Meet The Artist: Mini Doc

I used my own DSLR, a micro-USB mic, Adobe suite, and my best friend. The assignment was to just create a short documentary (think like 60 second nowthisnext videos) about any subject. The main focus were J-cuts and L-cuts as editing techniques. A J-cut is when you hear audio from a video clip before you see the video and an L-cut is when you see a video clip before you hear the audio for that clip. These names come from the way the cuts look in the editing timeline. These kinds of cuts help add context and create more interesting transitions.

I had two weeks to complete this and I considered doing something I could get done quickly. But, like I said, this is the type of project I wanted to make. I like to film conversations and find the story within them. Vanessa’s schedule only afforded her one day to really record an interview, so I was working with pretty limited audio. I could tell she was nervous to be in front of the camera and that helped me decide to piece this together with a fun, informal tone. I gathered B-Roll to cover all the cuts I made in the interview and a relaxed royalty free track to put under everything.