Editing Techniques

[Recce]

I see a lot of posts about what kind of editing software and hardware people use. But does anyone have any good editing techniques they use?

[Cecil]

my uncle says that instead of doing the traditional "4 hour cut and then cut it down to 90-120 minutes," he does the opposite: he only puts in the bare essentials and then works up to 90-120 minutes from that.

[ReelHotGames]

I like to have a lot going on around me, I know some editors like the closed off silent room with no light, I like to have a TV in the background on Sci-Fi or Food Network or something, and then I have to block it out, it causes me to have to really focus on what I'm doing. Instead of allowing myself little distractions to pull me away, I create them intentionally so I can force them out of my head and create the narrow path I need.

As far as techniques I like to get all the footage for the scene I am assembling, including any bad takes, then peice by peice start to assemble, and what I find is that the shots I thought would be "the take" when I was shooting may not really be it once I have them side by side with the others.

[Recce]

I have to have an ample supply of pepsi and chips. My desk has to be properly organized, etc.

As for actual editing techniques, I like putting this one, cheesy transition into all my shorts. A shot where the character walks up to the camera, blocking the light so it goes to black, then cut to the character walking away from the camera. Cheesy, but its become something of a tradition. There's also the ever classic quick cut, by this I mean ending one shot with a quick movement, creating a distracting blur, and cutting on the movement. Another good transition, I find, is with people walking by the camera or a car going by the camera. It allows for a relatively seemless cut if you put it just as the car or person fills the frame. You can change shot sizes very easily.

[Sittingduck]

Hey.  I'm a poor university student who needs to get a copy of Final Cut pro.      I need a copy really soon for a non-commercial video editing project but I don't have the cash to buy my own copy at the moment.    Acquisition isn't putting out.    If anyone has any tips on how to get a 'trial' version I would really appreciate it.

and please, no lectures on how terrible a thing piracy is, I make 7,000 canadian dollars a year.  

thanks

- Stephan

[Cecil]

theres an another app called "limewire" which might find it for you. keep trying with aquisition though, unless you expect final cut pro 3 to be there, which it isnt

[mutinyco]

If you aren't storyboarding your films before you shoot them, then this is the time. Avid lets you create storyboards with frames from each shot. Any system you use will allow you to make still frames. Choose one frame from each shot, then use Photoshop or whatever image program you've got, and arrange them in an order that makes narrative sense.

[ReelHotGames]

If you aren't storyboarding your films before you shoot them, then this is the time. Avid lets you create storyboards with frames from each shot. Any system you use will allow you to make still frames. Choose one frame from each shot, then use Photoshop or whatever image program you've got, and arrange them in an order that makes narrative sense.

Maybe I'm confused by this, but if you've already shot then storyboarding before you shoot isn't possible. This technique yoru describing is a decent resource for knowing what you've already shot and arranging it for content editing.

[mutinyco]

It's still called storyboarding. That's what you're doing -- creating a sequence out of still images. It's just that you're doing it in the editing process, not preproduction.

It's not something I do. I storyboard before I shoot. But it's a good technique if you don't.

[Recce]

Well, cuase the whole point of storyboarding, as is my understanding, is to help you during the shoot. If you do it afterwards, it serves no purpose, unless you have to submit it for school or something.

[mutinyco]

Not at all. It's a way of abstracting the shots. Similarly, when some screenwriters write, they use index cards of each scene to help them. Similarly, when some people shoot, they post each page of the script to a wall. It's just a way to abstract each shot so you have a visual representation of it. This way, you can look at a still from all of the shots at once. A collage, if you will.

As I said, I don't do it. But I know people who do.

[mutinyco]

Just to clarify something, most filmmakers DO NOT storyboard. Most filmmakers shoot coverage. They might have a shot list, but most just cover a scene from multiple angles. It's a situation like this where edit storyboarding comes in handy.

[SoNowThen]

Are you sure about that? Most of them storyboard at least a couple large sequences, to my understanding. Fincher does each shot, Peter Jackson does, Scorsese draws his own (but usually only for select scenes), this is just a few examples, but I'm pretty sure most of the directors-for-hire on studio projects work from extensive storyboards, too.

[mutinyco]

You're speaking of directors who are inherently visual. Yes, most of them use boards -- at least for complicated scenes. But usually only for that. Most of the time -- and remember, most directors are not these visual filmmakers -- they shoot coverage. Few directors storyboard everything -- Coens, Fincher on Panic Room, Scorsese does a lot. Spielberg used to, but has stopped for the last half dozen years. He feels comfortable enough now to trust his instincts.

But something else you must remember -- most directors DO NOT have final cut over their films, so the studios or producers want as much to play with as possible. In the Spielberg piece I said that his advice was to shoot only what's necessary, so the powers that be don't have anything to change anything with. And they hate to spend money on reshoots.

Many times, directors aren't even present for the editing phase. The Coens edit all their films under the name Roderick Jaynes. They're an anomoly. Go to the Fox Searchlight website -- they have streaming video interviews with filmmakers. One of them is Michael Kahn, Spielberg's editor. S.S. gives him great leeway to shape a scene, and he loves working with coverage, because it's more maleable.