Home Video Hints: Editing 101: School's in Session (page 2)

Finding a desired rhythm was the best lesson I learned from three years and $60,000 worth of graduate film school. I was editing my first short on a Media 100 system when the director of the program noticed my creative struggle. He pulled up a chair and without explanation he tapped the space bar, starting the play head on the timeline. He then simultaneously tapped his foot, his finger on the desk and his head for eight beats and tapped the space bar again. He said, " That is where you cut." Rhythm has as many different definitions and techniques as there are editors. Observe the rhythm in other works and find the rhythm that works for your creative style and for the piece you are working on.

I know your software has over 600 dissolves. I have been to many student film festivals and I have seen them all. Have they helped advance the story? Have they enhanced the work? 99% of the time they have not. Most projects primarily use cuts and occasionally dissolves and fades to black. Start paying attention to how many times films that you pay to see or get aired on television have star dissolves or checkerboard wipes. It doesn't happen often. Yes, there were funky wipes in Star Wars and organic transitions in the campy Batman television show. Use these effects only when your work calls for it, not because they are there.

This may win hands down as the biggest area of error for beginning post production people (as well as the production crew). Nowhere near enough time is spent on tweaking, improving, constructing and creating good - no, strike that - great audio. Audio is hugely underrated in the filmmaking process. Audio includes production sound, sound effects, music, voiceover, Foley (audio produced in post while watching the moving image such as drinking sounds or footsteps) and every other sound that does or does not exist in the finished product. I have heard people say that good audio enhances the visuals, but I can think of many films and documentaries where the audio made the scene or even the whole movie. Plan as much time for your audio edit as you would for the visual edit. If you are not an audio expert, find someone who is, take a few classes or buy a few books on this art form. Audio engineering can be intimidating at first, as it was for me for too many years, but the sooner you start experimenting, the sooner your videos will show the professionalism.

• Digg This!
• del.icio.us
• Technorati
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit