Lesson Info
33. Building Scenes in Your Edit
Lessons
Class Introduction
13:55 2How Did We Start Making Documentaries?
12:08 3Universal Themes Through First-Person Storytelling
32:10 4Use Visual Language to Tackle a Theme
07:26 5Issue Driven & Non-English Story Development
27:05 6Translate a Theme Into a Film **Warning: This lesson contains scenes of graphic violence**
24:41 7Turn Failures Into Lessons
13:46 8Finding Your Subjects
15:07What is Your Motivation?
02:10 10Follow Your Passion & Invest in Yourself
05:22 11Client Work Vs Legacy Work
17:51 12Translate the Idea to Reality
16:25 13Create Multiple Products from One Idea
22:17 14Pre-Production Plan
09:32 15You Just Have to Dive In
30:40 16Time & Cost for Projects
28:21 17Writing a Strong Pitch
11:38 18Develop a Fundraising Trailer
12:28 19Identify & Approach Partners
06:35 20Define Your Desired Impact
21:21 21Introduction to Working in the Field
06:19 22Shoot: Interview Set Up
34:38 23Shoot: The Interview
32:08 24Different Types of Interviews
13:35 25Shoot: Capturing B-Roll
21:54 26Shoot: Detail Shots
18:09 27Shoot: Capturing a Scene
27:02 28Shoot: A Set Up Shot
24:03 29What Video to Keep in The Edit?
16:06 30Identify Strongest Audio as Starting Point for Edit
30:01 31Use Audio to Guide Narrative
09:33 32Transform Raw Content Into Finished Piece
23:49 33Building Scenes in Your Edit
03:41 34Short Doc Created from Pre Shoot: Resonant
46:21 35Final Thoughts
03:01Lesson Info
Building Scenes in Your Edit
Building scenes we talked a little bit about in the last section. Sometimes I'll try an experiment where I'll do a film and also I'm trying to be more veritae driven, and so sometimes I'll take the opposite approach and I will not build a film around the interviews. Sometimes I try the opposite approach, and I'll just build scenes, because I really really want these scenes to play out. And so if you do that first and then figure out well, what information now might need to contextualize this or lead into this or lead out of this? You'll find that your scenes are the ones that people completely forget they're watching a film. That's where something real is happening, and it connects to us, and we're totally on the ride. So if you're shooting something where you've really got a lot of cover, it's your own project, you've shot a lot of great scenes, I would flip order on how you edit, and I would build scenes first, because those are really going to be the meat of what you've got and to i...
dentify what's the climax of what you have, because hopefully you have a dramatic peak. So when you think about also the classic arc of the beginning, middle, end, the climax needs to be somewhere near the end, right? Because you want to accelerate from a climax to the end. So the narrative arc is not this. The narrative arc is more this, you know? If that makes sense, if my little pantomime here makes sense. By the time I'm building, building, and I'm getting attached, once I hit that pinnacle it's not like I'm going to now take the same amount of time to finish, because I've been building up. I've now kind of, so now I'm kind of going to accelerate the end of the film. So arc isn't quite the right term. And I don't know the geometry of what I just drew with my fingers, but you get the idea. So I would suggest if you have a lot of material and this is really going to be one of those rich, it's evolved, it's developed, you've shot over time, to be building those scenes and let the scenes speak for themselves and sing. And then think about, well, what would I need to know about this person to have that scene make sense? Or how do these scenes relate to one another so that you don't get stuck in the details of that interview you did? Because now what you can do is just cherry pick from the interview what lift it needs to do. What job does that interview need to do? So I think it's a reverse order. It's a more complex way to work. But what it does is it allows you to prioritize your scenes as having the value that they really have so that you're not cutting your scenes to fit the interview, right? So hopefully that makes sense. It is more complex, but also optimally it's the stuff. You got the stuff if you have scenes. Nobody's telling me what I need to know. I can experience the scene.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Elisa Correa
wow, wow, wow! what a amazing course! I learned so much, I was inspired so much... congratulations, Julia and Ed, you are excellent teachers and do a really wonderful and powerful work. thank you!
a Creativelive Student
OUSTANDIING COURSE, congratulations creative live for bring Julie and Ed in teach about documentary filmmaking. I have watched and bought a fair few courses on this subject and not one of them comes close to this. You can see the amount of work Julie and Ed have done to make this course amazing. The best bits for me are the real teaching opportunities when Ed and Julie are making their violin documentary. I have never seen this before in any course. Thanks Ed and Julie for an amazing course and letting us see inside there work that you do and sharing all your experience with us. I've never really written any feedback for most courses, so this must be a good one :)
a Creativelive Student
Ed & Julie provide so much insight & knowledge into the documentary making process. This is a high-level class that gives you a wonderful overview of what goes into making a powerful and interesting documentary film. It was so helpful to watch them work on an actual short film from start to finish, and to hear their workflow. You'll need to learn the technical nitty gritty elsewhere, but this course will help you dive into how to tell stories on video. I particularly loved the segment on doing interviews, and Julie is an absolute pro at this! Also really nice to see Ed & Julie working/teaching together and how their different skills complement each other. It was a pleasure to learn from them!