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Readers on Film Editing: Great Cuts
Every Fimmaker and Movie Lover Must Know

nice book, easy read

Nice layout. Editorial choices are explained by a few sentences and complimented by a set of photos. Gael Chandler dives into hundreds of photos from movies to reveal motivations behind different styles of storytelling.
CB500

Like reading a comic book

This is like a little guilty pleasure. I bought it and read it like a kid reads a comic book, savoring all the fun. The author uses visual frames from films and deftly places them together to show different film cuts and how they work. It is fun and educational!
puttingittogetherediting

Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know

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An excellent primer for any new filmmaker

Most of my learning as a self-taught video editor, has utilized trial and error and just making it up. That is not a very good way to work and why I am happy that Gael Chandler’s Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know fell into my hands. The book moves through just about every transition possible in movie editing with frame-by-frame examples from some of the best-edited movies of the last 50 years. The last half of the book describes how cuts can make changes in the rhythm and pace of the action. The final chapter sums up the rest of the book, showing how the transitions you have previously read about can create entire scenes through Exposition, Flashback, Flashforward, Montages, Parallel Action, Crosscutting and Overlapping Action. This is an incredibly easy book to read due to its use of pictures and text to describe almost every aspect of editing. Be forewarned. Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know does not detail how to make these cuts using your editing system of choice, only what those cuts are and how to use them. If you already know how to create cuts though, this book will definitely be a start to making them move the story and make the movie.
AudioPurvis

If you like film you’ll like this


When we watch a film we are usually carried along with the story and not very conscious of goes into capturing our attention. We usually aren’t aware of how the film was made, and when we are it’s usually a sign that it wasn’t made very well.
With a lot of pictures and not too many words this book gives film buffs a huge insight into how movies work, especially how hundreds of small pieces of film, usually just a few seconds long, are put together to keep the story going forward. Putting these pieces together is called editing and Chandler is good at explaining it. (probably because she has done a lot of it.).
Along with showing us what we are seeing on the screen she also supplies names for all the different types of ‘cuts’. Knowing the names will make you more aware of what you are seeing and make you sound smarter the next time you are talking about a movie.
George Rowbottom, Portland

Great pictures and book design

A great book for movie lovers who want to know how movies are put together. Awesome book design makes it fun to page through and clear enough to convey the information.
Jane E. Macnett, Los Angeles, CA USA

A must have on Director’s shelves
Gael Chandler’s new book “Film Editing” published by Michael Weise Productions, provides a beautiful visual reference for anyone interested in learning the visual language of film time. The numerous stills selected provide excellent examples of screen direction, parallel actions, point of view shots, matching color and much more through the selected stills from contemporary motion pictures. This is a book that beginning film students as well as professionals can refer to as a reminder as to why the cut takes place and how to abbreviate moments in a film to make them more effective or to lengthen moments to intensify the suspense. Screen direction can be particularly confusing to new directors and editors and this book addresses these issues through the use of stills. This book is a must have for directors, producers, editors, cinematographers and anyone interested in the construction of a scene shot by shot. Should be in every filmmakers library.
J. Frost, LA,CA

Well written and researched!

Truly informative and presented in a no-nonsense format that’s easily comprehensible by anyone interested in film editing, filmmaking, or simply the average moviegoer, wanting a better understanding of the genre.
D. Repsher, VT, USA

Awesome Coffee Table Book!

This is not so much a textbook as it is a hip coffee table book — imagine a landscape-bound picture book of hit movie scenes, or an artsy encyclopedia of film edits. If you’re looking for something deeper and more academic, check out the author’s previous book, Cut-By-Cut. This new, fun book isn’t software / hardware specific (definitely not a manual on Final Cut), but instead gives a brief reason for using each technique, along with corresponding screenshots that anyone can understand. When should you use a Black Out? A Flash Frame? An Insert? What is Universal Time? Without getting too philosophical, this book addresses not the “how” but the more important “why” for each, and there are over 50 of these featured techniques inside. The overall focus of this book is using film editing to serve the story, rather than distracting from it. As it says, “If you find yourself bored, confused, or suddenly aware of the movie theater or your life and not the movie, a series of bad cuts has probably led you there.” It tempts me to watch a movie in slow-motion and see how many of these editing tricks I can spot. Suggestions: flip through this book often for brainstorming, or keep it in the lobby to impress your clients. Great as a gift: it’s so collectible and creative-looking that anyone working in the film business would love to have it on the shelf.

Carl King, Los Angeles, CA