Biggest Mistakes A Beginning Editor Makes - Lawrence Jordan, ACE

In this Film Courage video interview, Editor Lawrence Jordan on Biggest Mistakes A Beginning Editor Makes.

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#film #editing #editor

[johnnhoj]

This particularly applies to director/editors but generally too - be prepared to kill your babies. That favourite shot/scene, if it's not working then it has to go. The audience doesn't care if the shot cost a fortune or took days of hell to accomplish or was the whole reason you wanted to make the film in the first place, if it's wrong for the film in context, cut it.
To a certain extent you have to forget the script, especially if you have no money for extensive re-shoots. Whatever anyone intended to do before the shoot is secondary. You now have to make the best of what you actually have, not what you wish you had.
Don't be hamstrung by fashionable "does" and "don'ts". If it improves your film to have captions or voice overs or freeze-frames or wavey intros to flashbacks then use them - whatever works.
Also, don't forget to go back and look at the outtakes before locking the edit. Sometimes you only used an OK take because it was intended to run uninterrupted and it was the only take which was usable all the way through. But maybe eventually you decided to cut away, then cut back. Now maybe you can use the better opening from a take with a bad ending and the great ending from another take which had a poor beginning. Maybe a sticky patch in the edited film can be improved by a snippet of a shot, intended for somewhere else in the film, which you had completely forgotten about.
But don't be seduced into using a previously unused take just because it looks fresher than the take you've been looking at for months which now looks jaded to you.
Even if you can't afford massive test screenings then show the film on a TV to groups of friend of friends (especially those not in the business) or whoever. It's often not exactly what they say that is necessarily useful, although it may be, it's your experience of feeling the mood of the audience and feeling yourself squirming during a shot which once seemed the perfect length but now seems endless.
If you possibly can, then take a break after finishing the basic edit and before locking it off. Even a few days off can bring you back with fresh eyes and you will almost certainly see changes you want to make.

[Havensight]

I love editing and can appreciate his attitude towards the work. Great to hear from a humble editor that made it.

[stevegeorge]

A huge, HUGE!, mistake was not having a back up copy (now three!) of a production, , , , off site. Oh was that a tragedy. Makes me grimace writing it.

[PanteraRossa]

Hey Larry, great to see you getting out there! Surprised you didn’t plug the workflow program since it seemed like the perfect question for you to sales pitch it. TLDR: starting out, focus on providing value and less on personal goals

[prakul]

I think you should have positive titles and questions. Like few mistakes to avoid as an editor. Or asking, what were the things you didn't know as a young inexperienced editor. Movie making is not a mistake, it's a learning experience. You grow and realize how you could be more efficient with your experience. Try to have a positive tonality to the channel and the movie making field. I don't want to feel worried about my craft.

[atlbike]

1) organization 2) Not looking at all the footage... they cut the 1st shot that works. 3) cut to story & reaction, not dialogue.4) LOL asking your director 'where's the reaction shots?' There are so many Does afx count? Walter Murch probably would say yes.

[roathripper]

there should be no margin for 'playing' or 'experimenting' as this guy suggests. The blueprint for the movie has already been painstakingly designed by the WRITER. Remember him Mr director/editor????