Video Editing Articles

You’ve shot your film, and now you’re cutting the pictures. This is an important project - one you hope to see make festival runs or to get distribution - and you’ve decided to bring in a sound editor because you’ve realized that post sound is very important. Thing is, you’re a self-taught editor, and you’re used to doing everything yourself within your NLE. You’ve probably formed some bad habits. What happens now? Let’s back up. Before you get into such a project (if you aren’t already), there are a few things you need to make sure you do. Forming the right habits early can actually make your work more efficient even if it’s just you. More importantly, it will make your sound editor much happier when the project is sent on. Adopt a...

While the intro article for Pre-Production emphasizes the idea that you should have a plan for your finished video from the very start, and you should be planning your edit in pre . . . Sometimes, as an editor, you are given footage and images which never had a script, like someone’s vacation videos and photos, or cinema verité projects - or in this case here, serendipitous video snapshots which were a product of unexpected opportunity. How do you approach editing what would otherwise be shots without any particular order or scheme? For a possible answer, let’s look at some nuggets from the intro articles for Pre-Production: And Post-Production: Some background: I shot this footage on the original DVX100 (no A or B) back in 2005...