Oooooo.... best thread starter for a long time. I'll keep schtum.... for a bit....

to be flippant - just because you have a word processor and know a lot of words doesn't mean as soon as you start typing you'll create a masterpiece ;-)

xavier is pretty much right...

all videos should start off with some sort of script, be it paper or in the director's head. to make matters easier it's best done with a paper script and from that, you can build a shot list. of course, the shot list is flexible, but with one you wont be shooting endless, pointless footage. editing is where the whole shebang is pulled together, it can be incredibly boring, or exciting, depending on how you approach it - but either way you must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

as for your 'previsualising' - this is a BASIC requirement for the whole and any part of the process. video production requires imagination.

i'm awaiting grazie's take on this - he's certainly a highly creative professional editor from what i gather.

To me, the technical process cannot begin without the vision--and the vision, thus the outcome, is always affected by the process. Sometimes, the artistic result transcends the sum of the parts.

Edgar Allen Poe's self-analytical essay, "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846), should be on every editor's reference shelf. It ties the artist-as-technician question into something we can digest.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/composition.html

i'm awaiting grazie's take on this - he's certainly a highly creative professional editor from what i gather.

Oh Leslie, I don't deserve your plaudits. I do try not to be boring and search for new ways in doing what I've done before.

I study what's been done and watch and learn from others for my inspiration. Inspiration may come from adverts, magazine covers, shooting my own stills, collecting objects from nature, analysing textures and studying the Masters like Rembrandt and the pre-raphaelites. And then there's Music! To enjoy and give myself permission in discovering new ways of seeing and hearing is most likely "core" to my own video direction and lodestone.

Get hold of Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye - this has been of great meaning/direction for me. He was brought in late the day by Francis Ford Coppola on "Apocalypse Now" to re-re-re-edit the film. Walter's telling of the edit process was truly inspirational. And then again, his short video and discussion on his collaboration with Anthony Minghella on the film "Bare Mountain". What I took from both these examples is the permission to immerse myself in the visuals and sounds of what has been gleaned from the capture process, and, if needs be, re-capturing more material.

OK, one project, captured over a year, I had the seven involved-clients attend a focus group type meeting and do a share and compare what they thought what makes a good movie and what were their favourite movies; what they wanted from the project we were embarking on; why were they going forward with the project and then to choose their top three WORDS that encapsulated the project. Using the same approach on another project which had to be a video that would be added to a National Lottery post capital-building rebuild project-outcome submission - yeah, dry eh? - I could only do after the Building had been done! I had the group match the capital-building project outcomes to single "adjectives" that best described the success of the outcomes. We then turned those adjectives into Verbs, doing words, that then formed the shot-list for me and my producer who became my co-director.

When I have been given the privilege to be commissioned to do a project I immerse myself in it, but each new project hopefully builds and nurtures the next.

Apologies for my ramblings, I hope something may have made sense for and to you. If you wish to contact me off-Forum drop me a message.

not rambling at all. very insightful. thank you.

i just wish i had clients as receptive as yours to new/fresh ideas. but such is life.

You're busy all the time? And you've had centuries in the Craft. First priority: Pick your Clients!😏

not all the time, but when i'm not, i studiously avoid everything to do with technology - that's why when i 'retired' i did so to a small farm. the dogs don't complain, the chooks are more entertaining than most tv soaps - and better plotted, etc.,

ah, if picking ones clients was so easy... i often joke/d (though it isn't, or rather wasn't) that i was basically a hooker; whatever walked through the door and could pay for my pro equipment (betasp vtrs @ $25k a pop, sp400 camera rig with good glass, $45k, etc., etc.,), was fair game. one day i'd be cutting ads for greenies, the next some lunatic far-right bunch, and smiling at all of them no matter how crass, stupid, boring, badly thought-out their project was. you get the idea...

now most of my video work revolves around the horse industry, shooting artist profiles, and as ever, whatever else walks in the door. i'm not complaining, i made a great living from doing what i wanted to do as a child - which was watch television all day. i've had my moments of creativity, and been well recompensed for them, equally, i've been paid for work i've refused to have my name on. but either way it's a great business to be in, as i'm sure you and many others here would agree?

I know the question is a bit nebulous... I hope you understand what I'm asking. It's sort of like people who draw without a reference image: They must (?) be able to see it in their brain before/while putting an image down on paper or canvas.

Is there a corollary for video? Is that what separates the artist from the rest of us? The difference between a "shutterbug" with GAS vs. a "photographer" comes to mind....Can you learn "previsualization"?....cuz I have bupkis in that category!

Any answers appreciated!

