Film and Video Editing May Be the Most Important Part of Making Movies

To the novice, film and video editing sounds like one of those completely technical subjects, only possibly interesting to people with very logical and pragmatic minds, much like engineers. Visions of darkrooms and sterile-looking studios filled with all types of inexplicable mechanical equipment, where rolls of film negatives are poured over and scrutinized by serious-looking people, then diced, sliced and spliced back together, somewhat completes the overall mental picture. Clinical, stark, precise. But in actuality, film and video editing is much more than celluloid or electronic image surgery. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Think of it this way; someone shoots a video of your favorite cousin's wedding. The end product is a nice, mostly continuous documentation of the event, with abrupt starts and stops here and there when the main activity changes or moves to a different area or location that necessitates a different "shot". The end result is a compilation of pictures and sound that is considerably better and hopefully more memorable and satisfying than still photographs, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

However, if the same raw video was placed into the hands of a skilled editor, the end result would be quite different. The resulting piece would tell the story of the culmination of your cousin's three-year romance, as narrated by several key family members. It would capture and convey to the viewing audience the couple's wedding day emotions of love, and joy and appreciation for one another and family, anticipation of the new life the couple intends to create together, a bit of sadness for the life they are forever leaving behind, and so on. In other words, in the hands of a skilled editor, the video becomes a "story" with a beginning, middle and end; a cohesive synopsis of the couple's romance. A day in the life...

Film and Video Editing May Be the Most Important Part of Making Movies

What most people not in the film or video industry don't realize is that film and video editing is an art form. Editing is arguably the most important element of film or video production. It is in the editing, the art of arranging pictures and dialog and sounds, that a finished film product is able to communicate a story first envisioned by its writer, and subsequently by a director and producer to its intended audience. Days, weeks even months of shots captured on film or video must be studied, interpreted analyzed and finally distilled into a story lasting a fraction of the time it took to capture it all.

People outside the film making industry have little or no idea about "post production" and the crucial part it plays in the production of a film or video work. It is because of the significant importance of this phase of film and video production that the process takes an extended amount of time to complete.

Much more that cutting and splicing pieces of cellophane together or merely arranging video sequence, editing is a wonderful blend of technical knowledge and skill combined with an artist's creativity and craftsmanship. It is moving, adding, deleting, juxtaposing, scenes, sounds, and images to develop film shots and video clips into a certain context, create specific imagery and timing, evoke particular emotion, create specific imagery and mold them into a story.

Film editing as a craft began in the late 1890's in the very earliest days of motion pictures. In the intervening years between then and now, anyone interested in learning about film or video editing, usually attended college courses or one of a number of reputable film schools to learn the craft.

In his book, "The Technique Of Film And Video Editing", considered one of the best teaching and training tools for directors , Ken Dancyger highlights the history of film editing from its origins. He speaks specifically about the editing of great cinematographers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, taking a detailed look at the fundamental principles of film and video editing. He discusses ideas, practices and styles and choices for editors in the context of theory, the history of film and video editing, and practice. He also discusses new technology and the impact it has in terms of the art of editing.

One of the greatest changes to film and video editing occurred with the introduction of computer editing. Hand cutting and splicing of film, as well as the more complicated, mechanical and "linear" process of video editing, became tedious and outdated with the advent of computer editing in the early 1990's. Editing on computers gave rise to a whole new creativity prized by film editors, as well as lower costs and much more efficiency in terms of video editing.

Whether for film or video, the editing process occurs in three basic steps. These include capture, the editing process itself, and putting the product in a distributable form. During the capture phase, the actual "shots" or picture images are compiled into a format from which they can be edited. During the actual editing process, the collection of shots are organized in a desired sequence and sound is added through "sound mixing" until they form a comprehensive storyline. Once this has been accomplished, the film or video is finalized in the desired format whether film or high-quality video for distribution.

As technology continues to advance, the ways in which film and video are edited will continue to develop and progress. As it stands today, computers and user friend video editing software as well as the Internet have opened the doors to editing so that it is available to not only professional film and video editors. Now students of film and video and film making novices, as well as journalists, writers and the general public have unprecedented access to video editing tools. Several popular video editing programs make film and video editing possible for professionals as well as novice editors, including Avid Express Pro, Adobe Premier Pro, Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro and Apple Final Cut Studio 2.

