Chapter 30 — Quiz

Twenty-five questions to check that you own the interview-edit method. Mix of multiple choice, true/false (always justify), short answer, and "what's wrong with this cut?" diagnosis. Answer from memory first; the key and a review map are at the end.

Multiple choice

1. A radio edit is best described as: - (a) recording an interview for a podcast instead of video - (b) a paper edit built from the interview audio, cutting and ordering the words before touching the picture - (c) adding a music bed under an interview - (d) removing all the B-roll so only the voice remains

2. Why do you cut the words before the picture in an interview piece? - (a) because pictures take longer to render - (b) because the story lives in the audio spine; if it holds for the ear, the pictures can only improve it - (c) because B-roll is optional - (d) because the client only cares about the audio

3. In an interview, a select is usually: - (a) the entire answer to a question - (b) the best of several cameras - (c) a single self-contained soundbite, trimmed on the breath, carved out of a longer take - (d) a favorite B-roll shot

4. A string-out (in the radio sense) is: - (a) selects laid end to end in rough story order, tested with your eyes closed - (b) the final locked cut - (c) the color-graded master - (d) a list of questions

5. A B-roll-driven narrative is a piece in which: - (a) the B-roll has no sound - (b) the story is carried by the unbroken interview audio and told by B-roll laid over it - (c) there is no interview at all - (d) the B-roll replaces the story

6. You order the soundbites in your spine by: - (a) the order the subject spoke them - (b) the order you asked the questions - (c) the story arc — hook, development, resolution - (d) shot quality, best-looking first

7. The cut that is the engine of a B-roll-driven narrative — audio continuing over a change of picture — is the: - (a) match cut - (b) J-cut - (c) L-cut - (d) hard cut on action

8. In your editor, the B-roll that covers an interview seam goes: - (a) on the video track above the interview, with the interview audio playing on underneath - (b) on the same track, replacing the interview entirely - (c) below the interview audio - (d) on a separate timeline

9. The single most serious ethical error in interview editing is: - (a) trimming an "um" out of a soundbite - (b) reordering the subject's thoughts into an arc - (c) building a frankenbite that makes the subject appear to say something they did not mean - (d) cutting the interviewer's questions out

10. When should you not cut away to B-roll? - (a) never — always cover the face - (b) on the emotional lines, the vulnerable pause, and the closing button, where the face must be seen - (c) only in the first ten seconds - (d) whenever the B-roll is pretty

11. The two quality passes on an interview fine cut are: - (a) color pass and sound pass - (b) the eyes-closed (radio) pass and the sound-off (mute) pass - (c) the client pass and the legal pass - (d) the export pass and the archive pass

12. Picture lock means: - (a) the color is finished - (b) no more picture changes will be made; the cut is frozen and handed off to finishing - (c) the file is password-protected - (d) the interview is locked in a safe

13a. You have one interview shot single-camera with rich B-roll, and one shot two-camera with almost no B-roll. To hide the internal cuts in the spine, you will: - (a) lay B-roll over the seams in the single-camera piece; cut A↔B on the seams in the two-camera piece - (b) do nothing — jump cuts are fine in documentary - (c) add dissolves at every splice in both - (d) slow both pieces down so the jumps are less noticeable

13b. Your radio string-out drags in the middle when you listen with your eyes closed. The right first move is to: - (a) start laying B-roll to distract from it - (b) add a music bed to cover the dull stretch - (c) reorder or cut the soundbites until the audio holds — fix the spine before adding picture - (d) add a title card

True / False — and say why

13. A finished spine should sound like a complete story even with the picture removed. True / False — justify.

14. Because the spine is "done as audio," a good spine has a clean, jump-free picture track. True / False — justify.

15. If an interview piece feels boring, the first fix is to add more B-roll. True / False — justify.

16. You may reorder a subject's soundbites out of the chronology they spoke them in. True / False — justify.

17. Wall-to-wall B-roll is the safest way to pace an interview piece, because it hides every cut. True / False — justify.

18. The transcript you use for the radio edit has no further use once the spine is built. True / False — justify.

Short answer

19. In one or two sentences each, define radio edit, select, string-out, and B-roll-driven narrative.

20. Name the two jobs a single matched B-roll shot does when laid over an interview seam.

21. What is the "reveal-and-return" rhythm, and which moments must play on the face?

22. Where is the ethical line between tightening a soundbite and building a frankenbite? Give the one-question test.

What's wrong with this cut?

23. A described piece: a moving, cleanly recorded interview, cut to three minutes — but the picture is one unbroken talking head that visibly jumps a dozen times, and there is no other footage. Name the failure, the root cause, and where it should have been prevented.

24. A described piece: gorgeous, wall-to-wall B-roll, a slick music bed, and after two viewings you still cannot say what it is about or picture the person. Which pass does it fail, which rung of the pipeline broke, and what's the fix?

25. A described cut: over the subject's most vulnerable line — a two-second pause and then "…and that scares me" — the editor cuts away to a wide drone shot of the town. What did the editor get wrong about the handoff, and what should they do instead?

