ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

6 years ago - Alwyne Kennedy

My advice would be to spend the £600 on kit and use experimenting and Youtube to teach yourself.

Davinci Resolve (Lite) is free. You can both edit and colour grade with it. Or if you want to go with Adobe, £600 gets you their whole Creative Suite rental for over a year (longer if they have one of their 40% offers).

6 years ago - John Lubran

Alwyne makes a good case. Most of the great editors I've worked with over the last three decades have been naturals. Whilst they've been 'evolved' through opportunity and working with other skilled people they've been pretty much a product of their own qualities. Quite frankly making films is not rocket science even if it requires conciderable resources. However those resources have become less and less of an issue as the tools and the platforms have become increasingly accessable. It's long seemed to me that film makers are born more than instructed. One can learn an enormous amount from just watching TV in a critical and te ethnically analytical way; and that especially includes editing.

6 years ago - Tim Bourque

Or if you're using a Mac, spend £200 getting Final Cut Pro X and then go to Ripple Training and buy some of their training. When I switched from Premiere to FCPX, that's the training I invested in.

6 years ago - Ian Bailey

The info for the Central St Martins course suggests they use Final Cut. If you have a Mac and FCPX suits your needs, a license costs £300. There's no subscription, once bought, all updates are free.

If you're okay learning from a book, the Apple Pro Training book for Final Cut is £27.93 for the Kindle version. All the material you need to follow the lessons can be downloaded.

I'd also recommend you read 'In the Blink of an Eye' by Walter Murch. It addresses the why's and when's of cutting.

Books and courses are no substitute for experience of course, but they'll get you started in the right direction.

6 years ago - Rory Tregaskis

Great advice - thanks everyone

6 years ago - Ray Brady

I agree with Alwyne. Don't pay out for training, save and spend your money on kit, the numerous training videos free online on YouTube are very easy to follow and you can always pop back to refresh in needed. I trained myself to edit, using them on a PC and then again when I switched to using a Mac. Do though buy a couple of recommended books as well, Ian's suggestion 'In the Blink of an Eye' by Murch is an invalauble resource and a superb suggestion.
Good luck Ray
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002916/

6 years ago - Angela Peters

Hi Rory, I'm not an editor but have you seen the latest bursaries being offered on ScreenSkills? They have various courses on there for professionals who are upskilling in other areas. No idea if this includes any editing courses but it might be worth a look. They offer up to £1000 on upskilling so some courses end up being nearly nothing or only £100 at the various film schools.

6 years ago - Rory Tregaskis

Angela - thanks for the advice, I did see the screen skills bursary and wrote to them with an enquiry, it looks very useful. In the mean time I'm going to have a go at learning from a book.

6 years ago - David Thompson

Hi Rory - like others have said, I'd say invest in the software, use free tutorials and practice lots! Then, for the creative side of documentary editing, well worth considering this: https://www.insidetheedit.com

Good luck!

6 years ago - Andy Sowerby

Either after teaching yourself or a course, check out edit stock for footage from real projects that you can buy and practice cutting. https://editstock.com/

6 years ago - Rory Tregaskis

Thanks Andy and David - appreciate the replies. I'll look at both those links.