In my professional career as a video editor, I am often asked to cut down an interview that was filmed. Typically, the producer or director was present for the interview and knows exactly which lines they want in the video but doesn't have the technical skills to do it themselves. This is where they lean on an editor.
As an editor whose been asked to do this many times, I know it's not a creative process. A lot of the work consists of finding lines or time codes given by the producer, cutting the video, and putting it into a single timeline. It's a process that with the help of the right technology can be done by anyone.
THE PROBLEM
Producers upload their videos to a transcription service, highlight the text from the document, and send it to video editors. The editors then cut the selected lines out of the video for the producer and send a video file back for their approval. In the production world, we call this a rough cut.
As an editor, I know this process requires no creativity. It is simply finding the right lines and cutting them from the longer video for the producer to review. This process takes valuable time and is a step of production that can be facilitated by machine learning.
Imagine as an editor, your first time touching a project is with a video that has all the important lines you'll need and the audio breaks cut out. You can jump right into being creative!
THE CHALLENGE
How do we create a piece of editing technology that is easy for producers but also familiar for editors? We wanted to make sure that this was accessible, familiar, and easy for all users to navigate.
WHO ARE WE MAKING THIS FOR
This product is for companies that work with interview content. The typical users of this product within this company are producers, directors, editors, and assistant editors.
Building on this understanding of who this product is design for, I asked industry professionals what their workflows look like and how they think it can be made better through technology.
With their perspectives in mind, I laid out a unique value proposition that addressed their needs and frustrations:
SCOPE AND STRUCTURE
My goal with this project is to simplify the producer-to-editor workflow by allowing individuals to collaborate within the tool to build narratives. The initial scope was a third-party software that the user would integrate into their already existing workflow. Its layout had to mimic tools that the user is familiar with, and its functionality must be adaptable to text-based editors along with video-based editors.
My goal to live by was:
With the use of Trimm, an assistant or the producer can simply select the narrative they want from the video, send an XML of that selection to the editor, and then the editor can import that into their non-linear editing system for further creative development. In simpler terms, one can drag their video clips into Trimm, edit them via the text displayed, and then that can be brought into any other editing software to edit it further.
And I started generating ideas around this question:
I started by creating rough wireframes of what this multi-view
approach to text-based video editing could look like with different accessible windows.
This led to a deeper understanding of the user workflow, starting with the opening of the app, selecting their preferred story, and closing the app.
After understanding the user flow and the initial layout, I started on the first iteration of the UI.
THEN I BOOSTED IT TO HIGHER FIDELITY
Inspired by pre-existing video software and products, I reshaped the prototype to match the created branding. This included darker tones, project organization, and multiple types of editing windows depending on if the user is a visual, text, or video editor.
I ultimately decided to simplify the app icon to show a playhead trimmed in half.
The next step was to create the import menu where users can upload their footage.
After uploading the footage, the user is brought to the main dashboard where they can start editing via selecting text.
I then explored creating multiple editing screens for each type of editor. One that is text based...
...and another that is visual based.
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I created something that achieved my goal. I wanted to create a facilitator software that helped producers pick their selected lines out of an interview. Behind the scenes, Trimm is cutting the video and preparing the file for an editor to start editing.
It creates the first draft and limits the editors’ time on menial tasks that can be done easily by technology.
Future itirations would include a further improvement on the UI and prototyping how the file is exported. Since this is a software designed to facilitate one process, the goal is to have the user take the finished file into another editing software as an MXF to complete all other editing.