Prariedogpics,

For me, every project calls for a slightly different
approach, but I certainly enjoy working with projects I can previsualize. Let
me give you an example with one of the projects on the go at the moment.

Recently we had a large family reunion event. Everyone
took photos and videos including myself and a relative who is a professional
photographer. It has fallen on me to collate these assets and turn them into an
edited video. Some of the family would be disappointed if their low-res happy
snaps or portrait-orientation mobile phone videos don't make the final cut. I got an overview of the
highpoints and lowpoints of what was available and let that percolate for a few
days. I came to the decision to make 2 videos – an atmospheric one with high
production values that I was happy to put my name to, and a second lighter
home-movie style (possibly with 3d animation involved) to serve as a more
complete historical record.

After a few more days percolating, I had “previsualised” the
atmospheric video. Although people were coming and going over a period of 5
days, I decided to conflate the best material into one ‘notional' day. Morning
(indoor, casual, socialising, presents); Afternoon (outdoor dining and activities
in the country); Evening (sunset picnic on the beach, relaxing, mild
nostalgia). I already had hero shots in mind for these three segments and knew
there would be a fair bit of colour matching and styling to stitch in other
segments to match. I also knew there was still low-res material that needed to
be included so am thinking in terms of light leaks and other technical ways to
integrate them.

Next I decided to choose a music track to suit, and decided
to match the video to the uncut audio. I have now placed 86 editing markers on
that audio track on selected beats, paying particular attention to pacing of
the cuts – beginning and end longer with takes and soft cross fades, three bunches
of rapid cuts spaced out like visual choruses, etc

This is where I am at the moment. I have dragged the assets
into the projects and tagged them. The point is – I have yet to make a single
video edit but I do have a fair idea of how the finished project will look.

There are many types of project that don’t suit this ‘top-down’
approach, but I do recommend occasionally having a try at holding a whole project in your
head before making a single edit.

Hope that has been of some help.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. The variety of comments is very interesting...it's compelling how everyone's approach to a project is so unique!

My main take away, as someone who works in a tech support type job (I want to FIX it fast!), is that I really do have all the tools I need; the hard part for me will be to just think and ponder for awhile on a personal project that I want to do and commit to it and have a plan outlined before I pick up my camera... and then also see it through to the end...

Lots to think about! More comments are welcome of course. :-)

Well we kinda had this little freebie project previsuallized a day or so before we shot. It was just going to be a few simple shots of our up-and-coming singer performing her new song by the creek at a park here in town. I did take a pop-up green screen to shoot some closeups and such and maybe do some simple compositing in post but it was going to be pretty simple. And add to the fact we were only going to have a couple of hours to get-it-in-the-can limited our expectations. Of course all the plans changed a bit when the producer remembered his good friend and drone pilot lived just a few minutes away...wonder if he's around? Well a quick phone call and low-and-behold he was able to come by with his DJI Mavic Pro. Needless to say that change all my "great" previz plans. A quick edit the next day in Vegas and this is what we got...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3M5tcvNZ0&feature=youtu.be

...bottom line be willing to change any plans, especially if you get something better! LOL

Well we kinda had this little freebie project previsuallized a day or so before we shot. It was just going to be a few simple shots of our up-and-coming singer performing her new song by the creek at a park here in town. I did take a pop-up green screen to shoot some closeups and such and maybe do some simple compositing in post but it was going to be pretty simple. And add to the fact we were only going to have a couple of hours to get-it-in-the-can limited our expectations. Of course all the plans changed a bit when the producer remembered his good friend and drone pilot lived just a few minutes away...wonder if he's around? Well a quick phone call and low-and-behold he was able to come by with his DJI Mavic Pro. Needless to say that change all my "great" previz plans. A quick edit the next day in Vegas and this is what we got...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3M5tcvNZ0&feature=youtu.be

...bottom line be willing to change any plans, especially if you get something better! LOL

Well done! I enjoyed your music video.

Thanks James! Bit of a rush job but what else is new!! LOL

I very much enjoyed the video.

My personal niggle. Fading the sound of the water to zero at 0:21 pulled my back into the studio and away from the scenery that I like a great deal. Based on the visual, I would tolerate the sound of running water through the whole video, even if the volume was low enough to be subliminal. 

Thanks for your thoughts John! I did try the "ambient" audio throughout but decided for the purity of the song just to used it at the beginning and end...for better or worse. LOL

Loved it muchly. Totally watchable and absorbing. If I were to crit, it's that old chestnut of Form over Content. What she is singing about IS a celebration but tinged with sadness. The sweet/romantic feel kinda created a mismatch with the almost teary words. A tad more contrasty would do it - for me . . .