ReelSpam [or 'What I Was Up To For The Past Few Months']

Been a while since I popped in but it's been a busy few months [and months to come]. Highly productive season working with new clients who've come our way. Doing pretty fun videos. Currently in the process of uploading the newly completed ones to our YouTube channel. Meanwhile, here are some of the latest works that I've edited.


This is a highlights reel containing footage from the 20 short vignettes I've cut for the 1-Altitude Gallery. Beautiful footage shot on the 5D. It was great fun cutting these 20 videos and giving each of them a unique theme/mood/rhythm. A little bummed I wasn't able to be on shoot since my crew had so much fun running about like tourists - but those videos weren't gonna edit themselves!


Client came back to us after we did a good job for them on our first collaboration - the first video really made the APAC office stand out among their global counterparts. So, they decided to take our concept further and commission a Part Deux using the same actor, animation style and premise. This one is on Cloud Computing and we worked with our animation partner to create something fun.




Finally uploaded the other Youth Olympic Games videos I've edited. I guess you could call these 'mini narrative-documentaries'. Worked with our regular freelance director on these and we pieced together the stories, while setting a specific mood for each piece. Because all these videos were screened at the same Olympic exhibition venue in Suntec Convention Centre, the last thing we want is all of them having the same generic treatment and style. Somewhat bucking convention, these videos were not LOUD and "MTV-ish" - as some might have readily associated with youths and sports. Instead, they're dignified and contemplative.

We're currently juggling 7 projects [and more KIV ones to come] through 2010 and into early 2011. Just wrapping up one for Sentosa... moving onto an overseas shoot next week... working with some old clients, clients who came back to us after moving to another company and new clients from new markets. A mix of branding, marketing, corporates, pro bono and TVCs; private, agency and government. Plate's getting pretty full... but we'll make it work. Somehow ;)

Also started working with PluralEyes on a recent project which we shot on the 5D, with audio coming from the Zoom H4N. Apart from some small workarounds that were needed, I was pretty impressed with the ease of syncing. We had more than 6 hours of interview footage, which was synced quite beautifully using PluralEyes. Kudos! Deep appreciation for that tool - good stuff at very reasonable price. Check it out at http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

Meanwhile, I've also taken up small freelance gigs for a Microsoft vendor producing customer testimonials. Currently, it's been subtitling work - taking local versions and adding English subtitles for the international market. But as with ALL edit jobs, it's never "just" a "simple subtitling job". I've learnt a few new things along the way when it comes to versioning things since I had to work around updating text information on graphics and videos which are already mashed together, as they come to me in .WMV or equivalent files. Every video is different and requires its own set of troubleshooting. I'm a devout MacHead... but hey, like many others, I got my start in Microsoft. I just found something better and am sticking to it ;) Besides, this is strictly business!

Talking about professionalism, I came across an article which I thought was really good for professionals who are doing videos... professionally. Looking through the list, I think we've discovered all these points for ourselves through the years but this guy really covered it in a clear and succinct manner. Recommended Read for everyone who's in the business and is involved in any level of client servicing:
http://www.productionapprentice.com/tutorials/general/this-is-your-work-not-your-art-tips-for-working-with-clients-on-creative-projects/

A Good Read: Final Cut Pro Power Skills

Picked up this awesome FCP book from the library [we also have an awesome library, too - whoever is doing the purchasing knows his/her stuff when it comes to keeping updated with editing books!]:



Written by Larry Jordan, whose monthly newsletter I subscribe to [and you should, too - very informative and up to date with the latest happenings and solutions].

I'm only 11 pages into the book and am liking the simplicity and directness. Very useful nuggets of information. Highly recommended for all working editors.

Check out Larry's site here: http://www.larryjordan.biz/ and don't forget to sign up for his newsletter!

He has an online store as well and you could pick up the book from here: http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/Store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=146

Preditor Alert

Not much on the editing front as I've been busy with the producing side of things. Ahh, such is the life of a Preditor. Though with each project we pitch for and get, it means a few months down the road, there will be an edit waiting to happen.

We've currently got a few interesting projects in the scripting stage. A few even more interesting ones that are pending. Even though our main business has been in the corporate video realm, looking at our reel, we don't exactly stick to the 'corporate' corporate style. Our USP has always been in communication and storytelling.

