Home Video Hints: Thinking Like an Editor

When I was a student at USC Film School, I worked as a teaching assistant for Edward Dymatrik. Eddie (as we called him) directed the American classic The Caine Mutiny and invented the "film noir" shooting technique, often used in crime thrillers of the mid-thirties. In his lectures on good camera work, he told his students that to be a good shooter or director, you need to think like an editor. Before Eddie became a successful director, he was an editor. In fact, he edited the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup. Eddie is gone now, but his legacy lives on in his students' films and his directing style.

Define your Method
Stellar camera work comes from the process of thinking like an editor in three areas: Technique, Execution and Style. Technique is the camera to subject choreography used to capture moving images. Execution is the application of the technique, which can be accurate or compromised. Style is the consistent trademark variations on the technique by a skilled operator and defines your point of view and approach in the capture of moving images. Problems appear in the editing process if any of these points fail. What follows are some time-honored tips to ensure your technique is well choreographed, your execution is accurate and your style consistent.

Think Like an Editor
First, you have to realize that your camera is not an eye and is not nearly as sophisticated. In thinking like an editor, ask yourself what the shot that comes before and after the one you are about to capture will look like. If it's a moving shot, will that moving shot work with a static shot or another moving shot? Standard shooting techniques will allow you to effortlessly combine a variety of shots while editing.

Frame for balance, using negative space and positive space.
In the vertical, the subject usually gets two thirds of the frame and one third for lead or negative space. In the horizontal, the "rule of thirds" will apply. Divide up the horizontal frame into thirds and put the foreground in the lower third, the subject in the middle third and the background in the upper third. Maintain a balanced shot through the execution, especially at the end, so you leave a good frame to cut on. Also, when ending a shot, try to leave something in the frame for the viewer or leave the viewer's eye in the center of the scre…