Editing

Few raw interviews appear on air without some form of editing – live interviews are the obvious exception. But where an interview has been pre-recorded, and time permits, the reporter will usually want to tighten it up and trim it to the required length. Just as important is editing out irrelevant questions and statements to throw into

focus comments that are newsworthy. You may also want to alter the sequence of questions and answers to point up a strong angle that emerged during the interview. Finally, recordings are usually fine edited to give them polish by removing

hesitation, repetition and intrusive background noise, such as a passing lorry or a ringing phone. Editing has four main functions:

• To reduce length • Remove unwanted material • Alter the sequence of recorded material • Permit creative treatment

If your brief is to produce a 3-minute interview with a Maori leader about his claim to land rights and you return with 7 minutes, then, unless the material is stunningly good, 4 minutes will just have to go. The best part of the interview might be at the beginning, so the last 4 minutes

can be chopped. Or the best parts could be the answers to the first, third, fifth and seventh

questions, so the others will need to be edited out. On second thoughts, those answers might sound better in a different order, so the

unwanted sections should be cut out and the rest edited into a different sequence. Lastly, you may want to add a creative touch by beginning the item with a piece

of Maori tribal music. This will have to be blended in afterwards to fade under the opening words of the tribesman. This is known as a cross-fade. But it still has to be included in that overall 3-minutes.