Editing: love it or hate it?

Alexa

Alexa

Veteran
is this a chore for you or do you enjoy?

I love it. Unfortunately thought, it just takes so much more time and is often in a solitary situation. That said, I love to edit my own shooting because its like getting fill the color in on a coloring book. Editing with audio is like writing. If you like writing, the concept is similar, though you are telling a story in a different dimension. There is weaving and selection and ways to play with volume. It's a ton of fun when you like the music. Who said you need a dance floor to rock out?

alexa


BTW, I am looking for an editor. Just haven't had a moment yet to write a nice job description. For the right person in San Francisco, preferably, this is an excellent opportunity for a responsible, hard worker, who can think on their own. anyone who has worked for me knows this is not BS.
 
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Well... it depends.
There are things that are very boring, like subtitles and adding the voice over on a long corporate video. That is if you work on a post company, where you have deadlines. Where sometimes your work is stereotype. One boring but key to a succesful edit is knowing your footage. Yes you have to watch them all and capture them too, but it helps in the end. So in many ways most of the tasks are routine.
The key to a enjoyable editing is the source. The footage. Without good clips you just can't get inspired. Then it's the music, it must move you.
I believe the only good part in editing is watching the result of your work.
 
Well I just finished editing my first doco a month or so ago, I found that really quite hard - crafting a 15 minute story from 7 hours of footage was no fun at all, and generally trying to create an edit without a script I found very difficult. Worked out fairly well in the end, but only after a lot of headaches getting the narration and talking-head/montage ratio down pat.

Narrative stuff is a lot easier I find, not least because I'll normally have a basic storyboard, shotlist and script to cut to. It's much easier to play around with your editing when you know how the story you're telling has to play out IMO.
 
What's worse, is editing a music video when the music is sort of bubble gummy pop... and you keep hearing it over, and over. Soon enough, you're hearing it in your sleep! Aaaaaarrrrgh!
 
I love editing and I love my Avid. I just picked up a really good editing book "In the Blink of an Eye". I highly recommend it.
 
I love video editing as well! I don't like audio editing very much, but seeing a visual in front of you, and getting that edit just perfect is awesome! I started out in this business editing, and now I'm producing and directing stuff.
 
Depends on the subject matter, but overall, yes, I love to edit. I mostly cut commercials, so I'm not terribly familiar with cutting documentary or narrative subject matter. Video songs, yes, they get stuck in your head, no doubt!

A few years ago, we got an Avid Adrenaline at work, and I was trained on that. Fortunately the instructor got me up and running with keyboard commands, 3 point edits and trimming. Made me a more precise editor. No more throwing clips on the timeline willy-nilly with the mouse!

At home I work with FCP, but have re-mapped some of my keyboard commands to match Avid.
 
I love editing - its perhaps my favorite place to sit at home. its also when everything really comes together for me and I can tell that yes something is definitely going to come of this. that makes me happy. looking to start doing my own audio editing in protools. we'll see how that goes...
 
I love to edit, esp footage that I shoot because I usually have some editing ideas in mind when I shoot things, and when they all come together in the end it is quite a rewarding feeling.
 
LOVE to edit

LOVE to edit

Been in heaven since FCS 2 arrived at my doorstep.

I've got plenty demo material online if you want to catch a look.

Live in SF, work at Bay Area Video Coalition.

Let me know if you'd like to see some work.

Best,

Dillon Thomas
 
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I'm not a big fan of editing. Mainly, because I'm not very good at it.:)
I love the production part of the process, though.:beer:
 
What really gets me going, is when I have some terrible footage, and manage to make it fit together. I don't have the understanding to do audio, but I can cut me some footage together.
 
I love editing. Sometimes I feel like one of the main reasons I like shooting and everything else so much is just so I can edit!!
 
I love editing almost anything but a dramatic conversation.

But mostly I love editing sound (sound design/mixing) and color grading. For me, that's where the magic happens.
 
I love writing, shooting, directing and scoring. Editing, though I spend a good chunk of my days doing it, is probably my least favourite part of the process, aside from the negotiations and financial stuff. Sorry :)
 
I love logging tapes, especially 40 hours / month. Usually that is party time for me where lots of beer is drank & music is blasted in my hazy editing bay while I go through my surf footage filtering out 90% of the crap.

I'm kidding, but the beer definitely helps. I really find it difficult to be enthused when i'm editing documentary style "talking heads". This type of story telling, or finding the story through countless hours of interviews can be really exhausting.

Usually the more exciting action segments cut to music are the most artistic time and sitting down for 17 hours at a time becomes second nature. But the best of the best, definitely opening credits the one spot where an editor can put his/her true stamp on a project and say "yeah i did that".
 
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