Do what the video-bloggers on Youtube do -- move around the room between takes, so it looks like you disappear from one spot and reappear in another. Don't mask your jump cuts -- accentuate them! ;-)

Rob

There was a very long recent discussion on exactly this same topic. Have a look here:

softening interview jump cuts

thanks - great thread, interesting solution,s John.... I hadn't seen that one.....
agree a 2nd cam is also a good idea, thanks... eg main cam and one that's 15-20 degrees off center might do the trick..

ken

Subliminal advertising?

Ken -

quite honestly I wouldn't dwell on jump cut issues too much.

Once upon a time they were sacrosanct - you just didn't do that. But for over 15 years now, the jump cut has become simply another way of editing. Recently there was a major Price Waterhouse series of spots with Sam Waterston and they continually jump cut those edits - plus cut to BW and extreme profiles. (I didn't direct 'em, BTW, but I like them).
They broke every rule - so play with your stuff and don't worry about the "naysayers" who judge you by "old time rules".
First cut your audio track - is the message interesting?
Is it tight? ( I mean REALLY TIGHT?)
Does it work? Do your friends say, "Beautiful spot" or do they say "Hey can I get that stuff?" (that is whatever you are selling).
If it's the first - you probably have failed in your sales pitch. If it's the second - put a down payment on a new car, because if you friends want the "stuff" - you've got it made!
Now deal with the visuals - every idea you suggested will work. And you can get "crazy creative", as well. Freeze the last frame of the shot and start the new copy over the freeze. Cut to a full screen super and then back to the movie (guaranteed to work - effortlessly).
Goose every other shot with grain or hi-con or BW or anything to take the onus off of the jump. In other words - make the message great and then play with the visuals.
Don't do every trick here. Pick one (or two) that you like, and keep the filmic flow smooth and slick.

best,
v
ps - ... and ... oh yeah... five minutes is WAY too long. If you can't sell it in two minutes or less, make two commercials. Ain't nobody watching a five minute sales piece without a informercial audience, an incredible product and very slick production. You can do it - keep it tight. If you need more time to explain your mesage, let them click through to "Part two" and even "Part three". Focus each spot on ONE THING and beat it to death. Video is NOT an educational medium - it is emotional. You said very kind things about my recent video - now go back and look at it again. You won't see one scene that runs more than two to three minutes, with the exception of "One Day on the Set" and THAT is comprised of many tiny "scenelets".
Don't bore your audience for a second - or you will lose them.

Ken? Do you want to send me a ruff? g

I went back and re-read the old jump cut thread, and suddenly a rather unique idea popped into my head. The makes use of something that Vegas can do that most other editing solutions cannot:

The Difference Mask.

Since the shot is locked down, you have background that doesn't move. You can therefore, using the difference mask technique, treat the entire background as a green screen. Once you wrap your mind around this, all sorts of things become possible:

1. Briefly remove the person from the scene (you'll have to clone in the background, as you do for some of the more advanced Ken Burns effects, unless you have a shot without the talent in frame), and then have him/her reappear. I would use a fade to make this happen.

2. Take the background to B&W, but keep the person in color (or vice versa). Or, apply any fX you can think of, but only to the background, or only to the talent.

3. Use pan/crop to re-position the talent. In essence, you create your own, new camera angle, thus avoiding the jump cut. Go close-up to long shot, etc.

4. Change the speed of talent while keeping the speed of the background constant (you can do a subtle dissolve later to re-synchronize). In essence, you speed through the jump cut rather than making it a simple jump.

I cant think of dozens of others, but the idea is pretty intriguing.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Have I just re-invented the wheel, or did I actually come up with something original?

Hmm I think there are some rotoscoping-type applications that will do more complex things than difference masking... i.e. even if your camera is panning, it will guess the motion vectors and be able to separate what's moving from the background.

2- Interesting idea with using such techniques to fake a different camera angle... though I don't know how realistic it will look if you need to change perspective (since the parallax on the face will be wrong).

You can of course zoom in... but you don't need to adjust the background for that.

Jean-Luc Godard introduced the jump cut as an intentional stylistic choice in 1960.


I think you should know when and why you are using jump cuts and you should know how and why to avoid them.

Digital Juice has a whole bunch of Motion Design Elements designed for exactly this purpose.

I find they work extremely well.

Right now they have 61 packages left of Vol. 11-20 for $249, or pay $49 more to get also Vol. 1-10. After that they will be $99 each.

http://www.digitaljuice.com

Actually the $49 more gets you any 10 volumes of your choice (Jump Backs, Jump Backs HD, Motion Design Elements, StackTraxx, or Juice Drops).

After that, the price goes up to $99 (for the 10 additional volumes of your choice) for the next 250 orders

Correct, but I considered all the MDEs to be ahead of the rest for this purpose, for someone who didn't have any before.

I had Vol 1-10 from before and found them very useful, so Vol 11-20 was a no-brainer (especially with the even better deal at the beginning of the week :O).

I really recommend looking at their educational videos for more ideas about how to use their products. I felt very sheepish recently after seeing what they had been able to do, and almost promised to never think of myself as being creative again :O). Lots of fun!

Great ideas everyone, thanks a milion, I'm printing/keeping this thread (btw a great resource to keep this type of info is the free pdf995.com printer driver, you can "print" to a pdf file, I use it daily; cleaner than saving the whole page w/graphic files etc - just install it then choose print/pdf995 and it'll save a pdf of the thread for you)...

Vic, you bring up some great points - thanks again for the tips re if they ask to buy vs how is it, to get what's being pitched, and the points about how fast your transitions are in your latest video, agree that makes it very watchable, engaging, so the audience is always wanting to see the next segment... and you're exactly right re focusing on One thing, the "hook" in each part so that it sinks in... much appreciated as always, your points are right on target.. I'm listening here.

Grazie - subliminals, right - I could flash a "buy now!" between takes... :p

John, difference masking's a neat idea, too - I like your points re how to do that, thanks... could even do a simulated focus-pull with that, or rotoscope type effect... (btw a new dvd I got that's solid, for After Effects/greenscreen, is Daniel Hashimoto's, on amazon.com, just $15 and a great 'how to key & mask in AE' tutorial)..

Right re DJ, MDEs... I heavily "juice" everything I produce, makes for a great production... I use Vegas' color balance to change the colors of the JBs and other elements often, usually to make them blue, from whatever color they're in..

Another transition effect I saw on a tv show last night is a "fade/flash to white" type cut, don't know what the right name is for that effect, eg there's a white flash between cuts to mask jump cuts...

Great ideas everyone...

Ken