The Five Steps of Professional Film Editing

film editing

This video series steers you through the cutting room.

It’s one thing to appreciate the masterful cuts and creative techniques implemented in our favorite films, but it’s quite another to begin doing them ourselves. Like most roles in moviemaking, there’s a large disconnect between what fans believe a creator does and what they actually do. Thankfully, we have the series The Science of Editing.

In it, at least in this episode, the practical elements of the profession are explored in an entry-level fashion – just enough heady theory to interest a layman but enough tech to inspire someone that actually has Avid installed.

Film editing academic Dr. Karen Pearlman and editor Sven Pape have an insightful conversation about what it means to edit a film and how exactly one goes about it like someone that knows what they’re doing. Broken down to five easy steps (ok, easy with a grain of salt), this is one video you shouldn’t miss.

Jacob Oller: Jacob Oller writes everywhere (Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Playboy, FSR, Paste, etc.) about everything that matters (film, TV, video games, memes, life).