Responsibilities / workflow of an editor
In the television and film industry nowadays, there are a few people working within the post-production section, "there may now be a whole special effects team, an audio department, a colourist, and a number of assistant editors keeping track of all the footage" (Final Cut Pro Help, n/d), however, for our project we won't have this and I will be doing all these individual parts myself.
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| Editing workflow process |
Stage 1: Planning
- Planning for the editing process primarily means preparing for each part within the post-production process
- Choosing input and output formats
- Acquiring your original footage, music, graphics
- Choosing an editing strategy
- Planning the effects you'll be adding so you can find out how much time is needed
Stage 2: Setting up
- Connecting the computer to the camera in order to receive the shots onto the editing software
- Choosing input and output formats
- Acquiring your original footage, music, graphics
- Choosing an editing strategy
- Planning the effects you'll be adding so you can find out how much time is needed
Stage 2: Setting up
- Connecting the computer to the camera in order to receive the shots onto the editing software
Stage 3: Ingesting
- Importing the shots onto the computer
- Logging the shots you want to ingest for editing, while doing this scene and shot descriptions, notes and markers can be added
- This step helps you become more familiar with the footage
- You can log and ingest footage in different ways - you can log all or most clips before batch ingesting (automated way) or you can ingest each clip individually. You can also log clips after ingesting the footage to a hard disk
- Once all the shots are on the software, you are able to separate the footage into different bins and label them so finding particular shots is slightly easier
Stage 4: Editing
- This stage involves taking the footage, music and graphics and arranging them into a final edited sequence of clips
- Start with a rough cut, where all shots are arranged quickly in a sequence
- Fine tuning is next, subtly adjusting the edit points between clips and refining the pace of each cut - creating a fine cut
- Basic audio editing and synchronising are also part of this process, as well as adding transitions
- Sometimes, the type of project determines the method of editing. E.g. in documentary editing the script evolves in parallel with the editing. In commercial television and film editing, there is already a finished script to provide an order for clips
Stage 5: Mixing audio
- Once the footage is edited and put together the picture is 'locked', meaning the duration of the movie is fixed and you no longer mean to change any of the edits
- This stage is mainly about fixing / adding the audio, involving - cleaning up dialogue, balancing audio levels and applying equalisation, adding sound effects, music, voiceover and mixing the levels of all the different clips together to create a balanced sound mix
Stage 6: Adding effects
- Focus on basic edits first and work on effects when the timing of your project is finalised
- Effects include colour correction, special transitions, animation, still or motion graphics, multilayered images and titles
Stage 7: Finishing and outputting
- Once editing is finished, effects are added and the final audio mix is complete, it is time to export the sequence
Documentary editing
A mockumentary is a comical documentary, therefore it is edited in the similar way as a documentary. You can structure a documentary in different ways such as:
- "voice of God" narration
- interview clips to tell the story
- "day in the life" where the camera follows the subject
- the filmmaker appears on camera and guides the story as first person
- re-enactment of historical events using actors, photos and stock footage
We will be going down the route of the "voice of God", interview clips and the "day in the life" style for our mockumentary.
Some documentaries use a "combination of these structures. It comes down to telling a complete story" (VideoUniversity, 2015). The narratives and titles can be used to knit the individual pieces together into one piece.
While editing documentaries, some editors prefer to work with a transcript of the interviews, where the jump cuts are covered by cutaways. This is the method I prefer to work by after using this way to edit our documentary unit in the first year.
Comedy editing
- "voice of God" narration
- interview clips to tell the story
- "day in the life" where the camera follows the subject
- the filmmaker appears on camera and guides the story as first person
- re-enactment of historical events using actors, photos and stock footage
We will be going down the route of the "voice of God", interview clips and the "day in the life" style for our mockumentary.
Some documentaries use a "combination of these structures. It comes down to telling a complete story" (VideoUniversity, 2015). The narratives and titles can be used to knit the individual pieces together into one piece.
While editing documentaries, some editors prefer to work with a transcript of the interviews, where the jump cuts are covered by cutaways. This is the method I prefer to work by after using this way to edit our documentary unit in the first year.
Comedy editing
Comedy editing is very different to editing other genres, "comedic edits need to be extremely tight and specific in order to land well with an audience" (Kroll, 2015).
Sometimes the comedic timing of a scene doesn't work - it might have taken too long to get the punchline or there isn't a long enough awkward pause after a joke has been dropped. It will be my job to be the authority on what's working and what's not - here I will need to liaise with Alex (the director) and work out whether to cut or pad out the scene. Sometimes a few extra frames added or trimmed can be the different between a joke landing or not - timing should always be sharp.