Sometimes it's a little demoralizing when fancy graphics easily overshadow what should be achieved with solid scripting and editing. I reckon it's not easy to pimp something that works most beautifully when it's somewhat invisible and subtle. In fact, it gets tiring trying to WRITE about how you could achieve so much with strong scripting and editing in proposals because it's so hard to convey something so abstract at that stage. In contrast, a jazzy comp/storyboard is just pure bling that excites people more easily.

But at the same time, I have much respect for motion graphics artists and their craft. They produce such visually stunning visuals that I frankly can't achieve. That is definitely something I should brush up on along the way [like how I need to find that window of opportunity to break open the AVID Media Composer free trial and have a crash course familiarization with it].

With that, here are some more interesting writing to share. Have a read!

Production Jobs and Responsibilities of Crew
Just realized this is a 2-year old article but it's still relevant. Depending on the scale of the project and budget, you could add or minus the number of people and roles involved. This is something we have to explain to clients often: because production costs can indeed vary quite a bit. Yes, there will always be the one-man-shows who charge a package rate from pre to post for the cost of 2-3 days of filming that others might charge.

A very common question over at the Creative Cow forums: How much should I charge? Here are some answers. Not exact-figure answers but guiding questions to help one along:
Typical Hourly Rate For Production & Editing?

Someone else also wrote about the same issue on their blog:
How much should I charge to edit this video?

Last but definitely not least, I've uploaded some of our recent works on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/intuitivefilms. New works include a docu-drama for the Singapore Sports Council [quite extensive grading on the footage], a short TVC for Skin Inc [working with a 3D graphics and animation company] and a two-TVC campaign for the Tote Board [which I've not been able to catch on TV even though it's supposed to screen alongside quite a few sponsored programs].

Auteurs vs Collaboration

Thoughtful essays on the auteur theory and the role of collaboration & discussion between directors and editors:

http://normanhollyn.com/2009/08/21/real-collaboration-–-editors-and-directors-editors-and-editors/

http://filmindustrybloggers.com/theeditor/2009/08/21/collaboration-and-why-the-auteur-theory-is-bull/

Personally, I enjoy the to-and-fro that does on during editing sessions. In fact, I find that once I've had enough time to go through the material on my own and managed to make a first cut [but only after a fairly thorough briefing/Q&A with the director about the direction, style and messaging], it's beneficial to have the director sit down with me to hone the next cut. It's more efficient, as well, since I spend less time second-guessing certain edit decisions I would've made.

The need for a certain amount of time to experiment, discuss & explore during the edit is something we sometimes find difficult to explain to clients. Yes, it's indeed possible to give a cut 2 days after we wrap BUT it will not be the best cut possible. As I recall a quote "A film is never 'complete', it just gets abandoned (due to the arrival of deadline)", it also doesn't necessarily mean more time = 'perfect' film.

That one time when I freelanced on a kids' reality/infotainment TV program edit, it was quite appalling that there wasn't any log, script or director involvement in the edit process. I was given a whole bunch of tapes, told we needed to cover these 3 activities... and that's that. Being a young upstart then and happy to have snagged such an opportunity [considering I had never edited any TV program by then... though it seemed they were so stretched, they had only one director-producer-writer and was willing to use me on the project... possibly because I was, ah, 'not very expensive'], I poured a lot of effort into the edit. Apart from my day job as a producer-writer on a corporate video project, I was working graveyard shifts on the kids' program.

It was fulfilling to see that most of my edits made it to air but it was unsatisfying that there was no 'process' involved. It felt like a factory assembly line. Which possibly is not an isolated incident, considering that TV budgets here are extremely stretched.

As for the 'auteur theory is bull' idea... it seems like 'auteur theory' is very much alive here. More often than not, in the local filmmaking realm, directors are also writers. And producers, sometimes DPs and maybe editors, too. However, it might be partly attributed to the whole 'lack of budget' issue, again. In addition, there might also be the idea that there is a lack of good screenwriters, which is why directors take it upon themselves to write material they would like to produce. Which is kind of sad, as the film would not be able to benefit from the collaborative process, especially in the editing stage.

Though judging from the way the media/film authorities have been formulating their policies/funding, they seem to prefer the 'auteur theory': hype up a few high-profile directors and send them for overseas film festivals/markets. And films are often marketed with 'a film by so-and-so-known-name'. Through these years, it just doesn't feel like there's much attention or importance placed in developing the other film professionals like DPs and editors.

