[Frameworks] Linear film editing

Sun Dec 2 00:05:58 UTC 2018

  Hey I'm Ben. I'm 26 years old and am based in Atlanta GA. I'm originally
from San Francisco where I did a lot of film editing on a KEM flatbed. I
have some links to my work below if you are interested. There is a lot to
the process to explain over email but I can try to help the best I can.
Film editing is a blast, especially when youre throwing sound in the mix.
Two tools you need are a grease pencil and a sharpie for the soundtrack.
Grease pencils dont show up well on Mag stock. Basically you will be
marking up your film a lot to make cuts and to sync it up with the sound if
you are doing that.

What I like to to is go through all the footage and cut every shot out and
hang it on the bin you are using with its Mag sound counterpart if you are
using sync sound recorded on set or whatever. If you are using a slate
while shooting, that is where your first sync mark will go when the clap
board claps. I usually mark that with an X on the film and sound and write
the shot number on the sound only because the shot number should be on your
slate on the work print. Then I usually put another sync mark in the middle
of the shot somewhere with an O or dot because the slate will eventually be
cut out and you will loose your sync mark.  I also put lines in to
generally mark where the cuts will be just to get an idea of where I'm
gonna cut the shot. The sound will always be cut to overlap the shot before
and after so you can fade them in and out while mixing later on. You should
have 2 sound tracks and every other shot will be on a different track so
the sound can seamlessly fade into one another. It gets tricky and I can go
on forever but thats just the beginning. Theres whole books on the subject
which you should definitely look up.

To me film editing is important because I just love to do it. I love to
physically touch the film and it makes you think more about the cuts you
make before you make em. It feels more like making a real movie to me.
Computer editing to me kinda cheapens the whole experience of film making
although I've been forced to lately because I dont have access to any of
that equipment here in Georgia. One day though I will. Also if you get into
optical printing, That shits a blast too. Thats for special FX like
superimposed titles and transitions and a lot lot more.

When I was doing all this, it was at a college. It took up a ton of space.
KEM flatbeds are huge, the Mag dubber is huge and I had about 50 film boxes
all over the floor. I took up a big part of the lab which used to annoy the
techs but I was the only person using the shit anyway so it didnt matter.

I still only shoot 16mm film and I just recently finished my 1st feature
which I unfortunately had to edit on my computer. The film still came out
pretty good though for the budget and resources I had. Eventually I'd like
to own all my own film editing tools and make independent films for the
rest of my life. Anyway, If you have any more questions, let me know.
Here's my dang youtube page.

https://www.youtube.com/user/SketchyWinston/videos

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On Sat, Dec 1, 2018 at 5:45 PM Fred Camper <f at fredcamper.com> wrote:

> i was glad to hear of your interesting topic. I trust *The Man With the
> Movie Camera* is included?
> Fred Camper
>
> Chicago
>
>
> On 12/1/2018 1:24 PM, mstarkmcr at gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Thanks for your feedback. It has been very helpful!  I stand corrected. I
> somewhat thoughtlessly rushed into sending out the survey without checking
> definitions, as what I meant to find out about is about people editing film
> in a physical non-computerised way, not video tape, just photochemical film
> in any format.
>
> I’d be interested to know how this discussion list would think this would
> be best described.  I think it is better to leave the linear out of it and
> just term it as ‘editing photochemical film’?
>
> Just to add that I am in the final year of a practice as research PhD
> investigating historical relationships between filmmaking and textile
> practice, testing through performance the hypothesis that film can be
> compared to fabric and editing to stitching. I will submit a performance
> and a written thesis so the survey will be help with the literature and
> practice review, as I’m interested to know about artists who continue to
> edit film physically, what their process is and ideas about why they do it.
>
> All best,
>
> Mary
>
> On 30 Nov 2018, at 02:37, Christopher Ball <cbifilms at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I remember doing sound mixing with 4 U-matic machines, running them all
> together until they drifted out of sync while mixing audio.  I also editing
> running 2 U-matics together and punching in on the record machine when I
> wanted the cut to happen.  What a difference now.  Mind you, film editing
> was not hard and puts you in a much better headspace than computer editing.
>
> Christopher
>
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 9:34 PM Colinet André <colinet.andre at coditel.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> of course you are right with this approach.
>>
>> I’m talking about another definition of “non-linear” which is also
>> correct.
>>
>> Anyhow I made a lot of linear analogue video editing and every time you
>> had to copy to start a new version until the quality was so bad you had to
>> go back to the originals with the timecodes.
>>
>>
>>
>> Verzonden vanuit Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986>
>> voor Windows 10
>>
>>
>>
>> *Van: *Adam Hyman <adam at lafilmforum.org>
>> *Verzonden: *vrijdag 30 november 2018 2:04
>> *Aan: *Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>> <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>> *Onderwerp: *Re: [Frameworks] Linear film editing
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>>
>>  I learned in film school during the transition period that what Dave
>> says is correct
>>
>> Editing with celluloid is non-linear; early video editing was linear due
>> to the assembly reason that Dave describes; non-linear digital editing was
>> a return to the non-linear editing of celluloid.
>>
>> We could have a poll though.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>>
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *FrameWorks <frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com> on behalf of
>> Colinet André <colinet.andre at coditel.net>
>> *Reply-To: *"Experimental Film Discussion List <
>> frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>" <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>> *Date: *Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 4:44 PM
>> *To: *"Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>"
>> <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>> *Subject: *Re: [Frameworks] Linear film editing
>>
>>
>>
>> *I don’t agree with Dave.*
>>
>> *Linear editing means physical linear structuring of film or video
>> footage.*
>>
>> *Non linear editing means virtual editing of footage because it’s only a
>> editing list with software.*
>>
>> *All the best !!*
>>
>> *Colinet André*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Verzonden vanuit Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986>
>> voor Windows 10
>>
>>
>>
>> *Van: *Dave Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com>
>> *Verzonden: *donderdag 29 november 2018 22:50
>> *Aan: *Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>> *Onderwerp: *Re: [Frameworks] Linear film editing
>>
>>
>>
>> > I'm interested in 'linear film editing', as in cutting and splicing
>> film at an edit bench or Steenbeck or however you do it.
>>
>>
>>
>> That’s not linear editing. Physical film editing is non-linear, which
>> means you can edit anywhere in the piece you want by winding the reels to
>> that spot. Linear editing was how editing in VIDEO was performed
>> pre-computerization. That is, you had to add each shot sequentially from
>> beginning to to end, in that order, and once you got to, say, shot 5, you
>> couldn’t go back and trim the cut between 1 and 2 without starting over.
>>
>>
>>
>> Needless to say, linear editing is a pain in the ass, and anyone who had
>> ever editied film found it extremely frustrating and limitiing. Thus
>> non-linear video editing was invented by commercial filmmakers after video
>> became integrated into feature film produstion via special effects and
>> ‘workprinting’. For example, one of the earliest experimental systems, the
>> Editdroid, was built by Lucasfilm in the early ‘80s. In fact, before the
>> term ‘non-linear editing’ came into common use in the 1990s, these systems
>> were called ‘electronic film editing’, because they gave editors working
>> with video footage the same flexibility that physical film editing had
>> always offered.
>>
>>
>>
>> You have checked your definitions before creating your survey…
>>
>>
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-linear_editing_system#History
>>
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