With today's technology and the advantage of personal computers, digital camera equipment and the availability of knowledge from new and increasingly powerful software programs, almost anyone with the desire, can learn film and video editing, produce commercial products and even feature movies from their home or personal studio.

Film and Video Editing May Be the Most Important Part of Making Movies
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Adam Fulford enjoys writing articles and screenplays [http://www.agoldenmedia.com/writing/] and has a production company to produce original documentaries [http://www.agoldenmedia.com/producing/2008/01/wheelchair-dancing-first-choreography.php] and dramas.

watch cell phone Cheap Whatman Polycap Tf 150 Ptfe Capsule Filter

Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft

The initial idea:

a) Once you know the apotheosis - the seminal insight the hero has - then you can build your story up to and beyond that point. Knowing the hero's apotheosis allows you to decide what the hero's restrictions will be and how to overcome them (atonement with the father). Knowing the hero's apotheosis allows you to decide the hero's inner resolve and actions upon the enlightenment (ultimate boon).

b) Writing about what you know gives you the insights and intimacy that will add richness and differentiate your work; writing about what you don't know is a good idea if the topic inspires you enough to sustain you through the research until you do become insightful and intimate with your subject; your passion with the idea must sustain you through the long hours of writing and the arduous process of selling your work; people have much more applicable tacit knowledge than they realise, for example, your experience of office politics could contribute to a story set in the White House.

Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft

Use the broad Hero's Journey to expand your idea into a broad step outline. Here characters and situations will begin to emerge. Flesh out multiple ideas to increase the certainty of committing to an appropriate one.

Use the detailed Hero's Journey to expand your idea into a detailed step outline. Start a file with the relevant number of sections and begin collecting research (newspaper clippings etc) that will add value to each stage of your step outline. Build the step outline until characters and situations have distinct form and substance.

Write out each stage of your story in a few paragraphs. If you use the detailed Hero's Journey then you will have anywhere between 51 and 106 paragraphs. Here, write first and edit later (separate creative from critical thinking). If you need input from other people, do not show them the whole story - simply show them a stage at a time and give or take options for improvement - this way their help will be more useful and they can avoid having to be diplomatic or nice.

Do the above until you have a coherent story. You know you have a coherent story when you can list each sequence and know its purpose. This is a useful method of analysing plot at a glance.

You will get to a point when you need to write out each stage fully in screenplay form (format), explore the situations and characters within and their dialogue. Allow each stage to occupy its natural length and space. Good (free) screenwriting software and examples of screenwriting form can be found at BBC Writers Room. Professionals use Final Draft. Do not rush to this stage - ensure that your story is well developed beforehand - once you commit words in screenplay form, the emotional attachment to them and resistance to critical evaluation both increase. With a well developed story in hand, it is not unusual for it to (almost) effortlessly roll out in screenplay form.

Allow yourself time to incubate on your work so far. You have written a significant amount of your screenplay but now you want to be able to judge its logic and the scene quality from a distance.

The words-on-paper first draft:

If you have written less than a full screenplay, then write out each stage more fully in screenplay form and make each stage richer. Try and make each stage a story and an event in its own right. You will instantly know what to do with some stages but will still need to incubate until you achieve insight with others. Your focus should be on the quality of each stage rather than length. It is better to add extra sequences than unnaturally expand stages in order to reach length (some more backstory, for example, or examine the detailed Hero's Journey for more ideas). The more screenplays you complete, the easier it becomes to push a story out to the required length (between 113-120 pages).

If your problem is cutting down material, then you have to learn brevity. Given that the total length of a screenplay should be no more than 120 pages, decide how long each section should be and reduce each stage to that length, making sure that you retain value. Dividing 120 by the number of stages in your story is a useful benchmark, but often some stages are naturally longer than others, for example, in the Hero's Journey, it is not unusual for the Road of Trials to be longer than the Apotheosis.

Another period of incubation will be required until you are able to review your work objectively. Rewriting, cutting and pasting etc will be required. You will move onto second and third drafts.

You will begin to explore selling opportunities, whilst continuing to polish your work and moving onto another story. If you have existing credibility within the industry, you will explore selling opportunities at the idea or treatment stage. Decision makers do read work so the higher the quality, the more likelihood of it being pushed further. But how long do you wait? How many times do you incubate and rewrite? Will it ever be perfect? Your decision.

