Six Edit and Delivery Mistakes That Cost a Story Its Slot

Starting the cut before the brief is clear

The most expensive mistake in a rapid edit happens before the first clip goes on the timeline. An editor who starts cutting without knowing the running time, the slot and the reporter's intended angle will build something that has to be rebuilt. I have watched a ninety-second package grow to two minutes because nobody said the slot was seventy seconds, and then lose twenty minutes of its deadline being trimmed back.

So I ask the same few questions every time. How long is the piece, who is voicing it, and is there a line or a quote that must stay in? Is the story still developing, so that later footage may replace the opening shot? These questions take under two minutes by phone and save far more than that.

A written brief does not need to be long. Three lines in an email, with the slot length and the key quote, is enough to keep the cut pointed the right way from the start.

• Confirm running time and air slot first
• Name the one quote or shot that must stay
• Ask whether the story is still developing

Leaving captions until the picture is locked

Captioning is often treated as a finishing touch, and that is how packages end up late. When the picture is locked and the captions are only then typed, any change of wording or a trim of two seconds means every timecode has to be checked again. On a tight turnaround that is exactly where errors creep in.

I prefer to build captions alongside the edit. As soon as an interview clip is placed, the transcript line goes in, with names and titles checked against what the reporter supplied. If the cut changes, the caption moves with it, and nothing waits for a last pass.

Spelling of names is the other trap. A misspelt surname on screen is a correction waiting to happen. I always check names against the reporter's notes rather than trusting what I heard on the recording, because audio on location is rarely clean enough to be certain.

• Place captions as clips are placed
• Verify every name against the reporter's notes
• Re-check timings after any trim

Exporting to the wrong specification

Broadcasters ask for particular formats, frame rates, audio levels and file naming, and they ask for them because their ingest systems depend on them. Sending a file that is technically fine but does not match the specification can mean it is rejected or queued for conversion, and either one eats the time you gained in the edit.

My habit is to keep the broadcaster's delivery sheet open next to the export window and tick it off line by line: codec, resolution, frame rate, loudness, slate and file name. It feels slow the first time. After a few weeks it takes half a minute and removes an entire category of failure.

Where a newsroom has changed its requirements, I ask for the updated sheet rather than working from memory of the last job. Specifications drift, and an assumption that held in spring may be wrong by mid autumn.

• Keep the delivery sheet beside the export settings
• Check loudness and frame rate before sending
• Ask for the current sheet when requirements may have changed

Skipping a full playback before delivery

Under pressure it is tempting to export and send straight away. Yet the commonest faults I catch are visible only on a complete playback: a flash frame at a transition, audio that drops out on the last second, a caption that overlaps the lower third. None of these shows up if you only scrub through the timeline.

I watch every package from the exported file, not from the editing software, with headphones on. That way I am checking what the broadcaster will actually receive. It adds the running time of the piece to the job, which on a minute-long package is barely noticeable.

If something is wrong, it is far cheaper to fix it before the file leaves than to resend after a gallery producer has already noticed. A second delivery also tends to confuse which version is the current one.

• Watch the exported file, not the timeline
• Listen on headphones through to the final second
• Never send two versions without labelling them clearly

Muddled file names and unclear handover

A good package can still cause trouble if nobody can tell which file is which. Names such as final, final2 and final_new mean the gallery has to guess. I use a plain pattern: story slug, version number and format, so that the right file can be identified at a glance by someone who was not in the edit.

The handover message matters as much as the file. A short note stating what is attached, its running time, whether captions are burned in or supplied separately, and any known caveat, such as a shot taken in poor light, lets the producer decide quickly without ringing to ask.

When a story is updated after delivery, I send the new version with the old one clearly marked as superseded. That one line prevents the wrong cut going to air, which is the mistake nobody wants to explain afterwards.

• Use story slug, version and format in file names
• State running time and caption method in the note
• Mark superseded versions explicitly

Treating every job as the same job

A final mistake is applying one routine to every package. A breaking item for the evening bulletin, a studio interview for a weekend segment and a short clip for a web page all have different priorities. Treating them alike either wastes time polishing what needs speed or rushes what needs care.

I decide at the start what the job needs most. For a developing story it is speed and accuracy of the facts on screen. For an interview it is clean audio and a respectful cut that keeps the guest's meaning. Naming that priority, even just to myself, shapes every later choice.

It also helps to tell the newsroom what I have prioritised. If a package is delivered fast with plain graphics, the producer knows that polish was traded for time on purpose, and can ask for more only if the slot allows.