Unless otherwise noted all text, pictures, captures and illustrations are by Mike Strong. Copyright 2003 - 2017 Mike Strong, all rights reserved.
Digital Video Editing

Cutting on the Beat
... Crossfading Dance Clips

In this exercise we are going to shorten a musical scene, in this case a JAM at Louis and Company in Overland Park. The idea is to position one swing aerial right after another without making it obvious that we are also cutting the sound track. So, we will have to match beats in order to blend the sound as smoothly as possible.

The audio tracks in your videos do not come with musical notation to tell you where the uniform sections of music are located. These sections are called bars (or measures). But you need to be able to hear them, to listen for them in your editing. Because the music is designed to fit smoothly, and in a regular way, within these measures of music. If you could see the musical notation you would see the "time signature" which tells you how many beats of music are in each measure and the standard duration of each of those beats.

Within those beats are various patterns of accents, where some beats are emphasized and others are not. As an editor you can listen for those accents. While the actual notes and beats may change, you will hear the pattern of accents on top of the pattern of beats themselves. Here is the secret to good dance edits. You can count off how many beats are in the measure by counting beats between accents. As you listen to this, you will find your edit locations.

If, for example, you cut the first clip at the main accent, you need to start the next clip at the main accent for that clip. In other words, If you stop (cut) the first clip at the first, or second, or third, etcetera beat in a measure you need to find the same beat (first, second, third, etcetera) in the next clip, in order to make a smooth-sounding crossfade, or sometimes, straight cut.

There is a rule in tap dancing that no matter how you work your arms, legs and the rest of your body, it isn't good tap unless it sounds right. The same thing when editing dance. Yes, you must match motions as well as possible, but unless the music matches and sounds good, it is not dance video or dance editing.

There is also a rule in moving pictures, whether film or video, that sound quality can make a movie or destroy it. You need good sound if the visual component is to live. In dance video there is another component, matching the dance moves with the sound.

A common montage editing technique is to jumble together a number of visual clips with a single sound track underneath. Dance-blind (I will call them) editors, including "big timers" will often do this kind of mashup without considering whether the dancer's moves go with the sound. There are few things more jarring to a dancer. Editing dance footage requires matching music and moves.

Dance Studio Opening


In this (above) short video from the opening of a dance studio in Overland Park, all the clips use their own sound. There is NO sound track running under any part of this video which does not belong to its visual. Each clip is as it was shot. All sounds are merged from one clip to another in the manner described below. This was shot in 1920x1080 HiDef on a Panasonic HMC-150, recording in AVCHD format to a 16gb SDHC card.

Ailey

Above is a short media clip extract from an Alvin Ailey concert. I was shooting for two purposes, one, for Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey and two for media distribution (newspaper, news site). For KCFAA I was shooting the portions of the concert devoted to the kids who were brought in from area schools where KCFAA was putting on demonstrations and workshops. That was one set of footage. And the media coverage of Ailey was limited to 30 minutes of actual footage taking about three minutes for news/editorial usage. I used about a minute-forty-five which you can see here. Once again the editing is around the music. This was shot in standard def with a Canon GL2 to miniDV tape and captured via Firewire.

At no point, for dance, do I ever just lay down an audio track and drop any old visual on top. I consider that butchery. It is the result of not having enough subject knowledge to respect the subject, in this case the dancers, the dance, and the choreography.

From a regular saturday swing jam in Overland Park at Louis and Company.
First Clip
Second Clip
Last Clip
Real Media: 56kb, 128kb
Real Media: 56kb, 128kb
Real Media: 56kb, 128kb
 
RealMedia Clip of the combined pieces ( 56kb, 128kb, 256kb ).

