Reviewed By: Scott Purvis
Most of my learning as a self-taught video editor, has utilized trial and error and just making it up. That is not a very good way to work and why I am happy that Gael Chandler’s Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know fell into my hands. Film Editing moves through just about every transition possible with frame-by-frame examples from some of the best-edited movies of the last 50 years.
The first chapter visually describes the most basic of cuts, including reverse cuts, POV cuts, Reaction cuts and Insert and Cutaways.
From there, each chapter builds on the last chapter. Match cuts such as Screen Direction, Eyeline, Angle, Action and Shape Matches are detailed. Chapter 2 also details Color Correction and Rogue cuts as well as how to use or hide them.
There are more than just cuts though and Gael describes Dissolves, Wipes, Green and just about any other transition you could possibly imagine.
The last half of the book describes how cuts can make changes in the rhythm and pace of the action. The final chapter sums up the rest of the book, showing how the transitions you have previously read about can create entire scenes through Exposition, Flashback, Flashforward, Montages, Parallel Action, Crosscutting and Overlapping Action.
This is an incredibly easy book to read due to its use of pictures and text to describe almost every aspect of editing. Be forewarned. Film Editing does not detail how to make these cuts using your editing system of choice, only what those cuts are and how to use them. If you already know how to create cuts though, this book will definitely be a start to making them move the story and make the movie.
To learn more about this book click here.