Hocus-Focus

Been busy working on a few corporate, launch, campaign videos as well as TVCs. As usual, as a preditor, the producing side takes up so much more energy than the actual creative. I think I still prefer to deal with my humans when they're right in front of me, on my screen and subjected to my J, K and L keys.

I've also just finished reading a book called 'Ten Thoughts About Time: How To Make More Of The Time In Your Life' by Bodil Jonsson. The title might seen like one of those run-off-the-mill self-help books, but the interesting thing is, the author is a Swedish physicist. So combining theoretical physics and her own experience with philosophy, she came up with quite an interesting read.

So what has this got to do with editing? Perhaps not on the technical side but there were some nifty tips that could help an editor think about the process behind the button-mashing. Some interesting thought I've bookmarked:

SET-UP TIME AND BEING AVAILABLE

There are times when I'm sure I'm fitting in set-up time without quite realizing it myself. This is how it can look: a significant deadline is approaching and I know in my heart that I should have started the job long ago. Instead, I seem to focus on less productive things. I do nothing, effectively, and become preoccupied with pointless minor chores like washing up and mending and pottering in the garden and so on, even though I don't particularly want to do these things. I don't start attacking the real job until absolutely necessary, and usually a little later still. What a miracle that I meet the deadline after all - yet again! Or maybe it's not a miracle. I believe that by that late stage my mental workshop had already dealt with the task. Thinking and planning had been going on all the time my conscious self had been preoccupied with simple things. When the deadline loomed really large, very little was left for me to do.

Concentrated intellectual work demands a set-up time too, which might last only hours and days, or drag on into weeks and months. Once that time has been set aside, it must be properly used. You must be available within that timeframe only. To lock yourself within a certain task in this way is utterly contrary to the way we nowadays prioritize being available to all comers, be it by instant travel, mobile phone, email or whatever.

I tackled my relationship with the telephone some fifteen years ago, starting with my office phone. How was I to silence it? I could programme it to say that I was at a meeting of away on business or teaching or out to lunch or had left for the day. But the list did not let me say anything about the task I was primarily hired to do, like: 'I'm in my office/at my computer/in the laboratory - thinking' or 'with my students or colleagues - talking'. I discussed my problem with a couple of switchboard operators and they told me that the message 'Bodil Johnson is not available, she's thinking' would probably provoke an angry response. The caller would feel 'If she's only thinking, she might as well answer the phone.' That wasn't how I felt, though.

DARING TO BE A HERMIT

Working in seclusion is often important for good results. I have learnt this important lesson by now, and am quite capable of defending my need to live like a hermit occasionally. Trying to be truly present wherever I am is crucial not only to me, but to the people I work with. They should feel convinced that I'm there, with them. No telephone calls must be allowed to interrupt us. If it is your professional responsibility to think, it is indefensible to give in to either real or apparent demands and accept other, irrelevant measures of your worth. It is your fault if hackneyed and ill thought-out research and teaching comes to dominate your output.

Hey, so there's some justification for my dilly-dallying before starting on the first cut! I would take my time to create folders, convert audio, label files, organize my desktop, remove unusable footage [usually when capturing full tapes via Firewire, with start-stop, on HDV>ProRes]... since I'm usually involved from pre to production, right into post, which includes logging & capturing. Back to back processes. So by the time I'm ready to do my first cut, I usually feel... over-exposed to the project. A little distance to prep my set-up time usually helps get my mind into editing gear.

Once I start on my edit, I really don't like to be disturbed because it takes time to get [back] into the 'mode'. Unless, of course, I'm just doing an edit which doesn't require much brainwork - like selecting and grabbing highlights from event coverage - which works well on an 'instinct' mode, with selected parameters already programmed into my mind as I scrub past hours upon hours of footage.

We'd worked with one cameraman who was always on the phone between shots. Apart from being a cameraman, he also runs a service of providing crew. So throughout our shoot, he would be checking on or arranging the other crews. That was the first and only time we've worked with him. Being so distracted seemed to have taken away the focus he should've put into the shoot. We usually work with DPs who are fully present and because of that, are able to observe, suggest and be creative.

Got spurred on to post [procrastination got hold of me] after reading a similar topic over at CreativeCow:
"Maker's" vs. "Manager's" schedules: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/17/866107

Which is a discussion spun off from this article:
http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

An excerpt:
"One reason programmers dislike meetings so much is that they're on a different type of schedule from other people. Meetings cost them more.