The Exercise Files

Basic Concepts

  1. Drop each video file in turn into the video tracks
  2. Determine where you are going to slice and remove part of the first one then recombine them
    1. Reposition the video and audio tracks above and below each other so they overlap each other without intersecting
    2. Move the audio tracks to get the best (nearest) alignment of "beats" in the music
      1. Preferably, if you cut away on the 2-count, cut back in on a 2-count
    3. Separately fade the ends of both audio tracks to create a blend of beats.
    4. Keep trying the match by moving the tracks left and right until the sounds seem to blend with as little disruption as possible.
    5. Fade one or both ends of the video tracks to create a dissolve between the slices
  3. Determine where you are going to merge each of the next two files onto the end of the previous edit
  4. Return to step two

NOTE: to get a grade on this, make sure each clip uses its own sound which blends with any adjacent clip. If you simply place sound underneath a set of video cuts you will get a zero on this.

As you do this exercise you need to use these three video clips on the data DVD

    • Video Files from the data DVD:
      • JamCut_Enter.wmv
      • JamCut_Louis.wmv
      • JamCut_Finale.wmv
    • Or Files specifically made for this exercise may be downloaded from this page:

As with any project, start with Text for your name and username. That way I know whose piece this is.

1 - Drop the first clip into the work area. (JamCut_Enter.avi)

2 - Look for a spot or spots to split the clip. Hit the "S" key to split the tracks at the start and end positions.

3 - Remove the sections of video and audio you don't need by clicking on that event which highlights (selects it) and then hit the "Delete" key.

4 - Move the video and audio tracks for the event you wish to use for the first dissolve so that they are above and below, effectively overlapping the starting video.

5 - Start widening the clips on the tracks by: 1) placing the edit cursor in the center of the area you want to look at and then 2) using the up arrow on the keyboard to widen (expand) the tracks.

6 - Once you can see the sound-wave pattern well enough to try matching beats in one section of the music with beats in another section of music, move the new (right-most clip) back and forth while you keep playing the clip to listen to the sound.

7 - Fade the audio tracks across each other to create a crossfade.

8 - Fade one or both of the Video Tracks (here the top track is faded in). This fades in the new action over the old action.

9 - After this we can re-size the track widths.

10 - Drag the next video clip into the work area. and slide it in to place. Notice that we are going to use alternate areas on the video tracks so that we can fade each track separately.

11 - Again Expand the width of the work area by placing the cursor in the center of the area you are looking at then hitting the Up-Arrow (remember the Down-Arrow contracts the area).

12 - As you do this, change the boundaries of your clips by heading to the left or right sides and dragging the boundary inward to fit the needed size.
-- Play with the position as your play the clip again until the sound is as smoothly blended as you can get it. Fade the ends of the events to further smooth out the blend with a crossfade.

13 - The result looks something like this illustration (above).

14 - Now click the "Make Movie" button and create a version for the web.
(or use the file menu and select the Render option - this is essentially the same thing but with a slightly different set of options.)

Choose the file format as WMV and the file quality/bandwidth at 256 kb.

15 - Place the resulting rendered WMV file on your site.

16 - Create a media link from your Assignment Page to this media clip.

Further Information ...

Putting clips together for dance

Listening is extremely important to anyone editing dance. Also to anyone shooting still photographs of dance. Don't just look for motion. First and foremost, listen. I will go so far as to say that listening is far more important than watching. This is not mere movement photography. This is about the music with matching motion. You should think of dancers as being members of the band or orchestra. In most concert venues the dancer is working within the music produced by the instrument players. In other cases, such as Flamenco or Tap, the dancer is either another instrument, such as Tap where the dancer's taps are another percussion instrument or Flamenco where not only are the sharply rapped shoes percussion instruments but in which the dancers themselves control the music by stamping and clapping the rhythms and counter rhythms.

Put another way, sometimes the dancers follow the music and sometimes the musicians follow the dancers. In all cases, you, the editor, must follow the music because that is where we all meet, dancers, musicians, and (supposedly, if you are shooting right, most don't) photographers.

Brief side note: If you are a photographer using your motor drive ("C" setting for continuous), don't. You may impress others with the numbers of frames per second but you get my scorn. I can't tell you how many times I've looked over to see one of the local "big" media shooters thrashing away with the rapid clicking of a motor drive with impress-me lens attached only to see later that those thousands of exposures wind up in the newspaper with a shot or shots just missing the prime moments of movement or (often) catching the dancers in some in-between position which is technically wrong but was chosen nonetheless, for a proudly huge, embarassing-if-they-knew-better, multi-column picture in the news paper.

