Story Building

[Craig Alan]

Absolutely, David. As Edward Albee said, “Sometimes you have to go a long way out of your way to come back a short way correctly.”

I do not advocate a return to linear editing or treating a nonlinear editing system as a linear one (a good exercise, yes, a good practice, no). Yet, the vessel is a linear sequence. And because it is, it needs to be designed from the ground up with this in mind. Just because we are able to create the story in post does not make it a good practice (a good exercise yes, a good practice, no).

At the same time, I don’t believe in the mantra that the story is everything. There are not too many unique stories. As a collective, we have been exposed to a tremendous amount of media. For the most part, we are retelling variations on similar stories again and again (deliberately redundant). The craft/art, therefore, is in the beats, the moments, and in the angle, how the story is told. In this sense, the producer, writer, director, talent, and editor have a common responsibility. Each beat, each scene, each subplot, each character, each plot point complements, mirrors, or builds the foundation – the basic story being told.

In the linear days, I remember:

Video couldn’t hold a candle to film.

Each generation lost some of the previous generation’s luster.

A three second, or so, preroll on both source and record VTR.

State of the art time base correctors costing ½ million.

The digital revolution has revolutionized writing in much the same way. Writers used to spend more time retyping than writing. Okay, there were a few writers who could type faster than they could think, but who cares. No spell check wasn’t fun either. The first spell checkers were more amusing than helpful. And now we can write in a non-linear fashion: insert, ripple delete, copy and paste, replace, undo-undo-undo … redo, redo, redo, add notes, collaborate, duplicate, template. ETC.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Trevor Ward]

I feel a little like I got slammed.

First, I may have not done a good job clearly identifying my workflow. I didn’t feel like writing a dissertation on the cow.

Second. I have tried many ways to edit. I have a great memory. It’s true my method requires a bit more memory than writing EVERYTHING down. I tried it a couple of times. I found it extremely cumbersome. I even had a couple of interviews that were in another language, and I was forced to try to edit based on a time-code transcript. But do you know what? I ended up editing the way I edit english speakers. Except that I used a plug in called Andy’s Text.

There is a LOT of organization that goes into the way I edit these big projects. A LOT. Maybe it’s not perfect. Maybe I won’t get a job in LA. But I’m good at what I do. I don’t live in LA so I’m not worried about getting a job in LA. There is more than one way to do things. I was sharing my way so that perhaps the original poster could have options while learning.

-trevor ward
Red Eye Film Co.
http://www.redeyefilmco.com
orlando, fl

[David Roth weiss]

[Trevor Ward] “I feel a little like I got slammed.”

I understand Trevor, and I want you to know that was not my intention. I’m here to help, which I think you already know.

There are lots of methods employed that seem to work, but many fail when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan. Linear editing on an NLE just happens to one of them. Trust me, I’ve had to take over many documentary projects that were started just that way, and those always wound up being monsters that were absolutely excruciating to deal with. I do my best here to help you and others avoid things like that if I can, because I’ve seen it, and it’s not pretty.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.