Editing Masterclass?

[Hywel Phillips]

Hi All,

I know this is a bit off-topic... please forgive me. REDuser has a high concentration of working professionals, so it seemed like a good place to ask.

I'm looking for an online or DVD film editing course, but at a "Masterclass" level.

I know HOW to edit- I know what a J cut is and how to perform that in various software packages. I've taught myself to edit competently but I want to make my edits soar rather than plod. My background is stills, but moving shorts are becoming an increasingly critical part of our output and I need to up my game here.

What I want is something that deals with WHY and WHEN you would make certain edits. How do you cut together an action scene? How do you cut together a love story? How would a certain scene look cut together in MTV-style compared with a straight continuity edit?

Can anyone recommend a video-based course or resource that covers the art of editing, rather than the software twiddling technique? I've got a couple of books (The Wohl Advanced editing in FCP ones are the best I've found) but editing is inherently about movement and time, so paper is not the right medium to learn it from.

Hiring an editor is not possible on our budgets right now, and besides I really enjoy doing it myself!

I just want a much higher level overview. A bit like the Hollywood Camera Work Staging & Blocking course, for editors...

Cheers, Hywel

[MichaelP]

That is why editing is referred to as the Invisible Art. So much of it is based on the material, ability to find moments anywhere in the footage and willingness to explore beyond what is in the script or not. How to create performance, how to manage the rhythm of a take, within the scene, and it's place in the movie itself. I had the pleasure to co-edit a feature I produced with Norm Hollyn who heads up the editing track at USC School of Cinema as well as year of editing experience and like anything, one is always learning. But while not a video, he did recently publish a book that addresses some of these theories in "The Lean Forward Moment (http://www.amazon.com/The-Lean-Forwa...2005875&sr=8-1) in how to find those beats, moments and craft them for the audience to "lean forward" or "lean back" to create the story ride you are taking your on audience through. Those "lessons" can be applied to spots, trailers, shorts, features etc.

I have another good friend who is also a fantastic editor in the commercial world, who was handed over a bunch of footage to put something together in a very short period of time. When the agency came back the following week they were blown away and asked how long it took him to put it together; and he coolly replied; "27 years". A great quote indicating that he had to use every ounce of everything he has learned over 27 years to make it work.


Michael

[Hywel Phillips]

Thanks, Michael! I've ordered Norm Hollyn's book. Next time you chat to him, suggest that he puts together a video version :)

I do find it odd that the one thing that is utterly unique to film storytelling, the editing, is so poorly served by teaching materials in the moving picture medium itself, which to my mind is the ONLY way to really experience and understand how an edit comes together.

Cheers, Hywel.

[Steve Sherrick]

Hywel there was a course on FXPHD that went into the art of editing. Very difficult thing to teach. the tech part is easy. but the art is something you have naturally or learn over a long period of time.

[MichaelP]

But half the time what makes a good edit, is not what's in the edit, but what's not. ;) In my early Avid days as non-linear was being deployed in Hollywood, I would spend time with many many editors. I asked if I could duplicate their timeline and look at what they were doing. I would then roll the edits and forth, look at other takes as a way to learn why they they made a cut at that point versus somewhere else and on that take. Every editor will bring their own style making every edit a single work of art. A fun thing to watch are the entries and winners of the Camp Kuleshov trailers sponsored by AICE. This clearly shows what editing, sound, music, can take an original intent and change it to something completely different: http://www.aice.org/?section=trailers/chicago_2011/

Michael (also a Phillips)

[Steve Sherrick]

Good point Michael. Similar to lighting where it's often about the light you take away as much as it is about the light you're adding.

[Emyr R. E. Pugh]

I like very much Walter Murch's 'In the Blink of an Eye'. It's a great primer on the philosophy of editing.

[Steve Sherrick]

I like very much Walter Murch's 'In the Blink of an Eye'. It's a great primer on the philosophy of editing.

Great book!

[Marc Wielage]

I like very much Walter Murch's 'In the Blink of an Eye'. It's a great primer on the philosophy of editing.

Murch is a brilliant, brilliant guy, one of my all-time heroes. Great book.

Another good one: The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film. And while it's a bit dated now, I also learned a lot from When The Shooting Stops... The Cutting Begins, written by Ralph Rosenblum (who edited several of Woody Allen's films).

I don't think you can learn how to edit from a book, any more than you can learn how to ride a bicycle from a book, but it can teach you how to think​ like an editor, and also understand the philosophical process that goes on.