How to Break Scenes and Change Camera Angles in Riverside Interview Podcasts

When I edit a multi-track interview podcast in Riverside, one of the last decisions I make is where the camera changes. Who is on screen, when do I cut to the guest, and when do I come back to both of us? Everybody has their own style for this, and that is fine. This is the workflow I keep coming back to, and it is a good place to start if you have never been sure how to approach it.

Riverside can do this for you. The AI tools and smart layouts will change camera angles with one click and create a lot of scenes. For me, that is sometimes too many. I like to have control over where the scenes change, where I show the guest, where I show the host, and where we are side by side.

Clean Up the Episode First

I only start cutting scenes after the episode is cleaned up. That means I have already removed filler words and gaps and adjusted the framing. Then I go through the timeline, look at the different speakers, and ask one question: where do I need to change the camera?

Read the Speaker Colors in the Timeline

Look at the timeline at the bottom of the editor. You can drag it taller to give yourself more room. The audio track is drawn in different colors, because Riverside has identified each speaker and given each one their own color. In my episode I am purple and my guest, Bret, is green.

That makes it very easy to see who is talking, when, and for how long, and it is all the information you need to decide where the scenes go. At this point there are no scenes in the edit at all.

Start With a Solo Host Scene for the Intro

The purple block at the very beginning is me doing the intro. I have not introduced the guest yet, so for this part I want to be full screen.

Place the playhead where the intro ends, just before the line that brings the guest in, and insert a scene there. You can click the New Scene button above the timeline, which adds a scene break exactly where the playhead is, or press S or / (forward slash) on your keyboard.

Now change the layout of that first scene. Deselect everything, click Layout above the preview, and pick a Solo speaker layout.

Riverside may put the wrong person on screen. In my case it switched to my guest. That is not a problem: select the video in the preview and use the speaker dropdown in the toolbar to switch to yourself.

Stay Side by Side for Quick Exchanges

After that first scene, the guest has been introduced and we are both on screen. If the two of you are having a quick exchange, talking on and off and trading little jokes, leave it alone. I keep that whole part on both of us, side by side. Cutting back and forth on every short reply is exactly the kind of busy editing I am trying to avoid.

Switch to the Guest for Longer Answers

The next decision is when to go to the guest. I do that when the guest is going to talk for a while. In my timeline you can see it as a long stretch of green: Bret introduces himself and explains what he does.

Here is the part that matters most to me. I do not switch the scene at the exact point where I stop talking and he starts. I let him speak for a sentence or two while we are still side by side, and then I change, usually at a gap in the audio. Zoom in on the timeline and those gaps are easy to spot.

Move the playhead to that gap and press /. The scene before the break stays on both of us. In the new scene, go to Layout again and choose a Solo speaker layout. This time it is the guest on screen.

Crop and Reframe the Guest

If you want the guest a little closer to the camera, go into crop mode, drag the zoom slider up a touch, and move the picture until the framing looks right. Then click Done. I cover all of the options in crop, reposition and reframe in Riverside.

Return to Side by Side Just Before You Speak

Now the guest goes on for a while. Somewhere in the middle of a long answer I might cut back to myself or to both of us when I am laughing or reacting to what he is saying. But eventually I want to go back to side by side, and the question is where.

Find the spot where your color comes back in the timeline and zoom in. I do the mirror image of the earlier cut. I do not switch at the point where I start talking. I switch just before, so the guest gets a little buffer to finish his thought while we are both on screen, after he has been on screen by himself for a long time.

Press / there, and in the new scene go to Layout and pick a One-on-one layout.

You may need to change the order so each person is on the side you expect. Just drag the videos around in the preview. If someone is off-center in their half, double-click their video and reframe them.

Play it back and you get the result I am after: the guest is still talking when the picture changes to both of us, he finishes his sentence, and then I come in. Nobody notices the cut.

Keep Camera Changes Smooth and Deliberate

That is the whole workflow. I do not change scenes too often. A one-hour episode with two people usually ends up at around a hundred scenes at most, and that number depends on how often the conversation changes hands.

If you change the camera too often, it becomes distracting and the editing draws attention to itself. So I let people stay on screen while they are talking, and at the transition points I leave a little buffer for whoever starts talking:

• Going to one speaker: let them talk for a sentence or two first, then cut at a gap in the audio.
• Coming back to both: cut just before the other person starts, while the first speaker is still finishing.
• Quick back-and-forth: stay side by side.

If you have been in doubt about how to break scenes in your own multi-track episodes, start with this strategy and adjust it to your own taste from there.

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