Editing for Directors

Editing for Directors guides directors through postproduction, starting with planning for editing during the shoot and ending with the completion of their film.

This thorough, well-illustrated book describes the artistic, organisational, and technical skills editors bring to the party, tells directors what to look for when hiring an editor and the best ways to work with an editor. It explains how and why directors should plan for editing before they shoot a frame, devotes a full chapter to relating the history of editing and cutting tools and how they have affected the language of cinema and present-day editing. Editing for Directors defines and discusses cutting-room terms, practices, and workflows, reveals how editors approach footage and put shows together, details the postproduction process from dailies to director’s cut to locked cut, covers creating and overseeing VFX (video effects), demystifies spotting the show with the sound and music crew and creating, editing, and mixing sound and music, describes titling, colour grading, the DI (digital intermediate) process, and producing your show’s final deliverables and spells out ways to archive your show and why doing so matters.