Editing for Beginners

Think of the basic editing process as shopping for groceries.  Typically when your ready to do a big shopping, it easier to create a list of the items you need and items you want.  However you have a limit to how much you can spend. Therefore you must decide what to buy and and what to save for a later date (or perhaps that peanutbutter cup ice cream was a bad idea to begin with.)  So, you begin to cross off items at your kitchen table even before you leave to go to the store.  Now you've narrowed down what seemed like an unsurmountable quantity of items to the bare necessities.

This is the basic priciple of editing.  It is what you need in order tell a story without too much superfluous information.  Simply ask yourself, "why am I placing this shot or scene in this particular order, or why put it in the movie at all?" If there is no reason, then it probably doesn't belong and isn't needed to further or enhance the story.

You will find that it will be difficult to get rid of some of those great shots, shots of yourself, girlfriend/boyfriend, family members, and your first temptation will be to add every great shot in editing.  Remember this, Just  because it is a great shot it doesn't mean that it has to be in your movie.  In fact it may be overkill and may slow down the pace of your film or may take the story in the wrong direction. 

Now take the grocery list and think of it as a shot list.  Watch you footage and log it.  Write down what shots are good and bad, and make notes why.  Write down the Tape lable, tape number, timecode (or time occurence of footage on each tape), key points, technical flaws or issues.  This can be done either on a note book, spread sheet or even three by five cards.  Some non-linear editing software helps you do this automatically as you upload the footage into the computer. 

Yes there is that temptation to "impulse buy," every once and awhile, to try something new, and there is nothing wrong with that so long as it doesn't affect the story and the budget and you're audience patience. 

If you have your camera and a VCR you can shoot some random footage.  For each separate shot spend between 10 and twenty seconds.  This will be a basic demonstration in editing.  Lets just say stick to your own living room and then take it from there.  Take a wide shot of the room. Then take a shot of photos, a lamp, a couch, or chair, take a shot of a door knob, a shot of a book or stack of papers, your final shot will be a clock.

Now plug in your camcorder to you VCR using the rca or s-video cable which should be supplied with your camera.  Rewind your footage on your camera to the beginning.  Put and blank tape in the VCR and press record. press play on you camera. Now your first shot should appear.  Siince most of your shots that you took are about twenty seconds, Press pause afer seven seconds or what ever you find pleasing.  Let the camcorder play to the next shot, and then press pause on the vcr again.  This will now start recording your second shot. Congratulations! This is your first edit.  Do this for each sequencial shot.  This is what is called linear editing. 

After you've finished with your footage try mixing up shot.  How do you do this?... Again start by pressing record on the VCR and pressing play on your camcorder (rewinding your footage). Insteadof recording the first shot of the living room. Try fast forwarding the Camcrder to the spot where the lamp is, the rewind back to the logshot of the room, and record that on the VCR. Then advance to the doorknob, and record about five seconds of that.

This is a very simple way to get an understanding of the basic concept of editing, and concider it an exercise in learing your control(s) of your camera and your well being, and the discipline of editing. Editing takes time.  It's not something that can always be easily rushed, although the past five years or so we have seen quite an improvement in the quility of movies amature filmmakers can produce.

Here's an example not from your script, but maybe this may help illustrate an often overlooked process.

INTERIOR-DAY - Roger's Bedroom

Roger gets out of his bed.  He steps on a chickenwing bone that he ate last night, and he kicks and empty soda can.  He is groggy.  He goes into the bathroom. Roger looks into the mirror, and sees that he is not himself.  He is a new person. 

From this example you can see that there are at least seven things that need to be addressed before you can start filming the scene. First up, there needs to be a "Roger," so you will have to cast an actor of some sorts.   At the top of the scene is the identification of the Time and Location.  Interior/Roger's Bedroom, so there needs to be a location found that fits the needs of the movie.  Does the room you are choosing fit what the character would be in?  Does it work with his appearence, age, financial status? The other location in the script is a bathroom.  This may or may not be at the same place as the bedroom set.  Maybe the bathroom at the house is too small to fit you camera and lights, or it's being remodeled the week during your shoot (don't laugh, this has happened). And the there are the props written on the page.  Chickenwing bone. This means you would have to find this (very nasty) or eat a chicken wing the day before the shoot and bring the prop to set the next day.  There's an empty soda can.  Although that is a simple prop you may find that at the location your at there are no soda cans, and that some one has to go to the store and get one and empty it.  Sounds pretty easy, but that is all ready wasting pressious time.  Lastly, there is the mirrior.  Can you get actor in frame using the camera, or is the bathroom too small.  This is an example of how to technically read a script, and after this process, it could be broken down even further, when lighting is envolved, production design, scheduling, prop designs, costuming, etc.

Happy Shooting!!

To the right I was with my friend John editing my short film "Tarnished Brass," (1999) in the BM-VM Suite.