Don’t cut – build
Many editors dump all the material onto a timeline and chop it up, trying to save the best moments. It’s ineffective and you’ll probably end up settling for moments that are just "okay" because trimming takes a lot of energy.
Instead, try to build your scenes all at once, using only the best shots and continuing to add them. you’ll see that this method saves a huge amount of time and it starts a really interesting story.

I’m talking dog. I see a dog.
What we say and what we see must match. If I talk about the flight characteristics of flamingos and show this: it will be difficult for you to comprehend both. These are audio-visual transmission scissors. If two pieces of information are too far apart from each other, then they are very difficult to understand. So edit the picture and sound so that the information matches.

Cut like your going to a party
Like with parties, come later, leave early. It often makes sense to keep scenes short. Forget about the long introduction and unsuccessful ending. Start immediately from the moment that will be interesting. If you hold the tension and don’t let the audience breathe out, then the entire flow of the story will unfold in such a way that the audience will have no chance to predict what’s coming next. But of course, if you have a great narrative structure that develops character and captures the audience’s attention, then you can ignore this rule.

Look here
Treat the material as if to say: Look here. Every time you add something, you are telling the audience, “This is important.”."Also, you’ve probably heard David Fincher talk about the importance of close-ups:

Every time you cut to a close-up, the audience subconsciously knows that you made an editing decision, you said, “Look here, this is important.”."In the close-up, everything is important. Whether it really matters or not. You can bore the viewer by showing too many things that are implied to be important.

Don’t reveal all your cards
Don’t be afraid to use the power of editing to confuse. Show unimportant things close up. Use a long shot to let the audience figure out what’s what for themselves. By leaving out information, showing the story from a reverse angle, from which you can see how the character feels. These are all tools you can use to make your editing unexpected. Because the narrative must be compelling and unpredictable.

Watch your eyes

Walter Murch Nonukcasinosites.co.uk

In other words, when actors blink, especially good actors, you can use that as a potential cutting point

I try to press the stop button right before they blink, that is, before the frame when they blink. This is my way of adapting my reactions to the actor’s unconscious reactions to his character

This is from the book "In the Blink of an Eye" by Walter Murch. I highly recommend this book.

Trust your gut
Get a feel for your editing. There is no special, logical time to cut except when it feels right to you. Editing is more intuitive and the more you do it, the more you can trust your professional senses that you have developed with experience. Your mirror neurons are highly attuned to viewing, observing, and sensing material. So don’t be afraid to crop where it doesn’t seem rational but makes sense to you.

Best comments

Can I be boring for a little while??

To be honest, quite a controversial video. Every editor should already know half of these “tricks”, for example about audio-visual sequences and close-ups.

To be honest, it’s not clear about “going to a party”. Maybe because I don’t go to parties, or maybe because this “trick” has never been revealed. Don’t start the movie from the beginning…Don’t use the clumsy method, when everything goes from start to finish with a gradual answer to the questions “what is where when”, but rather right from the beginning? Such things should be thought out at the level of writing the script, this should be a deliberate step in advance.

The only thing is that the method with “building” rather than “cutting” can be really useful, you should try it. And about the eyes – you need to see the book.

In general, thank you very much for this work!

There was a disclaimer for these controversial issues at the beginning 🙂

“Going to a party” does not mean the entire work, but each individual scene. Which can be drawn out, with a lot of garbage footage.

As for “each editor”, I think people are different and have different experiences. Sometimes things are done subconsciously. And without thinking why it works.

Hello, thanks for the interesting video material and publications.

I would like to read Murch’s book, but, unfortunately, the link to “stepashka” is not relevant (at least for me) and working. Could you please post it or send it somewhere as a personal file, if available, since it is extremely difficult to find this book for download on the Internet.