I love editing. It’s probably the most unique form of art ever created.
What’s so powerful about editing is that you can take an ordinary movie clip and make it look amazing. You can string together a bunch of ordinary movie clips, color correct, add music, and bam, you have a fantastic movie. It’s a powerful thing.
The thing is, movies are never made perfect. There are a ton of things that happen during filming that can only be fixed with editing. If the microphone picks up some irritating background noise, you can edit it out. If there’s a scene that is too dark, you can brighten it. If you really want to edit someone out because you don’t like them, then you can do it (but doing that takes way too long).
Editing takes a movie and gives it life. There are so many possibilities with editing. The artistic spectrum is ridiculously broad. There are a ton of different styles, defined simply by clip placement, timing, and use of music. It makes movies art.
I used to want to be an editor because I loved seeing movies unravel before me. Every time I make a video, I look forward to editing. Sure, the raw footage sometimes looks good. But editing gives it life—it turns that footage into a living, breathing entity that tells a story. Without editing, movies would not look like they way they do. Special effects could not be achieved. Bad scenes would be preserved. Simply put, editing makes movies what they are.
Some of my videos, like UNDERFIRE War, started off looking like pure crap—we looked like such idiots, running around with Nerf guns and pretending to shoot each other. That video is intense because of editing. The music, the sound effects, the pace of the action, the intensity, are all achieved through editing. It’s unlike anything else.
Some may not enjoy editing as much as I do. But everyone should appreciate how much video editing does for movies. It’s not easy, and it’s not a fast process, but damn, it sure does deliver.
2/11/11
The Sound of Silence
At the end of The Blood Exchange, there will be a period where no one speaks, no music plays, and it’s just things happening. I do this for a reason.
Sometimes, sound, dialogue, and music are detrimental to a scene. Silence is a powerful thing that says nothing, yet conveys so many emotions. Hollywood seriously underrates the sheer power of moments of silence in movies. It’s a shame.
Often in movies, a tense scene is accompanied with heated dialogue and intense music. This is okay sometimes—it depends on the situation. If you’re going for excitement, this is what you want. If you’re going for suspense, then you have to step back and consider how you’re going to achieve this. It really depends on the situation, but I think silence conveys this eerie feeling of realism and loneliness that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand stiff.
Imagine the scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch the boxer is going back to his apartment to retrieve his watch. He does this knowing that there may as well be a hitman waiting for him anywhere. During this scene, there is next to NO dialogue and absolutely NO music. All that this scene shows is Butch walking to his apartment, finding his watch, and finding a surprise in his bathroom. Why is this scene so good? Why is it so suspenseful? They say NOTHING. There is NO MUSIC.
It’s because of the silence.
What a soundtrack often does is build up to the intense part of the scene—it starts out calmer, then builds and builds to the action. That means that you will always know when it’s coming. In real life, there is no soundtrack playing for every suspenseful thing that happens in your life. There is no background music to tell you when something intense is going to happen. That’s life.
What silence does is create realism. This scene worked because it felt real. Butch was just walking through the neighborhood to his apartment. Tensions are high. You felt nervous for Butch because there was no soundtrack indicating anything. Someone could have come outta nowhere and killed him right then and there. Anything could have happened.
I’m not saying to abandon dialogue or music, because a movie is dead without them. But sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. Sometimes the best soundtrack for your life is just nothing. Silence is golden, so shut up and get rich.
Sometimes, sound, dialogue, and music are detrimental to a scene. Silence is a powerful thing that says nothing, yet conveys so many emotions. Hollywood seriously underrates the sheer power of moments of silence in movies. It’s a shame.
Often in movies, a tense scene is accompanied with heated dialogue and intense music. This is okay sometimes—it depends on the situation. If you’re going for excitement, this is what you want. If you’re going for suspense, then you have to step back and consider how you’re going to achieve this. It really depends on the situation, but I think silence conveys this eerie feeling of realism and loneliness that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand stiff.
Imagine the scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch the boxer is going back to his apartment to retrieve his watch. He does this knowing that there may as well be a hitman waiting for him anywhere. During this scene, there is next to NO dialogue and absolutely NO music. All that this scene shows is Butch walking to his apartment, finding his watch, and finding a surprise in his bathroom. Why is this scene so good? Why is it so suspenseful? They say NOTHING. There is NO MUSIC.
It’s because of the silence.
What a soundtrack often does is build up to the intense part of the scene—it starts out calmer, then builds and builds to the action. That means that you will always know when it’s coming. In real life, there is no soundtrack playing for every suspenseful thing that happens in your life. There is no background music to tell you when something intense is going to happen. That’s life.
What silence does is create realism. This scene worked because it felt real. Butch was just walking through the neighborhood to his apartment. Tensions are high. You felt nervous for Butch because there was no soundtrack indicating anything. Someone could have come outta nowhere and killed him right then and there. Anything could have happened.
I’m not saying to abandon dialogue or music, because a movie is dead without them. But sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. Sometimes the best soundtrack for your life is just nothing. Silence is golden, so shut up and get rich.
TRAILER -- The Blood Exchange
Here is the trailer for The Blood Exchange!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAsUI-9uJA
The full video will be up within the next two weeks. Please be patient, I’m doing my best to make it the best video it can be!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAsUI-9uJA
The full video will be up within the next two weeks. Please be patient, I’m doing my best to make it the best video it can be!
2/5/11
Making Better Movies
Now I’m not condoning that I make great movies. My projects still have a lot of mistakes that I need to fix. But over the years I’ve gotten better because I’ve focused on the small things.
In order to make a movie, or anything in general, you should never leave out the small things. When you think about it, all the small things will eventually build up to become one big conglomeration. You may not think it’s such a big deal, but it can become a big deal.
