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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Editing is ...

alexwhitmer

alexwhitmer

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I'm playing around with editing these days - playing as in I really don't know what I'm doing, nor have any actual equipment. Just winging it with what I can conjure up - and it's exciting to take all these fractured bits of footage and arrange them into a story. There is tremendous power in arrangments, with little flashes of images, removing a few frames here and there, slowing it down, speeding it up, and really creating the film's rhythm.

Who knew?

There is not nearly enough kudos given to editing and score, as far as I'm concerened. The script, the performances and the direction, and all the creative and technical support come down to that final edit, capped with the final score.

Will playing around with editing help the writing? Yeah, I think so. Getting an interesting perspective on how a story can be manipulated in one direction or another once it has gone from word to moving images.

Oh, and the Oscars ... Bale? Seriously?
 
Alex, here are two books that I think will appeal to your writer's sensibility:

"The Conversations. Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film". By Michael Ondaatje.

"In The Blink Of An Eye", by Walter Murch

PS:" Brokeback Mountain. Story To Screenplay" by Annie Proulx
Includes a conversation with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Screenwriters)
 
Hi Alex, I agree that editing will, at its best, help, reinforce and often improve writing. It strikes me editing is a form of writing, or at least "re-writing" and refining. In documentary, it is often the prime "writing" -- on the other hand, footage almost always has inherent intent, and it is rare that it can be forced into being something it is not. Not impossible, but unlikely. At least in a truly successful way, I think. So editing generally has to work within those limitations.
 
rod bradley said:
Hi Alex, I agree that editing will, at its best, help, reinforce and often improve writing. It strikes me editing is a form of writing, or at least "re-writing" and refining. In documentary, it is often the prime "writing" -- on the other hand, footage almost always has inherent intent, and it is rare that it can be forced into being something it is not. Not impossible, but unlikely. At least in a truly successful way, I think. So editing generally has to work within those limitations.
Click to expand...

By that post I assume you haven't done too much work editing current event or PR stories for television. Forcing the footage away from it's inherent intent is like 90% of the job. ;)

(Kidding... mostly.)
 
Alex,

On editing.

As a person who spent the better part of my early career shaping stories out of tens of hours of footage, I can tell you that a film never becomes a film until it is edited.

You can say what you want about a script and about acting and about the shots, but films are really made in little dark rooms, long after the ego's have left the buildings, with your sleeves rolled up and only the raw materials before you.

It's good that you are doing this. As a writer, structure is important, but editing will free your mind and allow you to play with structure a bit more.

Editing makes or breaks a film. You can get around poor cinematography, bad acting and lack of coverage to create a fine story, but the best of these things does not make a good film automatic.

Sound editing is yet another, long taken for granted craft.


David
 
Best advise I ever got was to edit. Priceless!

I agree, nowhere near enough credit is given to editing.

David Battistella said:
Sound editing is yet another, long taken for granted craft.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Learn how to mix dialogue, build sound design, and mix in score. Priceless.



I had the pleasure of chatting with Oscar winner Kirk Baxter at an event for Benjamin Button. Congratulations to him and Oscar winner Angus Wall for their work on "The Social Network". Congratulations to Oscar winners Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick, for their work on "Inception". And congratulations to Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for their goose-bump inducing score on "The Social Network"!
 
A short story on editing:

I was just coming out of still photography and had written 3 commercials for Domino's Pizza featuring their sponsorship of Team Shearson's Indy car team, at that time in 1982, driven by Howdy Holmes. Well I was a newbie to film, but knew how to make great images, so as Director/Cinematographer on the shoot we had a camera car with a crane and rented Indianapolis Raceway Park for the week. We were only shooting 3 30s but I got to shoot all kinds of footage.

The editor on the project was Bernie Caputo, and he had been editing for many years. He was so gentle with me, so complimentary. I had done this long crane shot into Howdy putting on his gloves in the car. I thought it was great - very elegant - but it was 20 seconds long! And there were a lot of other scenes to fit in and a driving rock track!

Bernie literally cut every 4th frame on his Kem and brought it down to 5 seconds. Bernie was very patient and I asked questions and learned. That was over 900 commercials ago and I have learned so much from Bernie and other great editors over the years to where now I am pretty decent at editing myself. It's a fantastic skill.

BTW, a side note. At the end of the shoot Howdy asked me if I'd like to drive the car! I never got to. He was about 5'2" and I'm 6'2" and I couldn't squeeze in the custom cockpit :–(
 
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One of the things people don't talk much about is visual rhythm -- the cadence that editing creates in a film. I've always felt this was very similar to the voice a writer brings to a piece. So important to giving a piece clarity and movement.
 
I teach editing at a film school that is mostly populated by future directors, producers and writers, but in our program, we mandate that every student takes every class, including editing. We feel that this gives them a more well-rounded education, and a better understanding and appreciation of each role in the film process.

I tell students all the time, that learning to think like an editor will make them better directors or cinematographers. There is nothing like having to cut your own footage to teach you to hold the end of a shot longer, make sure that your audio is clean, shoot enough coverage, shoot some inserts or closeups, and otherwise do all the little things that make an editor's job easier.

Even if they never edit again after leaving my classes, I like to think that having to "walk a mile" in an editor's shoes will help them be more successful at their chosen career area of the industry.
 
D Fuller said:
One of the things people don't talk much about is visual rhythm -- the cadence that editing creates in a film. I've always felt this was very similar to the voice a writer brings to a piece. So important to giving a piece clarity and movement.
Click to expand...

I agree. Of course it is part production as well (and pre) and not all post.
 
editors are co-directors.

(personally i don't have the patience being an editor ...)
 
Editing is related to directing, like coloring to photography.

Roberto Lequeux said:
I agree. Of course it is part production as well (and pre) and not all post.
Click to expand...

I'd say it reaches beyond production and script. Rhythmical sensibility of a good editor allows feeling the delicate 1 frame difference between "too much" and "just right". Then there is ability to adapt that sensibility to different scenarios/"feels" by perceiving the original feeling of the material and expressing it through adequate rhythm and order...and all that through multitasking of perceiving work as both craftsman and viewer at the same time.

If one is looking for a good editor, make sure he/she can pick up a beat. DJ-ing experience is a good sign. Music production even better. One who can perceive the difference in 1/32 of a 100BPM song (0.01 sec) will notice 1/24th of a sec (0.04 sec) without problems. Plus there are a lot of other related abilities...Meryem is spot on IMO.
 
In spite of having done so little of it, I love editing. Before the likes of Final Cut, I borrowed a dusty old Steenbeck, and, with the help of three friends, lugged the beast up to my small apartment. It crapped out in the middle of my black and white documentary. So I rented a smaller (everything is smaller than a Steenbeck) but more antiquated unit, and sat it on top of the Steenbeck: the bulb blew, and so did the spare, I searched for a replacement to no avail. A couple of other duds later, I dug out a cast iron, hand cranked unit from the basement of a Society of Independent Filmmakers. Leni Riefenstahl had used better gear than this. By the time I was done my apartment was a scrap metal shop decorated with film. Sprockets are the reason I like beer so much.
 
The director, editor, and cinematographer should all be one person. Especially if they're going to credit themselves with a "Film by..." title. Film, especially nowadays, is more visual than ever. Camera placement, coloring, lighting, lens choice, edit pacing, sound design, and score all trump actor performance 10 fold. If you're using someone else's talent to achieve those things you should be credited with ACTOR COACH and nothing more.
 
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