Editing An Epic B-roll Step By Step

On this video photographer, Daniel Schiffer demonstrates how you can take plain b-roll footage and turn it into a professional-looking high-level shot. Schiffer uses Final Cut Pro 10 although you can do most if not all of the “tricks” shown in this video in most other editing software as well.

Although nothing in this video is really groundbreaking, the end result is certainly a huge step forward compared to the original shot and so it is really worth checking out if this type of shots is something that you do often.

Schiffer uses a slow-motion video that typically looks smoother but he also adds some stabilization and adds a little zoom in effect (about 140% for this specific clip). One thing that happens quite often in these clips is that the horizon is not straight so he fixes it in post by adding a keyframe with a rotation at the start and the end of the clip with the correct level.

A big part of the tutorial is dedicated to the smooth movement and getting the subject in the center which you can do by adding keyframes and keeping the speed of the video linear and the middle keyframe is smooth.

Finally, Schiffer adds a LUT and play with the different parameters – he suggests that just adding a LUT to a clip is not a good idea but adding a LUT and changing it based on the clip is a good idea. Another good idea is to to sharpen the clip locally so only the parts that you want to be sharp in the frame will be. On the background side you can add a little bit of blur (with an inverted mask this time).

You can find many more of Schiffer’s cool videos here. For more epic b-roll videos – check out our new epic-b-roll list.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.