by Nastya Perevozova
Ever wonder exactly what goes on in the edit bay? Wonder why editing takes so long? Editing is not just putting scenes together, it’s a full discipline, an art with the challenge to create something “compelling and watchable”. Outside of the artistic challenges the craft of editing often requires the editor to make “something out of nothing”, even with damaged footage, and a restricted budget. Most people don’t realize that even short form editing requires the same skill and preparation as a feature film or television series. Editing is a broad process, that includes pre- and post- stages. Good editing should achieve:
Before any creative cutting can occur, several pre-stages take place:
Here are the main steps of cutting:
1) Initial assembly: the selected shots are reorganized into the approximate order they will appear in the final cut;
2) Rough cut. This is where the editor would be reorganizing all the scenes, trimming and removing unnecessary footage, tidying up any kind of trails such as little fragments of the removed material or dissonances in video and sound harmony, and ultimately tightening-up the whole project;
3) Choosing the soundtrack, which is essential for creating a proper mood and atmosphere;
4) Adding transitions. A transition is an effect that helps to smoothly change one clip to another;
5) Fine cutting: ensuring accuracy and perfect framing, clear flow of all editing moments and fitting the required time limits.
The post-stages or finishing of editing often include color correction, sound shifting, correcting the image, etc.
To stress the importance of the whole editing workflow we’ll quote Francis Ford Coppola: "The essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.”
At Award Winning Reels we work with some of the best editors in the business who specialize in short format editing. We always stress to our clients that if you want your work to represent you, your brand, or your project in the best possible way, you have to respect the challenging and time consuming process that goes into editing.
References:
https://www.videomaker.com/article/f5/1691-the-art-of-the-edit
https://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-1
Lucie Richards, Everything you need to know about professional video editing
- clear sequence of shots that is telling a story
- correction and deleting of mistakes
- condensing or expansion of time
- communication of an aesthetic
Before any creative cutting can occur, several pre-stages take place:
- digitizing of the rushes i.e. "clips", which means converting non-digital footage into digital form and/or making sure that footage from different sources is converted into the same format;
- viewing and organizing the rushes into certain folders;
- devise a paper edit (often time codes from shots) in order to organize the structure of the project
Here are the main steps of cutting:
1) Initial assembly: the selected shots are reorganized into the approximate order they will appear in the final cut;
2) Rough cut. This is where the editor would be reorganizing all the scenes, trimming and removing unnecessary footage, tidying up any kind of trails such as little fragments of the removed material or dissonances in video and sound harmony, and ultimately tightening-up the whole project;
3) Choosing the soundtrack, which is essential for creating a proper mood and atmosphere;
4) Adding transitions. A transition is an effect that helps to smoothly change one clip to another;
5) Fine cutting: ensuring accuracy and perfect framing, clear flow of all editing moments and fitting the required time limits.
The post-stages or finishing of editing often include color correction, sound shifting, correcting the image, etc.
To stress the importance of the whole editing workflow we’ll quote Francis Ford Coppola: "The essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.”
At Award Winning Reels we work with some of the best editors in the business who specialize in short format editing. We always stress to our clients that if you want your work to represent you, your brand, or your project in the best possible way, you have to respect the challenging and time consuming process that goes into editing.
References:
https://www.videomaker.com/article/f5/1691-the-art-of-the-edit
https://www.videouniversity.com/articles/the-art-of-film-and-video-editing-part-1
Lucie Richards, Everything you need to know about professional video editing
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