There are two types of schedule, which I'll call the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule. The manager's schedule is for bosses. It's embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one hour intervals. You can block off several hours for a single task if you need to, but by default you change what you're doing every hour.

When you use time that way, it's merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Find an open slot in your schedule, book them, and you're done.

Most powerful people are on the manager's schedule. It's the schedule of command. But there's another way of using time that's common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can't write or program well in units of an hour. That's barely enough time to get started.

When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker's schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it.

For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work.

I find one meeting can sometimes affect a whole day. A meeting commonly blows at least half a day, by breaking up a morning or afternoon. But in addition there's sometimes a cascading effect. If I know the afternoon is going to be broken up, I'm slightly less likely to start something ambitious in the morning. I know this may sound oversensitive, but if you're a maker, think of your own case. Don't your spirits rise at the thought of having an entire day free to work, with no appointments at all? Well, that means your spirits are correspondingly depressed when you don't. And ambitious projects are by definition close to the limits of your capacity. A small decrease in morale is enough to kill them off."

2008 FCPUG SuperMag - 100 pages of pure goodness!

A whole motherload of tips and tricks, written by industry professionals who have been very generous in sharing their experiences and solutions.

All 100 of them, now available for just a low, low price of: an email address!

http://www.lafcpug.org/nab_supermag_08.html

Downloading it as I type - but there's no doubt I believe that this is some real solid stuff.

Link courtesy of Shane Ross @ http://lfhd.blogspot.com, who contributed an article as well.

Oh yay, downloaded and 'flipped' [or finger-scrolled] through it - I am definitely a big FCP fanboy :P

Something for me to savor and devour as I await the arrival of the Final Cut World Tour next week - ETA 18 June!

Larry Jordan's Final Cut Studio Tip of the Day

Just added 'Larry Jordan's Final Cut Studio Tip of the Day: Real-world tips to working with Final Cut Studio.' - http://www.larryjordan.biz/tips/tip_feed.xml as a RSS feed on this blog *points to screen left*

Linkage by way of Shane Ross' blog post [reading through the back posts] at http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2008/04/fcp-tip-of-day.html

I like my tips in dimsum-sized tidbits :]

What wrong with... me, the young FCP editor?

A blog post that had caused some ripples online recently:

What’s wrong with the young FCP editor?
By Scott Simmons

*checks the date* Oh, maybe not that recent... since it came out 2 day after my birthday... more than a month back. But it's still sparking discussion.

If we look at the article superficially, I'm probably doomed! Since I'm:

1) Young
2) Self-taught
3) Went straight into editing after school
4) Never worked in a 'proper' post-production suite
5) Never apprenticed as an assistant editor
6) Never cut on film... or even touched film
7) *points at blog title* I am a FCP Editor

[as I'm typing, I'm actually multitasking on my MBP, with FCP, Compressor and Soundtrack Pro running, while having close to 28 Firefox tabs open, uploading a rough cut onto YouTube for an overseas client and doing spots of text-based MMORPG gaming... and oh, just solved one of those pesky 'General Error' by isolating the problem clip].

To begin with, just based on the vastly different state of the industry here, as compared to the author's, some things probably can't apply. We don't have a guild system for the various specialized professions [which means no minimum wage and defined working hours/conditions!] and we barely make 10 feature films [so-called co-productions don't always count... esp. those who just come in for the STB/EDB moolah] a year.

As much as I don't have much contact with the really top-notch professional editors in Singapore, I also don't have much contact with the so-called young-punk editors as well. Reading the article tends to make me feel as if I belong to the latter group... but after reading it more carefully - and reading the other blogs by more established editors who commented on the article, I do feel a tad bit vindicated.

My main weakness as an editor, in the technical realm, is the lack of actual hands-on working knowledge with high-end formats. Then again, I remember that one-time I freelanced for an established production house which captured, for a broadcast TV program, using a consumer camcorder :P Sooooo... industry-standards are a little whacked.

I try to compensate by devouring info online, from the likes of Creative Cow and Larry Jordan's site, about new technological developments [mmm, RED camera?], better ways of working and the more thoughtful discussions on the 'art' of editing.

At this point, I wonder if I'll ever get to 'use' this knowledge, but I think having the skill of being able to quickly ferret for updated solutions online [Google is my playground!] is something important and useful. Especially when software updates, formats, compression, plug-ins etc are being updated so rapidly.