For instance, in my last post, I talked about editing audio. Today, on a second viewing at a higher volume, I realized that my “editing job” left a pretty noticeable artifact in between dialogue. You can’t tell when the volume is low enough, but when boosted, you know it’s there. I opted to go back and re-edit all of the audio clips I did yesterday. I finished half of them yesterday.
To go back and re-edit these clips, PLUS edit the rest of the movie audio, took the entire day (excluding going out to the mall). Some may not have opted to take on such a task, but I did because I knew that I’d be sorely unhappy with the results in the future. This artifact, while not so imposing, would have been present throughout the entire video and would have ruined the parts where silence was key to the mood. Taking it out of all the audio fixed a small problem that encased the entire video.
What I’m trying to say here is that the smallest details are sometimes the most crucial. There should be no shortcuts to making a good movie.
In order to make a movie, or anything in general, you should never leave out the small things. When you think about it, all the small things will eventually build up to become one big conglomeration. You may not think it’s such a big deal, but it can become a big deal.
For instance, in my last post, I talked about editing audio. Today, on a second viewing at a higher volume, I realized that my “editing job” left a pretty noticeable artifact in between dialogue. You can’t tell when the volume is low enough, but when boosted, you know it’s there. I opted to go back and re-edit all of the audio clips I did yesterday. I finished half of them yesterday.
To go back and re-edit these clips, PLUS edit the rest of the movie audio, took the entire day (excluding going out to the mall). Some may not have opted to take on such a task, but I did because I knew that I’d be sorely unhappy with the results in the future. This artifact, while not so imposing, would have been present throughout the entire video and would have ruined the parts where silence was key to the mood. Taking it out of all the audio fixed a small problem that encased the entire video.
What I’m trying to say here is that the smallest details are sometimes the most crucial. There should be no shortcuts to making a good movie.
2/4/11
Arranging and Audio
I haven’t been able to edit all week because of school, but guess what I started doing just as I got home?
That’s right. EDITING.
So, this is what I’ve done so far after importing everything:
1. Arrange the timeline: The first thing I always do is put all the clips in order as I want them to be. Considering the length of this video, this can take a long time. My first arrangement is rough at best, but it gives me a good understanding of the flow of the video. As editing progresses or during the final touch-ups, I’ll make the finer adjustments to clip length and placement.
2. Edit the audio: This is one of the most time-consuming aspects of my process. How do I edit the audio? Well I extract it to Adobe Soundbooth, boost the voices, and lower the background noise. How do I do that? It sounds very advanced but a single clip can take less than a minute. All I do is take an audio sample of the background noise and tell Soundbooth to eliminate all areas that match that sample. Soundbooth is AWESOME. Then, I just look for those glaring sound errors, like me speaking or screwing up the tripod work.
While it is easy to simply sample the whole clip at once, it keeps me from hearing the errors that I need to fix. This is why I arrange the clips first and then edit them—I can look at each individual area of sound and make sure they’re perfect. Also, it gives me a better understanding of how the clip should sound like in context.
How did I figure out how to do the audio thing? Well a long time ago, I was messing with Adobe Premiere, and I found an option that let me extract the audio to Soundbooth. Then the rest was more experimentation.
Anyway, I’ve only edited the sounds of the first scene. I think I have about seven more scenes to go? It’ll take a while, but the resulting sound quality is too good to pass up.
That’s right. EDITING.
So, this is what I’ve done so far after importing everything:
1. Arrange the timeline: The first thing I always do is put all the clips in order as I want them to be. Considering the length of this video, this can take a long time. My first arrangement is rough at best, but it gives me a good understanding of the flow of the video. As editing progresses or during the final touch-ups, I’ll make the finer adjustments to clip length and placement.
2. Edit the audio: This is one of the most time-consuming aspects of my process. How do I edit the audio? Well I extract it to Adobe Soundbooth, boost the voices, and lower the background noise. How do I do that? It sounds very advanced but a single clip can take less than a minute. All I do is take an audio sample of the background noise and tell Soundbooth to eliminate all areas that match that sample. Soundbooth is AWESOME. Then, I just look for those glaring sound errors, like me speaking or screwing up the tripod work.
While it is easy to simply sample the whole clip at once, it keeps me from hearing the errors that I need to fix. This is why I arrange the clips first and then edit them—I can look at each individual area of sound and make sure they’re perfect. Also, it gives me a better understanding of how the clip should sound like in context.
How did I figure out how to do the audio thing? Well a long time ago, I was messing with Adobe Premiere, and I found an option that let me extract the audio to Soundbooth. Then the rest was more experimentation.
Anyway, I’ve only edited the sounds of the first scene. I think I have about seven more scenes to go? It’ll take a while, but the resulting sound quality is too good to pass up.
1/29/11
New Video!
Announcing my new upcoming feature, The Blood Exchange!
No details on what it’s about yet, but I will say that it will star Carlos Cortes, Roger Lau, and Anthony Lucido. Filming went incredibly smooth, and we took our times to make it as awesome as possible. And I must say, even before editing, this video looks promising.
Here are some screenshots :D
They look pretty good in suits doncha think? Anyway, I’ll be releasing more information and development photos as editing comes along. It shouldn’t be very long before it’s done. Stay tuned!
No details on what it’s about yet, but I will say that it will star Carlos Cortes, Roger Lau, and Anthony Lucido. Filming went incredibly smooth, and we took our times to make it as awesome as possible. And I must say, even before editing, this video looks promising.
Here are some screenshots :D
They look pretty good in suits doncha think? Anyway, I’ll be releasing more information and development photos as editing comes along. It shouldn’t be very long before it’s done. Stay tuned!
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