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Does the Pope edit?
Obviously not…
But I was reading an excerpted interview with him this morning and this exchange stuck with me.
“Nuns working in hospitals took care of Francis when he lost most of one lung to an infection in his early 20s.
_ “I am alive because of one of them. When I went through my lung disease at the hospital, the doctor gave me penicillin and streptomycin in certain doses. The sister who was on duty tripled my doses because she was daringly astute; she knew what to do because she was with ill people all day. The doctor, who really was a good one, lived in his laboratory; the sister lived on the frontier and was in dialogue with it every day.”
(First, wow, such a graceful concluding sentence. Props to the Pope or the translator or both!)
So here’s my question. For those of you who primarily edit all day, does your company or situation ever allow you to go out in the field to shoot? Do you interact with the writers, or the sound folk, or even the sales reps who are interacting with the actual clients?
One regular topic here is how X might be great for “individual editors” but many wish it was a better “collaborative” tool.
So I’m curious as to how “connected” or “disconnected” all of you feel feel you are from the rest of the production process that surrounds “editing” it in the modern era.
As an editor, do you feel MORE or LESS connected to the overall production process than YOU would prefer?
Just curious.
(I probably should have posted this in Art of the Edit, but this is kind my “home group” so I’ll do it here first. If the mods want to move it, that’s fine.)
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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5 Replies
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[Bill Davis] “So here’s my question. For those of you who primarily edit all day, does your company or situation ever allow you to go out in the field to shoot? Do you interact with the writers, or the sound folk, or even the sales reps who are interacting with the actual clients?”
Some jobs more so than others. When I worked in house at MTV it was common for editors (there were about a dozen of us) to do things like edit in the field during event coverage, work directly with the sales team on client projects and, overall, communicate directly (or indirectly) with all aspects of production. I’d say all the editors there were producer/editor hybrids in that most times all we were given were raw materials and a deadline. I did a lot of workflow development while I was there too and that certainly required being familiar with needs of everyone involved in the productions.
On the flip side I’ve worked on shows where everything has already been shot, so there’s no chance to interface with production and you just have to make do with what you have. I also do a lot of technical type work (either as an assistant editor or as an editor on lower budget gigs that don’t have assistants) so I’ll work directly with other post facilities that will handle final audio, final color, etc..
[Bill Davis] “So I’m curious as to how “connected” or “disconnected” all of you feel feel you are from the rest of the production process that surrounds “editing” it in the modern era.”
As an editor, do you feel MORE or LESS connected to the overall production process than YOU would prefer?
For me, my breadth of involvement can vary widely from gig to gig which is one of the nice things about freelance work. Sometimes it’s nice being in the thick of things, working tightly with other aspects of production and sometimes it’s nice to work alone in a dim room where you barely have to speak to anyone. lol
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[Bill Davis] “Does the Pope edit?”
No. But I’ve heard he smokes dope.
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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Bill Davis] “For those of you who primarily edit all day, does your company or situation ever allow you to go out in the field to shoot? Do you interact with the writers, or the sound folk, or even the sales reps who are interacting with the actual clients?”
I almost always have a production relationship with what I’m cutting, either as a director, or in years past a producer or production manager. It has always been this way for me, I was never a staff editor in a large facility, probably because the only director that would hire me is me.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “probably because the only director that would hire me is me.”
HA!
Why does this seem so comfortably familiar as a concept to me?
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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A lads-and-I-in-Burma story:
In the time of dinosaurs when 3/4″ news cameras were two parts requiring an assistant to pack along the umbilicalled recorder, my TV station had a policy of sending editors out into the world for a one month bit of familiarization.
As I understand it, the cameraman instinctively leapt up, eye to eye-piece, running towards his appearing subject while I was sitting on the floor looking for that on-switch.
I believe this incident, more than anything, led to the development of the single-unit camcorder and editors banned from the field.
RBG
Rob Brandreth-Gibbs
Bravo Zulu Productions
Vancouver, Canada
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