Dance is very specific about where, within the music, all movement is centered. If you "shotgun" the shooting it only shows you haven't a clue about what to shoot, worse it leaves you with a ton of exposures, none at the exactly right moments, and none of which you have a clue about which to choose. So, you've increased your work and lowered your quality. Learn dance first. Shoot as a dancer, shooting the dance, rather than as a photographer, shooting your camera (framing, lens choice, etcetera). Shoot the subject, not your equipment and not any graphics rules such as the 2/3rds rule. Any of those choices should come naturally from the subject, not pre-imposed as a "graphics agenda" - so to speak.

In the clip above you can see the process of matching the count between two clips so that we have a merge which is smooth. Note that we are not merely placing a beat on a beat and calling it a day. What we are doing is moving a beat on one clip over a beat on the other clip and then testing the sound to see whether the count is also matched. For example if we exit the first clip on the 1st or 2cnd or 3rd beat we need to enter the next clip on the same beat for that measure of music. This won't always be the case because the time signature may change. In that case you will need to work harder to find a location within the music in which the transition from the first to the second clip sounds smoothly.

Notice, also, that we do not fade the ends of the audio into each other until after they match as smoothly as possible untapered. If we put in the fades before we finalize the position of the clips it is impossible to really match the beats because the fade prevents our hearing the mixed area. Once we get those ends to sound good while sill un-faded, then we can fade the sounds into each other to finish out the sound match between the clip ends. Fading the ends is the last step in the process.

Note that these are pretty straight forward examples and involve cutting into a musical piece in which the music remains similar throughout much of the piece. You may also need to blend music which varies in tempo or in time signature in which case you will need to work a little harder. In some cases you will simply need to bring the first music down before starting again with the new music. In other cases you will need a longer than usual fade on the incoming music or vice versa. In many cases, including these, you will need to adjust the curves of the blend to find a curve combination (fade out curve and fade in curve) which sound right. This is just repetitive work until you get it right.

1 - Good Example
The right way to fade audio between two dance clips.

Always match the music between the clips. Usually you can see the beats easily enough, but you will need to back off a bit and keep playing the music to figure out where the count matches. For example, if you cut the first clip at the two count, you will need to locate the next two count that will also match visually on the clip/section you want to bring up next.

256kb - Video for Good Example - Shows crossfade between three clips matching the music. As you watch, make note of how smoothly the sound changes from one clip to the next and also watch carefully as you listen carefully to see the dancers move specifically on each beat. The merge between the last two is a little less obvious because the third clip is not as emphatic about the beats. This results in a crossfade is what you want and it is what I want to see in your assignment.

2 - BAD Example #1 - Not matching the music

It is typical to just shove two clips together, more or less matching some visual action in the first clip with the second clip. That is not what you want. The illustration below shows the area where two clips overlap for a cross fade. Note, that in this (wrong) example the clearly defined beats in the sound tracks are positioned in the wrong spot, between each other rather than directly over each other, matching, as the correct example above shows.

256kb - Video For Bad Example #1 - Shows crossfade between three clips with music which is not matched. This causes a rough transit where the clips merge. It is almost a physical "hit" as if you were stumbling when one clip's beats don't match with the merging clip. This gets you a zero grade.

 

3 - BAD Example #2
One sound track under more than one clip - not matching the music

Never do this with dance or any other music. No matter how much it may be practiced by the old hands in your shop. Most of them haven't a clue about dance and have no appreciation for the music. In this wrong example we have placed three clips across a single sound track. It so happens we are simply extending one of the three tracks to get the audio for the other two but often video editor do an even worse job of it by picking some separate audio file and just dump visual clips over the top of the audio.


For most things which are not dance this methods works well enough. Using sound under a montage of clips or pictures from around a town generally works alright. But using this technique with dance is pure butchery and frankly a lot of the "big boys" butcher dance footage with mis-matched audio because they know nothing about dance.

