The Movie Minute with Madeline, Episode #3

Hey all,

Madeline here once again with another entry in The Movie Minute: This time on the primary product that I work on here at Poor Bear: short-form content, also known as “reels”.

With the rise of social media and online content creators, especially on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, short-form content has become an effective and powerful way to reach audiences. And for many of our clients, we produce a batch of reels every month to spread their message and mission.

It all starts with shooting the main content to use as the “meat” of the reel, most often interviews done in either a casual or formal setting. However, these interviews can last from 15 minutes to 2 hours depending on the client and setting, and a typical reel is usually no more than a minute long. So, how do we take a giant interview and make short reels out of it that each still have a complete story to tell on their own?

Once the camera angles and mic tracks are synced together in Adobe Premiere Pro, a low/res version of the interview is exported and uploaded to Frame.io, a collaborative platform we use for editing notes and reviews. Whether interview questions are trimmed out depends on if they’re needed for context, and editing out questions, long pauses, and filler words are a breeze with Premiere’s text based editing feature (when done with care, as there is the risk of false positives, especially if the subject speaks with a softer tone.)

Soundbites are then marked for potential reels, and once those have been selected, filler words (like “um”, and “uh”) as well as long pauses are trimmed out, but that creates what are known as “j-cuts” that can be jarring, and switching angles is not always a viable option. So, how do we “mask” those j-cuts?

That’s where b-roll comes into play. Depending on the client, we make use of either b-roll that was shot along with the interviews or stock footage, layering it over the j-cuts and adding animations and effects to further enhance the transitions.

Then, stock music from Artlist is added to help keep viewers engaged, with different tones of music selected depending on the client and the message of the reel.

Once a rough draft is submitted, It is reviewed for any revisions that would be best to implement before sending the reel drafts off to the client. The client may request a few revisions as well. Once that is done, the video files are sent off to the client for them to post on their social media platforms.

We also have a video demonstration of of what it’s like to build a reel, which can be found here:

When I was assigned to produce reels at first, I struggled with it hard. But thanks to the wonderful support and guidance from Jhoel, Jacob, and the rest of the team, I gradually adapted and now it’s become my most notable specialty when it comes to a lot of the projects I work on regularly at Poor Bear.
Anyways, I hope that I was able to give some insight on what it’s like to produce reels for our clients and how they can be effective and useful for spreading their message. Wishing you all well, and stay tuned for the next entry in The Movie Minute!