----------

The 188 stage Hero's Journey and the FREE 17 stage Hero's Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at www.managing-creativity.com

cell phone watches Discount Cardone 60 3104 Remanufactured Cv Axle Cheap Dispenser Kit For Liquid Detergent

About The Hollywood Film Industry

The Hollywood film industry is an amalgamation of technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking. It generally consists of film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, actors, directors, and film personnel.

Today the Hollywood film industry is positioned across the world. In this 21st century, the major business centers of filmmaking are concentrated in United States, India and China. Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California that is situated in west- northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural individuality of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a connotation for the cinema of United States which is popularly known as the Hollywood film Industry.

Screenwriting

Fashion To Go Fashion To Go Buy Elite Buying Ideas Buying Tags Cheap Sales Custom Items Daily Corner Daily Item Daily Tags Easy at Home Easy Purchase Ed-Buy Online Elite Market Elite Zone E-Shopping Mall Gift Shopping I-Shopping New Prices New Price Tags Online Grocery Shop for Online Shop In Style Shopping Cart Shopping Day AZ Shopping Cart Brand Sales 24 Hours For Gifts

The history of the Hollywood Film Industry probably started in the hands of D.W. Griffith when the Biograph Company sent him and his crew. They started filming on a vacant lot in downtown Los Angeles in early 1910. Soon the company decided to explore new territories to find that the region was quite friendly and enjoyable for shooting.

About The Hollywood Film Industry

Therefore, Griffith filmed the first ever movie shot in Hollywood. The title of the film was "In Old California". The movie company then stayed there for months to shoot several of their films and returned to New York.

Starting in 1913, this wonderful place came into the limelight when moviemakers started heading to the west. The first feature film made in Hollywood was called 'The Squaw Man" This resulted in the birth of Hollywood Film Industry.

Nestor Studio, founded in 1911 was the first movie studio in Hollywood. Fifteen other small studios also settled in Hollywood. Gradually, Hollywood came to be so powerfully associated with the film industry that this term began to be used as a synonym for the entire industry.

During the time period of the first World War, Hollywood become the movie capital of the world. Previously mentioned, Nester studio became the Hollywood Digital Laboratory. By the year 1950, music recording studios and offices began moving to Hollywood, though much of the movie industry remained there.

The world famous Hollywood Walk of Fame was constructed in the year 1958 and the first star was placed in 1960. The Walk of Fame was placed as a tribute to the artists working in the entertainment industry. It is embedded with more than 2,000 five pointed stars featuring the names of celebrities, as well as fictional characters.

Self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust maintains this Walk of Fame. The first star to receive this honor was Joanne Woodward. The artist received a star based on career and lifetime achievements in motion pictures, live theatres, radio, television, and music.

The famous Hollywood symbol, originally read Hollywoodland, was constructed in the year 1923 as an advertisement of a new housing development. The sign was left to worsen until in 1949 the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce repaired and removed the last four letters.

The sign located at Mount Lee, is now a registered trademark hence cannot be used without the permission of the Chamber of Commerce.

The Hollywood Film Industry can be called the Mecca of film industries. Though geographically it is located in Hollywood, it resides in the hearts of millions of film lovers and film related personalities. Hollywood remains and will remain a king, without a scepter.

About The Hollywood Film Industry

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos. You can find the best marketplace for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos at these sites for used DVDs, used movies, and Hollywood Film Industry, movies.

cell phone watches Cheap Whatman Polycap Tf 150 Ptfe Capsule Filter

The Writing Style of Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls portrays the typical Hemingway characters and addresses the issues of machoism and womanizing. In this novel, as in many of his other works, Hemingway employs extensive use of what is known as the Hemingway Code. Numerous influences from various people and events from his personal life also had an effect on his writing.

Many people hold the opinion that there has been no American writer like Ernest Hemingway. A member of the World War I "lost generation," Hemingway was in many ways his own best character. Whether as his childhood nickname of "Champ" or as the older "Papa," Ernest Hemingway became a legend of his own lifetime. Although the drama and romance of his life sometimes seem to overshadow the quality of his work, Hemingway was first and foremost a literary scholar, a writer and reader of books. This is often overlooked among all the talk about his safaris and hunting trips, adventures with bullfighting, fishing and war. Hemingway enjoyed being famous, and delighted in playing for the public spotlight. However, Hemingway considered himself an artist, and he did not want to become celebrated for all the wrong reasons.

