Editing
Articles:
Compression: Easy guide
Priorities
In editing a film you will add a further layer of
development to the whole creative act as your footage
- all those tapes accrued over days or weeks of filming
- is cut together in a way which best resembles your
plans. Editing brings your film out of the uncertainty
that is the initial idea and out of the scramble that
is filming. It is about order, priorities, structure,
pace, timing, accuracy. Knowing how to place your
clips in the right order is perhaps a triumph of instinct
over technology and, given the range of technical
trickery on offer even in mid-level editing software,
knowing when to stop editing is important. If you
know what you want you are less likely to get side-tracked
by the powerful influence of all that wonderful technology.
Skills you need
When you look back over the process of making your
first production, you may find that the skills you
thought were essential to filmmaking - those centring
on the technical aspects of the medium - were secondary
to the more esoteric. Some filmmakers talk about the
ability to remain both in control and open to new
ideas; to negotiate your way through problems; to
see all aspects of the process, however mundane, as
having some creative contribution to the project,
that nothing is purely technical; to think of a low
budget as less a hindrance to realizing your imagination
than a way towards doing so more artfully, more ingeniously.
The crunch
- Know what it is you want to make clearly.
- Planning the film will save you time and money
later.
- Enjoy surprises.
- Handle the pressure - it’s worth it to have
your name at the end of the film.
- Improvise to get you out of trouble.
- Be prepared, your footage will always disappoint
you straight after filming because you are tired
and it's late and you just want to go home.
- Postpone any rash decisions made after viewing
your rushes - footage improves with time.
- Look forward to editing - you are in charge again.
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