n. hai’eitas (Greek) An unexpected gap.
Encarta dictionary

All good TV shows – well, those that come back for a second season or more – go on hiatus, having delivered the required number of episodes to the network. The time gives everyone a break from the 12+ hour days and 5-7 day weeks.

I began this blog on September 9, 2009. I’ve found that there are a bountiful supply of roads and riffs that lap the topic of editing. I’m not out of subjects now. However, major life events are intervening, primarily the death of my mother in October and my father this month and having to close their estate.

Announcement
On the bright side, thanks to the books I’ve written on editing and this website, I’ve just signed the contract on a new book about a new subject for a new publisher. Chronicles of Old San Francisco will debut later this year for Museyon publishers. It’s the first western city of a series that chronicles Boston, Las Vegas, New York, Paris, London, Rome, Chicago (debuting soon), and Los Angeles (in 2014).

All books in the series are comprised of walking tours and a succinct history of the chosen city centered around its colorful characters. I especially like the character part – it reminds me of editing drama and documentaries. The guidebooks are aimed at all visitors to the cities, whether tourists or locals

Book = Hiatus
I am thrilled to explore, research, and write about the city I returned to in 2010. However, my May deadline leaves no time for other writing. So after 3 1/3 years of continuous blogging, I am awarding myself a hiatus. Please feel free to read previous blogs, explore this website, and make comments as my webmeister will be checking in and I will respond. Also, I will continue the Cut of the Month feature so enjoy the frames and text.

I will return to blogging in June or later this summer.

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In an effort to improve loading times and security we have recently moved Joy of Film Editing to a Linux server. Please let us know if you find any problems with the website.

Thanks!

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Ken Lee, who is the editor for Michael Wiese Productions (MWP), my publisher announced that if you click this link you will get to download thirty pages free of the e-book Instant Filmmaker by Christopher Nolan.

Yes MWP wants to get their emailing list up. And yes, it’s free. So choose to click or not – it’s extremely minimal input. I found the book, which is aimed at independent filmmakers, to be jauntily written in a way that injects truth along with zappy prose to get you going. Here’s an excerpt:

The point of this book is to give you instant advice, answers, applica­tion, edification and gratification.

After all, filmmaking today is an in­stant world. You shoot a scene and watch instant playback. You in­stantly transfer digital files from the camera to your laptop. Instantly edit/color correct/sweeten sound/add special effects/download mu­sic/upload the cut to a server and text message for instant feedback.

It’s all a presto, pronto playground! Right?

But the realities of today’s Indie film business are just the opposite.

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I’ve been authoring books, blogging on this site, and writing articles for MovieMaker and other magazines: Now it’s time to take my show on the road and actually interact with some people. So I’ve created a four-session evening course that the Community Ed wing of Santa Rosa Jr. College (in Santa Rosa, CA) has been kind enough to host this October.

The course is for filmmakers – student, independent, and professional – as well as moviegoers who want to know more about editors and editing. I would love to see you there and for you to pass the word on.

You can sign up for the course and read more details here. Here’s the full blown description:

Purpose of course

To familiarizes students with the current editing scene and its roots, the types of cuts that editors make, and why editors make these cuts.

Who’s the course for?

I’ve designed the course to help:

• Enhance the film going experience for moviegoers, cinephiles, film clubs, and film critics.
• Film students shoot, direct, produce, and edit their projects more effectively.
• Home moviemakers, YouTube filmmakers, iMovie users, and other prosumer software editors deepen their knowledge of editing and be inspired anew when creating their videos.
• Editors, aspiring editors, assistant editors, apprentice editors, and independent filmmakers learn more about the current state of editing and be re-energized in their profession.

What’s the course about?

What does an editor do besides cut out the ‘bad shots?’ This course demystifies editing by explaining the editor’s role – both magical and mundane – and demonstrating the different types of cuts that editors make, why they make them and how they affect viewers. Using scenes from TV shows and movies, the class explores how editing shapes a film’s plot, pace, character, structure, and timing; class exercises and optional homework expand the experience.

