How to avoid choppy cuts?

Blanc/Noir

Blanc/Noir

So I'm working on some editing on my first short and I seem to have the problem of my cuts looking very choppy.

Basically I have short scenes that all place later then the last scene.I wouldn't quite call it a montage or series of shots. But every time I make a cut it seems like it is to abrupt.

I've tried fades but they don't seem very effective. But would some like leaving a second of black help?
 
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Leaving a second of black would make it more choppy, I imagine.

Are you fading one shot out to black and fading the next shot in, or crossfading?

It's hard to picture what you are going for. Perhaps you could upload some footage and let us take a look?
 
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It hurts me so bad to agree with Wombat on anything, but yeah, we need to see what you're talking about.

I don't quite get what you mean, by "choppy". My intuition tells me you might have some jump-cuts in there? Or, camera placement could be an issue. Again, we just need to see what you're talking about to post any relavent comments.
 
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Sounds like you don't have enough coverage, with single camera shoots time management is a fine art. Fades won't help flow, they're normally used to show short lapses in time. IIRC.
 
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NathanH said:
Sounds like you don't have enough coverage, with single camera shoots time management is a fine art. Fades won't help flow, they're normally used to show short lapses in time. IIRC.
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You could very well be correct about the coverage. However, it is definitely possible to shoot a scene that cuts together very well, using an absolute minimum of coverage. People shoot this way all the time. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just playing Devil's advocate to remind the OP that we can't really know what the problem is until we see the edit.
 
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OK I hear you guys. It's just i only have the first 1 min of the film and I started editing, it might just be because there isn't enough follow through with one minute...idk.

But I'll try to post it up soon. It is only one minute though. And I think it feels sort of jumpy.
 
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Blanc/Noir said:
OK I hear you guys. It's just i only have the first 1 min of the film and I started editing, it might just be because there isn't enough follow through with one minute...idk.

But I'll try to post it up soon. It is only one minute though. And I think it feels sort of jumpy.
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One minute is plenty. Heck, for all we know, maybe your cuts are just a frame or two off. I recently cut some footage of a guy running. Honestly, a difference of one measly frame was the difference between the action looking smooth, and the cuts feeling totally unnatural. So there are many possible answers to your question. You should definitely post that one minute.
 
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Ok I'll make sure to get it up within a day or two, so I'm still trying to check it over. The other problem may have been part of the conversion. I had the files as .mod off my camera (which suck) and I converted them to .avi so there is a few image problems. Is this also possible to be the problem for my cuts?
 
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Your expressing two areas of concern:

Technical: messed up transitions from one frame to the next because of problems in your setup or workflow.

Artistic: Poorly crafted edit points resulting in an unaesthetic edited sequence of shots.

Both can be addressed here: If the video moves from one frame to the next without stuttering, or hiccuping or If you have smooth playback from the last frame of clip A to the first frame of clip B then you don't have a technical problem.

Artistic "problems" might not be problems at all, it might work fine. Perhaps its just that you've been looking at this footage and the edit with a magnifying glass that your not able to sit back and let the edit flow over you..
 
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