book

Documentary Editing

by Jacob Bricca, ACE

December 2017

Beginner

246 pages

6h 58m

English

Routledge

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Principles of Documentary EditingYour Documentary Editing Panel
Documentary Schedules: How Many Weeks?
Organizing the Files on the Hard DriveBringing the Files into the NLERun a TestBacking UpOrganizing FootageOrganizing Archival MaterialAlternate “Binning” StrategiesDocuments You Will Need
Work in StagesFocusThe Vital Importance of Taking BreaksDuplicate and Archive: Leaving a Trail of Breadcrumbs Behind YouScraps Sequences and Alternate ShotsThe Director–Editor Relationship: Working Together and Working Alone

Creating Source-Based Select ReelsCreating Topic-Based Select Reels
Drawing Initial Conclusions About Your Narrative from Your Select ReelsA Fork in the Road
Constructing the Framework: Anchor with AudioFinding “Hinge Clips”Stitch Together the Seams with CutawaysSmoothing Edits
Build Up or Trim Down: Two Options for Finding “The Good Bits”Invisible or Self-Referential?Microbeats: Sculpting Human Behavior OnscreenBody LanguageVerité CutawaysWorkarounds for Insufficient Cutaway MaterialMaking Amalgam ScenesIntegrating Audio from Unrelated ScenesMixing Evidentiary and Verité Editing with the “Pop-in” Moment
Media Montages
A Hierarchy of ExperienceA Hierarchy of InterventionThe Limits of Verité
CharactersConflictProgressionOther Ways of Constructing ProgressionText and SubtextExperimentation
The First SceneThe BeginningThe MiddleEndingsReshootsCreating Meaning Through Association and JuxtapositionAlternative Approaches to Narrative
MusicArchival Material and Stock ShotsReenactmentsGraphics and AnimationsLower ThirdsLocation CardsSubtitles
Marking TimeRhythmPacingDynamicsPausesTransitions
Evaluating the Work and Taking DirectionWhy Hold a Rough Cut Screening?Tips for a Successful Rough Cut ScreeningInterpreting NotesClarity Is KingTrimming Scenes DownCutting Scenes to Remove RedundancyCutting Scenes to Improve Narrative or Emotional Logic
Removing Unnecessary Pauses and UtterancesInspecting and Improving CutawaysMoving Backwards: Overcutting and How to Avoid ItPicture Lock and Beyond
My Kid Could Paint That (2007)An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Skip (2011)Hotel 22 (2014)

Content preview from Documentary Editing

14Working with Time

As you continue to work on your cut, you have the opportunity to define your film’s relationship to time. You and the director are building a world of your own making in your documentary, and you can stretch time in any direction you choose. Rhythm, pacing, and dynamics: these are crucial to your film’s success.

Marking Time

Before we go any further, we must bring up one crucial paradox that permeates documentaries: they are, by definition, about things that have already happened, but the audience will experience them at a place and time that is always in the present. In order to stick to our intention of bringing our viewers ...