CUT PRINT
Annual
Gift Guide:
Editors' Decision List
by Ray Zone
The Avid Handbook (Fourth Edition)
Intermediate Techniques, Strategies
and Survival Information for Avid Editing Systems
By Steve Bayes
Focal Press
375 pages, paperbound, $39.95
ISBN 0-240-80553
Voluminous changes have occurred with Avid editing technology in the six years since the first edition of this book was written. This fourth edition catches up with some of the quantum changes that have taken place with faster computers and smarter software creating increasing real-time streams in the editing process.
Steve Bayes has worked with Avid for 12 years and has taught Avid editing in many different environments. "I was learning as much as my students," writes Bayes. "I learned about sit-coms, army VIP videos, promotion departments, and reality television.I had to throw away a lot of preconceptions and realize that the more I learned, the less I knew."
Bayes notes that the Meridien system today is being replaced by more sophisticated, programmable hardware at the high end of the technology, and software and host-based systems at the low end. In 14 succinct chapters, Bayes elucidates nonlinear editing on both Macintosh and Windows platforms to assist editors in avoiding down time, to "get past the bells and whistles" to the really important creative stuff of which the Avid system is capable.
Setting Up Your Scenes
The Inner Workings of Great Films
By Richard D. Pepperman
Michael Weise Productions
245 pages, paperbound, $24.95
Published in a horizontal "landscape" format, this book is a must-read for film and video editors. Pepperman is a long time editor and the author of The Eye is Quicker: Film Editing, Making a Good Film Better, published previously by Michael Weise Productions.
The man has great taste and here he has taken individual scenes from 35 classic films such as Dial M for Murder, Two Women and Chinatown, reproducing over 400 individual frames throughout the book with an in-depth analysis of the scene structure, both its sound and image editing. Dialogue is shown adjacent to the film image, and analysis includes "Scene Value" and "Subtext."
Here is a great way to examine in detail editing choices as well as the strengths and potential artistic pitfalls avoided in some of the classic films of our time.
Editing and Titling Movies
By Ormal I. Sprungman
Little Technical Library, Ziff-Davis Publishing
144 pages, hardbound, (out of print)
$4 to $20 online
This little gem of a book was published in 1947 and is a well-illustrated look at the fundamentals of film editing as explained for the amateur home moviemaker. It is also a nostalgic look back at the world of analogue filmmaking and includes many wonderful photographs demonstrating the use of physical materials to create titles. Though it's out of print, it's easy to purchase online at either www.bookfinder.com or www.abebooks.com with prices ranging from $4 to $20.
International Student Film Festival By Kimberley Brown
Chamberlain Bros. (Penguin)
166 pages, paperbound $14.95
ISBN 1-59609-090-1
We've all seen the technical books that include CD-ROMs and DVDs for digital tutorials on various forms of software. Here is a new twist on the publishing idea that prefigures the convergence of print and digital media. Six of the prize-winning films from the first Chamberlain Bros. International Student Film Festival held in New York at the Tribeca Cinema from March 3 to April 2, 2005 are included in their entirety with a DVD in this book.
Well-written individual chapters on the six films and a Q&A with each filmmaker by Kimberley Brown round out the book. Legendary low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman discusses the importance of film schools in an amusing introduction and gives his blessing to the entire proceedings. The films are quite a bit of fun and this dual format package is innovative.
Bullitt (DVD)
Two-Disc Special Edition
Warner Bros. Pictures List Price $26.95
ISBN 0-7907-4567-1
While we're on the subject of digital media, did you know that the great 2004 feature-length documentary The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing is included on the two-disc special edition DVD of Bullitt recently released by Warner Home Video? Bullitt, of course, stars Steve McQueen and includes the classic car chase scene in San Francisco edited by Frank Keller.
The Cutting Edge, a NHK/BBC co-production from TCEP, is directed by Wendy Apple and produced by Apple and Guild Board member Alan Heim, ACE and includes many clips from classic and contemporary films along with interviews of Walter Murch, ACE, Zach Staenberg, ACE, Verna Fields and other editors, as well as comments from directors such as Martin Scorsese and Rob Cohen.
You know you're in for a great ride when the pre-title montage cuts together brief moments from many films involving sequences of cutting—with swords, knives and scissors.
"What makes a movie a movie is the editing," observes Staenberg. Murch, seen at work editing Cold Mountain notes that both motion picture editing and flight were invented at the same time. "Editing is why people like movies," says Cohen. Don't miss this documentary.
Audio Post Production for Television and Film (Third
Edition)
An Introduction to Technology and Techniques
By Hilary Wyatt and Tim Amyes
Focal Press
286 pages, paperbound, $34.95
ISBN 0-240-51947-7
Focal Press just keeps coming up with great technical books on post-production. The third edition of Hilary Wyatt and Tim Amyes' overview of audio post for film and TV has been brought nicely up to date to cover recent changes in technology with techniques such as metadata and video on the web.
The book is a great entry-level discussion of the field and includes hundreds of pragmatic suggestions for beginners. Long time audio professionals can also bring themselves up to speed on alternate production techniques. j Ray Zone can be contacted at r3dzone@earthlink.net.