Check it out. Everyone always says “there’s a million ways to cut this” yet rarely ever sees examples of it. Well, you’re in for a treat, courtesy of the students of Bellevue College in Seattle, Washington. Their professor, Robert Backstrand, worked with us to build the entire curriculum of his editing classes around footage available at Editmentor.com. Here’s a sampling of Copier Wars edits from students who prove creativity is indeed alive and well.
First up: an edit by Joseph Andrews.
Joseph brought some great character development to the edit. Good eye for actor performance.
Next: a silent edit by Hanky01.
Hanky01 is already gunning to be a colorist – nice use of color correction and vignetting. Great solution to the “how do we motivate the guy to fly off-screen” question too.
Sara Bonnett took the story in a different direction:
While I didn’t understand Sara’s music choice at first, it became obvious that she made a very strong choice that works well, and with a cool story twist. We have no idea who Brett is, but clearly he’s fantastic.
Speaking of story twists, here’s one by FotoDesignStudio:
The initial viewing left me scratching my head… and still being okay with that. I predict some very creative plot twists still to come in FotoDesignStudio‘s future.
And I gotta say, the edit by Byron Towns is sheer comedic genius if watched after other edits of Copier Wars:
See, this one’s all about viewing context – comedy is often based on surprise, getting what you don’t expect. If, while reviewing 20 cuts, I would’ve watched this one first, I would’ve grinned and moved on. Luckily, I saw it as version number 15 or something… it’s a good thing I wasn’t drinking anything on my first viewing because I would’ve spit it all over my computer screen. Way to go, Byron. Damn, that’s funny.
Click here to see more fantastic edits – and to all of the editing students at Bellevue College, you rock. You’re bringing some solid creativity to the table. All the best to you, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Nice execution of the concept Jeff. And so many lunkheads think if they shoot the footage the edit will be the same. Way to show them. \
As you know, Jeff… look for similar results from the Nation’s Capital Region…. Stay tuned…
Rodney ;-)
Saludos desde Asunción Paraguay Sudamerica
Im a nonlinear editor an director
Mike: Heck, I’m just showing off their creativity… the students are the ones who execute. :-) Very much enjoying it.
Rodney: Looking forward to it!
Jorge: Muy bien. ¡Bienvenido!
Interesting. I have always wanted to see different edits of the same material, and this surely lives up to that wish.
Having said that, the content of the story is not that great (to my taste), and it seems to me that there’s not that much room to form the story as an editor:
Dude rushes in to make a copy, only to find that the xerox is already occupied. A waiting game is played out and dude, frustrated by having to wait, summons a fireball at the end.
The choice of music, timing and rythm of the edits only does so much in this case. Some of the edits are better than others in that regard, but I’m basically left with the same feeling in each one, the big difference being how professional each one is executed.
Consider these images, and think about how you would put them together:
A: Dude walks in park
B: Couple is having sex behind bush
C: Dude looks through bush and sees couple
How would you go about that? Cut it A-B-C, A-C-B or maybe B-A-C ?
This is an example from the book “Shot-by-shot” but is a much better exercise in editing principles.
I really like the idea of doing the same material in different ways and hope to see more, but the material needs to have some more “wiggle” room.
BTW, I work as an editor and color grader myself in Copenhagen, Denmark.
All the best,
Christian
Very interesting edits. And some interesting comments from around the world!