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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot trailer
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[Oliver Peters] “These days, there really is no such thing as a simple cuts and dissolves film.”
Of course, but the majority of that comes after the story is cut…in the finishing process. While there may be a lot of VFX and image tweaks, the underlying story by the editor is mainly cuts and dissolves, correct? At least that has been my experience and workflow.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “Of course, but the majority of that comes after the story is cut…in the finishing process.”
Actually no. Many films incorporate visual effects right into the cutting of the film. Fincher’s guys stabilize everything, so nearly every shot is a VFX shot. It’s quite common for editors to comp two shots together to create “invisible” split screens. These shots may be finessed in “finishing”, but the create decisions in the cut are based on whether or not the effects that the editor temped together work or not.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
There are so many shots that require at least a modicum of VFX even on the smallest of movies, and editors can start to rough these shots in for the early review stages.
Editing is much more than cuts and dissolves as the tools are getting more capable, well at least some of the tools are becoming more capable.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Editing is much more than cuts and dissolves as the tools are getting more capable, well at least some of the tools are becoming more capable.”
I completely agree, but in a philosophical sense, the “cut” is the essence of all filmmaking, whether we are talking about commercials, corporate videos or feature films. The information that the editor uses to inform the cut is critical. Therefore, the tools that the software offers the editor to make that decision-making process easier are important. To say something is just “cuts and dissolves” tends to miss the point.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
The trailer is terrific because the people who cut the trailer are expert at crafting trailers. If anyone thinks FCPX gets credit for making the trailer better, we should probably mention the cleaning crew and the company who roasted the coffee the editors drank too, because they also contributed to the final product.
Now, if the context of this thread was really about the making of the movie, and the making most movies today, NOT the trailer, I would agree that even those films we don’t think of as using “visual effects,” do in fact use many more processed shots and VFX than similar films of the past. However, since I’m the person who first brought up the cuts and dissolves part of the discussion in the first place, I can say definitively, I was referring to the trailer ONLY, period end of story. Is that clear enough?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los AngelesDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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As often happens here, whatever the OP was thinking about isn’t necessarily what the group decides to zero in on and discuss.
It would be a interesting thought experiment to imagine what we’d be saying if, in the seminal days of moviemaking, It hadn’t been sharp knives cutting celluloid – but maybe some heat system that merged two images in the form of a dissolve. Would then the cross-fade have become the “default” standard for scene transitions in the same way appreciate the cut today? Or was Mr. Murch correct that we are hard-wired to need a thing that simulates “blinking” as a natural way to transition scene to scene? It’s nature or nurture again…are we conditioned as to how we view the transition, or is it something more than that? Fun questions.
To me ALL the trailer’s appearance clearly and unquestionably signaled is that the Focus teams move to FCP X gave them them capabilities that made them want to use it again.
Clearly that vaporizes the arguments of anyone stuck in any camp arguing that it’s not viable professional production software at every level. And anyone who argues that is simply wrong. Not a good fit for a task or an editors style? Sure. That should go without saying. Preferences matter.
But ALL we’re left with is preferences. Which are fine. But I do suspect, dependent largely on conditioning – not in the native superiority of EITHER the old way or the new way of editing stuff.
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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[Bill Davis] “As often happens here, whatever the OP was thinking about isn’t necessarily what the group decides to zero in on and discuss. “
LOL. Since I started the thread, let me be clear that my intent had nothing to do with the trailer. It’s just that for right now, that’s all there is to show. I just wrapped a feature that I started on FCPX 2 1/2 years ago and I can assure you the trailer has little to do with the film. 😉
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Im cutting a BTS of a feature and I just painted a spider out of a window from some of the supplied footage from the movie. My guess is that take won’t make the final film, but it’s in a version given to me that I have to use, so I make the best of what I have and paint out a rogue spider.
Since this is, in effect, a long trailer for the movie, I am working beyond cuts and dissolves, even in the trailer.
I would imagine that the trailer for WTF had similar work to do. The movie isn’t out until April, I would think that all of the effects seen in the trailer aren’t quite complete. Who knows what the trailer company did or what was supplied, but I imagine some work had to be done that wasn’t quite in the supplied footage.
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Don’t forget to thank your mom for giving birth to you Jeremy, because your trailer would certainly not be as good without her contribution.
And yes, editors today do have many more tools built-in to our NLEs today and at our disposal than ever before, and that trend will continue. On the other hand, on average most editors still use just 2% of the tools available in their NLEs.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los AngelesDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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[David Roth Weiss] “Don’t forget to thank your mom for giving birth to you Jeremy, because your trailer would certainly not be as good without her contribution”
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