All language subtitles for Module 12

Editing takes the joys

and traumas of everyday events
and weaves them together in a way

that helps deepen
our understanding of life.

The most important question is
what is the theme of the movie?

A film is about a lot of things,
but you should be able to sum up

what the movie is about
in one powerful sentence .

What is its theme?

Is it a movie about an idea
or is it more about a person?

Answering that will help to determine

if you'll be editing for character,
for story, or for theme.

For instance, Citizen
Kane is a character driven

movie
about a man's gradual corruption by power.

Battleship Potemkin is a story
driven movie about the Russian Revolution.

Dallas Buyers Club and Spotlight are theme

driven movies
about important social issues.

Or is your movie

about love conquering
all as in Last of the Mohicans

or star crossed tragic lovers,
as in Romeo and Juliet?

Redemption from evil, as in Schindler's
List.

Is it a sports movie
about personal triumph like Rocky?

Or a personal journey?

As we watch a character evolve
as in hostiles, the director and you,

the editor, as his or her creative
partner, need to decide this beforehand.

Ideally, before the movie is shot,
but certainly before it is edited

because your answers will determine
how you edit each movie.

Who are the main characters?

What are their goals?

What are they like?

What is he or she trying to accomplish?

What is his or her motivation

to what they are doing?

What makes us care about the main character and identify with his or her goals?

How does

this character evolve
over the course of the film?

If they evolve from distant
and cold to more humanized and engaged

with the people around them?

You might decide to symbolize this
by starting with long shots

and longer cuts that show them at distance
or alone in each shot.

Then move towards more intimate, closer
shots, shots

that show them with people
and connecting to others.

What are the obstacles that are preventing
them from accomplishing their goals?

Is there a villain or a protagonist
that is opposing them?

What made the villain evil?

How do you edit to show
some of the villains point of view

so that they will be a more complicated,
three dimensional character

instead of a less effective
two dimensional incarnation of evil?

What is the mood, tone
and genre of the film?

Is it an upbeat comedy?

A grim war movie?

A thoughtful historical drama?

A suspenseful thriller.

A pleasant family movie.

The actors performances will, of course,
be different in all these types of genres.

But so will the editing style.

A war movie can be especially

effective if it immerses you in the grim
horrors of war.

Like the opening sequence
of Saving Private Ryan.

A suspenseful thriller like Hitchcock's
Vertigo or Brian De Palma's

Dressed to Kill use shots that will help
build the tension over time.

Like the shots might start out
longer and be medium and long shots,

but then move into closeups and shorter
cuts and shots that don't allow us

to see what's happening or to drive up
the tension and sense of dread.

You don't need a lot of money to create
tension and an effective thriller.

Just take a look at the Blair
Witch Project,

which cost less than $50,000 to make
and became one of the most successful

thrillers of all time.

What rhythm is appropriate for your film.

Slow and brooding. Light and funny.

Fast and Furious.

The pace,
speed, frequency and rhythm of your cuts

will determine the rhythm of the film
and how effective it is.

Also important is contrast and editing

to accentuate specific moments
and avoid stylistic redundancy.

The flourishes and transitions
between scenes are also an important

part of the rhythm and pace of the story.

How do you maximize meaning or impact?

By juxtaposing shots?

Whatever shots
you put together before or after a cut

is going to affect its meaning
because you're establishing a relationship

of one idea, person
or thing to another idea, person or thing.

It's important that you control this
to create the meaning

you were looking for,
not an accidental or unintended meaning.

And now

some thoughts about how to use
sound and music effectively when you edit.

So sound and music are vitally important

to the picture editing of a movie.

In the case of Long Island,

music played an important part
in dictating where we would make

certain cuts.

I don't know why I keep moving my body
paddle.

No. If this is wrong, it is wrong.

I don't know if it's a big business
taking over me,

and I just know I feel so good tonight.

I don't know what the name is,
but I like it.

I've been thinking about some things
I want to try.

I don't know what you're going to do,

but I want to do it with you.

And I don't know. I feel so good tonight.

In the case of First Man,

we were heavily informed
by the use of sound design.

Very early on, we worked very closely
with our sound designer.

She fed us sound effects and.

Sound design elements which told me

how to cut the picture.

So it's important

to realize the power of sound

and how sound can dramatically affect
your storytelling.

Sound can dramatically affect
the meaning of a scene.

Putting different sound effects
under the same

shots will render different results.

So it's very important for editors
to recognize

that sound is an extremely important tool

in their arsenal.

So how to convey information effectively

when, how much and what information
you convey to the viewer

is a vitally important part
of telling the story effectively.

Don't dump it all on the viewer at once.

Parse it out.

What do they need to know now
in order to have the scene

or the scenes to come be more effective ?

Do you push in on a character's face
to maximize an emotional moment?

Do you do an insert shot as in whiplash
or first man to convey information

that makes you
feel immersed in the moment?

How does

setting or location affect your film?

For instance, in a historical drama,

the setting, location and time in history
become their own character.

And you'll need to build shot sequences
that establish where we are

and what the situation is so that we
become immersed in another time and place.

And let's talk about how

the choice of film formats can help
you tell your story better.

Vintage film formats like 35 millimeter,
16 millimeter or super eight,

or different types of modern
digital formats, or a combination

that helps illustrates the passage of time
or gives it a sense of history.

The film JFK,
which we'll discuss in more detail later,

very effectively
used a mixture of formats.

Also, surveillance footage
or smartphone footage is low resolution.

But it can also fool the viewer into
feeling that what they're seeing is real

and is happening in real life,
not fiction.

And that changes
our emotional reaction to it.