The Joys of Editing

[Graham_LRR]

The Joys of Editing

All you'd ever want to know about editing video.

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[newwiseman]

Both my video and audio production teachers told us all to record a good 5 minutes of dry ambiance from anywhere we would be doing something before we got started, just because and I quote "you never know when you'll need a bit of nothing".

Also the first audio production assignment our teacher gave us was to go record ambiance in a variety of places, most people in the class thought it was just to learn how to use the equipment and never learned the importance of ambiance. Good Times.

 

[Rakor]

That longer form of the checkpoint theme was pretty epic in the background there.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

And this is why there are the technical awards at the Oscars: because editors can make or break a film.

 

[Yankeedoodles]

Another question you've probably been asked a lot: What programs do you use for editing and how long did it take before you felt competent using them?
Also: What percentage of time would you say is devoted to editing on average compared to writing, filming, etc.?

Thanks

 

[Jack and Calumon]

What the biggest mistake novice editors should avoid?

Have a reason for a cut.

I can not stress how much it annoys me, as a viewer, when I see a lot of pointless cuts in a video. It sounds like a picky thing, but it super annoying to see when someone decides to make cuts left and right without much purpose. A good example of this is many Youtube personalities who will talk and make many, MANY, cuts to the exact same scene, but them saying something else, or even finishing off their sentence they started in the previous cut. Nothing has changed, nothing at all, you've just cut the video to the exact thing we were already looking at. It makes the video feel jittery, in my eyes.

I have a good idea about why they do it; to cut out the "Ummm"'s and "Aaah"'s in their dialogue, but this to me makes it worse. It feels like the person on screen faking a way with words. If they want to not "Ummm" and "Ahhh", lay out a script and remember it, or have some kind of method to read what you need to say. Don't cut out your stalls, that's lazy and unnecessary.

Anyway, your editing process seems real neat. Have you experimented with other video editing softwares, like Sony Vegas before settling on Final Cut? How do you think they compared? I ask as I'm trying to learn more about editing outside of Windows Movie Maker.

Calumon: I knew it wasn't there! The logo thing wasn't there and no-one believed me! I was right! :O

 

[anian]

I have no idea how to edit so this is just a pure curiosity question:

So how long does it take to synch audio and video? You probably have a mark for a start of shooting a scene, but I'd guess there's still slight adjustments that need to be made to synch stuff just right and if that takes time, or am I just completely automated?

If not, is it easier (or to be more precise, quicker) to completely edit the video first (with audio maybe just aligned for reference sake) and then, when you're done with video edit, fix up the audio or is it just simpler and easier to control by importing all the video and audio, syncing it up then cutting the combined footage?

 

[silverhawk100]

Am now suddenly aware that it took a decent while to edit that video about editing.

 

[el_kabong]

Bubble Wise-man, *****!

That outtake made my day.

OT: Being a giant film nerd, I love director's commentaries and technical talk. It's cool to get a glimpse on a level of film-making I probably will never be able to afford.

 

[UNHchabo]

don't do things like cut from a shot of two people, to a slightly wider, almost identical shot. Why did that cut happen? It just looks weird.

I know of two instances where it's used for stylistic purposes: NCIS, and Homicide: Life on the Street. It is somewhat jarring sometimes, but it certainly makes those two shows stand out.

NCIS mostly does it for long tracking shots; they'll take a 7 second crane shot of the agent's car arriving on the scene, and cut it down to 4 seconds with a couple jump cuts.

Homicide tends to do more drastic jump cuts; during an interrogation the cop will ask several questions in a row, and each one will be from a different angle. Sometimes they even repeat a shot from several angles, like a detective slamming the key evidence on the table. It does look weird, and if anyone did that nowadays it would look cliche, but I would call it innovative for the time.

That longer form of the checkpoint theme was pretty epic in the background there.

Agreed. I haven't bought any of LRR's music yet, but a dance remix of the Checkpoint theme is available here:
http://store.loadingreadyrun.com/categories/Downloads/CheckPoint/
I have no idea if that also comes with the original song.

 

[bravetoaster]

Thank you for including that clip of James tying the toilet paper tie. When I first watched that video, I was really impressed by how tie-like it looked and wondered how you'd pulled that off. Now that I know, I'm pretty sure James is my hero.

 

[TornadoFive]

Really enjoying these post-production episodes of Loading Time. As someone who wants to get into that kind of career, it's really interesting to see the process from different viewpoints. Cheers!

 

[LadyRhian]

Was James actually going commando under those bubbles, or was he wearing a bathing suit? And he only took a bath/shower once in all those days? Duuuuuuuuuude...

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

I keep reading the title of this as The "joys" *rolls eyes* of editing

-M

 

[Don Reba]

And this is why there are the technical awards at the Oscars: because editors can make or break a film.

What would be an example of an otherwise excellent film broken by editing?

 

[Vkmies]

And this is why there are the technical awards at the Oscars: because editors can make or break a film.

What would be an example of an otherwise excellent film broken by editing?

I completely agreed with that gentleman there, but you make a damn good point. I started thinking about some of the most awesomely edited films I know like Clockwork Orange and The Rope, but those are both awesome in every other way too.

I honestly cannot give you a movie that had everything going for it, but was broken by crappy editing. Good point, my man. Good point.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

And this is why there are the technical awards at the Oscars: because editors can make or break a film.

What would be an example of an otherwise excellent film broken by editing?

Spoiler: One recent example: The Dark Knight Rises

Remember how Bane's voice was artificially boosted in many scenes? Instead of making his voice sound booming and charismatic, it sounded more like he was a narrator rather than someone within the scenes.

EDIT: Okay, not an excellent film that was necessarily ruined, but bad editing and post-production work generally isn't common in movies that were good to begin with. If the director knows what they're doing, they also know who are the best cutting room guys for their film.

Here's a movie that really could have used more post-production polish: Haywire [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1506999/]. While definitely a movie worth watching and examining, the movie lacked weight and arch, as well as a sense of place. Scenes that took place in northern New York (I think) only conveyed that after it explicitly tells us the location in exposition dialog later. The cuts and audio never get a sense of building tension or even resolution, despite what is clearly happening in the plot.

 

[Don Reba]

What would be an example of an otherwise excellent film broken by editing?

Spoiler: One recent example: The Dark Knight Rises

Remember how Bane's voice was artificially boosted in many scenes? Instead of making his voice sound booming and charismatic, it sounded more like he was a narrator rather than someone within the scenes.

Good example.