Most mainstream films are akin to spectating on sport. If you’re watching as a neutral, and not rooting for anyone, then you’re never quite as engaged as are you when you’re cheering on a team, or backing the underdog. The way a film is edited has a lot of influence over whether or not a…
Find Your Own Process
Every time I write something for the site, I worry that it sounds like I’m being too prescriptive. Do this, do that, don’t do this. It’s never intended that way though, because there isn’t just one way to make a film, nor is there just one type of film. And there is certainly not just…
Five Stages of the Edit: Part 4 – The Producer’s Cut
So, to summarise where you are entering this stage: you’ve assembled the script cut, worked with the Director to create a version of the film they imagined before they walked on set, and you’ve fixed as many underlying narrative, performance, or structural problems as you can. Ideally, you and the Director have had a productive,…
Tony Tost and the Principles of Dramatic Writing
I always say that film editors and writers are bedfellows. Although our tools are different – words that conjure images and sound for writers, actual images and sound for editors – we’re all trying to do the same thing: engage an audience in a story. TV writer and showrunner Tony Tost (Damnation, The Terror) has…
The Film Podcast Roundup
If you’re an avid listener of podcasts, choosing to ingest some info and infotainment when you’re commuting, exercising, or just in a quiet moment around the house, check out these interesting editing and general filmmaking-related podcasts. Editing Podcasts Hollywood Editing Mentor Run by film and TV editor Joaquin Elizondo, the Hollywood Editing Mentor site and…
Which Editing Software Should You Use?
Truth be told, you can use any software you want for editing. There are plenty of free or relatively cheap pieces of video editing software which are perfectly capable and easy to learn. However, if you intend to work in a professional environment where you’re not always able to choose what you edit on, there’s…
Five Stages of the Edit: Part 3 – The Director’s Cut
Once you’ve completed the assembly and screened it for the Director and the Producers, you move from working on the film on your own, to a collaboration with the Director on the Director’s Cut. This may take the form of spending each and every day sat alongside the Director, working your way through the cut….
Editing Resources Roundup #1
Here’s a selection of film editing resources, interesting things I’ve read, watched and listened to over the past few weeks. Hank Corwin Filmmaker U interviews Hank Corwin, Editor of Natural Born Killers (1994), The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011), The Big Short (2015), and Don’t Look Up (2021), amongst others. The discussion…
Do You Need To Go To Film School?
The short answer is no, you don’t need to go to film school. Film and TV isn’t like medicine, or law, or engineering where you need professional training and qualifications to even enter the industry. However, if your circumstances are right and you’re able to make it work financially, going to film school can be…
Job Roles in the Offline Edit
Exactly who does what in a cutting room depends on a lot of things, the workload at any particular stage, how many people are on the team, the experience of its members, the country in which you’re working, and perhaps most significantly, the scale and budget of the project. But here are the main job…