March 28 we held a workshop within Skill Bill Pro programme on "Editing. Theory and practice. Work of a film editor". Workshop consisted of two parts: first, Vladimir Oseledchik introduced students to the theory and types of editing, and then Andrei Trandin talked about his work as a film editor, shared secrets of successful work on the series and films, and features of this profession.
Some of the best films according to Vladimir Oseledchika in terms of editing: «JFK», «Taxi Driver», "Whiplash", "The Silence of the Lambs", "The Deer Hunter"
Quite a lot of time is spent on trying to understand what the director wants, the mood of the future film, his wishes for editing.
There are two approaches: shooting take place on one camera, film editor works on the set with play-back and immediately makes rough cut. At the end of the shooting period the film is ready for 90%. According to Andrei, it is an ideal option. The second approach is when editor works remotely, collecting footage from all cameras. Frames marked as successful may constitute 50-60% of the rough cut. Some of them may not be glued together.
A significant portion of time takes to prepare a master copy of the film, taking into account the technical requirements for its shows, whether it is a broadcast on a television channel or theatrical release.
Software and equipment are essential for the editor to quickly give the finished material, other criterias, by and large, are not that important. More important is creativity, desire to negotiate with the director, to find a compromise and make a quality product.
If there are special effects in movies and scenes shot on rire you'll need previsualization or at least a storyboard drawn by hand. First the scene is cut by editor, and it goes to postproduction specialists. It is important to work closely with the VFX-supervisor.
The first rough cut is given for audio postproduction - department starts with the selection of noises, sounds and so on. Music is written and applied after the editing is done.