256kb - Video for Bad Example #2 - This is commonly used by editors and I can't tell you how badly this grates. It is wrong and you will get a zero from me if you merely place a set of cuts over a single track of sound. Any dancer will tell how they grit their teeth when the watch video of dance where the music doesn't match the dance moves. This also gets you a zero grade on this assignment.

This bad example shows one sound track (from the first clip) used for all three. In the screen capture I put the single track between the other two to make them a little easier to see. This causes the last two clips to show dancers on the wrong beat. Believe me, you may not notice, but dancers will and it drives them up the wall. Once you see this example, go back to the good example and compare them. Then play this one again. The mis-match between the dancer's movements and the music should start making you a little crazy as well (listen to the beats and watch the actions correspond or not correspond)

YouTube - Bad Example - Framing Dance

In this Excerpt posted to YouTube you will see that the cinematographer and the director forgot that dancers use their feet. This is from a Laurel and Hardy 1933 film called "Sons of the Desert." The dancer is Charita Alden (born Manilla, The Phillipines, 26 Nov 1911 - ?).

Never, never, never frame a dancer or a dance this way. Despite the amount of story-telling Hawaiian arm and hand motions, the leg work and footwork are just as important in Hula. Dancers are almost obsessive about feet. Once split-second glance at a dancer's feet tells another dancer a great deal about the ability of the dancer and the type of dance they were trained in.

In dancer's parlance "good feet" Is not about unbruised or pretty feet. "Good feet" means a dancer who forms their feet in a particular way, always very graceful, and which are specific and precisely controlled. The feet are the foundation of posture and control all the way to the top of the dancer. If you are not including the whole dancer, you are not seeing the dance or the dancer. Do NOT shoot close ups of nostrils or motion (almost) ever.

If you are a dancer watching video you really want to see the dance, not shifts in focus and framing because an editor thinks it is boring to stay longer on a shot. That kind of shifting is for persons ignorant of the subject. Shoot what will be informative for someone who knows the subject. If you are a dancer shoot for what you want to see. Remember, as a dancer you will be looking at how that dancer or dancers work, everything that is done and how it is done. This is like an apprentice's instruction for you. The hula above just makes you grit your teeth (if you have an interest in dance) because you want to see the whole technique.

There are few things more irritating to a video-viewing dancer, watching what the on-screen dancer is doing, than when the editor or videographer cuts from a full-body to a top-of-body shot or a cut-away to hands or a side view. Apparently the non-dancer editor or photographer is getting bored or thinks the view will get bored. This normally seems to happen at the very instant the viewer/dancer is deep into checking out and absorbing the costume, footwork, line, or other items of business.

More Examples - To listen to

Here the word is "listen." The next term is "subject knowledge."

Dave Stephen's Jazz Circus

Above is a promo video of Dave Stephens from an appearance at the Screenland Armour theater in North Kansas City on July 3rd, 2010. This features Dave's "Jazz Circus" act. Notice, once again that the cuts are on the sound. There is no spot here where any sound is placed under any set of video clips. All clips you see match for sound and/or match musically. They all have the sound they were shot with.

Three cameras were used for this, two Sony FX-1000s (HDV format) on the sight line level and one Panasonic HMC-150 higher and back in mid-house location. The cuts from camera to camera, with matching action should be obvious. For those the sound matches because they are in sync with each other.

Raqsi No 1 - Cafe Cedar

The word "Raqsi" is a play on "Roxie" theater and on the Arabic word for song, raks (various spellings in transliteration). This example comes from a set of events for middle eastern dance in the KC area (popularly known as "bellydance").

 

This was the first of four events in the first quarter of 2010 at Cafe Cedar in Parkville, Missouri (good Lebanese and Mexican food, by the way). What I want you to notice here are the varied musics and how they are blended from one short excerpt to another and how, within each piece, the cuts between different parts of the piece are blended. Of course this should also look good but the music in dance should not be jarring from one piece of music to another, even when the pieces are very different.