Perhaps, then, I do have the right to shake my head [together with the experienced chaps, but with less velocity] at some of the so-called 'films' that are put up on YouTube by 'filmmakers' :D For even though I'm a young punk on the surface, I am *!!!* by how many people now think that since they have some hi-def camcorder, iMovie/Windows Movie Maker and can upload something to YouTube - they too can do what we do!

Oh well, maybe I'm all *!!!* 'cuz this kind of thinking threatens my poor pockets [my fees cannot go down just 'cuz people start attributing less perceived value to it] and possibly make it even harder for clients to leave the important bits to 'the professionals' [for everyone's good, really].

At the end of the day, it's impossible to stop people form getting their hands dirty as 'media makers', whether as amateurs, hobbyists or professionals. Broadcast News channels are regularly using viewer-submitted footage shot with their increasingly-powerful camera phones; Every other 'youth/community organization' is holding a filmmaking competition.

So, for me, it's to keep on trudging and stay the course. Keep on learning. Keep on experimenting [in a good, constructive way!]. Keep on trying to find my place between the 'old school' and the 'nu skool'. I'm enjoying the ride so far ;]

Editing Quotes + Freelance Thumb Twiddlers

I think there are people like me with similar abilities and disabilities, because editors are disabled on the social level. It's not normal to be alone in a room with people who look alive but are not. It's a kind of dysfunctional element that editors have, that they can relate to people who are not really people.

Michael Leszczylowski, Page 201

Milos Forman writes in his memoirs that you would give your soul to the devil in return for the eyes of an editor.

Lidia Zonn, Page 213

xxxxxx

'Hi, my name is Kai. I edit stuff... ...' *awkward pause / twiddle thumbs* 'And you?'

Haha, nah, I don't think I'm THAT socially dysfunctional. I attribute my other portfolio of being a producer as the counterbalance. Though I do smile at people in those little boxes when they smile back at me... when I'm editing. Or not.

The second quote is certainly more epic. Ah, to believe in the day when I may posses such a pair of magical eyeballs.

Meanwhile, back in the realm of reality called 'Singapore', life as an editor continues to be fraught with potholes... when freelancing. After nudging [again] a client for months regarding payment [project was completed late last year], I was told that nope, they still can't pay me until... they sort out their finances. Le sigh.

Of the 4 times I have been on contract/freelancing, this is the 2nd time I've been made to twiddle thumb while waiting for the company to sort out payment... indefinitely, with neither proactive contact or follow-up.

Of the many chats I've had with other freelancers in production and post, the overall situation here is equally frustrating and disappointing. Some were owed payments, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, for months... half a year... more than a year. Often, the same companies perpetrate the cycle of exploitation, over and over again, since there are always clueless and eager new kids on the blocks [Like I once were!] when the experienced ones avoid them like the plague.

I still remember my maiden journey of being exploited... editing a kids' program for a production house. I was quite the eager beaver since I hadn't edited any TV programs at that point. Actually, I was quite surprised that they even picked me, of all people, to edit a TV program. The process turned out to be... an eye-opener, in the 'wise up, young Jedi' kinda way. No script, no log, no direction, no director sitting in... had to capture everything from 5+ hours of tape... told to cut 3 segments. Ta-dah.

Eventually, when the ep aired, I saw that most of my cuts were left intact. That was... nice to see. Though looking at the way things were being run, I kinda wondered whether it's because no one really bothered...

Like the current project which has left me twiddling my thumb, this one was yet another thumb-twiddler [4 months of waiting, nudging and waiting in vacuum for paycheck]... and like the current project, this one was under quoted [for the length and scope of work] due to my inexperience.

On hindsight and with very valuable lessons learnt from CreativeCow.net and FreelanceSwitch.com:
1) Your skills and profession are worth a certain rate. Don't be arm-twisted into dropping your rates unless you see a tangible value in doing so.
2) Learn to say 'No' - there comes to a point in your career when you know certain things are worth doing and certain things are just too painful to do.

Globally, it seems that there is a positive correlation between substandard rates and substandard payment schedule.

