Video Editor

You surely know lots of names of directors, movie stars, and maybe even scriptwriters. In most people’s mind, film and TV industry is only related to those big names. If you are not in this line for a while, chances are rare that you know a single name of editors.

As you will see later in this book, the best editing is transparent and invisible. A pitiful byproduct is that editor’s effort and name is also unknown to average people.

On the other hand, all major film festivals have a reward for “Best Editor”. There must be a good reason. Editor is a great contributor to a great film or video.

I guess 99% of those who want to make their own professional-looking videos at home will work as script writer, director, cameraman, editor, all by herself. You will find that, when you have all the DV tapes on your desk, your real, exciting, magic task is just about to start.

To be honest, as an individual trying to make a satisfying video, it’s quite difficult for you to have a detailed script and perfect plan in advance. What you can do is to shoot as much footages as possible on site and spend as much time as you can on editing. You will even totally change your original idea sometimes. And that’s fine. You can use the same footages to tell different stories purely via editing technique.

So, what can you do at editing stage? Or what’s the role of video editors?

First thing you must remember: video editor is responsible for the overall feel and look of a video. Sounds scary? A big responsibility. But it’s true.

In a production house, when footages come to editor, the free lance script writer has got her pay check, the cameraman is shooting another video, the producer is busy servicing next client, your boss is doing anything unnecessary, and nobody even knows how the final video will actually look like! You, the editor, have to finish the production and bring the video to live.

You will do whatever you want and whatever you can. After your editing, it’s the first time a video is no longer on paper. You have the power to control structure, pace, shot sequence, color, sound... Everything the audience will see comes from your effort.

If you are producing your own video, great! You will begin realizing your concept and hopefully make it even better when you start editing.

In more detail, a video editor’s role starts from Choose appropriate shots.

Video Editor - Video Editing Glossary & Terms

Video Editor