Grammar of the Edit, 3rd Edition

Introduction

Today’s world seems to be filled with screens, both large and small, that stream moving images. From the IMAX™ theatre to the billboard near the highway to your HDTV or laptop or tablet to the smart phone in your pocket – all are capable of displaying motion pictures. And every moving image that you see on these screens has been edited. Movies, television shows, commercials, music videos, web videos of all kinds have been cut down, re-ordered, padded out, massaged, sweetened, and tweaked to some degree or another – by an editor.

A writer creates the story, a director coaches the actors, a cinematographer creates the visual style of each shot, and an editor puts all those pieces together. Being one of the last creative people to touch ...