Shoot for the edit chopp ing and chang ing

Unlike still photography, video is assembled later in the edit, and even the most brilliant clip is only raw material. To maintain viewer interest, think about and shoot from a variety of different angles, including a side-on view or a backward-looking view. Also use different focal lengths, from wide to long. Basically, the more you shoot, the more choice you have later to assemble a lively looking video.

There are no hard and fast rules about how long clips should be in the final edit – in other words, the speed of cutting from one to another – but if you pay attention to the way in which television documentaries, for example, are edited, you’ll see that it’s quite common to cut every few seconds. Audience attention spans are notoriously short, and just because you’re happy to gaze at a something you shot for a minute, don’t expect others to be quite so fascinated!