Directors, DPs, ACs, etc. Hold your shot 10 seconds more than you think you need to. Actually count to ten if possible, the editor on the project will have all those golden nuggets that make a scene great! Sometimes an actors best facial expressions are hidden after “CUT” and those key camera movements of b-roll can be mixed into other camera moves to create smooth transitions if we have little moments of handles on the end. I could list 10 more reasons why you should keep rolling after you think you got what you need. But for brevity sake I’ll leave you with a metaphor.
10 Seconds is like the seasoning on food, sure the chef can make do with just the bare ingredients, but spices make the meal succulent and fill the kitchen with smells of beauty, and anticipation for the meal, and when completed, a great chef will serve a great meal because of all the work that went into the care and harvest of each ingredient, just the right amounts, of each one balanced the meal, not too much, not too little, sublime.
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I got to meet with the legendary Anne Coates this month, editor of Laurence of Arabia, and many other films you've heard of. She is 90 years old and has worked on a film nearly every year since her career began. She has worked on over 60 films, racking up 6 Academy Awards and 14 nominations, and still continues to work in the industry. In a very difficult time for women, she proved herself over and over to be one of the best editors in the world. I learned SO much from he. And am so thankful that I got to meet her.
Here are 5 things I learned from her. ![]() Today I visited the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. If you don't know much about the Barnes, it is completely unlike all other museum. The collections he assembled, and arranged are works of art themselves. Most archives arrange the work by artist or decade. Uniquely, Albert Barnes, created "ensembles" with common thematic elements. He had a keen eye for spacial relationships, symmetry, lines, shapes and colors. Often I've thought about at the idea that “The camera never lies”, The fact is, that while the camera does not lie, that does not mean it tells the truth. The camera is not human. Humans don’t tend to notice details. Things like pores and subtle wrinkles, we see different people in different types of light, and moments don’t get frozen permanently in our head, our memories and the way we perceive the world is constantly in flux, There is some very interesting research done in this field . The way that memories are formed and the way that we perceive others, is not the way the camera treats us.
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CUTxCUTCUT by CUT is a blog about the art of film editing. It challenges norms, catalyzes ideas, and uses science, social psychology, and art history to think about filmmaking. Aaron KitzoAaron is a full time film editor based on the east coast. He thinks a lot, drinks a lot of rockstar, only wears black and red, and works everyday to become better at the art of film editing. Archives |