Video editing & Mac expansion from Author Ben Bryant’s “Waiting for Elizabeth”
- Posted on 28th April 2015
- in Entertainment, entertainment books, Film Production, Final Cut Pro, Hollywood memoirs, Video Editing
- by Ben
Video editing excerpt from Waiting for Elizabeth, chapter 33: Working at Home (2001–2002)
My non-linear
video editing
career got off to a slow, bumpy start with my first “big Mac” G4 in 2001.
“… By the next July I needed more media storage so I bought another internal drive. …
“I read all the instructions, opened up the Mac but was worried about this installation. It was not as straightforward as the first one. I got a techie I knew from the brand new, seven or eight member NYC FCP [Final Cut Pro] user group to come over and give me a hand. He guided me through the process, providing the details missing from the instruction manual but I did the hands-on part and got it done.
“In the previous chapter I mentioned Ken Stone’s Final Cut Pro support website and discussion forum. Once discovered it became an invaluable lifeline for me. … I had posted several questions on the forum about this installation and when it was successfully completed I posted my story. Then I got a private email from Ken. ‘Why don’t you write an article for my web site about how to do this?’
“I replied that I was not a techie, merely a fairly new FCP editor. (Actually, although I didn’t realize it, at that point I was one of the most experienced FCP editors since I had started with version 1.0.) Anyhow Ken said that my not being a techie was the point of the article he wanted. So with a lot of editorial support from Ken I wrote the piece and it was published in July 2001.
“This was the first of eight articles I’d write for Ken over the next five or six years.
“And, surprisingly, after I’d written the second (November 2001 One-Man-Band Audio) I got an email from a book publisher in London. His company, DVisionaries, was compiling a book comprised of articles by ten or twelve editors. He had read my stuff on Ken’s site and wanted me to contribute a chapter, for which I would be paid. Wow, a paid, published author. I was excited. I was going to be in good company. There would be a chapter by Paul Hirsch, A.C.E., Oscar-winning film editor of Star Wars, and one by Lee Unkrich – editor of Toy Story and co-director of Monsters, Inc. and a foreword by Tina Hirsch, A.C.E., president of American Cinema Editors.
“I was a little bit cowed by the prospect. The guy sent me a list of the authors and their subjects and asked me what I’d like to write about. I’d heard of nearly all the other contributors. They were well known in the world of editing. I asked for a day or two to think it over.
“Looking at the titles, “Making Your First Cut’, “The Bench Approach” and such like, I drew a blank but realized that a technical piece was not for me to attempt, especially in such company. After mulling for a day and sleeping on it, all I could come up with was “Bringing Life Experience to the Edit”. Becoming an editor after years as a performer and more years as a producer and First AD I had realized that that background had added unusual dimensions to my work as an editor. The guy loved the idea so I wrote it, got paid and published.
“Here’s an excerpt from my chapter:”
Music and Pictures
My forte is creating musical pieces. I have cut a lot of “abstract” (for want of a better word) videos, which were driven by music; classical, jazz, and hip-hop. It’s my favorite thing to edit. And I’ve directed, shot and edited dozens of live concerts so I’m going to give some pointers on that kind of cutting too.
Most editors can cut to music. Even if you’re totally rhythm-deaf, by using the waveform patterns available with any professional NLE [Non Linear Editing] system, you can place your cuts right on the beat (or a little ahead or behind). While there are absolutely appropriate times to do that, too much of it can be boring and unimaginative.
How about cutting against the beat or in some less literal, more unexpected relationship to it? For example three against four visual counterpoint can be really nice at times. Most (not all) pop music uses a four beat to the measure, time scheme. Jazz tends to be more complex and sometimes poly-rhythmic as does nineteenth and twentieth century concert music. These genres offer myriad rhythmic possibilities. Listen. Really listen to the music, which will form the context for your visual expression. You don’t need training in music to listen well. It helps me to have studied composition, orchestration, counterpoint, and all that, as I did, but even though it helps it’s not essential. I studied music because I was a natural singer and it interested me. As a result of that study I have more intellectual information about how it’s put together but my feel for music is no different than it would be had I never taken a course in advanced harmonic structure or whatever. When it comes to video editing it’s your feel that counts, on the music side, that is. For the video part you do need technique, but then you know that or you wouldn’t be reading this book!
Tags: Ken Stone, Mac G4, NYC FCP User Group
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