Answer Key

Show answers **1. (b).** A radio edit finds and orders the story from the audio alone, eyes closed to picture, so the piece works as radio first. (§30.1) **2. (b).** The A-roll audio is the spine; the story lives in the words. If it holds for the ear, pictures improve it; no B-roll rescues a broken spine. (§30.1) **3. (c).** A select is the good *seven seconds* — one self-contained soundbite trimmed on the breath — not the whole two-minute answer. (§30.2) **4. (a).** A radio string-out is selects laid end to end in story order, played back with eyes closed to test whether the story holds as pure audio. (§30.2) **5. (b).** Voice leads (unbroken audio), picture proves (matched B-roll roaming over it). (§30.4) **6. (c).** Order for the arc — the hook is often a line said late; chronology and question order are irrelevant. (§30.3) **7. (c).** The L-cut: interview audio runs continuously while the picture cuts to B-roll — the move that hides every seam. (§30.4, Ch.28) **8. (a).** B-roll goes on the track above the interview; the interview audio plays on underneath (the L-cut). (§30.4) **9. (c).** A frankenbite that manufactures a meaning the subject didn't intend is fabrication, not editing. (§30.3) **10. (b).** Hold the face for the emotional lines, the pause, and the button — the moments whose power is the expression. (§30.4–30.5) **11. (b).** Eyes-closed (does the story hold as audio?) and sound-off (does the picture still show a film?). A finished piece passes both. (§30.6) **12. (b).** Lock freezes the picture and hands off to color, sound, titles, and captions, which all build on your exact timing. (§30.6) **13a. (a).** Single-camera: cover the seams with matched B-roll (the L-cut). Two-camera: cut A↔B on the trim (the angle change hides the join). You choose where to spend the effort — on the shoot (a second camera) or in the edit (a cutaway). (§30.4, Ch.19 §19.6) **13b. (c).** A dragging spine is an *audio/story* problem — reorder or cut soundbites until it holds with the eyes closed, *before* adding any picture. B-roll and music can't rescue a broken spine; they only hide it. (§30.2, §30.6) **13. True.** The spine is the audio story; the radio edit exists precisely so the piece holds with the picture removed. (§30.1–30.2) **14. False.** A good spine is *deliberately* broken as picture — every splice jumps — because you built it audio-first; B-roll covers the seams afterward. (§30.3) **15. False.** A boring piece usually has fine cover and a *broken spine*; the fix is back to the words and the order, not more B-roll. (§30.6) **16. True.** You may reorder thoughts into an arc — that's the core of the spine — as long as you don't change what the subject *meant* (no frankenbite). (§30.3) **17. False.** Wall-to-wall B-roll buries the person and feels slick and cold; good pacing reveals the face and returns to it for the key beats. (§30.5) **18. False.** The transcript pays off again as your caption file at delivery (Chapter 36) — one transcript, three jobs. (§30.1, §30.4 accessibility) **19.** *Radio edit:* a paper edit built from interview audio alone, ordering the words with eyes closed to picture. *Select:* a clip, or the good part of one — in an interview, a single self-contained soundbite. *String-out:* selects laid end to end in rough story order. *B-roll-driven narrative:* a piece whose story is carried by unbroken interview audio and told by B-roll laid over it. (§30.1–30.4) **20.** It covers the cut (hides the jump at the splice) *and* shows/proves what the voice is describing (show-don't-tell). (§30.4) **21.** Reveal the person (open on the face), roam the B-roll (prove and breathe), return to the face for the lines whose power is the expression — the emotional beat, the pause, the button. Those play on the face. (§30.5) **22.** You may make a person more *concise* — trim, reorder, cut fillers — but never make them say something *false*. The test: *would the subject, watching, agree that's what they meant?* (§30.3) **23.** Failure: a hostage video — the interview was cut but never covered, so every trim is a visible jump cut. Root cause: no B-roll was shot (or laid in). Prevented on the shoot (Chapter 20's coverage), and the fix in the edit is to lay matched B-roll over every seam (or use a two-camera cut). (§30.4, Ch.20) **24.** It fails the *eyes-closed* pass — the spine is broken or absent, so there's no story for the ear. The radio-edit rung (spine) broke; the editor cut pictures first. Fix: go back to the transcript, build a real spine that holds as audio, then re-cover it. More B-roll is *not* the fix. (§30.1, §30.6) **25.** The editor cut away *too early*, robbing the vulnerable line of the face that gives it power, and jumping to an impersonal wide at the exact moment intimacy was needed. Hold the face through the pause and the line so the viewer *sees* it said; hand off to B-roll only on the tail, if at all. (§30.4, FIGURE 30.5)

Topics to review by question

  • Q1–2, 13, 18: the radio edit — story before picture (§30.1)
  • Q3–4, 14: selects and the string-out (§30.2)
  • Q6, 9, 16, 22: building the spine; the frankenbite line (§30.3)
  • Q5, 7–8, 20, 23: layering B-roll; the L-cut; B-roll-driven narrative (§30.4)
  • Q10, 17, 21, 24, 25: pacing; reveal-and-return; the handoff (§30.4–30.5)
  • Q11–12, 15: the fine cut, the two passes, and lock (§30.6)
  • Interleaved: Q7 (L-cut, Ch.28), Q23 (B-roll, Ch.20), Q3/Q19 (full-sentence answers, Ch.19)