When you show an edit to someone, it can be a bit disheartening if the feedback is too general. “It’s great” doesn’t tell you anything. “I don’t know, it just doesn’t quite feel right” can leave you even more in the dark. When you’re just starting out, feedback is only useful when it’s attached to something tangible in the edit. Instead of saying “What do you think of this?”, say, “What do you think of the pacing in the intro?” or “Is this section confusing?” or “Does this ending work?” The more specific the question, the more specific the feedback, and the more specific the feedback, the easier it is to implement in your timeline.
Before you show someone your sequence, watch it yourself with purpose. First, play it all the way through and pause at the first moment your attention wanders. Next, play it again and only pay attention to the edits. Are they happening a little too soon? A little too late? Just about right? Finally, play it again with the audio turned off to see if the visual edits make sense. You’d be surprised what you might discover. This will also make your question more specific because you’re not showing the edit with the expectation that they’ll diagnose the problem for you. You are presenting a draft with a known area that needs attention.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to wait too long to get feedback. A common mistake is gathering feedback too late, after you have already spent a long time polishing transitions, music, and color. At that stage, even simple changes feel painful because the edit seems finished. A better approach would be to get feedback when the sequence is raw. Don’t add music yet. Don’t color yet. Don’t do any fancy edits. If the edit works when it’s ugly, it’ll work when it’s pretty. And if it doesn’t work when it’s ugly, no amount of “pretty” will fix it. Getting feedback early will save you a ton of time because you’ll be able to make the structural edits before it’s decorated.
It’s also important to consider how much you show. Sometimes a two-minute rough cut can be too much to stomach, and you’ll get a lot of vague feedback. Is there a section within that rough cut that you can show instead? Can you narrow it down to just 15-30 seconds and explain what you’re looking for? “I’m trying to figure out if this action is clear”, “I’m trying to figure out if the edit is too slow”, or “I’m trying to figure out if this edit is distracting”. This will give the person a context. It will also keep their feedback focused on the edit and less on personal taste. If the feedback is focused on the edit, it will be easier to make the changes confidently.
If you’re getting multiple opinions and feel like you’re not sure how to proceed, see if you can find a theme to the notes. Someone might say “it’s too fast”. Someone else might say “it’s too slow”. But if they’re both talking about the same part of the edit, that section probably needs work. The note behind the note is the one that’s really important. Often times, the problem is not that the edit is too fast or too slow, but that the scene lacks a clear point of emphasis. If you find yourself in that spot, go back to the footage and try to figure out what the audience should be looking at first. Once you figure that out, figuring out how long to linger on the edit will become easier.
There’s a simple 15-minute exercise you can do every day to get comfortable with feedback. Spend the first few minutes making one short sequence and writing down the single thing you want reviewed. Use the next few minutes to watch it yourself in silence and note where it stumbles. Then share that short section with one focused question in mind. After the response comes back, revise only the area connected to that question and compare the new version with the old one. Going through this process will help train your eye, as much as it will make the edit better.