Learn the Craft of Film Editing

If you want to learn the craft of film editing, to truly understand the ‘why’ of film editing and not just the technical button pushing how. If you want to understand the in’s and out’s of polished scene construction, creative pacing and problem solving and the foundations of successful narrative structure then get thee to Inside The Edit.

Inside the Edit is an online editing course unlike any other, that, when I previously reviewed it, cost £4000/$6000 for a lifetime subscription to the site.

Even then it was excellent value for money, given that it could seriously help you establish, or develop, your career as a film editor. I wrote that post 15 months ago and a lot has happened in that time, including a move to a much more accessible, and affordable, subscription membership.

I caught up recently with Paddy Bird, the mastermind and hugely successful veteran editor behind the site, to find out what he’s got planned for Inside The Edit in 2016.

Excitingly, Paddy was generous enough to provide the readers of this site with a 25% discount to the course when using the promo code: JONNYELWYN, saving £100 on the annual subscription or £750 on the lifetime access.

* 25% OFF PROMO CODE FOR INSIDE THE EDIT *

JONNYELWYN

When The Editor video (above) quietly arrived, over 2 years ago now, it swiftly became a viral hit, gathering millions of views and a high degree of anticipation along the way. It’s success was due in part to the fact that it captured the spirit of ”what we do”, that so many editors find hard to explain to the uninitiated. A little while later when the course launched that expectation was delivered upon, and then some.

Taking the course is as close to an editorial apprenticeship as you’re going to find online. Where else can you watch over the shoulder of a master editor and hear them explain their thinking in a logical and instructive fashion? If you want to learn to edit and have the discipline to see this course through then you should seriously consider snapping it up.

What’s coming to Inside The Edit in 2016?

Quite a lot really. The first thing you immediately pick up from chatting with Paddy is his relentless drive to deliver a course that’s so far above and beyond anything else out there, and in a way that’s never been done before, that you can’t help but be caught up in his enthusiasm. That, and the sense that he’s only just getting started.

If it’s been done before, or you’ve seen something else like it, I don’t want to do it. – Paddy Bird

This year Paddy and his team will be delivering the next few chapters of the course’s core content, (so far it’s up to Chapter 9 – Intercutting) including a series of chapters on Scoring, which will make great use of the partnership with Universal’s music catalogue, which provides 2000 tracks to lifetime members or those that have bought the hard drive ‘add on’. All in all, there will be about 20 chapters to the course, covering many, many hours of editing craft education.

There’s also plans for a mobile app that will allow you to watch the tutorials offline and on the go – something I’m particular eager to get my hands on, as this is always a good way for me to use up travel time in a beneficial manner.

Frustratingly (for you) there’s a ton of other really cool and exciting ideas that Paddy and I chatted about that I can’t mention right now, but will be well worth the wait! Things like whole new courses, new additions to the Raw Footage Shop and brand new ways of engaging with Inside The Edit.

Why Inside The Edit Really Is Different

For a taster of what makes Inside the Edit really, very different to every other ‘screenflow and voice over’ tutorial series you’ve watched in spades, either for free or in paid tutorial series, check out the latest free tutorial released from the course (above) or every other free tutorial previously released compiled in this post. So far, that’s about 138 minutes of excellent free editing training.

One of the things that’s immediately obvious about Inside The Edit is the very high level of production value that each tutorial is produced to. Paddy commented in our chat that if your core audience is filmmakers, then why not provide them with a real filmmaking experience rather than a lacklustre screen-record and muffled voice over reading out some static power point.

Each tutorial starts with a nicely polished intro and a graphical introduction to the core principle you’re about to learn. When the cut is changed you often see an animated highlight of what’s happening, as well as a full screen playout of the change. Although this slows the pace down somewhat, it is extremely helpful for anyone new to editing – which is who the course is largely aimed at, and for actually taking in what’s being taught.

All I can think is that it must have taken hours and hours to lay in all the sound effects on the graphics!

One of the best things about using Inside the Edit is that the course is laid out in a meticulously planned and organised way. Partly this is due to the fact that it’s delivered via a website – there’s a lot more metadata to help you find what you’re about to watch, over say a course that’s delivered via zip file download for example.

Partly it’s simply a by-product of the design of the course where your learning builds upon itself as you progress from the foundational material into the more advanced and complex stuff. One of the nice touches, especially if you’re watching the course a little bit here and there around other work, are the progress indicators which light up as you watch each tutorial. (Image below)

You’ll know if you’ve missed a tutorial as these indicators will look a little ‘gapped-toothed’. It’s also incredibly easy to see what you last watched, due to the neon pink book mark (above) that highlights the chapter you are currently in.

Each chapter has as many tutorials in it as it requires, and each one is as long as it needs to be, ranging from a few minutes to over an hour. This does mean the whole course requires a high level of commitment from the user, not only in digesting the tutorials, but the edit time on your own version of the documentary too.

But if you’re paying good money for it, you’d be nuts not to make the most of it. Although the only danger with a subscription course is it becomes like that gym membership, bought with great intentions but slowly gathering dust over time. I suppose this is where the month-to-month subscription model can save you money if you’re not so great at following through.

Going Deeper Inside The Edit

So what do you get for the money?

The basic premise of Inside The Edit is that you edit the same professionally shot documentary that Paddy is editing, Cities at Dawn. The monthly or annual subscriptions include over 35 hours of rushes which you can download in low-res form (37.2G) from the site. You also get access to the directors notes, script, footage logs and creative tasks for each tutorial chapter to help keep you on track.

The course bills itself as 100% creative, eschewing the technical ‘push this button’ material found in other courses, in favour of storytelling principles, editing insights and methods for dramatically improving the quality of everything you edit hence forth.

The more expensive Lifetime subscription delivers exclusive benefits like an hour’s Skype consultation with Paddy – which apparently you can use to chat about whatever you like, but you’d be best of sticking to editing to make the most of it. You can also send the team an edit of your own film and get professional feedback on the cut. That and a lifetime of access to the course content as it is released each week and the Raw Footage Shop where new material will be added.

Furthermore you get a nice small USB 3 hard drive shipped (worldwide) to your door containing Cities at Dawn as high res footage, and the full 2000 tracks from Universal Music. If you’re on a monthly subscription you can also buy this for a money off price. The benefit of the Universal Music catalogue is that you’re free to use the tracks in your own ‘personal portfolio’.

If you like the look of Inside the Edit and want to learn the craft of film editing from a seasoned professional editor, then make sure you get yourself 25% off the cost of the course with this promo code:

* 25% OFF PROMO CODE FOR INSIDE THE EDIT *

JONNYELWYN