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Help me please!
I really want to become a better editor, but I don’t know where to start. Can somebody help me to give a guide?
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3 Replies
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With Resolve, or just in general?
The editing textbook on Blackmagic’s Training page is a great place to start:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training
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If you mean general principles of editing and theory, not just what button to press to get x effect, there are hundreds of free and low cost resources. This Guy Edits on Youtube is good, explaining the why behind the what. Larry Jordan offers training, some of his is free online. Adobe has classes, I think. You can read Walter Murch. You could even go to Amazon and buy a used college TV Production or Film Production textbook or two, in my day, the books by Zettl or Wurtzel were the standard, who knows what edition he’s at now or if that’s even still published, but the thing about editing technique is, it doesn’t go out of style, not the basic principles, anyway, so don’t be afraid to crack open an older textbook on it.
If you want to really know what you’re doing and why, a course on the history of editing technique is necessary. Editing has developed a “grammar” over the last 100 years, and you can’t be effective if you don’t understand that grammar and how to apply it.
Meanwhile, here’s a neat little video that touches on it.https://youtu.be/z-uJOyT_7i4
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Study film-making as a film-maker, not an editor. Cutting is easy. Editing is hard. Because you said “better editor” not “how do I edit” let’s focus on what might actually make you better, rather than simply teaching you software skills. Probably not what you meant, but think big.
The editor is the last craftsperson in the chain. They make or break the show. I would argue the the editor is as important as the director. I might be biased, but if you can’t communicate with Directors as an equal partner, you will never be a good editor.
AFI, University, Books, local unions and film organizations. Find classes at take them.
Edit. Try to replicate what you see. Not visually, but artistically. Practice.
Walter Murch, In the Blink of an Eye (book). I suggest also looking him up on IMDB and watching his classics first so you can see how he applies the concepts. Godfather and Apocalypse Now would be the obvious films to start with.
Study other editors. Check the editor of every program you watch and then look for other works by them and try to understand the mark they’ve put on the work. It can be hard because editors, especially very good ones, are chameleons, adapting to the intentions of the director, but learning to see the mark they leave is invaluable.
Study visual composition. Selecting the shots and understanding why they work is half the job. The other half is timing. While editors rarely create the visuals, except for graphics, knowing what works visually, and why, is critical. If you can’t tell a good shot from a bad shot, and you don’t understand what the photographer or graphic artist is trying to accomplish, you will never be a good editor, much less a great one.
Okay, I neglected sound. If you want to be great, you need to understand sound, and particularly, music. I suggest studying modern Hans Zimmer (composer) movies if you really want to understand the power of sound. Dark Knight is amazing, edited by Lee Smith. As previously mentioned, many directors and editors stick together, Christopher Nolan and Lee Smith, Scorcese and Schoonmaker.
As far as online help goes, I like Moviola.com. It’s free and it’s more focused on improving your general artistic skills than your simple software skills. And if you are looking for simple, direct, practical training, Larry Jordan is the man. There’s also Lynda.com which has quite a bit of training and is available for free through some library systems and many schools if you are a student.
And finally, Masterclass. Not cheap up front, but if you want to listen to the best talk about their craft, it’s a great deal in the long run. Scorcese and Hans Zimmer both have classes.
Good luck,
tod
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