How do I communicate with post-production team? Need a list of effects and examples

Question

I'm doing a short video and I am not from video editing background.

Sometimes I want to show my post production team the effect I want but it's very difficult to say... Just look at [...] video. I don't know where to find examples. Is there a list of names or example videos somewhere I can easily refer to?

For example, if I say I want Ken Burns effect for this photo, he immediately knows.

The particular example I want is having lots of newspaper headlines intersecting, creating an effect that this event generated a lot of buzz... but I don't know where to find a video example for him?

Answer 1

About the newspaper headlines. I would not call it an effect at first. First it is a storytelling element, with the headlines actually telling something and often carrying the storyline forward - easily anything between three days to several months, plus that you could use it as a prelude for a jump in time of several years. What I'm trying to say is; this effect, as you call it, is a timeline jump in your story.

So in practice it is not an effect first. The way you actually do it is an effect, meaning that you can do it entirely in digital, CG, or real newspapers thrown on a table and filmed as so, a combination of methods, etc. Whatever, you need the headlines in these papers, because your audience is going to read them, or at least have time to grasp the message if not given time to properly read them. Telling a story through newspaper headlines is not a job for effects engineer. You provide the headlines, the story. (A job for your writer(s), not necessarily yourself.) Then you let your team create a newspaper headlines storytelling section.

Furthermore, say you want to skip filming a court of law section in your story. In between those newspaper headlines you could do very short inserts of video, like the main characters walking up the steps to a courthouse, accompanied with more newspaper headlines, then a clip of grieving after a lost case, and when the media buzz is over, you can continue your film at any distance in time, like 20 years forward if you so wish and the story tells you so. But this was not in your question.

To answer your question - write those headlines and take them to your team, and tell them what you want with the same words that you used to describe your question here. It should be enough for them.

Answer 2

Any set of samples would really have the same problem. How do you find what you are looking for within them? If you can draw, story-boarding has traditionally served this purpose. Part of it could also be to get better editors. If your editor's are good, they should be able to produce things in a visually interesting way with or without your help and, since you admittedly are not an editor, they should have a better idea of how to do so than you do.

When you do see things you don't like, talk to them about what you don't like about it. Explain what you don't like about it using their visuals as reference. Describe to them what you want and ask them what they think of it. They may have a reason why that wouldn't work well or they may be able to determine exactly what you mean.

A good editor should be able to work with you to identify your meaning even if you don't know exactly what you want. When you go to a computer repair place, they don't ask you to tell them that you got the "virusAofTheWeek.Beta virus installed in C:\MyVirus\ that you need them to run RemoveMyVirusTool on. You only tell them, "my computer is acting funny and slow, figure it out". That's why they are the professional.

If you can't trust them to do this, then it may be that you either need to be a little more trusting of their artistic talents or it may be that you need to find an editor that has the talents and skills necessary to do the job.

Editing also isn't generally a hands off role when you want more direct control. It is typical for directors to work directly with the editor on key moments or even the entire film/video to ensure their original vision is met. Even then though, unless the director has editing experience, they should be trusting their editor to make good calls and only offering corrections when it is something they have a real clear picture of in their mind (and even then should be open to feedback from the editor) or feedback on general things like pacing.

Producing video is a collaborative process, work with people who understand and work well with the medium and be willing to trust their work and you will find yourself both less stressed and get a much better final product.