Music performance pieces are always challenging to edit. Even performances that only involve music are pesky. Take a children’s ballet recital:

I was pretty satisfied with this piece. The project’s director provided details and the girls provided emotion. The piece had music and a variety of interesting shots, so it was interesting to watch. And I think it holds attention since it clocks in at only 1:19.

Here’s another one that’s not as good. You notice here I ran out of b-roll that would not look out of sync with my audio track, so I used some shots twice.

While I was editing the ballet video, one of the reporters came up behind me and asked how many people we sent to shoot. “Uh, one. Me,” I said. He thought that was pretty impressive, so I guess I did something right.

That’s the importance of getting a variety of shots. The problem with getting a variety of shots during a musical performance is that you can create gaps for yourself that are impossible to edit around. So here’s a list of guidelines:

• Press record, and leave it alone. Record the entire performance. This is not how you should shoot every story, but for performances with music, you need to capture the entire song in every number you want to use
• Get plenty of crowd shots. They provide emotion and are your savior when you’re in an editing bind.
• Think sequencing. Imagine how you’ll edit as your shooting. Try to get shots where your subject moves out of frame.
• Get very close shots. These make great cutaways for editing and sequencing. Try to get shots you can put anywhere, shots that are constant throughout the performance, like someone’s foot or the back of his head. Not a singer’s mouth or a pianist’s hands. You can use shots like these, but they have to match your audio track and you have to build everything around them.

When editing, lay down the entire musical audio track as well as the few video clips you have that match that audio track. Then fill the rest in with your out of sync cutaways. Keep the audio levels low in the clips that are not your main audio track, lest one part of a song interfere with another.

Finally, keep in mind that most songs are copyrighted. Gannett’s lawyers advise we include a voiceover of some kind in any track with music. Any one song should not play alone for more than 15 seconds. Doing so would be akin to creating a “music video,” which is infringement.