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Sidebar: A Nose for News Means Quick Timing and Swift Turnaround

Whether you make videos for fun or for profit, a wedding is only one such setting where an in-camera-edit might take place. In fact, professional news photographers frequently encounter situations where they're required to perform in-camera-edits in order to meet tight deadlines. Consider this actual account.

It's 5:15pm. A local news photographer picks up a report of a massive freeway accident involving a truckload full of glue. The scene is a commuter's nightmare and it needs to be the lead story at 6:00, but there's no time for an official edit, so an in-camera-edit is required. Here's what happened:

• 5:15pm: Scanner alert. Freeway accident involving glue truck on I-64 East near the downtown curve.
• 5:30pm: Arrive at scene. Pull out camera. White balance. Check exposure.
• 5:32pm: Find first shot. Wide-angle establishing shot, check framing and focus. Roll tape for 5 seconds. Cut. Look for next shot.
• 5:33pm: Roll tape on a series of close-up and medium shots. Include the overturned truck, frustrated commuters and police in action, careful to avoid jump cuts and shaking of the camera when starting and stopping the tape.
• 5:42pm: Ending. Record a long, 60-second wide shot of the whole scene. A long-running shot lets the news director/producer know that the tape is about to run out, yet gives enough of a buffer to make a clean transition to the next story.
• 5:47pm: Leave scene. Rewind the tape while it's still in the camera to help save precious time.
• 5:57pm: Race into the control room. With tape in hand, accept a quick round of congratulations for securing the lead story.…

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