Thoughts and inspiration from The Cutting Edge

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Editing is a very fascinating and eye opening look on the importance of editors in the movie and production industry.  The editor’s job has grown exponentially, from being a job meant for only women -who were considered less at the time- to the editor sitting alongside the director himself.  Then, in the 1930's, editors then had more than just the video images to deal with; they were given the charge of sound editing too.  Soon the sound and image played an exponential part of affecting the audience to not only feel what was occurring in the movie but also to start believing what they saw. Since then, we have been able to experience the tale that was told through cohesive clips and we have been influenced by movies and productions even if they were of a fictional nature. It is the editor's objective to materialize the director's vision in the most effective way possible for the audience to understand.

Personally, I found this movie gave way to a hope of further appreciation of the efforts of editors in more than just the movie industry. Also, it made me realize that I have been an editor for some years now.  I have never done any scene editing before this class, but I have created Animated Music Videos.  A popular type of video on youtube, AMVs are made through editing clips from animated movies/television shows.  The clips are placed in time with music and then it goes one more step beyond basic editing.  The editors then use their program of choice, such as Final Cut Pro or Sony Vegas Pro, to add special effects onto their clips.  They zoom in/out, spin, cause fireworks to spew from the top, and put in more time into making the clips very complicated and eye catching.  Through the effects and timing of the clips placed alongside of the music of choice, the composer is able to tell a new story through their work, or express a relationship between two characters to a popular or meaningful song.

There are many talented people out there that are able to create stirring art with their finished projects.  The fans of the show that had already been drawn in through the story told beautifully through the editor’s work, now are able to see glorified versions of their favorite characters or scenes placed to their favorite music in an exciting and new way.