A Checklist to Run Through Before You Lock a Broadcast Edit

By the time a package is cut, you have watched the same shots dozens of times. Your eyes skip over what is wrong because your memory fills in what ought to be there. A checklist works because it does not rely on your memory or your mood at the end of a long day. It asks the same plain questions of every piece, whether it is a ninety-second report or a longer feature.

In my sessions with students at currenlu, we treat the list as a gate rather than a suggestion. Nothing is exported until each point has been answered out loud, ideally to a second person. That feels slow in the first week and becomes quick by the third, because you start cutting with the questions already in mind.

In these mid-autumn weeks, when evenings draw in and many shoots finish in poor light, the list matters even more. Footage shot at dusk hides problems that only show on a proper monitor, and a rushed deadline is exactly when small errors slip through.

Begin with the question that no software can answer for you: is this package fair to everyone in it? Go back through each interview and check that the clip you used represents what the person actually said and meant. A line trimmed to a few words can reverse its sense, so play the surrounding thirty seconds again before you approve any cut that shortens a quote.

Next, check that every name, title, figure and place in your script matches your notes and the on-screen graphics. A caption spelled wrongly is a small thing to an editor and a large thing to the person named. Read each one against the source rather than against your own script, since the script may carry the same slip.

Finally, ask whether anyone with a stake in the story has been given a chance to respond, and whether that response is shown with the same weight as the other side.

• Quotes checked against the full answer, not only the clip
• Names, titles and figures matched to notes
• Right of reply shown where it applies

Watch the package once with the sound off. The pictures should still tell you roughly what is happening and where. If you need the commentary to understand a shot, the shot is probably filling time rather than doing work. Look for cutaways that repeat each other, wide shots that arrive too late, and close-ups that do not match the sentence they sit under.

Check continuity as well. A person who wears a coat in one shot and none in the next, or traffic that flips direction between cuts, will distract viewers and raise doubts about the whole report. Where you have used library or older footage, make sure it is clearly marked as such and is not passed off as from the day.

Last, scan every frame for things that should not be visible: a car number plate, a child in the background, a document with personal details on a desk. Decide deliberately whether each should stay, be blurred or be replaced.

Audiences will put up with a slightly soft picture far longer than with muffled speech. Put on headphones and listen to the package through twice, once for voices and once for everything else. Interview levels should sit close together from one speaker to the next, with no sudden jumps at each edit point and no wind or traffic swell that rises and drops with the cuts.

Check that the music, if any, never competes with a spoken line, and that natural sound under your voice-over is low enough to be heard as atmosphere rather than noise. A quick test is to play the piece on a laptop speaker or a phone, since that is how many people will hear it.

Also listen for clipped words at the start and end of clips, small breaths cut in half, and any room tone gap where audio drops to silence between two shots.

• Speech levels consistent across all speakers
• Atmosphere under voice-over kept low
• Played once on a small speaker, not only headphones

Now look at the practical edges of the piece. Does it run to the length the slot allows, with the head and tail the programme expects? Check the opening few seconds, because that is where a package most often starts late, and the final shot, where it often outstays its welcome. Confirm that graphics, lower-thirds and any required captions sit inside the safe area of the frame.

Then check the technical specification you have been given: frame rate, resolution, audio format and file type. Exporting in the wrong settings wastes more time than any editing mistake, since it usually shows up only when the newsroom tries to play the file.

Keep a short note of what you changed and why. If a question comes back from a producer or a viewer, a clear record of your decisions makes the answer quick and calm.

A checklist is meant to end the work, not extend it. Once every point has an honest answer, resist the urge to tweak a transition or nudge a clip by a few frames. Perfecting small details after the real checks are done is a way of avoiding the moment of letting the piece go, and it costs time that the next story needs.

If one point cannot be settled, such as a quote you are unsure about or a shot you cannot verify, take it out rather than hope. A shorter, safer package is always better than a longer one carrying a doubt.

Finally, watch the exported file itself, start to finish, rather than the timeline. Exports occasionally go wrong in ways the project does not show, and this last viewing is the cheapest check of all.