Editing a film

Hey everyone I need some HELP please.

I am an ameuter and have been editing as a hobby the last few years. Most recent film is below.



I would like to know how other people get to there final finished film. I have imported so much footage for my most recent edit and I am struggling to get 25min of footage down to 4 min more suitable for Vimeo or Youtube. The problem is I like all the footage. How do other people go through this process?

Any advice or ideas? Cheers.. Also any advice on improving my films would be great.

Thanks in advance Justin

If you're not on a time budget then you can do what I do sometimes and make a cut with every single shot you like. Now that you've gotten that out of the way, you can make a cut with all the shots that are important to the story you're trying to tell. But this is a process that will waste a lot of time so it's not something I really suggest doing unless you're doing it for fun and want to learn. I do think it's a great way to learn because you get everything out there and it's like a pot of Chili that starts to stew in your mind.

The other way to get everything down to something manageable is to come up with a "core message" as in, what is the one message you are trying to convey to your audience. Once you have this message, every shot should help support this message. If a shot doesn't support this message it doesn't make it into the cut. Once you have your core message, it's really easy to throw clips away.

Another thing you can do is skim through all the footage and add keywords to all the footage that has the same core message. So maybe there are four different core messages that show up in all the footage. Once you have all of these tagged, you can create a project for each core message and edit from there.

So, really, the main thing is knowing what the story is that you want to tell, everything else is just something to throwaway.

Write your core story on paper, in words, a short story, a poem, something structured, then go to the video edit.

Well I have made a longer episode for myself and I am not under any time constraints I think I will just have to keep working away at the pot/timeline until it starts coming together.. Considering I had 1hr and 30min originally and I'm down to 20min ill keep eliminating stuff with the core message in mind.

Thanks again for the great advice.

The problem is I like all the footage. How do other people go through this process?

The process is commonly known as "Kill your darlings". You like all your footage because you were there shooting it. People who see your edit were not there. And people absolutely hate watching videos of other people unless every second tells them something new and interesting. It's like friends inviting you to watch their holiday photos. They show you hundreds of pictures of the same persons and the same settings while 20 pictures would be more than enough to show you everything. Nothing more annoying and painful than that.

So yes, write your story on paper and throw away anything that is repeating or redundant or that does not give the viewer something new. Or, even better, write your story before you start shooting if you can. It will make your life so much easier.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny
Haha I know that feeling someone recently showed me all his 400 photos and explained most and it was not pleasant at all. That is the last thing I want to do to people.
Ok well Im down to 15minutes now so slowly getting there.

It is also interesting I'm torn between making a short film 3 -4 minutes aimed at most viewers to making a travel diary/film 6 - 7 minutes more aimed towards friend and family that is how my last edit was.

I might actually try and do both.

Thanks again for the help.

Another thing you can do is create multiple videos from the same raw footage, each telling a different story.

Thanks for this another good idea!

Just wanted to thank you all again and share my best edit yet? Hope you like it I'm always open to advice on improving with FCP and editing.