Films/DVD Asylum

"The lost art of film editing": "The entire movie is assembled in this jittery style."

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clarkjohnsen

(R)

"The entire movie is assembled in this jittery style -- one that's become all too typical. Even smaller, nominally independent pictures aren't immune."
Good article, I agree completely.
[Link free until midnight only, sorry. Write me for full text.]
clark

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/08/13/the_lost_art_of_film_editing/ (Open in New Window)

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When the ultimate goal of a movie is to successful enough... - eppis1 23:35:07 08/14/06 (2)
...to get to cable television and dvd's, we reap what we sow. Most of the intended audience-obviously, present company excluded-can't watch anything longer that ten minutes in length without twitching or drooling. The end result in satisfying the wishes of the majority of the movie going public is cinema that imitates television. For me the worst part isn't the editing, which I think is amazingly intricate for the most part, it's the filmmaker's planned crappy cinematography. I hate hand held cinema verite-like camera operating. It's like the whole film world is an old episode of NYPD Blue. I think editors are the saviors of saveable films.
- "Crappy cinematography" can also IMO include too much Hallmarky visual malarky. - clarkjohnsen 09:33:35 08/15/06 (1)
  Enough already with the beauty -- I get the picture, now give me the drama.
  clark
  - Yup although it depends on... - Harmonia 16:36:46 08/15/06 (0)
    ...the material and what the filmmaker is trying to say.
    Except that much too often these days they aren't saying anything or what they're saying is tired and stale. Ain't enough "there" there.
    Which is why I love watching the current work of really good DPs and editors (like Ms. Schoonmaker).
    Ain't nithing like the real thing.
The age of non-linear editing - mishmashmusic 17:34:57 08/14/06 (1)
We are now in an age where movie editing is done completely by computer on a non-linear editing program. Whereas before, it was a thoughtful and time-consuming process where the actual film was spliced and put together scene by scene.
Now, you can do multiple edits of the same scene (or even the whole movie) in a short period of time. In other words, the planning and thought process has been removed. As long as you overshoot the scene, you'll have lots of options in the edit. No need to actually think about what the end result will be when you are shooting.
Of course, it doesn't help that the up-and-coming young film-makers were raised on a steady diet of choppy music videos.
- I don't see how better tools are the cause - Analog Scott 17:52:54 08/18/06 (0)
  There is no rule that one has to direct badly because editing is more convenient than it used to be. I think it is a fad.
Re: "The lost art of film editing": "The entire movie is assembled in this jittery style." - DWPC 12:01:29 08/14/06 (2)
I think that when the film editor's output becomes obvious, he's failed. Interesting that feature movie editors are commonly recruited from the tv commercial industry. I also wonder how many are products of film schools. And Ritalin.
- Re: "The lost art of film editing": "The entire movie is assembled in this jittery style." - rico 10:33:54 08/15/06 (1)
  Stanley Kubrick admired the way TV commercials were edited.
  - Re: "The lost art of film editing": "The entire movie is assembled in this jittery style." - DWPC 11:20:55 08/15/06 (0)
    Admired, perhaps, but thankfully he didn't adopt it. And I'd imagine he made that statement long before the current style of digitally-empowered visual frenetics became the norm. Seems to me his films were shot and edited using an exactly opposite style of lingering views and wide encompassing shots.

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