[Antelope]

Hi

Well I’m just starting out on my new, third ‘career’ in editing and so far have found a small local group of film makers in a local community centre and nothing else. I’m in the Midlands. Nothing online either. Theres a job in TV related thing at https://www.tvfreelancers.org.uk/standard.htm but that appears to be it. Pretty damn sad really. Makes it very hard to get started, especially as its an industry that depends so much on networking. If I find anything else I’ll post it.
Cheers

[Antelope]

Bingo…it all works again!

[Antelope]

I know this is just not the place to say this but I seem to have no choice. The CC website is not displaying properly for me, most of the page content is missing and the link to ‘contact us’ finds no page. I’m also unable to start new topics. Is anyone else having problems? Its been this way for several days now so presumably its my end that has the prob but I have no idea what it could be. No probs with any other sites. Could someone draw the ‘management’s ‘ attention to my situation as I can’t contact them? Tks.

[Antelope]

sorry, you’re right, this should be a new thread…

[Antelope]

One of the problems with this area seems to be that it’s hard now not to listen to a piece of music and keep imagining how it could be applied to some scene or other! I see that music is a fundamental part of the mix. I imagine that it plays a greater part in the generation od atmosphere and message than possibly any part of the overall mix. It must be hard to know how to blend one into the other though. And unless the music is custom written for the film, in which case I guess the visual comes first and the music is written to suite. But if it’s the other way round, and one doesn’t have the resources available to write and create music, presumably the editor’s skill comes into it’s own stretching and compressing the visual to fit the rhythm and feel of the music…this is what I’ll have to do if I go for this climate change clip competition. I suppose this is what I was getting at….where the visual is subject to the music. Is this a problem?

[Antelope]

Thank you Terry, you may just regret that offer!

[Antelope]

Hi Jemima

Good to see a brit posting here…I’m investigating entering the intriguing, and obviously complex, world of film editing as part of a career/liestyle change and and wondered if you hcould point me to any resources similar to creativecow but which caters for us in the UK.

Any pointers would be appreciated.
Tks
David

[Antelope]

I’m a complete newcomer to film and editing and am tring to learn. I watched this clip with the audio settings switched to off on my PC so no sound, just image. This way, it didn’t work. The gaps were to long and at one point, the visual dialogue appeared to go backward….they landed on the moon and then launched. Nothing else made much sense and I had no idea what the message was.

But then I replayed with the audio. And the [learner] conclusion that I reached is how much the visual message can depend upon the dialogue! This was an entirley different experience as my mind was fully occupied and didn’t notice the flaws, actual or not, in the film. Isn’t this an unfortunate implication for film editors? That their efforts should be so very subject to the audio track?

David

[Antelope]

Thanks for the link Enzo. I wasn’t aware of this, nor the tutorials that are available.

Here’s a little anecdote for you…I have a friend who makes short wildlife films here in the UK. It is he who suggested to me that I consider film editing as an option in my search for a new career. Yesterday, I wrote an email to him saying how I’d been thinking about this idea all week and had found that my search for advice through various fora had repeatedly thrown up the fact that I needed to know what it is that I wanted to eventually do, precisely, that should influence my choice of NLM and training, if anything. I decided that I wanted to focus on documentaries and I’d been thinking that perhaps I could combine this with my Masters degree training in natural resource management and Climate Change to be an editor ‘in the know’ which might provide me with a good selling point when it came to finding work. I clicked the send button and Outlook Express sent and also, of course, delivered. And there in my email box was an email from a Canadian outfit announcing a short film competition where one has to make a film about Climate Change! I’ve never received such an email beore. Syncronicity or what?!

Anyway, this got me on to thinking how I could enter this competition, which naturally involved storyboarding a film, a concept of how to communicate such a vast idea in just 30 seconds to five minutes. Which in turn led me to wonder where the border lies between direction [or is it production?] and editing. It must be a very grey overlap. I think I know how I’d edit such a film if the right material was there. But of course, if the material, and concept, is invented and created by someone else, than I imagine that I’d have to swallow my opinions and work with someone else’s ideas. Is this the case? Or does the editor have rather more input than people realise?

David

PS found an ‘education’ copy of Xpress pro on ebay at an affordable price. Is it useful?

[Antelope]

Thanks Enzo.

I see that this is good advice. I’ve been a static image photographer since my teens [i’m now in my forties] and so have a good eye for an image and it’s composition, mood and purpose. But I suspect that developing the same perception for moving images is another task entirely…the effect depends not just on the image but also on the join between images. Is this right? I once heard someone say that the reason they liked classical music was not for the notes or the melody but for the transitions between the notes. This is where the atmosphere lies.

I don’t want to pre empt myself. Learning processes should be organic, unpredicted and at a natural pace and I may yet find something essential lacking in myself that prevents me from pursueing this complex occupation. I think I know what I’m up against – I’ve been involved with digital imaging since the early nineties and I know these devices are mere tools. But I have a hunch that I could ‘do editing’ reasonably well. Sufficient hunch to warrant moving forward with it anyway. The biggest problem is knowing how to move forward. I’ve found a subsidised Avid advanced course that I can afford but before I book it, I need to find an intro course that I can afford. I’ve just bought a very cheap copy of Premiere Pro [from some bankrupt stock] and have joined a local community film group. But finding that ‘in’ to a working environment where I can play a role straight away and be allowed to learn and grow….I have no idea how I’m going to do this. And without such an opportunity, all the training courses in the world would be pointless.

By the way, Conversations arrived in post this morning…

David