“From MTV on, the speed of editing has increased, and that is now entering into narrative editing. People are not relying on good shots to tell the story, and I don’t think you can sustain that kind of cutting for the full length of a film.” – Thelma Schoonmaker

I recently directed a video for Livestrong which they are using internally. They then handed me a hard drive with their workout videos and asked me to edit them into a 30 second ad that they could use to promote their YouTube channel. It’s always a lot of fun to take footage and compile it against some music. So, in this case finding the right music track was paramount to figuring out the rhythm of the edits, especially when you’re working in such a tight video length of 30 seconds. I found an inexpensive track that hit all the right notes, a lot of energy but not annoying, and it also ended very smoothly. From there it’s a matter of combing through the footage I was given and finding all the fun cinematic moments that tell the story. I’m a big fan of movement, whether it’s the camera moving or the actors, movement is often really great, especially in a video about working out.