I've paid my fair share of dues under the 'Exploit Me!' category - time to wise up! [there are always new batches of students and interns to undergo the baptism of fire :P]

Fortunately, my faith in what I do is still intact since I have been meeting good, decent people who understand that freelancers can't be made to twiddle thumbs while you sort out your business. Freelancers depend on their paycheck to eat, pay their bills and survive. Imagine waiting 3 months for your pay - sometimes 4 months, or hey, maybe half a year... who knows?!

Someone I used to work for on a freelance contract [who also demonstrated the positive correlation between good rate and good payment schedule] mentioned to me over a homely lunch that when freelancers work for you, they offer their trust because they invest their time, effort and expertise FIRST and trust you to do the right thing later. Of course, this same boss pays her freelancers very VERY speedily. Blink of an eye speedily.

Which is also why I'm proud of working with Intuitive Films because we also believe in being responsible to not only our clients, our work but also, to our freelancers. Good work does not come from squeezing the last drop from your profit-driven budget, when it means going down the chain and squeezing/exploiting the people you work with. We continue to respect our work and our freelancers - because, hey, they're both equally important!

Takis Yannopoulos Quotes from 'Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing'

A person more detached than the director is needed to judge the rushes objectively. Perhaps technology will reduce the editor's role as it stands today... Many directors will be satisfied using just an Avid 'operator' and this has nothing to do with proper editing, that is with synthesis.

Takis Yannopoulos, Page 148

Due to my genuine love for editing, this has become an essential part of my life. I feel happy at work. I am used to working many hours, as many as I can, with no limits or restrictions. I can't conceive that it is possible for anybody to edit well - something as fundamental as life itself, for it imitates life - following the timetable of a clerk.

Takis Yannopoulos, Page 148 - 149

The ideal editor is not someone who makes good cuts or edits a scene with great speed. The ideal or good editor is someone who gets into a scene and loves it, who composes with his heart, who gets involved passionately and actively.

Takis Yannopoulos, Page 149 - 150

xxxxxx

I'm not experienced or privileged enough to fully understand quote 1 or 3, but quote 2 is something that I personally have experienced over and over again. A 'simple edit' is never as 'simple' as imagined by someone else. There are just... infinite number of permutations and combinations, various ways to improve, many other ways to destroy, minute things that can be fixed, sneaky little things that are only discovered seconds before you're about to dump out and go home [and then, it becomes a moral dilemma - to fix or not to fix?]

Julia Juaniz Quotes from 'Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing'

Technology neither makes the technician nor the artist... The true editor will always exist, but perhaps in the future most people will only look for someone to stick the shots together. That's the way things seem to be going.

Julia Juaniz, Page 137

An editor believes that you have to be modest and humble enough not to want to make your own film with the material.

Julia Juaniz, Page 138

xxxxxx

Just like a ship can only have one captain [but also many many other able hands], so is a film? At this point of my life/career, I still see myself as a better regenerative creative collaborator [editor's role] than a generative creative instigator [more of a director's/writer's/producer's role].

This afternoon, I was browsing through the latest Creative Cow forums email alerts and clicked on an editor's showreel. There's always this niggling problem I have when it comes to an editor's showreel: how can you show how 'good' you are as an editor with a [generally short] reel? A DP can show his shots - composition, movement, a captured moment... but as an editor, when and how do other people how much of that reel is 'yours'? How much of it was the director? How much of it was due to you being a creative collaborator rather than an 'edit operator'? How much of it was impressive due to you getting cool rushes, rather than crap shots you had to rescue?

In comparison, I'm always slightly jealous of motion graphic designers' reels - wham bam kaboom - from the first frame onwards, it usually impresses right till the very end.

On another thought: I happened to catch 2 local programmes of vastly different quality today. One's a kids' drama, which had mediocre acting and uninspired shots/editing. Later at night, I was captivated by a Chinese infotainment which was quite nicely done, with obvious aesthetic considerations [nice color grading going on there]. Haven't had the chance to really work on the aesthetics of editing much, when it comes to color grading... tendency/priority of corporate clients is to get content covered, so there's usually no time and budget allocated for all the fancy-pantsy stuff like color grading - which isn't something many clients pay much attention to anyway, methinks. In an ideal world, I'll always have time to do proper 'finishing' - which gets appreciated.

