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Film Editing

Making the film after you make the film

The film editor gets the final say in telling the story. Now that the pressure of production is over and the money outflow has slowed from a deluge to a trickle the editor can take his/her time. Scenes that were shot that are less than perfect can be improved, or at least the flaws can be hidden.

The best way to learn about editing is to watch lots of good movies. Just like writing a screenplay every scene is a little story in itself and every scene must be absolutely essential or is doesn't belong in the movie. The editor must understand the point of each scene just as well as the director (if they aren't the same person) so they are trying to accomplish the same thing.

The first step is logging the film. This means watching every scene that was shot and taking notes on such things as performance quality and technical flaws. Using a non-linear editing system makes it easy to move the clips associated with different parts of the movie into directorys or bins to begin creating the first rough edit.

Cuts and Transitions

Non-linear editing systems typically support hundreds of different transitions and effects. The only transitions used in movies, with rare exception, are the plain cut and the dissolve. Other transitions just become distracting to the audience.

Generally each scene starts with an establishing shot or coverage shot then cuts to closer shots of the actors and action. During the most dramatic moments the most extreme closeups emphasize the drama. As the action speeds up the length of clips should get shorter.

Cuts between clips should be made at the point the actors move. This tends to hide any slight inconsistency between the shots.

The first rough cut may take several months to complete and there may be several versions of the rough cut before the director and editor are in agreement.

The sound designer and music composer generally get involved at this point.

The process continues for several more months as unnecessary scenes are removed and the remaining scenes are tightened.

The sound designer and music composer join in for the final cut, adding sound effects and the musical score.

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