Editors.. How did you learn?

Started by Dtm115300, January 26, 2005, 12:04:33 PM

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Dtm115300

How did all you editors out there learn? All the tech stuff that is. I've been trying to teach my self with Adobe Pro; I can do a basic edit and put together a story, but i want to learn more. All the tech stuff how did you guys learn?

ono


pete

I started with pretty intricate fight choreography, 'cause that really forces you to look and to be sharp.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Recce

Edited a lot of crap projects. It helped me that they were my projects, cause it allowed me to learn how to plan for editing when I shoot as well. Learn the basics of match action cuts and make a couple of projects with nothing but match action cuts. You'll learn where to go from there and what's necessary and what's excessive.
"The idea had been growing in my brain for some time: TRUE force. All the king's men
                        cannot put it back together again." (Travis Bickle, "Taxi Driver")

kotte

Editing is not about mastering the software or a big Steinbeck or whatever. Learning the platform only takes some doing.
Editing is philosophy and psychology, a craft you don't master just because you know the software.

Becoming a good editor takes time, practice and a true true interest in cinema.

Ghostboy

Quote from: kotteEditing is not about mastering the software or a big Steinbeck or whatever. Learning the platform only takes some doing.
Editing is philosophy and psychology, a craft you don't master just because you know the software.

Becoming a good editor takes time, practice and a true true interest in cinema.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Dtm115300

I agree with you kotte. I find that learning "the craft" of editing is the most important part. Just because you can use the software doesn't mean you can put together a story. Its just hard to practice when you haven't learned to use your tools.

kotte

Premiere Pro has a very good help file.
It'll tell you everything you want to know.

Myxo

I don't think editing is something you can properly make somebody good at. Sure, the technique can be taught, but at the highest levels of the craft I think it boils down to something that you cannot teach. There is a "forest through the trees" quality to editing that is unlike anything you can learn in a school. You either understand composition, or you don't.

kotte

Quote from: MyxomatosisI don't think editing is something you can properly make somebody good at. Sure, the technique can be taught, but at the highest levels of the craft I think it boils down to something that you cannot teach.

But people are doing it and people are doing it well. I don't think the masters of today were were kickass editors when they first laid their eyes on a KEM. I know that's not what you're saying but to me saying "this cannot be taught, you're born with it" is the most discouraging thing to say, ever.
I believe it's a matter of doing it, doing it a lot, watching lots of films, talking to people, experiencing different things (life). An editor needs to have a grasp of what every character is going through to present their emotions right. The technical rules of cinema/editing (180 degree, continuity etc etc) you can learn in a week. It's that other thing, the thing we can't touch or see, the thing that just makes a cut or film work.
Skills in this area comes with age and practice.

Dtm115300

You can't say that " you ither get it or you don't." Nobody is born with complete understanding of how story telling works. Sure some are better, quicker then others, but it call comes down to how much you do it. The you do anything the better you become.  Im sure that working editors learned some how. Weather it be on there own or schooling its not 100% natural skill.

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: MyxomatosisI don't think editing is something you can properly make somebody good at. Sure, the technique can be taught, but at the highest levels of the craft I think it boils down to something that you cannot teach. There is a "forest through the trees" quality to editing that is unlike anything you can learn in a school. You either understand composition, or you don't.
I'm going to assume you're not talking about editing on the technical level, because it would be a little odd to say something like "some people are just born with Final Cut Pro skills." Please tell us exactly what innate quality you're talking about that makes a person a natural editor. "The highest levels of the craft"... what is that? And I thought "craft" (as opposed to "art") is by its meaning something technical that can be learned.

Are you really talking about artistic choice? Cause if you are, I'm not sure how "the craft of editing" has a monopoly on it.

And what do you mean by "composition"?

Pubrick

Quote from: MyxomatosisI don't think editing is something you can properly make somebody good at. Sure, the technique can be taught, but at the highest levels of the craft I think it boils down to something that you cannot teach. There is a "forest through the trees" quality to editing that is unlike anything you can learn in a school. You either understand composition, or you don't.
the fact that u called it a craft by definition implies that it can be taught. it's a technique, it isn't hard, and ur an idiot.

hmm, jb said pretty much the same thing.. so let me add that u must've meant that editing at its best is an art form, and that the manipulation of cinematic syntax is reliant on more than knowing what the "razor" icon is for. that would be an argument about talent overall, which inherently cannot be taught, and is equally about content. but anyone can be given directions about how to cut a scene, and then learn how to do it. editing in all its forms can be taught, and thats what makes ur statement dumb.
under the paving stones.

pete

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Dtm115300

Hey just wondering, does anyone here know how to use a flat panel Moviola? I just bought one. Also are there alot of editors out there that still cut on film? Or did most people turn to the computers?