Five Editing Mistakes That Weaken a News Package

The most frequent mistake I see in the edit suite is a student who starts building the package after watching only the first few minutes of each clip. The footage looks familiar from the shoot, so it feels safe to skip ahead. It is not. Somewhere in the unused material there is often the better answer, the cleaner shot of the same scene, or a moment that changes how fair the piece is to the people in it.

Make a full pass before you place a single clip on the timeline. Watch at normal speed, with headphones on, and keep a plain note of timecodes for anything you might use: a strong line, a useful cutaway, a sound you will need. This takes time, and in a busy week it feels like a luxury. It is the cheapest insurance an editor has against a rewrite late in the day.

On the course we ask students to log first and cut second, and most of them find the cut itself goes faster as a result, because every decision is made with the whole picture in view.

• Watch every clip through once before cutting
• Log timecodes for lines, cutaways and natural sound
• Mark anything that contradicts your first idea of the story

A script says one thing while the pictures show another, and the viewer believes the pictures. If the voiceover mentions a crowded hall while the screen holds a wide shot of empty chairs, the package loses credibility, however accurate the sentence is. Students often write the script first and then reach for whatever footage is nearest, which is how these gaps appear.

Read your script aloud against the timeline. At each sentence, ask what the viewer is looking at and whether it supports the words. If it does not, either change the shot or change the sentence. Do not stretch a clip to cover a line it was never meant to illustrate.

Where you genuinely lack the right picture, say less. A shorter, accurate line over a neutral shot is better than a confident line over footage that suggests something the story cannot prove.

Trimming an interview answer is a normal part of the job. Trimming it so that the speaker seems to say something they did not mean is not. The risk is highest when you remove a qualifying clause such as 'in most cases' or 'if the funding is agreed', because the remaining sentence sounds firmer than it was.

Before you finalise a soundbite, play the original answer in full and then play your version. Would the person recognise their own view in the shorter clip? If there is doubt, use more of the answer or choose a different one. Jump cuts inside a single answer should be covered with a cutaway so the trim is not disguised, and the order of answers should never be rearranged to suggest a conversation that did not happen.

Fairness is a craft skill as much as an ethical one, and it is practised at the keyboard, one cut at a time.

• Keep qualifying words that change how firm a statement is
• Never reorder answers to imply a different exchange

Picture gets the attention, and sound is left for the last ten minutes. Then the interview in the corridor sits at a different level from the voiceover, the background noise jumps at every edit, and the whole package feels rough even though the pictures are good. Viewers forgive a slightly soft shot far more readily than muffled or uneven speech.

Treat audio as a track you edit from the first hour. Set levels for the voiceover and soundbites early, and use natural sound under cutaways so the scene breathes rather than going silent. Where two clips have different background noise, a short overlap of the ambience from one into the next hides the join.

Always listen to the finished package on small speakers as well as headphones. Many viewers will hear it that way, and problems show up quickly.

• Set speech levels before fine-cutting
• Lay natural sound under every cutaway
• Check the mix on small speakers

Effects, transitions, music and graphics are tempting, especially when a student has just learned them. In news they usually get in the way. A package works because the viewer follows the story without effort, and every extra device is something they must notice and ignore. A wipe between two interview clips does not add anything. A dramatic music bed under a sensitive subject can make the piece feel like it has a view.

Aim for plain cuts, clear captions and a pace set by the material. If you feel the urge to add something, ask what problem it solves. If the answer is that the edit feels flat, the fix is more likely a better shot order or a tighter script than a new effect.

Plain does not mean dull. A well-chosen close shot held a second longer than expected can carry more feeling than any treatment.

The last mistake happens after the edit feels finished. The package goes out with a name spelt two ways in the captions, a figure that differs between script and graphic, or a running time that is eight seconds over the slot. Each of these is small, and each is avoidable with a few minutes of discipline.

Build a short final routine and use it every time. Check every name, title and number against your notes. Confirm captions match what is said. Watch the whole piece once more from the top with fresh attention, ideally after a short break, and time it against the slot you were given.

If a colleague can watch it cold, even better. They will notice what you have stopped seeing, usually within the first minute.

• Names, titles and figures checked against notes
• Captions match the spoken words
• Running time confirmed against the slot