By Leonard Aaron Caplan
"This video has to be edited!", "We can do it in post!". Those two statements are very common in our video/film/digital industry. Yet, there are people who continually ask the question, "What is editing?". For me, who have been in video since 1979, this is akin to asking the question, "what is "the"? We all know it, use it and recognize it and its results, but we'd be hard pressed to define it in words.
Nevertheless, I'm going to try. For one thing, editing is the process of putting something into a logical, storytelling, attractive order. You can edit writing, as I'm doing in this piece. As I go along, I read it back and either add, delete, correct spelling, etc. In editing film or video there is a lot more involved. In shooting a movie for example, the "raw", unedited shots may show a dialogue between two people. In the middle of the dialogue, there may be a mispronounced word, or an audio "pop" from a flawed part of the tape, or even a visual spot that would have to be removed. Editing, whether digital, analog or a physical cut of a film can take this away. Add a shot to take its place, one which we call a "cutaway", and you end up with a scene that is not only fixed but enhanced in meaning because of this cutaway shot.
Other types of editing involve not simply covering up a mistake but enhancing a scene with dramatic background music, changing the scene from color to black and white, perhaps selectively adding color, adding sound effects, the possibilities are endless!
The advent of computer-based editing has added another component. Through digital imaging, entire characters, places and situations that don't exist on this Earth can be created!
In summary, editing film or video is a. correcting, deleting or covering up mistakes. b. enhancing audio and video with music and/or sound effects and c. entire scenes, settings and characters can be created.
So when editors say "editing is everything", they aren't kidding! From the special visual effects which lifted Dorothy's house in "The Wizard of Oz" to a fully created universe such as "The Matrix", editing lets us realize our vision to the fullest. It translates our imaginations to the screen, at times even enhancing what we've imagined into things we haven't even dreamed of! In short, editing is what we want our project to be!
"This video has to be edited!", "We can do it in post!". Those two statements are very common in our video/film/digital industry. Yet, there are people who continually ask the question, "What is editing?". For me, who have been in video since 1979, this is akin to asking the question, "what is "the"? We all know it, use it and recognize it and its results, but we'd be hard pressed to define it in words.
Nevertheless, I'm going to try. For one thing, editing is the process of putting something into a logical, storytelling, attractive order. You can edit writing, as I'm doing in this piece. As I go along, I read it back and either add, delete, correct spelling, etc. In editing film or video there is a lot more involved. In shooting a movie for example, the "raw", unedited shots may show a dialogue between two people. In the middle of the dialogue, there may be a mispronounced word, or an audio "pop" from a flawed part of the tape, or even a visual spot that would have to be removed. Editing, whether digital, analog or a physical cut of a film can take this away. Add a shot to take its place, one which we call a "cutaway", and you end up with a scene that is not only fixed but enhanced in meaning because of this cutaway shot.
Other types of editing involve not simply covering up a mistake but enhancing a scene with dramatic background music, changing the scene from color to black and white, perhaps selectively adding color, adding sound effects, the possibilities are endless!
The advent of computer-based editing has added another component. Through digital imaging, entire characters, places and situations that don't exist on this Earth can be created!
In summary, editing film or video is a. correcting, deleting or covering up mistakes. b. enhancing audio and video with music and/or sound effects and c. entire scenes, settings and characters can be created.
So when editors say "editing is everything", they aren't kidding! From the special visual effects which lifted Dorothy's house in "The Wizard of Oz" to a fully created universe such as "The Matrix", editing lets us realize our vision to the fullest. It translates our imaginations to the screen, at times even enhancing what we've imagined into things we haven't even dreamed of! In short, editing is what we want our project to be!
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