Practical DV FilmMaking
Post-production tools
Condensed guide to editing
As we saw in Chapter 1, editing is the most crucial stage in the film's development, since it is the time when it becomes more than just the sum of its parts, more than a collection of scenes on a theme. The task is daunting: to compress time, to make events filmed days or weeks apart flow seamlessly; to make space contract or expand, or simply to suggest locations or events that are non-existent. It is, simply, deception on a grand scale.
It is impossible to lay down a rigid set of rules that lead to great editing; since the needs of each film are different, such rules would inevitably change for each movie. But there are points that can lead towards a better understanding of what your film needs. The ideas listed below are some of the most common points mentioned by editors, but all will be broken as and when necessary. The purpose of studying editing techniques is to know when you use these and when you break them. Since you probably want to get out there and make movies rather than spend a few years as an editor's assistant, you need to jump the queue of experience and look at how you make a film look good right now.
Editing: this is how it goes
1 Know your footage inside out, viewing it again and again to get to know where your strong points are and what looks (sometimes unexpectedly) good.
2 'Log' your footage tapes. This means making detailed notes, including the description of the shot, the timecode start and end points, its duration and whether the audio is of sufficient quality.
3 Make a rough, paper edit. More on these early stages in Chapter 7:3.
4 Make a first real edit, consisting of all the right shots you want in the film, but without any of the frills such as text, special effects, colour alterations and so on. These separate clips may also be untrimmed, which means they may still be cut down further. Full details of digital editing are given in Chapter 7:2.
5 View this first edit and go away and do something else. Go for a walk, do something physical, think about what you have made and consider all your initial plans, reflect on what you originally wanted and how this cut (or version of the film) relates to your intentions.
6 If you still feel good about it, go ahead and make the next version. This next cut is more defined, is smaller than the last and takes more time to complete. But at least you know that what you are doing is going in the right direction.
