The following 12 tips can help any film editor do better.
By Oliver Peter.
Director of self-directing, self-acting, color matching and post-production, and won many Oscar awards for best editing.
When I edit a digital movie, I can't help thinking about the editing style. The following 12 tips can help any film editor do better. Indeed, not everyone agrees with these views, because they all come from my personal style and style. However, I still hope these skills can bring you value.
1. Edit concisely.
It's best to cut short some tense scenes, but not too short. In other words, unnecessary pauses in the actor's dialogue need to be deleted. Narrow the blank space in each sentence, or even reduce lengthy and irrelevant conversations. But before you delete the dialogue, please ask the director.
Generally speaking, my method is to edit the exact version from scratch, instead of cutting the long film short. Most viewers' attention usually lasts less than 90 minutes, which is equivalent to the length of an ordinary movie.
If the length of the film after the initial editing is about 100 minutes, then you basically need to continue editing to 90 minutes to make the film more compact. But if you cut the film into two hours or more from the beginning, you need to do a "major operation."
2. Collect some music when you are free.
Many editors like to use temporary background music to edit movies and use temporary music as a placeholder. Here, I put forward two reasons against this practice.
First of all, once people like temporary music, it is difficult to find suitable music that feels good.
Improvised concerts have become your "spiritual pillar".
You are more tolerant of boring scenes with interesting music. When editing, I prefer to cut the powerful scenes in the movie to the right place and present them perfectly. If there is a scene that can make you stand up, it is the icing on the cake. But the music setting of montage is an exception. So I can do better when editing.
3. Don't use voice synchronization.
The original French Open TV series used a specific dialogue segment: the sound and the picture were completely synchronized, and there was no overlap. The commonly used methods are: cutting diagram A -A to complete the dialogue-cutting diagram B-completing the dialogue-cutting back to diagram A, and so on.
The cutting master WalterMurch named this cutting method "online style cutting". But in fact, the audience will have a better response to the situation that the sound and the picture do not coincide. This audio-visual separation editing method is called splitedits, L-cuts or J-cuts.
I think this editing method is closer to real life. Listen to others before you look up. If someone is talking, we can observe the reaction of our friends. This editing method is closer to people's natural reaction and can make the film smoother.
4. Don't make the transition by skill, let the picture match naturally.
Making use of actors' movements, props, eyes or positions is a means in the field of editing.
But WaltMurchie said that the best way is to let emotions show naturally, or cut off the smooth narrative rhythm, and technical editing is the last consideration. But it must not be ignored, because the uncoordinated movements make it difficult for the audience to enter the show.
But a friend of video editing often tells me, "Overmatching will constrain video editing." If the audience can fully participate in the play, they often ignore the intermittence in these shots. The duty of the paragraph is to let the audience participate in the plot as much as possible.
5. Action shots create tension.
Action shot is the main shooting method of action film. It can be a track camera, a rotating arm camera, a fixed camera or a handheld camera. Action movies usually have a tense atmosphere.
When editing a movie, I like to edit it when the camera moves, so as to ensure that the camera moves one by one, but many directors don't think so. They prefer to edit before the camera moves, or before or after the camera moves. But I prefer compact editing to dazzle the audience.
6. Multi-view and multi-scene mixed editing.
If the director takes a lot of shots from different angles, don't always mechanically cut the shots back to the same angle, or reread the same type of shots just used.
It is true that there are only two angles in a dialogue scene, and repeated editing is inevitable. But if the director wants to shoot different lens frames according to different needs, he might as well show the director's intention through editing.
Not limited by editing rules, such as primary mirror/single mirror/backhand, near/far/near ... and so on. But try to muddle along.
7. Pay attention to the editing of the actor's eyes.
From TV, movies to the stage, actors rely on their faces to attract attention, but the most important thing is their eyes. I pay attention to the actors' eyes when editing intense dialogue.
Do they convey the right emotions? How do actors react to the drama? The actor's performance determines my performance. This principle makes me pay more attention to the dialogue with the main actors and ignore the reactions of others.
8. exclude "air" from the actor's performance
Similar to the first point-I like small things. It should be noted that most of the actors' performances are beyond their proper scope. Performers will emphasize pause, add more mistakes, stutter more and watch longer than the script, but the editor's responsibility is to make the performance return to normal through appropriate editing.
Delete long-winded actions and dialogues to make the film real and unpretentious.
9. Form a story
Some people say that there are three types of movies in the world: script, shooting and editing. No matter what kind of film you edit, you should pay close attention to the context of the story, and don't be afraid to change the content of the script or lens, as long as it is meaningful.
Many editors use split-shot scripts to record and visually present stories. It can help you decide to present the story to the audience with the most fluent logic.
10. The director's task is to arrange the story according to the rhythm of the film.
The first is to help the director achieve creative visual effects. But you should also have your own ideas.
Most tailors do the initial cutting independently. This is your first chance to put a personal label on the film. After the initial editing is completed, the director will work with the editor to change the editing into the version that the director wants.
The choices you make when editing and changing an actor's performance will affect the audience's viewing experience. For example, deleting the repeated parts in the dialogue can make the picture more tense. It sends a message that can't be ignored even in editing.
Editors can easily change the mood conveyed by the scene, so any decision must be subordinate to the plot. Of course, if you have a reasonable reason and get the approval of the supervisor, you can make such an editor. If you don't agree, put forward an alternative plan.
1 1. I like to review the shots before choosing the best scene.
At first, the director may take the third shot and the fourth shot as the shooting range. I may use the first shot first, and then the second half of the fourth shot. When I repeat the actor's dialogue, I often cut scenes with few shots. When you want to explain why you want to do this clip, you should also be prepared to change.
Most directors don't review every shot in post-production, they will make changes according to your edited performance, whether you appreciate the actor's performance or not. If they really like an actor's different performances, they will suggest modifying the lens or finding the right part from the lens. The more vivid the scene, the more convincing the performance, the more the director can accept your skills.
You know you well.