That said, I had the pleasure of doing some color grading on the TVCs I've worked on. Something like this one for the 'Shanghai Blues' TVC we did for Toy Factory:

This was a draft grading... overdid the soft focus initially, I mean, it's supposed to look like 1930s Shanghai but not THAT dreamy. Could possibly be more nuanced - next time, next time.

xxxxxx

R.I.P Anthony Minghella - director of 'The English Patient' and 'Cold Mountain'. One of the most memorable books on editing I've read is:

'Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple's Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema', in which Murch mentioned quite a bit about his creative relationship with Minghella while working on the film.

Simona Paggi Quotes from 'Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing'

The American editor is inserted in a production system in which he himself is a pawn - he is first and foremost a great technician at the service of the production of the film. While in Europe the editor is like the alter ego of the director, a watchful eye, a critical eye, the armed hand of the cutting room. He has to combine a rich technical knowledge with an open mind to be at the height of a day-by-day experimentation with new things.

Simona Paggi, Page 128

To be able to excel in your work, you have to have ideas. The same goes for everyone - you have to have ideas, intuitions, imagination, you need to question what you're doing all the time and sometimes even to know how you wait. You must know how to listen, how to look, never to be satisfied, to take risks. And in editing, which forces you to be in a constant state of constant evolution, this ought to be a dogma.

Simona Paggi, Page 130

My cutting style varies because every film I edit is different. I would always like my style to be recognisable by the commitment and sensibility I put into my work to reach the heart that film may have.

Simona Paggi, Page 133

xxxxxx

The only constant is change?

Looks like there's a whole lot more going into what should be 'invisible' [when done right]. No space for the ego to demand your 'work' be all attention-grabbing and flashy :] The third quote is a good one to keep to heart.

Roberto Perpignani Quotes from 'Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing'

In European cinemas as elsewhere, 'A film by...' is the winning formula and although invented for the 'authors' it works in the commercial sphere as well. In addition, it became a sort of 'caste' title, whether the directors deserved it or not. Returning to Welles, an undisputed author, he was inclined to say that the system had created a sort of protection for very good collaborators which allowed the weakest of them to feel at ease. So we are the only ones responsible for recognising where quality actually lies.

Roberto Perpignani, Page 116

Editors Baptism - Most editors, in this book or not, will have experienced the moment where they confront their ability to cut creatively. It can be painful and prolonged, but is never forgotten.

Roberto Perpignani, Page 119 (Notes)

xxxxxx

Indeed, for personally, I am terribly crappy at 'critiquing' a film, unlike many people who seem to have a knack for doing film reviews for everything they watch. For me, most things I watch have their own merits - and I'll probably only be able to point out if something seems pretty damn bad... or perhaps, if a film reached out to be in an extraordinary way.

And indeed, again, I think I have encountered my own bout of 'editors baptism' before, where I severely doubted my abilities as an editor. The wacky logic went: wait, a trained monkey can probably do what I'm doing, no, wait, just an ordinary monkey might be able to do it better... therefore, me = monkey?

I'm sure there will be more baptisms to follow, since every project is different and a fresh start. Just because you've completed 'A' doesn't mean 'B' and 'C' will come to you naturally.

Walter Murch Quote from 'Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing'

Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing
by Roger Crittenden

But the defining craft of cinema - montage - seems to have quickly invented itself in a cocoon of silence, and to have continued that reticence as part of its protective colouration. Perhaps this is due to the personality of film editors themselves, or to the nature of their role as seconds to forceful and articulate directors. Or to the work itself, which most often aspires to burnish the efforts of others and to remain itself unnoticed. Perhaps it is simply priestly discretion: there is something of the confession booth to the editing room, where the omissions and commissions of shooting are whispered and discretely absolved by concealment or alchemically transformed into discoveries. Or maybe it is due to the very lack of deep-rooted tradition: there is not (yet) a rich vocabulary to describe what goes on as moving images mingle and fertilise each other, so we remain mute. Or cryptic: 'Why did you make that cut?' 'I don't know - it just felt right'.

Walter Murch, London, June 2004, Foreword

xxxxxx

First of a series of interesting quotes on editing which I've been scribbling down.

Maybe that's one reason why I like editing - because you can get away with 'just because' when asked 'why?' - sometimes, it's just tiring [and impossible] to explain everything. Things can very well be 'they are what they are ' ;]

Currently Reading: Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing

Currently reading:
Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing

Admittedly, I'm neither a film buff nor an European films film buff. But this has been a really captivating read [esp. when you have that trippy almost-literal English translations going on quite often].

Going to jot down a few interesting quotes I've dog-eared in this book.