-Eisenstein- … “the art and technique of motion-picture editing in which contrasting shots or
sequences are used to effect emotional or intellectual responses”…
Cutting on a Steenbeck flatbed 8-plate editor is a wondrous experience. Let’s see, you thread your picture through a series of metal, mechanized, sprocketed rollers. You respectfully thread a frame of picture through an illuminated gate and, wow, your image appears on a huge screen much larger then the average flat computer screen. Now you flip a switch to engage, “make it so number one”, the picture track is locked in synch.
Next, you gingerly twist with nimble fingers, the magnetic 16mm or 35mm audio track through its own series of rollers. You place a single frame over a center-track sound head. Two more times and you have a 3-tracks of audio (Wait is it an AIFF file?) and 1-track of picture waiting to be emotional manipulated. Three more switches engaged, and we have synch. Your shots are pulled and are hanging in the trim bin ready to be cut in as the piece calls to you. The lever is thrown, and the machine purrs along at an astounding 24 frames second. You stop, cut, slice, roll, stop, move, cut, splice, roll, stop, cut, move, splice roll…all tactile, all connecting, without a thought on how the machine works or of its compatibility.
8-hours later, you come up for air and the once static stills the ‘persistence of vision’, are now latent images.You smile... Emotionally and intellectually you are exhausted, yet somehow you do mind. You feel righteous. Eisenstein would be very proud.
My fellow post-production brothers and sisters, as you sit down to embrace “the box”, take a deep breath, focus on your Chi, study your trim bin, know your ending, and embark on a visual journey. Don’t concern yourself with the WMV, the QuickTime, or AVI, file. Edit, edit, edit. The 1 and the 0 has made the artist sterile. Let’s become connected.
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