There is an old saying in the industry that editors write three times. The script is the first, the shooting is the second, and the editing is the third. A skilled editor will take the lead. A mediocre film may bring new vitality, and a dull art film may become suspenseful.

Sometimes editing can subvert a video as needed, or even change the video to another type of film. For example, as long as there is enough material, you can cut a youth film into a thriller.

The general process of the video editing is the order, rough cut, initial cut, and fine cut.

Zhang Ran quickly pulled the material to the light, selected the required shots, and then sorted the film according to the development of the story.

Sort is actually choosing the narrative method of the story and narrating the story in the best way. Like text editors, the editor does not just use the lens as a word to re-select words and make sentences. For example, when two people are talking in a restaurant, you can first give a panoramic view, tell the audience the environment where the characters are, and then give a close-up to have a dialogue; you can also give a close-up to the close-up to the characters, tell the audience who is talking to whom, and then give a panoramic view and the environment. The editor combines the same shots into clips in different ways, and each editing method can create a different atmosphere, and even tell different stories.

Now Zhang Ran is editing a three-minute short film. He doesn't plan to do anything in the editing order, but just follow the normal logical order.

After determining the order of the shots, it is rough cut. Zhang Ran picked up the film of the first shot and looked carefully. This time he looked very carefully, looking at each picture at a time to find the best editing point.

The so-called editing point is when to switch the shot. Choosing the editing point is the most important step in editing. The appropriate selection of the clipping point can make the characters in the whole film continuous, the lens conversion naturally and smooth, and the content conforms to the logic of life and the audience's visual appreciation habits. Inappropriate selection of the clipping point may make the characters in the film awkward, or the expression is repeated, or the rhythm is slow, and even the content of the picture violates the logic of life, making the audience confused.

Zhang Ran usually chooses editing points to see where the actors blink and find the position where the actors blink. Because the eyes are the window of the soul, the eyelids are the window of synchronization between the brain and the mouth. If the actors are excellent enough, then when they blink, they indicate that the character's mood is changing, which can determine where to cut.

This method originated from editing master Walter Murch, a teacher at USC, an editor of "The Patient in the UK", "Apocalypse Modern" and "The Godfather 3". He has won the Oscar for Best Editing twice. He wrote his editing method into a book called "In the Blink", which is a must-read textbook for film students in British and American universities.

However, Zhang Ran is now directly looking at the film to select editing points. The film's picture is only 35 mm, so it is impossible to see clearly whether the character is blinking. Therefore, he adopted another method of choice, looking at the character's movements, finding the frame of the character's movements, so as to choose the appropriate editing points.

The first shot of the movie is a push shot. The first scene that appears is an office scene, a panoramic shot. Then the lens pushes forward diagonally. The male protagonist appears in the lens, and the picture becomes a medium shot; the lens continues to push forward and becomes a close-up shot, and finally when the male protagonist is in the center of the lens, it becomes a close-up shot.

This shot was first taken at the office for about a second, and then pushed forward. It was easier to select the editing point, so Zhang Ran used the moment the camera pushed forward as the editing point at the beginning.

When the camera ends, the protagonist is in the center of the camera and makes a deep breathing action, so Zhang Ran uses the frame ending with the protagonist's deep breathing as the editing point for the end of this camera.

After confirming the editing point of this shot, Zhang Ran marked it with a pen, then placed it on the editing stage, and cut off the head and tail of the film with two clicks.

"Blind cut!" Josh Trank covered his mouth and screamed, his eyes full of incredible.

"How is Robin actually going to cut blindly?" Neil was so scared. This is blindly cut. This technology is top in Hollywood. With this technology, you can get an annual salary of hundreds of thousands in Hollywood. Can you return to China?

"It's really blind cuts! He really mastered this technique, which is incredible!" Lin Yibin could hardly speak.

Not only them, but even the three judges on the stage were very surprised: "I can't believe that I actually saw blind cuts. A young man in his twenties actually mastered blind cuts!"

"It's really blind cuts, it's such a magic afternoon!"

"Zhang was in his twenties and actually mastered blind cuts. It's incredible!"

When Sun Li heard many people screaming blind scissors, he asked Huang Lei: "What is blind scissors?"

It was the first time Huang Lei heard this word and shook his head: "I don't know either."

This is not Huang Lei's ignorance, mainly because editing has not been valued by the industry for a long time in China. Many people regard editing as a simple technical job, or even as a puppet that conveys the director's intentions. The Director Department of Beijing Film Academy did not open an editing major until 2005. Before that, there was no editing major in many film and television schools in China.

Domestic film awards are dazzling, and there are no editing awards, and there is a lack of recognition and motivation for editors. Therefore, some people believe that the overall level of domestic films is not up to date, which has a lot to do with the editor being not valued for a long time.

