Editing Advice

jessiejersey

jessiejersey

I have recently found a passion for editing, but I'm nervous because this is my last year of college and I'm not sure how to get my foot in the door. I know interning through school is one thing, but I've heard you can find things on your own, but where do you find specific places where you can focus on editing rather than your typical filmmaking internship? I just want more editing experience so I can learn and grow as an editor. Mind you I am a beginner, but i'm a quick learning and i'm quickly adapting to final cut pro
 
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Here's what I would do:

Edit.

Get all of your family's home videos and cut together a compilation of them to music.

Shoot a short film with friends and edit it.

Watch movies and notice the editing techniques.

Buy books, read them, do editing,

Do editing.

Edit.

Edit some more.

Edit and edit and edit.

Edit while you sleep.

Edit.

Edit.

Edit.

Edit.

Edit.

Edit.

Edit.


p.s. Edit.
 
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should i edit my dreams too? lol but you're right. I'm taking an editing class right now which has helped immensely. I've been thinking of buying Final Cut Express just because FCP is a little too expensive for me at the moment, but I definitely want to practice my editing
 
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This is an A/V world! You can literally take anything out there and edit it.

Have you seen the re-edits of movie trailers that use the soundtrack of one movie and the visuals of another movie?

That takes some skill! Dabble with that.

There is absolutely no limit to what you can practice with.
 
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You're right Cracker Funk. How silly of me to forget...edit edit edit lol

ROC- I actually haven't seen re-edits, but I have been noticing more of the edits in movies rather than just sitting down and enjoying the movie itself lol I actually have a question for you, or anyone who might have an answer. My teacher provides us with some clips from movies that we can use to edit. Would anyone happen to know if it's possible to find free footage to practice editing with?
 
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jessiejersey said:
Would anyone happen to know if it's possible to find free footage to practice editing with?
Click to expand...

You can take anything out there and practice with it if you don't release it and try to sell it for money or post it on You-Tube.

I would use any footage I saw and just keep it within your computer and don't try to release it...

As far as I know that is totally fine if you want to just practice...
 
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jessiejersey said:
You're right Cracker Funk. How silly of me to forget...edit edit edit lol

ROC- I actually haven't seen re-edits, but I have been noticing more of the edits in movies rather than just sitting down and enjoying the movie itself lol I actually have a question for you, or anyone who might have an answer. My teacher provides us with some clips from movies that we can use to edit. Would anyone happen to know if it's possible to find free footage to practice editing with?
Click to expand...

No, it was ROC who said you should edit, edit, edit. I was just being a smartass. Though, that's not to say that ROC's advice isn't really good. The best mash-up ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QFWBFIEuig

Free footage to edit? Shoot it.
 
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jessiejersey said:
Would anyone happen to know if it's possible to find free footage to practice editing with?
Click to expand...

http://www.yafiunderground.com/index.php?page=bolts&title=Y.A.F.I.:Nuts2Bolts

All of my source footage is there for you to play with... the payment for it is to post what you do here on Indietalk. You can follow the script or not -- I'd love to see a reinterpretation of the beast :) You will have to transcode the footage into something you can use - and it will be lower quality footage (bandwidth concerns), but if you cut it and send me an XML based EDL out of Final Cut, I can marry the edit with the full rez footage and spit out a full-rez cut for you.

If you're really interested, I've got ~47 hours of feature footage for you ;) No clapper boards, no cuts between takes - so importing would be a pain, but I cut my teeth editing that footage and really learned my chops with it as I had to create moments that never happened with the footage that was in the can. Conversations cut together from single line readings... parroted dialog in a moving car that needs covering with the other side of the phone conversation... emotional reactions that my lead actor put out there between takes being cut into the scene :) Challenging to say the least.
 
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You live in NJ, so if you can make it into NYC you should be able to get an entry level gig editing for one of the networks. By which I mean never doing any editing and spending all of your time ripping tapes and transcoding. Then you climb to assistant editor and so on until you are an editor.

I know this because I used to live with an Emmy winning editor from NBC, and he talked about those jobs. There are also probably dozens of post houses in Manhattan and they can be a really cool place to work.
 
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