The best non-linear edit system available

[MovieStuff]

Here's a word of wisdom to all the wannabe first time film makers out there. Invest in the best nonlinear edit system you can get. The one I've seen will let you make changes quickly and easily with minimal effort and low cost. Use it to edit judiciously so that the story moves along at a bearable clip. Use it logically so that the story has a point and doesn't bore the audience to tears. And, most importantly, use it to edit and refine your movie so that the fat is trimmed and bloated dialog doesn't sink the whole production like a brick in water.

I worked recently on a neophyte's project that could have used such a system. Had I bought stock in Eberhard Pencils, I would surely now be a millionaire based on the number of rewrites made on location while the cast and crew stood patiently waiting. But alas, there aren't enough rubber trees on the planet to support a successful preemptive strike on such unbridled displays of verbiage.

Forget the endless debate between Premier, Final Cut Pro or Vegas Video, kids. The ultimate non-linear system is called a word processor. In a pinch, a number two pencil with a good eraser will do just as good a job. In either case, whole scenes can be created and deleted and cut and pasted to your heart's content. And the best part is.... it costs you NOTHING!

I know more people that should be allowed to shoot a gun than to shoot film or video.

So, please. Edit now. Before it's too late....

Sigh.

[end rant mode]

[Matt Pacini]

You're absolutely right Roger, but you know, this is one thing that I think nobody really believes, until they're sitting there at their computer or editor, cutting out parts, or whole scenes that they spent hours and hours of work, and tons of money filming, only to see that it just doesn't work, and it was something that would have been obvious had they really gone over their script and done extensive re-writing.
I can't believe when I hear newbies say they're shooting without a script, or just with sketches, etc.
Oh boy, are they asking for it!

Matt Pacini

[TA 152]

Just applauding that.

In a different context but still valid:

Working on a daily basis with japanese electronics "wizzards" on highly complex gear. Their most efficient "weapon" is a notepad and a pencil, believe it or not. Every detail is described, drawn and "memorized".

No one stands a chance against that with a computer, belive me.

Only in the final stages the stuff is computerized.

So effiecient, so quick and backwards compatible to the very end.

Basically it is called "TQM"- Total Quality Management.

Anyone noticed how quick it is to open that notepad to recapture?

A simple sketch or drawing says more than a 1000 words.
A small video on the other hand, sent over internet though, may say more than the whole original library in Alexandria.

(To add the modern angle)


R

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 31, 2002 05:35 AM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>

[calgodot]

HUZZAH! Outstanding advice, Roger. Something I try to tell every beginning, intermediate and advanced filmmaker I know.

I've spent the last 6 months writing and rewriting a 15-page script - and I'm still rewriting: today I deleted one scene and tweaked another, and plan to add a short 2/3-line monolgue for one character.

I'm also doing a complete shooting script, shot lists, and storyboards for the majority if not all of the shots. Some people think I'm insane to do this. "It's only a 15-minute Super8 short!" But they're the ones who are insane. There is no self-torture like the one when you realize, had you taken time, your film would be better.

My first movie's suckiness is msotly due to my sloppy writing (I only did 3 actual rewrites) and lack of shot planning. Two mistakes I will never make again.

[chas_ucla]

Let's hope the "neophyte" learns his lesson next time around. I'm always amazed when watching short films -- ESPECIALLY STUDENT SHORTS -- how much dreary dialogue there is..stuff that could be explained with half the words. You get the feeling that the future hack has this "vision" that he's dying for the audience to share...that nothing can stop him from having his actors utter each and every word.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 31, 2002 09:04 PM: Message edited by: chas_ucla ]</font>

[StopMoWorks]

Cogent comments Roger. Being new to a more complex NLE program ..... practicing with Premiere .....I cannot believe the endless-plethoric-cornucopia of ways/techniques, one can cut a project. I guess, if editing is your "thang", then it's something you "get off" on? [img]wink.gif[/img]

I am more from a visual/animation background and writing/storyboarding seems the most commonsense to me. Paraphrasing Alfred Hitchcock ....the movie is already completed before the cameras even starts shooting. For myself, i can "see & hear" the scenes/movie in my "mind" .....then writing and storyboarding merely documents it. Then afterwards, I would perhaps do minor editing. I guess, different strokes for different folks. Some need to shoot many scenes/takes, and cannot decide until the editing stage. Different ways to "create" your work, but my way (not really "my way") is a hell of a lot more cost effective and satisfying to me, in creating something (the "whole process" from pencil/wordprocessor, to finished product)

LIO

[Nigel]

I agree. The problem is that most people edit like crap--because they never cut film. Film is the ultimate NLE format. If you don't do it well it gets messy and horrid.

Good Luck

[lightfeat]

Roger, what a beautifully made point.

It's nice to see a post that is not a question, but which elicits such an enthusiastic response.

You are an inspiration to us, and probably the most super8 obsessed nut I've ever come accross. Many thanks.

P.S. I'm thinking of buying a WP pro from you. I have seen some lovely results from Jukka in Finland, who I'm going to use for my next transfer.

[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by lightfeat:
Roger, what a beautifully made point.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by lightfeat:

You are an inspiration to us, and probably the most super8 obsessed nut I've ever come accross.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, that's right. You're new. I'm anti-super 8, didn't you know? (A joke with a long history)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by lightfeat:
P.S. I'm thinking of buying a WP pro from you. I have seen some lovely results from Jukka in Finland, who I'm going to use for my next transfer.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, the WorkPrinters seem to be all the rage in Europe where eveything is one to one on the transfers at 25fps PAL. Lucky bastards.

Roger

[Matt Pacini]

Yeah, editing on film is quite an experience.
I'm glad I did it, looking back (my first cut of Lost Tribes was the camera original!!!).
Very unnerving experience, but it will have an effect on everything I edit forever, and it's really hard to explain why, or how.

I read an interview with M.Night Shyamalan in Script magazine a couple months ago, and they were talking about his writing of Sixth Sense.
He said he did 12 re-writes, and he didn't even think of the idea of Malcom being dead until the 10th re-write!!!!
That shows the power of re-writing. Without that particular plot point, that movie would probably not have been made, and if so, would most likely have ended up being an average, straight-to-video feature.

I've been writing Black Forest for over three years now, which I'm embarrassed to admit! It's been re-write after re-write, because after Lost Tribes, and the experience of having to butcher huge portions of film that were nightmarishly difficult to shoot, expensive ($$$ right out of my own pocket), I'm am really sitting there, night after night, playing these scenes in my head, as if I were editing, saying "does this REALLY need to be here? Is this the absolute best, most interesting and exciting way for this scene to play?"

Matt Pacini