Editing Lesson

Yesterday in our Media Lesson we covered editing for the first time. I didn't realise how much you had to think about editing a piece of film, and how long it must take. We watched a clip from 'Hot Fuzz', and in the scene the protagonist 'Angel' moved down the highstreet of the little village on the back of a white horse. As he rode past shops and people, the shots changed from one person to another, back to the first person, then to a new one at a roughly steady pace. As Angel dismounts, the shots become quicker and quicker as people stare in fear, in time to the music. Eventually both the shots and the music reach a climax and both stop in order for a line to be spoken. What follows is a 'Wild West Style' shoot out between Angel and the villagers, the shots changing almost by the second and the sounds of the guns and revolvers in time with the soundtrack. I now understand how long it must take for a director to shoot a scene in order to get all the surplus shots for the editing team to use, and I also now realise that no shot is precious. To edit a film you must be brutal, and this has given me insight into how I must go about editing for my own piece.