A Good Video Edit

[Jasun]

Do you find that when you're watching a porn video that editing makes a difference?

Is it a turn off to see a obvious stunt cocks and cut aways?

If a guys' hand is on his waist in one shot and then behind his head in the next, do you notice?

When seeing a guy from the front saying "yeah yeah yeah" when you know he's not ACTUALLY getting fucked at that point.. does that kill it?

Is a good video edit something that you find important or not?

[basschick]

sometimes - an obvious stunt cock is my pet peeve, that's for sure.

[basement]

What the heck is a stunt cock?

[basschick]

it's when an extra guy is called to fill in when the original guy can't keep wood or cums too soon.

a lot of the time the stunt cock looks NOTHING like the original guy's cock, and they don't use a different angle to make it less obvious, either. talk about a continuity problem!

[gaybucks_chip]

Funny, AJ and I had a lengthy discussion about this specific issue just last night.

He figures that people don't really notice... judging from the customer comments we get about our DVDs, maybe one person has ever said anything about the technical aspects (editing, camera angles, lighting, audio) of our DVDs.

I absolutely notice (and am annoyed/amused by) everything that Jason has mentioned... but then, I edit video, so I'm sorta conditioned to notice stuff like that more than the average person. But I also agree with AJ that the average customer is too busy pounding his pud to pay careful attention to continuity and other technical issues unless they're hideous.

What I came to was that good editing is like excellent sound at a concert... if it's fabulous, the average person won't notice it at all, but they will come away with an overall positive experience. If it's awful, almost everyone will notice and comment (negatively) on it.

So I figure that spending a bit of extra time to try and keep decent continuity, choose appropriately between cuts, dissolves, and other transitions, matching different camera angles with action that's time-congruent is probably a good time investment... the customer may not say "Wow, that editing was fabulous" but hopefully they will say "Wow, that was a hot video that kept my attention." We definitely make decisions like "It will take Paul 5 minutes to fix this one little aberration and I doubt anyone besides me or another editor will notice" and occasionally "Hey, there's a continuity break here but what the fuck, it's porn, no one will care" but for the most part, I'd say that we try to produce a reasonably carefully edited product.

I'd love to hear input from others in the same situation.

[Jasun]

I gotta say that the first thing that everyone mentions about our videos is how hot the guys are and then they start in on the quality of our content.

People in the idustry mention our quality first and the guys second.

But I obsess over every edit and every shot. Some companies don't give a shit.. :honest:

[citiboyz]

I worked for 12 years in the pro video biz as a producer, shooter and editor before transitioning to the adult biz 7 years ago. In my experience, shooting is at least as important as editing. Maybe more so. No amount of editing magic can salvage a poorly shot scene. Purchasing a video camera doesn't make you a videographer. It pays to learn some shooting skills. I recommend newbies to take some photography lessons before they jump into shooting content, and to learn editing as well as shooting. Shooting for the edit will make you a better shooter.

[basschick]

man, is that the truth!

the first time i shot more than 1 minute of continuous video was at a shoot. i did 5 shoots before i started editing, and two of the little fuckers needed so many tiny pieces cut out, it was an incredible amount of extra work. after that, i realized when NOT to talk to the models and not to let them talk - for one thing.

now after 12 shoots, i'm adding another 500 watts of light to what we're doing. my initial videos aren't bad at all, but could be a little better.

btw, i saw a terrible transition last night. this girl was jacking some guy, and the way the editor did the fade, it looked like she turned into the carpet *LOL* bad editing can really fuck things up.

I worked for 12 years in the pro video biz as a producer, shooter and editor before transitioning to the adult biz 7 years ago. In my experience, shooting is at least as important as editing. Maybe more so. No amount of editing magic can salvage a poorly shot scene. Purchasing a video camera doesn't make you a videographer. It pays to learn some shooting skills. I recommend newbies to take some photography lessons before they jump into shooting content, and to learn editing as well as shooting. Shooting for the edit will make you a better shooter.

[gaybucks_chip]

gawd, when I have to edit some of our oldest content (shot by me), it's an embarrassment, and it takes forever to whip it into reasonable shape... exactly the sorta stuff both Steve and Patti said... and looking at some of our earliest released content, I'm more than a little embarrassed at how low our standards used to be

The really pathetic part is I still didn't get it even *after* I had to take forever editing some of the early clips.

