When editing footage, it s often useful to use a cutaway
or an insert shot to connect different scenes and add visual interest to your video.
In this tutorial, I explain the difference between these techniques
and show examples of how to use them.
[music]
A cutaway is a film clip that interrupts the main footage to provide visual context.
You can create a cutaway with any film clip or even a photo.
For example, a cutaway might show something that a person is describing in an interview.
Here a scientist is talking about wetlands on the North Island of New Zealand.
And there is a cutaway to an animation that shows some of the geographic features she s describing.
And then it cuts back to the scientist.
So instead of having a continuous scene showing a talking head,
which can be pretty boring, we get a shift in perspective to see what the person is describing.
Cutaways are easy to create in editing apps such as iMovie.
Here I've started a project in iMovie and I have all of my film footage in my iMovie library.
I'll select the main clip of the interview and drop it into the timeline.
Then I'll select the clip for the cutaway and drag it on top of the main film track.
Now when the video plays, it will automatically cut away to the animation clip and back again
to the scientist, but we'll still hear her voice during the cutaway.
Wetland as we see it today was formed about 2000 years ago with the big Taupo eruption.
When Lake Taupo erupted and everything got blocked and came down the Waikato River.
So it blocked a whole lot of the channels going into the Waikato River,
so this all formed as a result of the blockage.
So we know this is only about 2000 years old, although there would be
portions that would have deeper peats, but not the wetland as we know it today.
A related technique is the insert shot,
which is typically a closeup of something in the main scene.
In this example, a medium shot shows someone walking through a marsh.
Then the insert shot shows a closeup of what he's doing, which is taking a soil sample.
And then back to the medium shot of him standing.
This sequence was created from two clips.
First, I'll add the medium shot.
Then the closeup of the soil coring.
But I'll trim the selection first, then add it to the timeline after the first clip.
Now, there is a natural transition from the scientist as he bends
over to the closeup of his hands.
But I did not film him standing up and walking away.
To recreate that, I'll copy and paste the medium shot into the end of the timeline.
Then go to the speed icon and check reverse to reverse that clip.
Trim it a bit more to match better with the end of the closeup shot.
Now when I play the two clips, it looks like a continuous motion
from pulling the core out to standing up.
Let s look at one more sequence using insert shots and alternating viewpoints.
The film starts with a drone about to take off.
Then switches to an insert shot of the operator and controls.
And back to the drone taking off and a medium shot of the
operator walking down the road with the drone.
The perspective switches to the view from the drone as it passes a car.
And then the drone climbs higher to give a broader view of the landscape.
Now the flight is ending and the drone is filming the people on the ground.
A final change in perspective shows the operator catching the drone.
In this example, there were two cameras,
one on the drone and one operated by a person on the ground.
I'll show how I edited the first insert shot, which is really simple.
First, I drop the clip showing the drone taking off into the timeline.
Then I want to split the clip just before it takes off.
So I'll scrub to that point to find where the drone lifts off and split the clip.
Next I'll select the over the shoulder shot of the controls
and insert it between the halves of the split clip.
So I'll trim that a bit to the few seconds that I want to add
and then I'll drag it and drop it between those two halves.
The inserted shot builds a bit of anticipation by
putting the viewer closer to the operator's perspective.
And then the drone takes off.
After that, I inserted three clips showing the perspective from the camera on the drone.
The last shot switches to a final perspective from another camera on the ground.
So, insert shots and cutaways are two techniques that are easy to implement
but that can greatly enhance your science videos.
This is the scientist videographer.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to like my video if you found it helpful.
[music]