FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY · The Trip Film
THE EDIT: BUILDING A TRIP FILM PEOPLE ACTUALLY WATCH
13 min · Full library · written lesson, video in production
The point
After this lesson you can cut a trip film with a structure, a length and a pace that holds a viewer who was not on the trip.
Half the answer, free
The Technique
- Culling is the job, and being ruthless is the skill. Watch everything once at speed without editing, and mark only what is genuinely good, using a simple two state system: keep or reject. Anything you hesitate over is a reject, because hesitation now becomes a slow shot later. Reject the runs where the lens was dirty, the takes where the mount was crooked, the second and third versions of a shot you already have, and the footage you love because you remember earning it rather than because it plays. Expect to keep a small fraction of what you shot, and expect that fraction to be smaller than feels comfortable. A short film made of your best shots beats a long one that includes your merely acceptable ones.
- Choose the music before you cut a single frame, because the music dictates everything downstream. The track sets the tempo, which sets your shot lengths. It sets the structure, since a song already has an intro, a build, a peak and an outro that your film can borrow. It sets the length, because fighting a track's natural end to squeeze in more riding always shows. Cutting first and adding music later produces a film where the picture and the sound argue for four minutes. Sort out licensing before you commit, since an unlicensed track means the film cannot be posted, and a film that cannot be posted was not worth making.
- A trip film needs an arc, not a playlist. The simplest reliable shape follows the trip itself: leaving, arriving, the first tentative day, the build in confidence or conditions, the peak moment, and the wind down. Start on something other than a title card, ideally a human moment or a sound that places you somewhere specific. Put faces in early, because viewers attach to people long before they attach to terrain, and a viewer who does not know who they are watching does not care what that person is riding. Hold your best shot back rather than opening with it. The question to answer for every sequence is what has changed since the last one, and if nothing has, cut it.
Still under the glass
- Pacing, natural sound, colour matching, length discipline and delivering while it is fresh
- 6 more technique steps
- The 5 mistakes that undo it, with fixes
- The drill that builds the reflex
- The safety non-negotiables
It opens when you book a trip that runs film & photography - these are the exact drills you run with your coach out there. Your booking unlocks this whole library.
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