Bill Cammack on Editing for Web Video
I’ve heard it said that in web video, the editor is king — due to to the fast production turnaround times, tight pacing of short clips, and the technical understanding of digital video encoding necessary. Bill Cammack of ReelSolid.tv, an MIT alum and freelance editor for over ten years, fits the profile.
With widely aired music videos by Camp Lo and Guided by Voices under his belt, as well as a New York Emmy for the local production My Take with Elizabeth Hummer, Cammack is an accomplished film professional. When friend Athina Krikeli of Elliopa Media Group introduced Cammack to the video iPod a little over a year ago, he was hooked, and started posting video online last May.
He’s since become member in good standing of the vlog community — he and friend Vergel Evans came up with the idea behind the Vlog Deathmatch music video challenge I wrote about earlier. So how he does he treat working for broadcast and the web differently, if at all?
Cammack, left and Evans, right in a photo from PodCampNYC.
“Initially, I didn’t treat it differently at all,” he told me in a chat last week. “Athina had shown me a television commercial on her iPod, so my initial plan was to do the same thing I normally do for television on the internet.” But as he began working online, he realized he could get away with a more rough-and-ready approach. “I found out that the polish that’s necessary for television is not necessary for the internet.”
Like a gymnast or figure skater, the hard part about editing is making it look easy to the casual viewer. “You’re supposed to keep the viewer immersed in your program,” Cammack pointed out — the better you are at it, the less likely a viewer is going to notice all the individual editing decisions.
That said, different pieces and stories call for different approaches. “I also found out that videoblogging is more about communicating with other people instead of “speaking at them” like television does,” so it’s not necessary to work in glossy motion graphics or layered sound effects, for instance. But that’s not to say that less casual work doesn’t merit greater attention. “If I consider the video to be art, or an important piece, like The Harlem Renaissance 5-Mile Classic, then I’m going to treat it with the care and respect it deserves.”
Cammack edits all his pieces in full NTSC DV broadcast quality, regardless of whether he’s planning to publish online. But if he knows that he’s editing for a specific output format online, he may change his approach slightly to take account subtle differences like how frame rates effect transitions. “If I were in a situation that specifically called for me to output in 24fps or 15fps, I would edit differently because of it.”
But ultimately, motion pictures are motion pictures. “The exact same skills, sensibilities and sensitivities go into creating a video for the internet as go into video for television.” Especially for creators hoping to potentially license their work for television or sell DVDs, it’s important to finish projects in the highest quality possible, so for Cammack, “videos that I create are television pieces until I encode them for the web.”
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Thanks for the writeup, Jackson! :D
We’re brainstorming some BIG THINGS for the NYC videoblogging scene this year! :D
Bill Cammack on July 11th, 2007 at 6:21 am - Permalink
Bill is a genius of the editing/web video world.
eric : gardenfork.tv on July 11th, 2007 at 7:27 am - Permalink
Great article. Good to see a fellow vlogger get some press!! big ups to my main man Bill!!
nick Schmidt
http://www.schmult.com
Nick Schmidt on July 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am - Permalink
Great points, guys!
Thought I’d point this out to you:
Ted Fisher, the editor of the New York Times’ ‘Frugal Traveler’ video podcast just posted a great list of tips for shooting and editing a one-person productions on his blog Actualities.
Mark Schoneveld on July 11th, 2007 at 7:59 am - Permalink
This is good to see, I think editing for the web takes just as much work as editing for broadcast. But we do get to use different styles on the web that we could not (or should not) use for broadcast.
Lan Bui on July 11th, 2007 at 8:30 am - Permalink
[...] http://newteevee.com/2007/07/10/bill-cammack/ [...]
SeanBohan.com » Blog Archive » Digital Supertasker Bill Cammack on NewTeeVee on July 11th, 2007 at 8:43 am - Permalink
Bill is a generous and active member of the online video community. It’s great to see your ongoing coverage of the peeps Jackson! We’ve learned some cool tips from him and I love being in this convergence of coasts, skills, platforms, etc.
Aloha, Rox
Roxanne Darling on July 11th, 2007 at 10:10 am - Permalink
thank god for bill
he really helped me out for pixelodeon
with formatting the screenings
that’s what great editors do- get totally anal retentive about the spacing of text on the screen and how long the spaces between videos should be! i love my fellow editors! thanks bill!
ryanne on July 11th, 2007 at 10:34 am - Permalink
Big fan, big big fan.
Chuck Olsen on July 11th, 2007 at 11:59 am - Permalink
Bill is a great editor and an all around great guy. He’s been in my studio for the big broadcast gigs, and I’ve seen that broadcast mentality translate in his blog work. Just want to shout you out Mr.C. Nice article.
Keep up the good work.
Ron Thompson on July 11th, 2007 at 5:11 pm - Permalink
Bill’s an involved, important member of our community. Glad to see this nice writeup!
Steve Woolf on July 11th, 2007 at 9:03 pm - Permalink
the great thing about bill is that he gets the whole thing, from every angle. the vlog deathmatch stuff was awesome, and he has helped me a lot with scriggity. one time, he took the audio of a really bad episode and cleaned it up. thought nothing of doing it to help out.
i’m no editor, nor do i get all of the nuances of video editing. bill gets it.
drew olanoff on July 12th, 2007 at 12:20 pm - Permalink
Thanks for the props, everybody. :D
We’re all learning and making our way in this thing together. :D
Bill Cammack on July 13th, 2007 at 12:21 pm - Permalink
Bill has been tremendously generous with his time and assistance on several of our projects.
If you ever have an opportunity to ask Bill a question on editing or video, you won’t receive and answer. You’ll receive an education.
Mucho Mahalos for all your help and tips, Bill!
Shane Robinson (aka Secret Cameraman) on July 16th, 2007 at 8:07 am - Permalink
Nice article Billy….Thanks for sharing and keep doing what you do :)
Teresa Holt on July 18th, 2007 at 4:46 pm - Permalink