Last week I overheard someone I had interviewed for a video explaining how we had shot take after take just to get one minute of footage. What she didn’t say was that what sounded like one continuous quote had actually been pieced together from the best of each take.

Going on camera is tough. As we position the lights and set up the cameras, those I’m interviewing tell me what they plan on saying, and they’re spot on. But when we flick on the lights and roll the cameras, normally articulate people sometimes become tongue-tied, and the words they’ve practiced escape them.

My job is to ensure that those in front of the cameras and the people or organizations they are recognizing are shown at their best. After all the footage is shot, I go through each transcribed interview and mark where the speakers nail it. Then I check the audio and video to ensure intonations and facial expressions work. With all the transcripts spread out before me, I review the highlights and pull seven seconds here, 17 seconds there. to fashion a script that tells a story. Hours of footage repackaged into a five-minute gold nugget.

For the last seven years, Jason Dumas with Time Warner Cable has polished those nuggets into finished pieces. Videographer, film editor and producer, Jason understands what I want to convey. He adds the music, grabs the viewers’ attention with the opening montage or animation, and determines whether to use wide or tight shots. He seamlessly blends my scripts with his footage, winning a few Telly Awards over the years for this and other work.

It’s a lot of fun, a lot of work and tremendously satisfying. Let me know what you think of our most recent videos on Apprenticeship 2000, Siemens Energy and the “Marketing Charlotte USA.”