CUT – COPY - PASTE

In the film industry there has been a saying,” Good Directors are good Editors”. We don’t understand why, but as you get deep in to understanding the role an editor plays its crucial. Just imagine yourself in a situation wherein, your friend is convicted in a case and there has been a court fight where you weren’t present and days after the scene, you are told to pass the judgment on the basis of written synopsis. How do you cope with it? The same goes with an editor. An editor plays his role in the post –production, wherein the raw movie is made which can be of 6-7hrs or even more. These footage/clips reach editor and its editor’s job to creatively pick relevant scenes and place it in accordance with screenplay and make it a 2-3hrs film. Film editing is part of the process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling. Film editing is the only art that is unique to cinema, separating film-making from other art forms that preceded it (such as photography, theater, dance, writing, and directing), although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms like poetry or novel writing. Film editing is often referred to as the "invisible art because when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged that he or she is not even aware of the editor's work.

At post –production the editing process takes in three so called simple looking cuts –

1.      Editors cut

2.      Directors cut

3.      Final cut

The technical terms involve, Continuity editing, cross cutting, dissolver etc. Editing as a field requires a lot of creativity as an editor needs to visualize directors mind and work on the screenplay as well. Famous personalities like, Raj Kumar Hirani, Sanjay Leela Bhansali etc are primarily editors. When you choose to take up editing as a career be ready to give more than 20 hrs of sleepless days in front of the machine. The software used for editing are Final Cut Pro (FCP) and Smoke. Usually in every production houses in India use FCP as smoke is expensive software to work on.

Some of the best editing work done in cinema –

Hollywood                                                                Bollywood

1.      One flew over the cuckoos Nest                               Rang De Basanti

2.      The Insider                                                                 Love Sex Dhoka

3.      Apocalypse Now                                                        Black

Before we give this article the final cut, a small piece of advise If you love to use your creativity in shaping Directors work and vision then this is your field. Lots of technicalities and overtime, but nothing in front of your passion for editing.