HOW LISTENING TO JAZZ MAKES ME A BETTER VIDEO EDITOR
As a video producer and video editor colleagues and students sometimes ask me for advice on how to become better editors or, put another way, how to improve their edting skills.
Before replying, I usually remind them that a video editor (or for that matter a film editor) can be likened to being a composer of music or a writer. Instead or notes or words our raw material is images--disparate shots of people, places, events, actions--essentially anything or anyone that can be filmed or videotaped.
Our job is to arrange these disparate images into a cohesive narrative (if you're doing a documentary, informational, or narrative piece) or (if you're doing a montage--thematic piece) to put these images into an order that evokes in your audince the feelings or ideas that you're trying to get across to them.
Having said this, for me one of the most important areas of video/film editing is pacing (or tempo). We all know that we are under pressure more and more--largely thanks to MTV style videos--to cut from shot to shot ever more and more quickly--in fact the average length of most shots in films is now about 2 seconds. I certainly don't always agree that we should be cutting away to another shot after so short a time--and of course many editors, producers, and filmmakers do not.
But either way, I find that the best way to nurture and develop my sense of pacing or tempo is to listen to jazz. Jazz, particularly Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakely,
Charlie Mingus, Art Tatum, and Wynton Marsalis (just a few of my favorites) helps free my mind from the kinds of logical and mechanical ways of thinking that I really believe limit our creativity as editors. Jazz relaxes my mind and helps me get out of the box, so to speak.
Anyway, just sharing some thoughts. More on this topic later!
As a video producer and video editor colleagues and students sometimes ask me for advice on how to become better editors or, put another way, how to improve their edting skills.
Before replying, I usually remind them that a video editor (or for that matter a film editor) can be likened to being a composer of music or a writer. Instead or notes or words our raw material is images--disparate shots of people, places, events, actions--essentially anything or anyone that can be filmed or videotaped.
Our job is to arrange these disparate images into a cohesive narrative (if you're doing a documentary, informational, or narrative piece) or (if you're doing a montage--thematic piece) to put these images into an order that evokes in your audince the feelings or ideas that you're trying to get across to them.
Having said this, for me one of the most important areas of video/film editing is pacing (or tempo). We all know that we are under pressure more and more--largely thanks to MTV style videos--to cut from shot to shot ever more and more quickly--in fact the average length of most shots in films is now about 2 seconds. I certainly don't always agree that we should be cutting away to another shot after so short a time--and of course many editors, producers, and filmmakers do not.
But either way, I find that the best way to nurture and develop my sense of pacing or tempo is to listen to jazz. Jazz, particularly Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakely,
Charlie Mingus, Art Tatum, and Wynton Marsalis (just a few of my favorites) helps free my mind from the kinds of logical and mechanical ways of thinking that I really believe limit our creativity as editors. Jazz relaxes my mind and helps me get out of the box, so to speak.
Anyway, just sharing some thoughts. More on this topic later!
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