Bai Yunfei didn't know much about the technical methods of the movie. He heard the people around him exclaiming blind cuts and asked, "What is blind cuts? Is it very powerful?"

"You should have played sniper when playing CS, right?"

"Of course I've played it!"

"This is the same as CS's blind sniper. Just watch the film directly and then edit it. Of course, in terms of difficulty, it is much more difficult than blind sniper. The film is only 35 mm, and the picture is very small, making it easy to make mistakes. Walter Murch, a teacher at the University of Southern California, is a master of blind sniper and is also the pride of the University of Southern California. Now all the students who have just graduated from our school have mastered blind snipers. Let's see what else they have to be proud of!" Huang Ming laughed.

After Coppola finished filming "Apocalypse Modern", he handed over the filmed material to the editor Walter Murch and asked him to edit it. The film in "Apocalypse Modern" has 1.25 million feet, which is 381,000 meters, and it takes 230 hours. This length definitely makes the editor collapse. It takes more than half a month to just put all the shots, and it takes 2 hours and 25 minutes to cut it into a movie that is 2 hours and 25 minutes at a normal speed, at least eight or nine months, but Walter Murch completed the editing within five months, and it was extremely excellent.

Afterwards, someone asked Walter Murch how he did it, and he said a word - blind cut! Since then, blind cut has become an honor for editors and represents top-level standards.

When Zhang Ran saw the records about blind editing in "In the Blink of an Eye", he found it interesting, so he found a lot of old movie films to practice. After practicing for four or five years, he is considered a first-hand view. Although it is still quite a gap compared to Walter Murch, a real editing genius, it is still more than enough to use it for short films.

Jason on the other side of the stage was also shocked. Blind cuts, this guy actually got blind cuts!

However, he was a student of Walter Murch after all, and he knew blind cuts very well and calmed down immediately. He knew that blind cuts were a very good technique and could not do it himself, but he might not lose in this game. Blind cuts do not watch the playback screen, and only the film screen is entirely based on the editor's feeling, and it is easy to make mistakes based on the feeling.

In fact, blind cutting does not mean that the editing level of the work must be high. Just like drifting and playing well, you may not be a top racer. But if you master blind cutting, you will be top editors, so everyone naturally thinks that those who can blind cutting are all top editors.

But Zhang Ran is an exception. After seeing the records about blind editing in "In the Blink of an Eye", he found it interesting, so he practiced this specifically. It has been practiced for four or five years. It is still quite a short distance between his real editing level and the top editors.

Jason took a breath, calmed down the emotional fluctuations caused by blind scissors, focused on them, and edited more carefully. Zhang Ran could do blind scissors, and he could definitely not compete with the speed of winning. He put his hope of winning in the last two events.

The short film scene edited by Zhang Ran is relatively simple, with no large scenes or complicated actions. It is relatively easy to select editing points, so he quickly cut all the shots.

At this time, Zhang Ran reexamined the entire short film and felt that there were many shots that could be removed. In fact, he had this feeling when sorting, but now this feeling is even stronger. However, if these shots are removed, the length of the short film will not be enough. If he cut it according to his idea, the cut film will be about 2 minutes.

The second game of the editing competition is to compare accuracy. The cut film is about to win in the closest three minutes. According to Zhang Ran's idea, he will definitely lose. As for what the result will be in the third game, it is difficult to predict.

After pondering for a few seconds, Zhang Ran made up his mind to follow his own ideas. Since he was editing, he should cut out the best results in his heart and not be confined to his mind by the competition. So he picked out the shots he thought could be omitted and threw them aside.

The editing soon entered the fine-cutting stage. This link no longer focuses on the entire video, but editing details, strengthening and consolidating the rhythm and structure determined by the initial editing. At this time, the editing is completely based on frames. Zhang Ran dared not be too big, so he used a film viewing machine to check the edited shots. The frames of most shots are stuck very accurately and do not need to be modified. Only a few shots need to be deleted.

After all the lenses are cut, Zhang Ran stuck the film on the chip connector, brushed the glue, then started the machine and pressed the film together. When all the lenses are connected together, the editing of the movie is completed.

Zhang Ran did not play the video he edited on the projector. To see how the effect was, he stood up confidently, walked quickly to the center of the stage, and pressed his red buzzer.

beep--

The timer stopped at 19 minutes and 23 seconds!

This speed is amazing. Jason Retman's eight games took almost twenty-five and six points to complete the editing. Zhang Ran's editing speed was six or seven minutes faster. In terms of editing speed, the two of them were not at the same level at all!

The audience was shocked and the entire Reus Auditorium fell into silence.
Chapter completed!