What’s the definition of great editing - Essay
In this essay, I am going to discuss the workflow of editing, what type of workflow I follow for video editing, what does a video editor do and what kind of skills are required to be a professional editor.
First things first, if you think about it, everybody edits in order to make perfection, it’s an advantage to better yourself and better whatever mistakes you have made in order to correct them, examples of this can be a person talking and then they realise they said something wrong so within the middle of the sentence they try to find a better word, this is more of a subliminal aspect and some people realise it while others don’t.
Video editors edit content for others enjoyment on different softwares, after all the content has been filmed, sound has been recorded, it gets edited to become a rough cut and then becomes a final piece to be shared wherever on social media, this normally referred to as post-production.Now in terms of what an editor does, their job is to edit footage to a standard to which is good and outstanding, video editors are given footage to edit such as films, TV shows, documentaries, music video, corporate/promotional videos. Within the industry the workflow for editors has changed slightly, in the modern world today, editors work in a society where almost editing is done and accomplished on a computer and editors are now taught in a particular way depending on what type of software they are editing with. Editors are usually linked with TV, broadcasting and Film industries where most of them are employees of a post production house or many work freelance as for people who work freelance specialise what they do and work in sub categories such as sound, film, TV, music. On the other hand, with the up bringing of technology within the years in terms of Media(meaning broadband, internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vine, Vimeo) that have the capability to share videos and content, the industry has grown and advanced to a whole new level and businesses are taking advantage of this.
Most companies are employing video editors in the TV and Film industry to give video editors the opportunity to edit their businesses/companies videos so that video editors produce promotional video, then when editors are finished with the final pieces of the final edit, they distribute the complete product either onto the companies/businesses website or on social networking sites.
The workflow of editing is not as simple as people believe it to be however it’s still attainable, some people might find it easy and understandable and other on the other hand might find it confusing and very complex. If you follow the workflow of editing a numerous amount of times within a certain amount of weeks, editors should be able to master the workflow of editing. In terms of post production, it can look very terrifying but if you approach it in analytical way, it be much clearer. It’s only a matter of correcting your clips and audio, colour correcting the clips and mixing audio then it’s only a matter of exporting you final edit and publishing it.
The two editing softwares that videos editors use nowadays in the Creative Industry is Avid and Final Cut Pro. These editing softwares are utilised by a large amount of production companies and in order to use them in a professional standard, there is extensive training that is required to use these programs. These softwares have the capability of bringing professional film content for others to be amazed by.
So with the workflow that I am going to discuss, it’s described to be called a ‘component workflow’ it concentrates more on a specific amount of task that is included in a big process.
So you start by importing all of your clips onto the your PC/Mac and here you import you files to the editing softwares but before you import your files, you must transcode your clips on MPEG Streamclip and export your files either it to a .mov or whatever settings you are working on. Some cameras set up all the transcoding exporting settings internally in the cameras, an example of a camera that can do that is a Blackmagic Design Cameras. Once you have imported your footage onto your preferred editing software, editors tend to organise their content so that way it’s more easier to put the content on the timeline and for it to be neat, this way is more easier to work around. The way I organise my edit is by renaming the shots in each clip, it’s also easier to organise it in folders or bins too in order to direct you of what clips and content you want to go into. The sound quality on most DSLRs camera are not going to be the best quality, this is the part where you find your clips and you find the audio for the specific clip and synchronise the audio and clip together, this way the sound is much clearer for the audience to hear. After you have done all of this and have constructed your story onto your timeline, it’s now time colour correct your content, this will give colour to clips and show definition, most editing softwares can do specific colour correction such as Adobe After Effects and DaVinci, but some editing softwares like Final Cut Pro and Avid already provide colour correcting applications provided with the software itself. After editors are happy with their colour correct final piece, it’s time to export you final piece either into an MP4 or .mov or any other preferred preset. Now at this point it where you can publish your content onto social networking sites or any sharing networks so that people and view and watch.
In order to become a ‘great editor’, you need to be fascinated by the language. Editors find it enjoyable to make sense out of a piece of complex information and cracking the codes until it flows. There are reason to why editors are so drawn to what they do, this is because they see imperfections in an active point of view and they find it extremely difficult not to correct it. Editors who are successful convert their skills and interest that have for editing into a living. The type of skills editors should have is a sense of remember patterns, coordinating ideas and creating categories. They need to have an interest of finding out new things. Not only should an editor be good at the most basic aspects such as spelling and grammar but they should be able to anticipate the end product, take consideration of the budget, thinking skilfully, concentrate on the main objective, be able to work under pressure, edit within deadlines and one of the most important skills that are required to become a skilled, professional editor is to work well with member of your team and people who are in your production team.