The rough cut

Now, let’s look at the process of refining the initial assembly into the rough cut. But why have a rough cut when the clips have already been assembled in the correct sequence to tell the story? The main reason for both an initial assembly and a rough cut, for larger, potentially venture-capital-funded videos, is that the rough cut is used to get feedback and to allow investors to get a preliminary view of the video. The director will also get an early impression of the video to show them a sense of how the story flows and how long it takes to tell.

Smaller, sole-editor videos don’t really need both an initial assembly and a rough cut, but it’s your personal choice. Nonetheless, you should be getting some feedback from other people. Let your colleagues view the rough cut. It’s best that they don’t see the messy initial assembly. Ask them for constructive feedback; you don’t want it sugar-coated.

The formal rough cut involves...