What a Film Editor Does: Setting the Record Straight

"The editor is the very last creator of the film" - David Lean

From the earliest days of making movies there has been misunderstanding and confusion about what precisely an editor does inside the introduction of a film, television application or today, the multitude of other kinds of "dynamic media" that are rising both scripted and unscripted. that is understandable because together with the cinematographer, the artwork and craft of the movie editor is fantastically new and one that in no way existed before the advent of movement photographs. My cause right here is to make clear this confusion at a fundamental stage.

aside from the director, producer and author*, the editor is the individual closest to, and maximum in detail involved in the actual introduction of the very last version of the challenge that's in the end released to the general public.

Now, that is genuine to various tiers in one-of-a-kind types of dynamic media. A live occasion as an example, is edited "on-the-fly", or because the action occurs by using a director who calls the shots (edits) in real-time with the aid of selecting from a spread of different digicam angles or viewpoints that are photographing the occasion. that is also the case with plenty of stay television, despite the fact that frequently, a show will be taped and "roughed out" through a director because it takes place, and then later edited for length, rhythm, timing and different innovative or technical troubles.

regularly, there is the false impression that the editor is precisely a technician, pushing buttons to deal with the wishes of the director or manufacturer. while from time to time so, in most people of conditions, this is not the case. sure, there are technical and complex aspects of the craft, but I suppose it's far safe to say that the craft of the cinematographer, for example, with its angles, lenses, lights, and so on, calls for a much more intensity of technical, even medical knowledge to effectively accomplish the work.

but on a long-format function film, documentary, single-digital camera tv software, internet series or whatever else with a story, it's far the editor, at the side of the producers and/or director that paintings at the task for the longest period of time, get to realize the cloth shot by the manufacturing group most thoroughly, and make each innovative and technical selections for the fine route to take on every precise shot, scene and in the end whole movie until the challenge is considered completed.**

subsequent in this series: The everyday job features of the Editor.

* there are many sort of producers, directors and writers. some are passionately involved from begin to finish. Others take a more "hands off" technique.