5 Editing: bringing it all together

Allow as much time for editing as possible. Editing often takes a lot longer than expected – in fact, it tends to take a lot longer than the process of filming the footage. While there is no expectation for the docutubes to be any longer than 3 minutes, professionals would spend days editing a three-minute film. This is why some young people who participate in educational film projects can be disappointed by what they can achieve in the relatively limited time available. However, you should again remind them that the purpose of their docutube is not to make a technically perfect movie, but to communicate ideas about religious peace and toleration in the past and present. So, what is most important in the process of editing their docutubes is to focus on the argument or story that they aim to convey.

Activity 3

Timing: Allow about 5 minutes for this activity

Watch Video 3 again, but this time focus on the advice that professional filmmaker Gail Block gives on editing short films. (Note that this is also a film you can show to your group before they start to film and edit their docutubes.)

This is only a taster, since the editor’s art is complex and deserves an entire course of its own. Make sure you take the advice of anyone you know who has these skills and is willing to support the editing session.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 3 (repeated)

Show transcript | Hide transcript

Transcript: Video 3 (repeated)

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GAIL BLOCK:

I think when people are new to camera work, they just go out and they take one shot that's quite a wide shot. But one of the key ways of making your work look really professional is to get up close to the thing that you're filming. And also film lots of different shots of the same thing.

A lot of young people like to film each other presenting. And the best way of getting a good presentation is to rehearse first. You might want to rehearse what camera angle you want. And I'm sure the presenter will want to rehearse their words so that they're really confident.

When you're filming an interview, what the professionals do is that they film the interviewee, but then they may well also film the interviewer asking the questions. That makes it easier to edit.

A lot of visual variety will make a better film, so why not do some drawing? You might want to draw maps, you might want to draw charts. If you have somebody artistic in the team, you could draw people and costumes. Challenge your young people to go out and film shots that will take different roles in the final film.

Landscapes can be really useful to give context to your argument. We call those establishing shots.

Small details like little street signs or works of art can really push forward the argument. Moving shots can give more of a sense of geography, can take us from one part of the argument to another, and can give a sense of dynamism to the final film.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Give the edit as much time as you can afford to. Given the realities that there's not going to be as much time as professionals have, it's a really good idea to start off by concentrating on the story as a soundtrack. And then, if there's enough time, you can layer over the visuals. And if there's even more time you can add captions and even music.

End transcript: Video 3 (repeated)

Download

Video 3 (repeated)

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

In this film, Gail Block talks about some of the main principles of editing short films, including the following:

• Give the editing phase as much time as possible as it often takes more time than expected.
• Encourage young people to focus on the story they intend to tell when editing their film and concentrate first on the (1) the story as a soundtrack and then on the (2) visuals. Finally, if there is more time, they can also add (3) captions and (4) music.

Figure 7 A small group of young people in Warsaw working together to edit their docutube

Just as there are different roles team members can take on in the filming process, each group member can also take on a different role in the process of editing the film. For instance, in a small group, one person might work with the software (the ‘editor’), another might select the shots (the ‘producer’) and a third member of the group might further develop the script to strengthen the narrative in light of the available footage. Another way of sharing the work in the editing process is to split the film into different sections, with each group member focusing on editing a different section of the film.