By Gael Chandler
It’s a hell of a title but it’s also a hell of a book. Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know gets right to the heart of the subject fast, with simple explanations and sumptuous examples that go far deeper than just the technology and into the real art of storytelling. While lots of books teach film editing theory, this one shows film editing the way it is meant to be learnt – visually – and in doing that, Gael Chandler has set a new benchmark for books on the subject.
In something close to 600 colour frames from popular, recent films Gael Chandler, an editor herself (twice nominated for a Cable Emmy for comedy editing) and the author of Cut by Cut: How to Edit your Film or Video, shows how editors can make or break a movie. Covering basic cuts, match cuts, complex cuts cuts for rhythm and tempo, cuts using effects, cuts that use time effects, bad cuts; in fact every kind of cutting technique you can think of and some you haven’t thought of yet in simple yet comprehensive terms that make the important knowledge – when and why to use them – easy to understand.
Being primarily a book of images it’s a brisk read, if you want to do it that way, and it’s perfect for quick-study readers who like to ‘gaze’ rather than ‘graze’ and don’t want to read a book, but you’ll get the most out of it by keeping it next your editing suite and referring to it time and again while trying to convey your story in the best way possible.
A definite ‘recommend’ for your filmmakers library, Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker And Movie Lover Must Know is published by Michael Wiese and is available from Play.com, Blackwell and all good book stores.