Shortcutter Showcase: “Don’t Judge the B-Roll!”

We make a lot of references to B-roll around here and it’s about time we provided our readers with a good source for this essential stuff, so here’s a little message from our new sponsor (and a tip ‘o the hat to Jon Connor at the excellent Canon Fimmakers blog where I first spotted this):

This hilarious piece was written and performed by Sergio Cilli who is a part of Cream (an LA-based sketch comedy group consisting of Cilli, Eric Ledgin, Casey Feigh, and Jacob Womack) and the editor was Dylan Osborn (visit his website to see his short film “Inheritance”). We contacted him to ask if he used FCP and how shortcuts factor in his work as an editor. He replies that yes, ”We Got That B-Roll!!” was edited exclusively in Final Cut Pro, from keying to color correction including all the text and most of the graphics.”

Dylan relates that “one of the editing challenges was making everything seem naturally bad, like a local commercial by someone who didn’t know what they were doing, but still pull off the pace and comic timing of Sergio’s performance.”

Before anyone jumps on these guys for the fuzzy green screen look, note that Ryan also explained that he “fiddled a lot with the Final Cut color key to achieve the unprofessional green glow around him. We also made sure our transitions were completely inconsistent: star iris, swing, box slide, v wipe, and of course the always cheesy page peel.”

Is Dylan a Shortcutter?  Oh yeah (and we’re thrilled to hear that he is an avid reader of this site)…

“As far as shortcuts go, I’m a big fan of SHIFT Delete, especially during the rough cut stage when footage is in the timeline. Just set in and out points around the cut point, SHIFT Delete, and those excess frames are eliminated. If I want a few frames more on one side of the cut, I adjust with the ripple tool (RR) and use the Left and Right Bracket Keys to add frames to just that clip.”

Dylan says that “anytime I can avoid using the mouse in FCP is positive” and we could not agree more.

After the jump, you can see the full credit list and some bonus green screen raw footage of Sergio doing some of the lines for the video (it is sooo tempting to do something fun with this…)

“We Got That B-Roll!!” was directed By Dylan Osborn, written By Sergio Cilli, the Director of Photography was Jason O’ Malley and Dylan Osborn edited (on FCP).

Cast: Sergio Cilli, Matty Smith, Jack Allison, Chad Fogland, David Nehr, Marisa Pinson, Matt Reid, Jacob Womack, Stephen Schneider, Eileen Hsi, Will McLaughlin, Cissy Fenwick, Casey Feigh, Eric Ledgin, Julia Bensfield, Jennie Pierson, Lilan Bowden.

If you liked this one, Be sure to check out and support Cream’s latest video, “The History of Turtleneck Fighting” on Funny or Die.