everything that we've kind of learned so far about selecting, which clips, putting them in a certain order, selecting a specific part of each clip. And as they combine together, it's going to affect the pacing of the story. For an instance, if we have him making this pizza, we could start with him sassing the dough like this and then we could cut to, then we could cut to the cheese And the Tomatoes and the herbs, And our edit might look like this. So we see a lot of sauce, And putting on the cheese, and then kind of finishing off the pizza. But there's a certain timing that this really has this there's kind of a certain feeling that this has. In my opinion this is maybe a little bit slow. It's kind of a medium sort of pace where it doesn't look like he's overly rushed. It looks like he's doing a good job. And it's not taking forever. But it looks like kind of, you know, very nor...

mal pizza speed. (laughs) But, as we adjust how much of each clip to use, each clip is going to show up for a little bit less time. And therefore the story is going to move along faster. So, we could do something like just use the last part of this sauce. And then use just the last part, Or maybe the more interesting part of him. Putting the cheese down. And then we'll have him just put the little finishing touches on this pizza. And now instead of a 17 second edit we have a five second edit. So it's sauce, cheese and finished. So, that's a huge way that we can control that. We can even make this faster. We can really trim this down, and it'll tell the same story, but the pacing is different. It just goes a lot faster. So we'll just trim each of these together. And now we have the same story over two seconds. And it's probably a little bit quick, so maybe we'll hang on that last one for a little longer. And we'll use an earlier part of this clip, there we go. Now we have super quick story. So, what is the right pacing for a story? Well, it really depends on, again the story that you're trying to tell. If you want this guy to seem like he's really pro and he can make a pizza in like five seconds flat, you could make a five second edit. If you want, let's say your movie to feel like, oh every day he comes in and he makes a pizza and it just takes forever and he's bored and he hates his job. That might be a reason to make really long, boring, big long shots. (chuckles) As an editor, you're in control of the timing of the story. And I think a great question to ask is how do you want your audience to feel when they look at your edit? Do you want them to feel excited? Do you want them to feel anxious? Do you want them to feel like bored and just, you know feeling like Ugh, every day is exactly the same. It depends on the context of what you are trying to do. The pacing for an edit of a commercial is going to be very different than the pacing of let's say a feature film. And the very best way to figure out if you're doing this right or not is just to sit back and watch the whole project in its entirety and see is this making me feel the way that I want my audience to feel, maybe ask somebody else to come and look at your edit and ask them how they feel. What is communicated through your edit? There's no really wrong answer or right answer. It's just dependent on what you want to get across to your audience.

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Ratings and Reviews

Stan
 

This is a great class! Probably my favorite Creativelive class so far. I've been a fulltime photographer for 13 years now, I guess it's about time I get back into video. I love that Resolve has a free version to learn on. The pace of this class was perfect, can't wait to watch the rest of Casey's DaVinci classes.

Simona Geneva
 

Thanks to Casey Faris for the interesting study material. I have been looking for a creative life course for DaVinci Resolve for a long time and I am very happy that one has already been created on your platform. I look forward to the other pieces. Thanks again for the shared knowledge!

user-ada623
 

I've seen many DaVinci tutorials that seem to just make things more confusing but Casey's tutorial really took a simple step-by-step explanation to really show how powerful and yet simple it is to use Davinci. The tools Casey covered in this course gave me the confidence to edit the ton of videos I have collecting dust on my hard drive. Great job Casey and a great sense of dry corny humor...lolol highly recommended!!

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