Right way to edit your film?

Evan S

Evan S

Veteran
I'm sure there are books on this.
but can anyone give me like a simple break down of a scene.

Establishing shot, close, close up. etc?
is there a right way to edit?

I've seen books and videos on camera movement, but not so much of editing. I made a little something today and I realized how much editing is art. It's hard work.
 
There's no formula, but I suggest watching and studying films. The dialogue and direction of a scene will typically determine your editing.

Two books that helped me in my editing:

In the Blink of an Eye: by Walter Murch
Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing:

The second book follows Murch's work on The English Patient. I suggest watching The English Patient first. Then read the book. And then rewatch the film to study it. Some may call the film boring, I think it's great, and I learned a lot from it.

If you haven't already read this, take a look at Shot by Shot, by Steven Katz. That will give you the reasoning behind Director's shot choices and blocking for scenes, which will give you a better understanding of your role as an editor.

And again, watch great films, study them, ask yourself why a shot works.
 
Wow, good references Issac.

The thing that I have done is take some of my favorite movies and digitize them into my NLE and go through them frame by frame, shot by shot, scene by scene. Of course this can be done with VHS or DVD and a remote control. It is just having the footage in the NLE really give you so much control.

As an aside, I was editing a feature with one of the producers of the film and we had several instances of having to use a night exterior shot of a house as an establishing shot so as to clarify the geography of the story and we kept experimenting on how long to hold the shot. The only reference that we could think of was "The Brady Bunch" house shot (you know what I mean, the shot of the Brady house after the commercial.). So the producer goes home, tapes an episode of "The Brady Bunch"(The Greg Smoking Episode), we load it into the NLE and time the "house" shot. The Brady House Shot is three seconds long. We cut all of our establishing shots to three seconds and they all worked great. Ever since then, I have cut the establishing shots to 3 seconds and they seem to work well.
 
Usually the best way is just go watch many different films and study them.

That's what I usually do when I edit certain shots together.

pretty much...when your editing..you just want things to flow smoothly...like

if you have a shot of two actors talking and the angles change...sometimes, when I first started out I used to accidently cut off the actors so it seems jolty...and it comes out like crap.
Transistion of the talking is good between angles....even if it's like a far away shot and you cant really seem them talking for whatever reason you would want to make that shot...still have the track of the actor's conversations.

Books are good..but...watching movies is better.
 
One thing I see a lot in indie shorts is cutting for no apparent reason. Each shot should give the viewer some new bit of information and you need something to draw you through the cut. It can be a movement or a shift of the eyes, but static cutting for the sake of adding a close-up is really horrible.

If you don't have a reason for another shot then don't cut to another shot. And if you don't have a reason to cut to another shot, then you have problems with your story.
 
Very good point Barry. One of the problems with a lot of films made today is cutting to cover lack of coverage. Because of the lowered cost of media production that DV has given us there are a lot of features being made by individuals that have never even made a short film. Just because you can afford to make a DV feature does not mean you are ready to make a DV feature. There are skills that need to be learned. One of the best ways to learn them are with well made shorts. Get in there and make movies, learn the basics...
 
another great book on editing (and filmmaking in general) is Andrei Tarkovsky's "Sculpting in Time". the main thrust of his viewpoint is to make your editing decisions based on the rhythm, or what he calls the "time-pressure", within each shot. study the recorded event, the time captured, in each shot when you're cutting, not the cuts themselves. for Tarkovsky, time is a multi-rhythmic phenomenon encapsulated in the shots of a film that dictates its own pace to that work; this he opposes to the artificial rhythms created by russian montage and editing in general. thus the cinematic image becomes a temporal reality as if, in his words, "crystalized in a drop of water."
 
Isaac_Brody said:
And again, watch great films, study them, ask yourself why a shot works.
Click to expand...

Though sometimes it is a lot more fun to watch BAD films and see why they don't work. :thumbsup:

Shot by Shot is a really great reference book to have. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.

-Robert
 
Barry_S said:
One thing I see a lot in indie shorts is cutting for no apparent reason. Each shot should give the viewer some new bit of information and you need something to draw you through the cut. It can be a movement or a shift of the eyes, but static cutting for the sake of adding a close-up is really horrible.

If you don't have a reason for another shot then don't cut to another shot. And if you don't have a reason to cut to another shot, then you have problems with your story.
Click to expand...


Excellent point on the cuts.
 
Ought2bCommitted said:
Though sometimes it is a lot more fun to watch BAD films and see why they don't work. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Robert, were we separated at birth or something? I watch WAY more bad movies than good ones. I enjoy them more.:beer:
 
another good method is to just jump right in and cut it the way you feel...the suggestions above are EXCELLENT for teaching you about CONVENTION, but if you want develop your own style, youv'e just got to get in there and do it.

Granted, it makes sense to KNOW the rules before breaking them, but don't become married to them.

Except the 180 degree rule. And the line of site rule. And head room...er...right.
peace.
 
A few things people get wrong when starting out:

• Save CUs for when they are needed. Using a CU for no reason devalues it - this is done in TV a lot, often due to lack of time and coverage and so the CU is used for a whole scene.

• Make sure scenes link together! If time passes between scenes, this must be suggested by the edit. Good links can be an action - like slamming a door or a ECU or establishing shot to start a scene. Ensure links are planned BEFORE you shoot.

• The audience aren't stupid, but they aren't mind readers!!! So many films leave me wondering "WTF!?!" This (unless deliberate) is terrible filmmaking. Make the story/action etc clear, but not overly obvious.

• Pacing is something to judge yourself by watching the footage back. Try to decide the length of a shot on first viewing because you loose its "freshness" otherwise. You need to develope a natural pace. IMO most short films could be reduced in length by 20% or more and be better for it. Basically, cut out the fat, its boring, if you need it for tension/comedy etc then keep it.
 
The comment about Walter Much's writing and interviews is brilliant. Reading 'In the Blink of an Eye' will forever change the way that you look at conversation and editing.

He makes a point, and this actually works. Sit down and talk with someone. Focus on when the other person blinks, where they are looking, what they are talking about. That blink is ultimately the next shot.

Example: You are sitting talking with someone and they are telling you this story of what they did last night <blink> cut to a scene showing what they did. It actually works and helps maintain the flow of the story.

This is not a rule by any means, but it is a great cheat (like up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, select, start) that really helps you start to notice what you should be doing and when.

This also works really well when you sit someone down to watch a rough cut. If a scene feels like it is dragging on too long, watch their eyes. Great cue.

OK, now that I have paraphrased poorly about eight pages of his book, do yourself a favor and go buy it
 
HorseFilms said:
Robert, were we separated at birth or something? I watch WAY more bad movies than good ones. I enjoy them more.:beer:
Click to expand...

I am beginning to suspect as much. :beer:

You should see my Netflix Q!!! Nothing but winners! :grin:

-Robert
 
If you look at most movies, it goes from wide shot, to close up, to close up, to medium wide, to wide again.

It brings you into the conversation and then backs you out of it.
 
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