Chapter One

Editing Basics

QUESTION: What is editing?

ANSWER: Editing for motion pictures is the process of organizing, reviewing, selecting, and assembling the picture and sound “footage” captured during production. The result of these editing efforts should be a coherent and meaningful story or visual presentation that comes as close as possible to achieving the goals behind the original intent of the work — to entertain, to inform, to inspire, etc.

When you write, you select words from your vocabulary and string them together in a particular fashion to construct sentences that will inform, entertain, or evoke emotional responses within the reader. When you edit a motion picture, there is a similar process. You have to select shots and string ...

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