When cutting a film my aim is to try and make the edit portray the story exactly how the Director and Writer intended. I focus on captivating the most intense and emotional moments for the viewer and make sure to use the right shots/cuts based on the script and pacing of the narrative. Where suitable I enjoy using matching action shots to help keep the film moving at a steady pace.
The most important part of editing
I feel the most important part of the edit is making sure the story comes across the right way. We watch films to escape our own realities for a few hours, to feel emotions, to feel something. Every project I work on I give it maximum effort so that I can make sure that the viewers feel something after watching a project I work on. That is one of the great things about storytelling, we have the ability to inspire the viewers, if they can take something away from the film then we have done our job.
In addition to this pacing is also an essential part of the editing process. After sequencing a movie together my next task is to tighten the cuts and improve the pacing of the film. It is important that the story stays consistent. Dialogue needs to feel like real life and to do that the pacing has to be accurate to what it would be in the real world. To help me edit dialogue I will sometimes just listen to the audio and ignore the visuals. From this I can picture in my head the appropriate time to cut to the next line. This skill has helped me a lot with editing films and allows me to make sure that a stories pacing is consistent.
Another useful editing tip is to sometimes cut to the next clip a second or two into the character's dialogue. The reason for this is because we hear someone before we look at them. This adds a sense of realism to a film as well as making it a smoother edit overall.
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