The course covers the three phases of the editing process and delves into the impact visual effects, sound, and music editing make on films and videos. It looks at the editor’s role in movies, reality shows, docs, comedies, etc. today. Finally, it compares the traditional, Hollywood style of linear, ‘invisible’ editing, citing current research and contrasting it with the modern, non-linear, often unabashedly visible MTV style of editing.

Course objectives

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• List the six phases of a film project.
• Define a cut and its function in action, dialogue, and other types of scenes.
• Identify different types of cuts, why and editor would make them, and how they affect the audience.
• State the three phases of editing process.
• Describe the editor’s role and contribution to a film or video project.
• Relate the history of editing and how the language of editing has evolved.
• Compare the traditional Hollywood style and the modern “MTV” editing style.
• Explain the current state of editing and research about editing in the U.S. today.
• State the power of sound and music in editing.
• Identify different types of VFX (visual effects) and how they affect a film’s story.

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There’s nothing like the smell (and look and feel) of a new book in the morning
(to steal from that famous phrase in Apocalypse Now).

For over a year now, I’ve been mentioning why I felt it important and necessary to re-write my first book, Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video and excerpting parts here. Now the result of my year of labor – 477 pages of newly minted book – has arrived on my doorstep and I can share it with you and the world.

Learn all the details about the Cut by Cut 2 here . Or tour the book’s highlights below.

What’s new in Cut by Cut 2:

• Workflow charts and explanations for film, tape, and file-based shows HD and 3D practices throughout the book.
  • Updated music and sound editing workflows as well as the disk authoring and DI (digital intermediate) workflows.
• HD and 3-D content and VFX editing process and types of edits.
• Up-to-date info for finishing on film via DI or traditional negative cut process.
• An in-depth look at modern, “MTV” style editing vs. traditional, Hollywood style that employs current research and a chart detailing the differences.
• Advice from 15 experienced editors working in all film genres from comedy to corporate videos to news to music videos to reality shows.

Like the first edition, Cut by Cut 2:

• Clearly and completely lays out the editing journey from the first frame of the shoot to the final show exhibited on tube, theater, disk, or Web.
• Concentrates on the why and what to do next, delineating how editors perform their job on Avid, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and other digital editing systems.
• Details the post production process from dailies to finishing via online, negative cut, disk authoring, and the DI process.
• De-mystifies codecs, telecine and reverse telecine, aspect ratio, time code standards, and a multitude of other video, film, and digital editing concepts.
• Explains how to approach cutting the footage: Make your first edits, deal with mismatches, and conquer action and dialogue scenes and more.
• Spends two chapters describing how sound and music are designed, recorded, and mixed.
• Defines and explains the terms, apps, and practices that working picture, sound, and music editors use.

Cut by Cut 2 contains:

• Editing exercises and over 150 tables, charts, photos, and illustrations.
• A meaty section on how to find an editing job whether you’re starting out or looking for that next job or career move.
• An extensive glossary and an editor’s resource guide.

I wrote the book for:

• Editors of all stripes: Indies, students, and professionals.
• Aspiring editors: Assistant editors, apprentice editors, and career changers.
• Filmmakers: Directors, producers, writers, and everyone who want to understand editing.
• Professors and teachers of editing.
• Prosumers who want to make the leap to professional.

I sincerely hope Cut by Cut 2 helps you with your projects.

Check the book out and let Joy know what you think.

admin Announcements, Editing & life, Editing practices, Editor’s role, History/research, Jobs, Sound & music editing, Technical & process, Television, Visual FX editing

My webmeister – Sherry Green – and I are pleased to announce the upgrading of this website starting today.

Reason for revamp: In anticipation of the launch of my new book: Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video, 2^nd Edition.

What’s you’ll discover and where:

Books section on Welcome Page

• Learn all about Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video, 2^nd Edition: Where to get it, what it contains, and what professionals and others say about it.

Free tab

• Find new freebies for downloading including four budget forms which correspond to the phases of post production.
• Updated course syllabi for film teachers and professors.
• Ten Steps to Breaking into Editing (or any job in the film industry)

Glossary

• Expanded and refreshed. Includes current and historical film, video, and computer editing terms and processes from both editions of Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video.

Resources

• Contains current books, sites, and links.
• Note: With the coming and going of sites and links and the dating of materials this feature will date the fastest. So feel free to let Joy know of new resources editors will like as well as broken links and dated entries.  (We keep up as best we can but don’t always catch these) and enlarged the, landing page text.