To know if the timing is working - watch other people respond to the material
Jokes might seem funny to the editor as they know they're coming, but they may not be to others. This is why testing the footage is good to see peoples reactions. Seeing when and where people laugh, which jokes they don't get, and which moments people respond to the most will be very interesting, and will let the editor know where the comedic moments really are.
Visual comedy
I watched a youtube video about Edgar Wright and how he does visual comedy and took notes:
Sometimes the comedic timing of a scene doesn't work - it might have taken too long to get the punchline or there isn't a long enough awkward pause after a joke has been dropped. It will be my job to be the authority on what's working and what's not - here I will need to liaise with Alex (the director) and work out whether to cut or pad out the scene. Sometimes a few extra frames added or trimmed can be the different between a joke landing or not - timing should always be sharp.
To know if the timing is working - watch other people respond to the material
Jokes might seem funny to the editor as they know they're coming, but they may not be to others. This is why testing the footage is good to see peoples reactions. Seeing when and where people laugh, which jokes they don't get, and which moments people respond to the most will be very interesting, and will let the editor know where the comedic moments really are.
Visual comedy
I watched a youtube video about Edgar Wright and how he does visual comedy and took notes:
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| Edgar Wright - How to do visual comedy |
- You can get laughs from different shots instead of what's said
- Things popping up in frame is funny
- Zooming can give a laugh e.g. zooming in or out of a facial expression
- A laugh from a crane-up e.g. someone laying on the floor with the camera facing down onto them
- A laugh from a pan e.g. someone running away
- Think about what's in the frame rather than the talking
- Things entering the frame in funny ways e.g. a hand popping in holding a phone
- People leaving the frame in funny ways e.g. someone awkwardly side-stepping out of shot
Editors I want to look at:
- Edgar Wright’s work– he uses fast action style editing, usually of mundane tasks, including whip pans and crash zooms – editor Chris Dickens (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz)- Things popping up in frame is funny
- Zooming can give a laugh e.g. zooming in or out of a facial expression
- A laugh from a crane-up e.g. someone laying on the floor with the camera facing down onto them
- A laugh from a pan e.g. someone running away
- Think about what's in the frame rather than the talking
- Things entering the frame in funny ways e.g. a hand popping in holding a phone
- People leaving the frame in funny ways e.g. someone awkwardly side-stepping out of shot
Editors I want to look at:
- Damon Tai - editor of Cunk on..., 8 Out of 10 Cats and Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe
- Nigel Williams - editor of The Office, Outnumbered and Mongrels
What have I learnt from this research:
- Even after watching many comedies, I didn't realise that the key was to hold reaction shots. This is something I will keep in mind while editing as it's such an easy way of building on the humour.
- It's a good idea to get other people to watch the edit to see how the comedy side is working, as I will be staring at this for days, this technique will really benefit me. If people do find it funny, this will boost my confidence in the edit.
- Cutting a shot is very important, it may be the quick cut / sharp editing that brings the comedy at a certain point, e.g. cutting someone off from talking.
- Researching into the workflow of an editor was very useful. I can look back at this when editing the mockumentary and get used to the professional process of editing.
References:
- Final Cut Pro Help. (n/d). The Post-Production Workflow. Available: https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=1%26section=2%26tasks=true. Last accessed 22nd March 2018.
- VideoUniversity. (2015). How To Edit and Structure Your Documentary.Available: https://www.videouniversity.com/articles/how-to-edit-and-structure-your-documentary/. Last accessed 22nd March 2018.
- Kroll, N. (2015). How To Edit Comedy Scenes for Maximum Laughs.Available: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-edit-comedy-scenes-for-maximum-laughs/. Last accessed 22nd March 2018.
Images:
- Final Cut Pro Help. (n/d). The Post-Production Workflow. Available: https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=1%26section=2%26tasks=true.
- Screenshot from Edgar Wright - How to do visual comedy. https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-edit-comedy-scenes-for-maximum-laughs/.
- Kroll, N. (2015). How To Edit Comedy Scenes for Maximum Laughs.Available: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-edit-comedy-scenes-for-maximum-laughs/. Last accessed 22nd March 2018.
Images:
- Final Cut Pro Help. (n/d). The Post-Production Workflow. Available: https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=1%26section=2%26tasks=true.
- Screenshot from Edgar Wright - How to do visual comedy. https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-edit-comedy-scenes-for-maximum-laughs/.
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