Benjamin Capitano (left) and Joseph Holmes (right). Director/editor dream team. |
Editors are one of your most important collaborators as a
filmmaker trying to make a short film. So how do you work with them well?
A film editor has incredible creative power over the final
film product. It’s been said—not inaccurately—that a different editor gives you
a different movie. A bad editor can make a good product look cheap and trashy. A
talented and skilled editor can make a film look professional and exciting.
(Provided you’ve given him or her something to work with; they are not magic. I
don’t think. I sometimes wonder. I’ve had some amazing editors.) When you make
your short film, you really need to have the good kind. I was blessed to have
one of the best, Benjamin Capitano, work with me on my first short film Kelly vs The Philosophers.
It's about college students. Fighting philosophers. With textbooks. And dropkicks. |
Here is what
I learned on how to help a good editor do his best to give you a great final
cut of your short film.
#1. Bring them in at
the beginning. This is especially true on a smaller film, the editor is
going to have a lot of say in the aesthetic of the film. So it’s good to get
them on board and inspired with the vision in the pre-production stages. Ben
Capitano doubled as a creative developer and the two of us had a blast going to
comic shops and watching Scott Pilgrim vs
The World as research. (I swear it was research.)
I'm serious! Debating for hours whether Romona or Knives is better for Scott is critical research for my film! |
#2. Give it to them
Organized. Once we got all the footage and audio compiled, I dumped it all
on Ben like a pile of dirty laundry. Prompting a “uhhhhhh what is this?” to
which I naturally replied “But aren’t u majik?” to which Ben calmly played
Scotty to my Captain Kirk and told me that he was not a magician and needed to
organize the footage in a way he could work with it.
"But, can't you just... I don't know, put all the footage in a sorting hat?" "...You don't know anything about Final Cut. Do you, Sir." |
Ideally, during production, you have the shots you got
matched to the shots you wanted in the shot list, and the assistant editor
would be responsible for organizing which is which, and you show the editor
which shots you want used. But we were all students and this was my first short
film so I combed through the footage myself and sent it to Ben.
I do not miss
those days.
#3. Collaborate. In
order to do his or her best work, the editor needs to have a little freedom to
be creative. However, the director usually has a very particular vision for
what he wants. (At least I did.) I learned that there is a balance of give and
take with the editor. On the one hand, most of Ben’s ideas were extra-ordinary:
from the animated video game text and music, to using the final shot as an
end-credits scene. But sometimes there were things I just insisted on doing a
certain way. It was a balance learning which was which.
I’ll be honest, when I finished shooting Kelly vs The
Philosophers I didn’t know how the film would turn out. When I first saw the
edited footage of the film--that was when I knew my baby would be okay. I’m
grateful to all the editors who I’ve worked with since. I hope I've been a decent director and learned something. Haha. You have helped make my films what
they are.
Which is awesome.
Just like
you guys.
How about you guys? Do you have any tips working with editors or as an editor you'd like to share? Sound off in the comments below
.
Movie magic. Some After Effects required. |
How about you guys? Do you have any tips working with editors or as an editor you'd like to share? Sound off in the comments below
.