Film Craft 109: The Editor - 1. Introduction

Hello, I'm Michael Wohl, and this course is intended not only for editors, but also for directors, producers, and anyone interested in learning about the film language from the film editor's perspective. I've long held that the best way to learn how to be a good director is to become an editor, because it's only in the editing room that you really see how well you did on set, which shots actually worked, and which ones have problems that prevent them from being used. You'll appreciate the importance of coverage and of good cutaways. On set, sometimes these things feel like extravagances, or just extra things you don't really need, but in the edit room, you realize they're absolutely essential. Now, I've already got a collection of editing courses available, and they're based around Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere, and I teach you how to use the software packages, but along the way, I always try to teach a lot of the why we edit, in addition to just the how you use the software. This course will supplement all those important tips and techniques. This course is totally software agnostic. These are concepts that'll help improve your editing, no matter what software you use. It's long been said that a movie is made three times. The writer conceives the idea and creates the blueprint in the form of a script. Then the director interprets that script and turns the coherent and linear story into a collection of thousands of disparate shots. And then it's the editor who constructs these pieces into the final story that the audience watches. So the writer conceives the story, and the director interprets the story, but it's the editor who tells the story. And this course is intended to help you become a better storyteller, and thereby to make you a better filmmaker overall.