PRODUCTION: EDITOR RESEARCH (ONLINE)

As we get closer to the production process I need to research more into being an Editor. Although I'm not finished being a DOP I feel confident with the prep and research I've done for this role.

I annoyingly can't contact any Editors as they appear to be harder to contact that DOP's or camera operators. However, there is plenty of online research from actual Editors and Online Masterclass's which I can use to research into this role. The first that I found was from an online film maker called Phil Ebiner who is the creator of Video School Online which was set up back in 2012 to allow people to learn how to create professional videos via YouTube without a fee. One of his quick videos shows the process of Editing a documentary:

The beginning of this video Phil explains the way he chooses to edit a documentary. His way to edit is: Import - Organise - Select - Combine - Cut - Colour & Grade - Music + Graphics - Level Audio

Phil does say that he may sometimes add music and graphics and then do the grade which I feel would be more likely my style of editing as I feel grading should be kept right until the end. As the video goes on, Phil talks more about how detailed his organising is and this is something I know I'll need to do during the edit. However, I haven't considered how I'm going to organise this yet as Phil says it needs to be in a way that the Editor (me) can easily find the footage. For me, I think the most likely option will be for me will be organising the footage by days as we will be with different people or events so it would help me break it all up. Within those folders though I'll likely separate the footage between the cameras, so for blackburn I'd have 3 folders; Sony A7S, Panasonic 1 & Panasonic 2 and then with those I'd separate the performance videos and the interviews so they're easier to find during the edit.

Phil also uses new sequences every time he's making new changes to an edit. This is something I hadn't considered doing perviously. I usually would edit everything on one sequence but Phil explains that by doing this you can easily go back to a previous sequence is something messes but or you don't like the changes you made to a new sequence. This has also given me the idea to edit separate sections of the documentary in their own sequences such as the title sequence, the performances, etc. sections which would be better edited separately and then brought into the edit.