Writing

Hemingway was born in the quiet town of Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on July 21, 1899. His father was a physician, and Ernest was the second of six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Clarence E. Hemingway. His mother, a devout, religious woman with considerable music talent, hoped that her son would develop an interest in music. Instead, Ernest acquired his father's enthusiasm for guns and for fishing trips in the north woods of Michigan (Lynn 63).

The Writing Style of Hemingway

From almost the beginning of his writing career, Hemingway employed a distinctive style which drew comment from many critics. Hemingway does not give way to lengthy geographical and psychological description. His style has been said to lack substance because he avoids direct statements and descriptions of emotion. Basically his style is simple, direct and somewhat plain. He developed a forceful prose style characterized by simple sentences and few adverbs or adjectives. He wrote concise, vivid dialogue and exact description of places and things. Critic Harry Levin pointed out the weakness of syntax and diction in Hemingway's writing, but was quick to praise his ability to convey action(Rovit 47).

Hemingway spent the early part of his career as a journalist. In 1937, he went to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance. After a few months in Spain, Hemingway announced his plan to write a book with the Spanish Civil War as its background. The result was For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The majority of his early novels were narrated in the first person and enclosed within a single point of view, however, when Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, he used several different narrative techniques. He employed the use of internal monologues(where the reader is in the "mind" of a particular character), objective descriptions, rapid shifts of point of view, and in general a looser structure than in his earlier works. Hemingway believed that "a writer's style should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous. The greatest writers have the gift of brevity, are hard workers, diligent scholars and competent stylists(Magill 1287).

For Whom the Bell Tolls is the most serious and politically motivated novel that Hemingway wrote. There are few comic or light episodes in the entire book. For Whom the Bell Tolls is an attempt to present in depth a country and people that Hemingway loved very much. It was an effort to deal honestly with a very complex war made even more complex by the beliefs it inspired(Gurko 127).

Common to almost all of Hemingway's novels is the concept of the Hemingway hero, sometimes known as the "code hero." When Hemingway's novels were first published, the public readily accepted them. Part of this acceptance was due to the fact that Hemingway had created a character whose response to life appealed strongly to those who read his works. The reader saw in the Hemingway hero a person whom they could identify with in almost a dream sense. The Hemmingway hero was a man's man. He moved from one love affair to another, he participated in wild game hunting, enjoyed bullfights, drank insatiably, he was involved in all of the so-called manly activities in which the typical American male did not participate(Rovit 56).

Hemingway's involvement in the war instilled him with deep-seated political views. For Whom the Bell Tolls is a study of the individual involved in what was a politically motivated war. But this novel differs greatly from Hemingway's prior portrayal of the individual hero in the world. In this book, the hero accepts the people around him, not only a few select members of the distinguished, but with the whole community. The organization of this community is stated with great eloquence in the quotation from one of the poet John Donne's sermons upon the death of a close friend. This is the quotation from which the book takes its title:

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe, every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine, if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for I thee.

Therefore, while the hero retains the qualities of the Hemingway Code, he has been built up by his unity with mankind. In the end, he finds the world a "fine place," that is "worth fighting for"(Curly 795). In his personal confrontation with death, Robert Jordan realizes that there is a larger cause that a man can chose to serve. In this way he differs from the earlier Hemingway hero. The insistence that action and its form be solely placed on one individual is still present, along with the need for the character to dominate that action. However, this issue is not longer a single matador against a single bull, or an individual character against his entire environment. The person is the "instrument of mankind" against the horrors of war. The political issues of this book are therefore presented not as a "contrast of black and white, but in the shaded tones of reality"(Magill 491).