With our current stuff, it requires about a quarter of the editing time... of course it's also helped by the conversation we have with the models, reminding them to not go "Was that good?" a quarter second after the cumshot, or "Am I doing OK" 1 second after the perfect take on a dialog scene

[XXXWriterDude]

Bad editing is one of my MAJOR pet peeves! Nothing annoys me more. Well, except when people try to do "rape scenes" and the supposedly alpha-hetero dude who's never given head before suddenly decides after, oh, like, 2 seconds flat, that hey, this cocksucking thing ain't so bad after all, and suddenly it looks like he's been doing it ALL HIS LIFE!

For me, it's like, "C'mon, folks. Can we please put the MOVIE back in porn movie?"

[Jasun]

Ken, I think you can I could write a book about the bad things we've seen in porn.

[A_DeAngelo]

In my experience, shooting is at least as important as editing. Maybe more so. No amount of editing magic can salvage a poorly shot scene.

Our videographer(s) are at the top of our list. Without good footage, there ain't no movie to cut!

But, at the same time, without a good editor, the final cut can be a big piece of sh*t!

As far as stunt cocking goes, well, the best approach is to make certain the camera angle and lighting are an exact match... and it helps if the cocks could be twins and, it's very important to match up pube color as well as body color! Of course, we know nothing about this...

The bottom line for us is this..."If the customers are criticising the sets, lighting, music tracks, and cuts, they are not paying attention to the action!" you can quote me on that.

[citiboyz]

As far as stunt cocking goes, well, the best approach is to make certain the camera angle and lighting are an exact match... and it helps if the cocks could be twins and, it's very important to match up pube color as well as body color! Of course, we know nothing about this...

Did you see the movie "Orgasmo", with Trey Parker (of South Park fame)? If you haven't seen it, you should. For someone in this business, it'll be hilarious. Parker plays a Mormon missionary who stumbles upon a home-porn business and ends up becoming one of their top male stars, but he won't do actual penetration so they have to put a stunt-cock in for him. And they do... every time.. but it may be a hung black dude's cock.. or a midget's cock.. or an asian man's cock. It's funny.

[Lee]

I gotta say that the first thing that everyone mentions about our videos is how hot the guys are and then they start in on the quality of our content.

People in the idustry mention our quality first and the guys second.

See thats the difference between webmasters and surfers, webmasters are more concerned about the 'quality' when a surfer is more concerned about how 'hot' the guys are LOL

Regards,

Lee

[HotMaleVideos]

I've seen videos where the models are calling the shots. One guy whispers "cut" to the cameraman and you still hear this in the final product. Not to mention the infamous "shuffle" you hear right before the cameraman stops recording.

Along Ken's line, the unwilling becoming willing in seconds flat. "Gee coach? What's going on? I never suc.... uunnnngggghhhh."

Wrestling and fighting setups are particularly funny. Men crumbling to the ground when their wrist gets grabbed. Yeah that's hot.

Then there's the ultra closeup that's so zoomed in on the action that you have no idea who is topping who for the *entire* sequence. You see action, a money shot, fade to black.

Rough cuts without transitions. A guy getting sucked off and is suddenly on his hands and knees getting fucked from behind. Filming a flip-over wouldn't hurt, or at the very least put in a good transition. (stay away from the 5-point star, thank you.)

These are actually more funny examples than annoying. But I'm really not looking for a laugh at that particular moment.

The edits I dislike are obvious audio loops and cumshots shown from multiple angles as if it's some freakishly long orgasm.

The best production and editing I've seen captures more than just the sex. It captures masculinity and mood. It's subtle, but the little things count. Closeup of the kissing. I wanna know they're really swapping spit. I want to see them REALLY going down on each other for longer than 5 seconds. There's nothing wrong with lingering at the nipples and armpits for a bit. (Actually I don't see much armpit play of any length these days. Hmm.)

Editing (along with production) definitely makes a difference. How much is subjective. A misplaced arm doesn't seem so bad, but flipping whole positions is silly.