Video production class weblog--day 10--editing

1) Today, we wrapped things up. I began the class with a brief discussion about continuity editing and matching action before showing them the montage from The Graduate when Benjamin floats in the family pool to the sound of not one but two Simon and Garfunkle songs. The montage is full of matching action cuts that mislead the viewer into thinking Benjamin is at home when he's at the hotel and vice versa. Later a student pointed out that I could have used the fashion montage from The Devil Wears Prada as another example.

2) Otherwise, the students sat around their computers and edited for much of the day. We had a couple computer failures for old time's sake--a software glitch and some drives on another computer lost--but the ever-helpful IT administrator fixed them quickly. As they fastforwarded and rewound scenes back and forth, the students reminded me of DJs scratching with turntables. In some cases, a tricky scene with conversation outside obscured by wind noises could easily take an hour to finesse. In other cases, students plunked down scenes artlessly. One would roll his eyes when I asked him to expand a scene for better comic effect or add on a sound bridge to make the cut less clumsy. Editing is a subtle, intuitive process, but the class benefits from the fact that students have seen countless well-edited films, so they can usually tell when a jump cut isn't working. In one case, a student was enormously picky about the video's title. I kept making suggestions, but none were good enough. From what I hear, Woody Allen works in the same way, taking forever to settle on a film title after editing it.

3) So, aside from further editing over the weekend, the class is finished, and they largely did excellent work. What have we learned?

a) Pinnacle is far superior to Premiere editing software for this class.
b) We still need to get external microphones and a boom, but in the meantime we can always dangle a second tripod and camcorder over the actors for better sound.
c) If you ask nicely, it's astonishing how just about everyone in the greater community will happily help make a movie. The only people to turn us down? The Dollar Store.
d) Usually problems with lighting cause students to have to reshoot whole scenes.
e) The video production class basically grades itself because the viewer can immediately see the 15 different ways a shot can be messed up.
f) The best directors combine patience, concentration, hard work, and imagination. They shoot the most scenes from the most angles, stick to the storyboards, and yet continually experiment with new techniques.
g) When the sound doesn't work, you can always fall back on another music montage.