Your Cutting Room View

Nothing new here. Would love to feature you with a photo of you in your cutting room and info current gig so send ‘em on in via the quick form we’ve provided!

And let us know what you think of the makeover. Site input always welcome.

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Ken Lee, VP and my book editor at Michael Wiese Productions, informed that as of April 1, my first book, Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video, will cease being printed. Published in December 2004, it had 7.5 years of active printing and will be available online, as most things new, old, and outdated are! It makes me think of dog years. Is 7.5 years a long time for a non-fiction book that could be classified as technical?  Should I feel sad, glad, or proud? All three seem appropriate.

The drive to write the book was to pass on my knowledge of editing gained in the cutting rooms of Hollywood and the LA area. The book has helped people, I believe, (some have even told me directly.) And, frankly, it’s made me realize one of my biggest life goals: to be a published writer. I have (by choice) not birthed a child but I have labored to deliver 2.5 books to the world. What do I mean by 2.5? Read on. Or skip to the end.

Publisher’s words

“Write your book for where you want to take you,” Michael Wiese urged a group of his authors in 2010 at publisher MWP’s annual gathering in LA.

Cut by Cut has helped me get work, meeting new people and taken me a few places, including the annual UVFA (University of Video & Film Association) conference in Chicago in 2005 where professors meet and deliver their papers. This baffling ritual consists of the prof standing in front of a group of other profs (and other conference attendees) and reading the paper verbatim making little attempt to communicate with the audience and taking few questions before stepping aside for the audience to disperse and be replaced by a new audience and the next professor to appear to toss of their paper and check that box on their job “to do” list.

With editor Nimet Tuna (left) at Onk Agency in Istanbul.

More importantly, Cut by Cut has led to Michael proposing my second book, Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know which took me to Onk, a literary agency in Istanbul where I got a tour and spent an interesting evening drinking wine and having dinner with Onk’s head editor.

Equally important, Cut by Cut has begat Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video, 2^nd Edition, which is being printed as you read this and will be available May 13 at Amazon and June 1 everywhere. You can pre-order it online now from www.mwp.com or your favorite online bookstore. Long may it live!

Yes, the second edition, while a third book, is an offshoot of the first, so it makes the total 2.5.

admin Announcements, Editing & life

Herb Dow and post associates of his have launched a new site: Pot Production Pro, er, don’t leave out the “s” as I almost did. That’s Post Production Pro. In its infancy, the site aims at creating community among editors by allowing you to set up your own page, look for jobs, and post positions, announce events, post photos, etc. It’s Facebook and Craig’s list for editorial folks.

I’ve known Herb since Ediflex revolutionized editing – making tape nonlinear – in the mid-80s. A former editor who began on film, he’s worked for Avid, Lightworks, then Avid again and a host of other Hollywood post production companies and hosted a weekly editor’s salon at a restaurant in Tinsel town for decades. Herb connects people and has always got his finger on the pulse. So I will be interested to see how the site takes off and grows.

Try it out and let me and PPP know what you think.

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Here’s my list of ten reasons. Take what it with your own shaker of salt and develop your own flight plan. (See Part 1 for Intro and reason I came up with this list). Feel free to send Joy your reasons.

1. Band of brothers and sisters.

When you pursue a career in film, especially Hollywood, you’re joining a special group of non-conformists. This group scoffs at the question, “What’s the use of a liberal arts education?” You may have majored in art, philosophy, physics, film, or digital communications but you have a passion to work with filmed words and images that communicate with an audience. Respect yourself and pursue your choice with everything you’ve got.

2. Chance to make a difference – leave an imprint

This reason is not a flight of fancy. Your work influences viewers, be they students watching a training film, an art audience changed by your documentary, a family kicking back to your comedy, or a dorm full of students hooked on your web series. Not every project will be something you want to show Mom or keep on your resume, but it will influence others and increase your skills and contacts.

3. Meet a variety of people

You will interact with all sorts of sane and crazy people in the film biz. They will drive you nuts, enrage you, enrich your life, help you, and allow you to help others. Value them and know when to say, “Thanks” and “Farewell.”

