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I haven't blathered about vidding in awhile, have I? I sort of feel like blathering about vidding.
I think, for all the bells and whistles and gadgets offered up by FCP, my absolute and forever favorite tool of them all remains the humble razor. More than anything else, to me, it is the fundamental backbone of non-linear editing. Take the most basic scene of two characters simply exchanging meaningful glances. Put the razor tool in my hand and suddenly I control which one looks first and for how long they look. Out of that ten seconds is the important information contained in the second with the head tilt or the one with the sigh or the little smirk? Up to me. That scene is now mine and what it can mean and for who, along with it's overall impact, is entirely up to me. I'm not bound by any structure but my own. That same basic, simple scene can mean a hundred different things depending on who's cutting it and why. I can take three minutes and strip away everything but a critical three seconds and convey mountains of information in whatever order I choose. I can cut together two, or three, or four, or however many scenes I want from entirely different episodes, not limited to a sequential narrative, but as pieces in an emotional whole that can fit in an infinite number of combinations depending on what I want to say. I don't think there is any other aspect of vidding that brings me more satisfaction than a good cut. If I could marry my razor tool, I think I probably would.
If someone were just starting out in vidding and they asked me what they should do first, I'd tell them to take one scene, throw it on the timeline, haul out the razor tool and cut it to pieces. Shuffle the bits around. See how many different ways it fits together. Start over and cut it up again different this time. Decide what's unecessary or distracting from a purely visual perspective and throw it in the trash. Grab another scene, do it again, and see if you can make the two fit together. Discover what is possible and know that the raw footage is only the starting point...because it's yours now. And it can be anything you want it to be.
Eunice/Razor OTP, baby.
I think, for all the bells and whistles and gadgets offered up by FCP, my absolute and forever favorite tool of them all remains the humble razor. More than anything else, to me, it is the fundamental backbone of non-linear editing. Take the most basic scene of two characters simply exchanging meaningful glances. Put the razor tool in my hand and suddenly I control which one looks first and for how long they look. Out of that ten seconds is the important information contained in the second with the head tilt or the one with the sigh or the little smirk? Up to me. That scene is now mine and what it can mean and for who, along with it's overall impact, is entirely up to me. I'm not bound by any structure but my own. That same basic, simple scene can mean a hundred different things depending on who's cutting it and why. I can take three minutes and strip away everything but a critical three seconds and convey mountains of information in whatever order I choose. I can cut together two, or three, or four, or however many scenes I want from entirely different episodes, not limited to a sequential narrative, but as pieces in an emotional whole that can fit in an infinite number of combinations depending on what I want to say. I don't think there is any other aspect of vidding that brings me more satisfaction than a good cut. If I could marry my razor tool, I think I probably would.
If someone were just starting out in vidding and they asked me what they should do first, I'd tell them to take one scene, throw it on the timeline, haul out the razor tool and cut it to pieces. Shuffle the bits around. See how many different ways it fits together. Start over and cut it up again different this time. Decide what's unecessary or distracting from a purely visual perspective and throw it in the trash. Grab another scene, do it again, and see if you can make the two fit together. Discover what is possible and know that the raw footage is only the starting point...because it's yours now. And it can be anything you want it to be.
Eunice/Razor OTP, baby.
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