Urbane Sophistication in the Edit: Shortcutter Mark Kelly’s Reel

As a creative pro working in animation, video journalism, documentary and short film, Mark Kelly is well-suited for his job as Deputy Multimedia Editor at the Sunday Times. His show reel (below) has an elegant feel, I think, because of the excellent timing and pacing of the cuts. The choice of cutaways and the mixture of fast cross-dissolves with straight cuts results in a very engaging and watchable piece. You hardly notice the edits. I also like the moves on the still content and the motion graphics.

You can see more skillful handing of stills in this piece on Australian supermodel Abbey Lee which Mark produced for the Sunday Times.

Notice how he goes to black and white for the the shots of the photographer shooting and then, for the subsequent montage, Mark has tinted the monochrome stills to differentiate them from the shoot sequence. Subtle and effective. Notice also the pacing of the cuts to the music and an effective deployment of the infamous time remapping function at the end of the piece.

To see more of Mark’s work, visit his YouTube page. His professional website, movingpictureTV.com has links to his blog and other creative work.

An FCP user since 2001 (having switched over from Premier), Mark admits that “Speed is often more important than quality in the multimedia news environment. Its about getting the footage out to the audience, then revisiting the edit and tidying it up before republishing.” Mark started using shortcuts aggressively after watching one of Rick Young’s demos on the MacVideo news and training site and from there, he never looked back. To those who find adoption of the shortcut method painful, Mark points out that “despite initial thoughts, shortcuts increase speed of workflow dramatically.”

Mark’s favorite shortcuts are OPT W (clip overlays) and CMD OPT W (for audio waveform) and, although I certainly have a bone to pick with him on this one, he likes that blasted Pen Tool (P) for laying out keyframes on audio. Pen Tool aficionado or not, it’s clear that in the fast paced world of ENG, the Shortcutter has the advantage. The quality of Mark Kelly’s work is a testament to that.