Film: The Virtue of Editing

(Originally Posted in April '16)

With any luck, you are making great progress on your drafts analyzing director Tim Burton. I'm sure that many of you are focused on lighting, sound, and a few camera movements. Very few, I imagine, are looking at editing. The truth is that editing is hard, but you could find some important information in there if you want to mention editing in your analysis. 

If you are struggling with editing, I just found a pretty excellent video essay about long takes. These are extended scenes where the camera does not cut, but instead follows the action throughout the scene. While Tim Burton may not use many of these, this video includes a great discussion on the importance of a cut. 

There is a brief curse word toward the beginning, but the quality of the video is merits the one swear. If you have sensitive ears, you can skip this one.

My latest Patreon post (with movie reviews and channel updates): http://bit.ly/1XVzR1t We all know how amazing long takes are, but what are their limitations? Let's explore elements of the long take to see how they work and maybe see what makes them not work.