While Jordan is the epitome of the hero in his actions, he is also in command of himself and his circumstances to a far greater extent than Hemingway's previous heroes; he is driven to face reality by deep emotional needs. Jordan's drives in the novel seem to be a direct reflection of Hemingway's own, because Hemingway had also been deeply affected by the suicide of his own father (Kunitz 561). Ironically, suicide as an escape from reality is a violation of Hemingway's own code. The self-doubt and fear that such an act brings to the children of a person who commits suicide is a well-known psychological outcome. This is perhaps why the painfulness of their fears causes Hemingway's heroes to avoid "thinking" at all costs. For "thinking" too much may prevent a person from reacting. And without something to react to, the hero is left to face his inner fears (Magill 474). Death is also used by Hemingway at the end of the novel to resolve the dramatic conflicts established by the story. The theme of death is likewise observable in other parts of the book, such as when the characters express their concern about dying during the attack on the bridge. As in other works following the suicide of his father, Hemingway brings his characters face to face with death. He admires those who face death bravely and without expressing emotion. For Hemingway, a man does not truly live life until analyzes the significance of death personally(Brooks 323).

In contrast to the Hemingway heroes are his female characters. Hemingway's approach to women in his works is particularly masculine. They are seen and valued in relation to the men in his stories insofar as they are absolutely feminine. Hemingway does not go into their inner world except as this world is related to the men with whom they are involved. The reader comes to view them as love objects or as anti-love figures (Whitlock 231). Part of the reason Hemingway had this opinion of woman was because the way he viewed his mother. He believed his mother to be a manipulator and blamed her in part for the suicide of his father. "The qualities he thought admirable in a man-ambition, and independent point of view, defiance of his supremacy-became threatening in a woman"(Kert 103).

Hemingway's heroines almost always personify the physical appearance of the ideal woman in their beauty. But in their personality they appear as two types: the "all-woman" who gives herself entirely to the hero and the "femme fatale" who retains herself and prevents the hero from possessing her completely. The "all-woman" is acceptable in Hemingway view because she submits to the hero. She wants no other life than with him. By succumbing to the hero, she allows him to dominate her and affirm his manhood. The "femme fatale" is usually a more complex character than the "all-woman" (Lynn 98). While she may or may not be nasty, she does not submit to the hero and wounds him and all the men around her primarily because they can not manage her and thus can not assert their manhood through her. But despite Hemmingway's portrayal of women, he usually has them fall into the same basic category as the men. The heroine, like the hero, obeys the "Hemmingway Code." She sees life for what it is even as she longs for something more. She is basically courageous in life, choosing reality over thought, and she faces death stoically. In practically every case there has already been in her life some tragic event-the loss of a lover, violence-which has given her the strength to face life this way (Lynn 102).

For Whom the Bell Tolls "is a living example of how, in modern times, the epic quality must be projected" (Baker 132). Heroic action is an epic quality, and For Whom the Bell Tolls contains this element. The setting is simple and the emphasis is on the basic virtues of uncomplicated people. The men are engaged in the conflict are prepared to sacrifice their lives; they are exceptional for their deeds of daring and heroism (Baker 94).

Behind the conception of this idea of the hero lies the disillusionment of the American public, the disillusionment that was brought about by the First World War. The impressionable man came to realize that the old ideas and beliefs rooted in religion and ethics had not helped to save man the catastrophe of World War I. As a result, after the war came to an end, Hemingway and other writers began to look for a new system of values, a system of values that would replace the old attitudes which they thought proved to be useless. The writers who adopted these new beliefs came to be known as the "lost generation."

The "lost generation," was a name instituted by Gertrude Stein and it signified the postwar generation and the literary movement produced by the young writers of the time (Unger 654). Their writing reflected their belief that "the only reality was that life is harsh" (Bryfonski 1874).

A great deal has been written about Ernest Hemingway's distinctive style. Ever since he began writing in the 1920's, he has been the subject of lavish praise and sometimes savage criticism. He has not been ignored.

To explain Hemingway's style in a few paragraphs in such a manner as to satisfy those who have read his articles and books is almost impossible. It is a simple style, straight forward and modest. Hemingway's prose is unadorned as a result of his abstaining from using adjectives as much as possible. He relates a story in the form of straight journalism, but because he is a master of transmitting emotion with out embellishing it, the product is even more enjoyable.

The Writing Style of Hemingway

You may visit www.Bullshipper.com and www.TermPapersMadeEasy.com for instant access to over 45,000 plus term papers and essays. You may have all of these quality papers for only .95.

watches mobile phone Best Offer Cane Creek 110 Zerostack Headset Save On Surgex Sx1115 Rt Surge Eliminator And Best Buy Chippendale Fish Fork With Hollow Handle