4. Encounter a variety of subjects

Whether you work on scripted shows (e.g. dramas and comedies) or non-scripted shows (e.g. documentaries, reality shows, or instructional videos) you’ll learn a range of subjects you’ve never imagined. You may drop these topics or follow them once the show wraps, but they will widen your horizon either way.

5. Travel

Being a filmmaker will land in places you’ve haven’t dreamed – that you could have possibly put on your flight plan. One day you’ll be in the doldrums, contemplating a career change, the next you’ll be flying across the country on that series you just landed: Turbulence and unexpected ports are part of the profession.

6. Hold the heart of the film in your hands

If you become an editor, as you view shots and decide which frames go in out and out, you will hold the film’s heart (characters and) and heartbeat (rhythm and pace) in your hands. You will play a vital role in shaping the show’s story and message and the director or client’s vision. It will be your joy, honor, and responsibility to sculpt the best show possible from the footage, no matter how big or small the project is.

7. Work with cutting edge tools

We’re in the midst of a digital revolution in which the technological territory morphs annually. This is converging work and changing relationships between preproduction, production, and postproduction. As a filmmaker, you will be a part of this change and get to use these incredible tools – editing systems, state-of-the-art plug-ins, third party software, etc. While they’re a lot to keep up with, the gratification from creating on them – and keeping employed – are worth it.

8. Work a little, work a lot

You career will not always be in your control – you may work mondo hours and be desperate for time off, then find yourself with too much time off and be desperate for work. During your downtimes, lunch with colleagues and new folks, go to industry events, and polish your skills along with your resume. Time off is part of film life and brings its own set of challenges and rewards, just like the work itself. During the 90-hour weeks with no days off, remember to breathe, sleep, de-stress, kiss your beloved, and that you’re on a (hopefully) worthwhile project.

9. Special moments that no other industry brings

Filmmaking is both magical and mundane: One moment you’re picking up the producer’s tuxedo, the next you’re at the Academy Awards. You’ll experience times of predictable boredom and the opposite on the job. True story: One day a producer lucky at the horse races handed $100 bills to everyone in the cutting room. The week before, on the same show, director and producers alike worked an unexpected all-nighter to re-cut the show from frame 1 because the editor – not me – turned in a subpar cut.

10. You’re your own agent – even if you have an agent

You will always be your own pilot: forever networking, re-inventing, honing your skills, self promoting, and sussing out the next job. There is no one path to success in the film industry. That wedding video you edited may lead to your first feature, that feature may go nowhere and send you on unemployment, but you have to pursue every lead, follow every highway and byway, and make your own way.

admin Announcements, Editing & life, Editing practices, Editor’s role, Jobs

Michael Wiese Productions, my publisher, has asked all its authors to address the above in an essay, comic piece, or list. MWP plans to assemble, these articles into a 75-100 page pdf file and distribute it via MWP’s website, Amazon Kindle, Scribd, and as many venues as possible. It will be free or cheap – $1.99 – and available starting in December at the latest.

Yeah, the lists are being written to help promote our books but I for one, am not writing a marketing piece. And I suspect none of the other Wiese (pronounced “weezy”) writers will either – we’re a pretty caring and “tell it like it is” bunch. I will be interested to read what the other authors write.

The subject made me think: Why would I encourage people to enter the film industry. While it was a major part of my life’s journey and I don’t regret going to Hollywood, it wasn’t an easy path; there were close encounters of a good, bad, and ugly nature along the way – not unlike other professions but with a unique, film industry twist.

What would you tell people? Let Joy know. Here’s the intro to my list: Full list in my next blog post.

Top Ten Reasons Why it’s a Great Time to Be a Filmmaker

With four decades in and around the industry – working from projectionist to grip, electrician, and craft service to editor to digital systems trainer and college editing instructor to author of three books on editing – I guess I can be lumped into the category “Old Salt.” So when sharing my hard earned grains of wisdom with those desiring – daring – to enter the profession, I want to be enthusiastic and supportive yet realistic. A scene from The Wizard of Oz jumps into my head – the one where the wicked witch urges the monkeys to “Fly, fly, fly!” It makes me want to be responsible for where I’m sending fledglings off to. How many will make it intact and be glad for the journey?

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