To newbies, film and video editing sounds like one of those completely technical subjects, possibly only interesting to people with very logical and pragmatic minds, like engineers. Visions of dark rooms and sterile-looking studios filled with all manner of inexplicable mechanical equipment, where rolls of film negatives are dumped and examined by serious-looking people, then diced, sliced, and spliced, somehow complete the ensemble. . mental image. Clinical, raw, precise. But in reality, film and video editing is much more than celluloid or electronic imaging surgery. In fact, it’s the opposite.

Think of it this way; someone records a video of your favorite cousin’s wedding. The end product is a good, mostly continuous documentation of the event, with abrupt starts and stops here and there when the main activity changes or moves to a different area or location that requires a different “take.” The end result is a compilation of sights and sound that is considerably better and hopefully more memorable and satisfying than the still photos, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

However, if the same raw video were put into the hands of a skilled editor, the end result would be quite different. The resulting piece would tell the story of the culmination of her cousin’s three-year romance, narrated by several key members of the family. It would capture and convey to the audience the couple’s wedding day, emotions of love, joy and mutual and family appreciation, anticipation of the new life the couple intends to create together, a bit of sadness for the life they will leave forever. behind, and so on. In other words, in the hands of a skilled editor, the video becomes a “story” with a beginning, a middle, and an end; a cohesive synopsis of the couple’s romance. One day in the Life…

What most people who are not in the film or video industry don’t realize is that film and video editing is an art form. Editing is arguably the most important element of film or video production. It is in editing, the art of organizing images, dialogue and sounds, that a finished film product can communicate a story envisioned first by its writer and then by a director and producer to its target audience. Days, weeks, and even months of footage captured on film or video must be studied, interpreted, analyzed, and ultimately distilled into a story that lasts a fraction of the time it took to capture it all.

People outside the film industry have little or no idea about “post-production” and the crucial role it plays in the production of a film or video. It is due to the great importance of this phase of film and video production that the process takes a long time to complete.

Much more than cutting and joining pieces of cellophane or simply arranging a video sequence, editing is a wonderful combination of technical knowledge and skill combined with the creativity and craftsmanship of an artist. It is moving, adding, deleting, juxtaposing scenes, sounds, and images to develop film and video clips in a given context, create specific images and times, evoke particular emotions, create specific images, and mold them into a story.

Film editing as a craft began in the late 1890s, in the early days of motion pictures. In the intervening years between then and now, anyone interested in learning about film or video editing typically attended college courses or one of several accredited film schools to learn the trade.

In his book “The Technique Of Film And Video Editing”, considered one of the best teaching and training tools for directors, Ken Dancyger highlights the history of film editing from its origins. He talks specifically about the editing of great cinematographers like Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, discussing in detail the fundamental principles of film and video editing. He discusses ideas, practices, styles, and options for editors in the context of theory, film and video editing history, and practice. He also talks about new technologies and the impact they have in terms of the art of publishing.

One of the biggest changes in film and video editing occurred with the introduction of computer editing. Manual film splicing, as well as the more complicated, mechanical, “linear” process of video editing, became tedious and obsolete with the advent of computer editing in the early 1990s. Computers gave rise to a whole new creativity appreciated by film editors, as well as lower costs and much more efficiency in terms of video editing.

Whether it’s for movies or videos, the editing process happens in three basic steps. These include capturing, the editing process itself, and putting the product into a distributable form. During the capture phase, the “shots” or actual images are compiled into a format from which they can be edited. During the actual editing process, the collection of takes is arranged in a desired sequence and sound is added through “sound mixing” until they form a complete story. Once this has been accomplished, the film or video is finalized in the desired format, either a high-quality film or video for distribution.

As technology continues to advance, the ways film and video are edited will continue to develop and progress. As it stands today, computers and user-friendly video editing software, as well as the Internet, have opened the doors for editing to be available not only to professional film and video editors. Now film and video students and filmmaking novices, as well as journalists, writers, and the general public have unprecedented access to video editing tools. Several popular video editing programs make film and video editing possible for professionals and novice editors alike, including Avid Express Pro, Adobe Premier Pro, Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro, and Apple Final Cut Studio 2.

With today’s technology and the advantage of personal computers, digital camera equipment, and the availability of new and increasingly powerful software knowledge, almost anyone who wants to can learn to edit film and video, produce commercial and even host movies from your home or personal studio